08.09.2016
Anne Lodge – On Giving in to the Small Voice and Looking Forward to Serving in Raheny and Coolock
On Sunday September 18 Archbishop Michael Jackson will preside at the ordination of four new Deacons in Christ Church Cathedral. Following their ordination to the diaconate they will serve as Intern Deacons in parishes in Dublin and Glendalough. Tom O’Brien will serve in St Mary’s Parish in Howth, Rebecca Guildea will serve in Zion Parish in Rathgar, Stuart Moles will serve in St Patrick’s Parish in Greystones and Anne Lodge will serve in Raheny and Coolock. Over the past while they have been introducing themselves in their own words. Today we hear from Anne Lodge.
I am looking forward to my time as a deacon–intern in Raheny and Coolock with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. It will be wonderful to be immersed again in parish ministry, community and service. It will be a privilege to work again with others, lay and ordained, in a parish context. I have been a Parish Reader since 2008 and a Diocesan Lay Reader since 2009. One of the things I really missed after I started the part–time M.Th programme in CITI was my work as parish reader and Sunday School teacher in the Christ Church Cathedral Group. From September 2012, I had to spend one weekend each month in CITI and spent a whole semester on Sunday placement each year.
All of my four placements were hugely interesting and beneficial experiences. I was made very welcome, I learned a lot and have a keen sense of the variety of ministry, styles of worship and community culture across the city as a result. I am very grateful to Rev. Rob Jones and the congregation in Holy Trinity Rathmines, to Canon David Gillespie and the congregation in St. Ann’s Dawson Street, to Rev. Stephen Farrell and the congregation in Zion and to Rev. Steve Brunn and the university community in Trinity College Chapel. There was so much to appreciate in each of these communities of faith and I left each of them at the end of my placement with a sense of having been enriched by their generosity, their welcome and their discipleship. I am particularly grateful to the congregation of Holy Trinity in Rathmines who have kept me actively in their prayers since I was with them in 2013. I have a real sense that their prayers have strengthened and upheld me.
I look forward to being part of a team that serves a parish community once again. I am genuinely excited by all the possibilities presented by the parish of Raheny and Coolock. I have a sense of two active communities, an enthusiastic rector, a keen parish team, two beautiful churches, a busy primary school and a range of activity with children, youth and adults alike. It is an outward looking parish with a commitment to the broader local community and to its neighbouring parishes.
So with all of that positivity you must be wondering why I have a sense of trepidation? That is quite simple to explain. Like Jonah, I spent quite a bit of time hiding from fully responding to the still, small voice of God. I was brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition in a small town in Co. Carlow. I grew up in a family of faith where daily scripture reading and family prayer were part of the pattern of our lives. I lived in a small town where there was a reasonable amount for young people and adults to do, but much of it was connected to church and faith–based social action. I was an energetic teenager who wanted to express faith in more than family and personal prayer.
The search for discipleship in my early adulthood led me to be dissatisfied with the outlets I could find in the majority Christian tradition for adult women. My search soon led the 24 year old Anne to the Church of Ireland. I found plenty opportunity for active discipleship. In Celbridge I sang in the choir and was part of the leadership group that ran the youth club. In the Christ Church Cathedral group I became the Sunday School teacher. And the still small voice of God was niggling still. I started to explore further pathways of discipleship with clergy in the parish and found myself at what was then called the Fellowship of Vocation. And after two meetings, I thought “No, this is too much! Surely Lord, you don’t mean me!” God was clearly making a mistake. In an effort to appease the still small voice, I actively pursued lay ministry – surely that would be enough for God? But the still small voice was still there.
That still small voice led me to give up my job in Maynooth University and take up the role of Principal of the Church of Ireland College of Education in 2009. For the first time I was presented with a genuine opportunity to combine my discipleship with my professional expertise. I have lived through the seven most pressured and hectic years of my life in that post as we all engaged with several waves of huge change in State policy for teacher education. But even in the midst of all of that intense pressure, the still small voice remained. Eventually I went to see Archbishop Neill in late 2010 and he sent me back to the Fellowship of Vocation. This time, despite the trepidation, I trusted in God’s wisdom.
Over the last five years, I have been blest with re–establishing a firm daily routine of prayer and engagement with Scripture which holds me through all the pressure. I have opened myself to the still small voice and found peace amidst the frenzy. I know that the prayers of others are a great gift. And I have given in to the still small voice, believing that our help is in the name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth.