01.04.2019
New Book Charts the Journey of Come&C Discipleship Project
A new book exploring the impact of Dublin & Glendalough’s Come&C project and celebrating acts of discipleship in parish life has been launched. ‘Come&C: Growing in the Image & Likeness of God’ by David Tuohy SJ and Maria Feeney was launched by the Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Ven Adrian Wilkinson at DCU’s All Hallows Campus last Friday (March 29).
The book documents the Come&C project from its roots in the Vision and Mission questionnaire that parishes responded to in 2015 through its implementation, outlining parish and diocesan activities, before looking to the future. It celebrates parish activities, examines the programme’s impact on individuals and parishes and explores the dynamics involved in developing a programme of intentional discipleship within the dioceses.
Come&C is based around the Five Marks of Mission. The Five Marks have been distilled to Tell – Proclaiming God’s Kingdom; Teach – Teach, Baptise and Nurture; Transform – Transforming Unjust Structures; Tend – Responding to Human Need; and Treasure – Safeguarding Creation. Through Come&C they have become a major tool in helping individuals and parishes develop discipleship.
The launch event was jointly hosted by the Church of Ireland Centre at DCU and the Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough. Launching the book, Archdeacon Wilkinson noted that ‘come and see’, ‘follow me’ and ‘go and tell’ were three key phrases from the Gospels. In every faith community there were three priorities to tie in with the phrases: worship, pastoral care and mission, he added.
“Being followers of Jesus Christ, we are people who assemble together in common faith. Mission is an outcome of this as we want to make a positive impact in the wider community,” the Archdeacon commented. “Today there is a danger of taking a short cut and moving straight to mission prompted by the fear of secularism. This distracts from Sunday worship. Social communication is breaking down as people communicate more on line and the traditional parish model is under pressure. So in an attempt to engage people we go straight to mission so there is a danger that we become the spiritual version of An Taisce.”
One Size Does Not Fit All
He said that the book describes the process or journey of Come&C and outlines the bottom up approach that was taken. He described a similar project in Cork, Cloyne and Ross – Charting the Future with Confidence – and said that they also recognised that one size does not fit all and a broad diocesan vision was adopted which allowed parishes to act in their own contexts.
Archdeacon Wilkinson said he was fascinated to see how rural deaneries were used in Come&C. “Individual parishes increasingly cannot stand in splendid isolation. Working together in rural deaneries and with other denominations will be vital,” he suggested.
He added that in launching the report there was a danger that people would believe that Come&C was done and the report would be left gathering dust on a shelf. But he hoped that the report would enable the United Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough to bear fruit that would last. “It is a very useful and timely template for the dioceses and beyond,” he concluded.
The authors spoke of their experiences in researching the impact of Come&C. Maria Feeney, who is employed at the Institute of Education at DCU, said it had been a pleasure to travel around the dioceses to learn about Come&C and the Five Marks of Mission and to see how people had engaged with them. “The Five Marks were something that people could easily engage with and use as a tool for mission and discipleship. Both Come&C and the Five Marks offer flexibility and autonomy to laity and clergy. Fabulous initiatives are alive and well across the dioceses,” she said outlining a number of them. “Listening to and studying clergy and parishioners’ journey on intentional discipleship has been a privilege.”
David Tuohy, a Jesuit priest and ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, spoke of his four year association with Come&C having facilitated the Diocesan Forum in High School from which many of the initiatives arose. He said the book honoured a commitment to report on what was learned during the project which was made at the launch of Come&C. It was embedded in discipleship. “This book tells the story of a response to intentional discipleship… of the effort to become more intentional and celebrating what is already happening in the dioceses and the deepening of discipleship. In one way it is not about discipleship or about the Five Marks of Mission. The book is about a particular programme and the organisational consequences that went into organising a project like this. The book captures what people are saying in the United Dioceses about what it is like to act out discipleship,” he said.
Part of Something Bigger
Dr Tuohy said the book also reflected on tensions, including the tensions between discipleship and ministry and between the parish and the dioceses, between neighbouring parishes. He said that initiatives were successful and others failed but it was important to learn from both. Many people found great depth in the fact that they weren’t just part of a parish but part of something bigger. He encouraged the dioceses to keep their discipleship going and to have mission in mind when exploring future projects.
Archbishop Michael Jackson recalled a recent Irish Times article by Roy Foster on the Protestant Accent in which Foster quoted Hubert Butler. In the 1950s Butler described the Church of Ireland as ‘a poor old phoenix, moulting and blind and bedraggled, gazing mesmerized into the fire, but unable to summon up the courage to take the last leap’. But he concluded: ‘I still think it has the power to lay a very fine egg.’
Archbishop Jackson said neither Butler nor Foster saw the Church of Ireland as a faith community but we must. “To both Butler and Foster, the Church of Ireland is a social construct, an observable, analyzable entity of some small fascination in an Irish history that changes constantly and therefore its constituent parts move and freeze in an uneasy syncopation. But one would not expect them to see it as a faith community with particular faith responsibilities. For us it has to be different: we are participants, not commentators; we are activists, not analysts; we are disciples, not observers. We need to be aware of a specific set of responsibilities. The dynamic of our tradition is spiritual with material consequences. We must both respond and contribute for the good of others first and last. Come&C has moved us forward hugely on this journey of adventure,” he stated.
You can read the full text of the Archbishop’s speech here.
‘Come&C: Growing in the Image & Likeness of God’ will be available at Diocesan Synod in October or from the Diocesan Office.
The Five Marks of Mission in Different Contexts
During the morning a number of speakers spoke about the Five Marks of Mission in their contexts. Swami Purnananda of the Eire Vedanta Society said that we are all made in the image and likeness of God and while each person is born into a particular religion, they must dig their well as deep as possible as it is there that they will find unity. He suggested that the Five Marks of Mission helped to get to the root of their faith from which spontaneity could follow.
The chairperson of Dublin City Interfaith Forum, Hilary Abrahamson, detailed the work of DCIF and in particular its Dublin City Interfaith Charter which was published in 2016. She also spoke about the Kids4Peace programme in Jerusalem which draws together young people from Jewish, Muslim and Christian backgrounds with the aim of breaking down barriers and promoting non violent civic engagement. She said many of their activities fitted into the Five Marks of Mission.
The principal of Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Liam Wegimont looked at a teaching and learning community through the lens of the Five Marks of Mission. He said that the school had developed a learning policy which had as its basis a focus on who they were and what they believed in. He said that the each of the Five Marks could be seen in the organisation of the school from ensuring that their school was accessible, embraced difference without judgement, responded to the needs of the students and school community and pursued social justice and care of creation.
Director of the Church of Ireland Centre at DCU, the Revd Prof Anne Lodge, said that in setting up CIC they had used the Five Marks as a planning tool. They explored how they could make CIC Anglican in a secular university context. “The Five Marks helped us to understand our own faith perspective and engage across denominations and between faiths,” she stated adding that they could also use them to frame plans and analyse activities.
