04.10.2022
Vision not division – Presidential Address to Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Synods
“It is our calling under God to live in a time of vision, not division,” Archbishop Michael Jackson said this evening (Tuesday October 4). In his Presidential Address to Dublin & Glendalough’s Diocesan Synods, he called on the people of the dioceses to adopt a “hierarchy of urgency” setting new priorities and shaking up values to look and live beyond ourselves.
The Presidential Address was given during the Synod Service of Holy Communion in Christ Church Taney. The Archbishop took the decision to deliver a shortened version in light of the addition of a Bill to the agenda of Diocesan Synod which was received by members yesterday. He said that the Bill sought to discern the mind of Dublin & Glendalough Diocesan Synods in relation to a fresh alignment of the powers of the Diocesan Councils along with the relationship between both bodies for the future. In order to allow for full discussion on the Bill, he offered a synopsis of his Presidential Address, the full version of which you can read below or download here.
In his address, Archbishop Jackson referred to the Lambeth Conference which took place during the summer. He said the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke of two types of renewal which were apparent at the conference. The first related to the nature of the church and he said an integral part of the Anglican identity is that it is an incomplete part of God’s church, meaning that we are ecumenically interdependent with the rest of the Christian church. The second type of renewal identified by the Archbishop of Canterbury was the values that were agreed: solidarity, subsidiarity and global justice.
The Church of Ireland and the Dioceses of Dublin & Glendalough are part of the Anglican Communion and Archbishop Jackson said that communion was at the heart of our identity and expression of faith. “Communion is our individual and shared belonging to God and our shared expression of this in prayer, worship and community action. Communion is both structural and spiritual. We need to connect as a matter of urgency with other and diverse members of the Communion in order to find our Anglican identity today,” he explained.
Archbishop Jackson said that the shape and style of the Lambeth Conference pointed those present in the direction of receiving just as much as giving. This, he said, would require of the dioceses partnership arrangements with dioceses and parishes in areas of the world that are experiencing the sort of things we are experiencing, although often differently to us. In this way we can learn and grow. The people of Dublin & Glendalough have already experienced this through the diocesan link with the Diocese of Jerusalem.
One of the recurring themes of the Lambeth Calls was the appeal to the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion. Dublin & Glendalough has done extensive work on the Five Marks and are well placed to move forward with the Lambeth Calls locally if members of the dioceses want to be active members of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop said.
Having come through Covid–19, forging new personal and spiritual pathways, Archbishop Jackson encouraged people to face the emerging future without fear. “We are living in the midst of an horrific war situation in Ukraine and in Europe, grief–stricken for those at the kernel of such human and societal destruction; we now are also in the eye of the storm of a fuel and a food crisis such as few can imagine. We are called by God to new compassions,” he commented.
In urging members to adopt a hierarchy of urgency, the Archbishop said: “The hierarchy of urgency is more than a setting of priorities. It is a shake–up of values. It is the realization and affirmation of the centrality of others in our planning and in our living. It is an individual and the corporate commitment that is capable of transforming our institution, our organization when we turn the lens outwards and let ourselves be viewed primarily through our responsibility for and with others. The hierarchy of urgency gives us fresh energy to live beyond ourselves and for others. The question is: Does the diocese want to do this? The decisions and the priorities are very much yours. Our calling is to empathy and to activity. This is how we refresh and grow our belonging to Jesus Christ and to the world of God’s creation. This is how we follow in the words of Holy Scripture: Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you …
and:
Go and do likewise …
“Justice, environment, identity: these were the hierarchy of urgency identified by Archbishop Justin Welby for the Anglican Communion during the summer of 2022. This is an hierarchy quite different from that which forces the pace in the world we inhabit and take for granted. This points to a shift of focus and of direction in the life of The Anglican Communion for the future. This is the new Anglican Communion of which we are part.”
Archbishop Jackson thanked all involved in the smooth running of the dioceses in the past year, which he described as three years in one: in–Covid, through–Covid and beyond–Covid. In thanking the staff of the Diocesan Office he paid particular tribute to Diocesan Secretary, Sylvia Heggie, who has announced her intention to retire at the end of the year.
“The debt we owe to Sylvia is incalculable. On my own behalf, I want to say how effective and how professional I have found Sylvia to be throughout my time as archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough. Sylvia’s ethic has been and remains: What can I do to help? It is nothing short of incredible to recognize that Sylvia has done everything she has done through a half–time post. Sylvia has never refused to do everything she can to help those in need of advice, guidance and encouragement. To say that we shall miss Sylvia is the understatement of this synod,” he stated.
He concluded by stating that it is our calling under God to live in a time of vision, not division. Following on from the Lambeth Conference, he said the question for individuals was to discern what the Anglican Communion is and how they can, with urgency of faith, respond to it as part of a communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and a communion of faith, hope and love. The question for Dublin & Glendalough was, he said, “Is this diocese willing and wanting to be a diocese that is doing the Lambeth Walk?”
DUBLIN AND GLENDALOUGH DIOCESAN SYNODS PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 2022
Full address by Archbishop Michael Jackson
… doing the Lambeth Walk …
RENEWAL
Recently, the archbishop of Canterbury offered the following reflection on The Lambeth Conference 2022. He spoke of two types of renewal which he felt were apparent in Canterbury when those of the bishops of the Anglican Communion who accepted his invitation met there in July and August of this year. The first type of renewal the archbishop noticed was ecclesiological; that is to say relating specifically to the nature of the church: he said that an integral part of Anglican identity is that it is an ‘incomplete’ part of God’s church. This expression of humility in the face of the obvious economy of scale of who we are in relation to the total sweep of religion points us to something that many of us have long seen and accepted and lived, particularly in Ireland, where ecumenism flourishes locally and personally; and it is this: the Anglican tradition, of which the Church of Ireland is part, is ‘incomplete’ without a living and dynamic relationship with other churches of the Christian tradition; in other words, we are ecumenically interdependent with the rest of the Christian world every bit as much as we are historically derivative of earlier expressions of the Christian world that came before us. All of this is necessary in order for us to be the church we are today.
The second type of renewal of which he spoke was the values that were agreed. He went on to say that they were: solidarity, subsidiarity and global justice. This brings us to the heart of an expression of Anglican identity in our day and for our time. Concentrated and complex though it may be, it is important to grasp this cluster of ideas. Solidarity is sticking with one another. This happens in everyday life through listening, loyalty, understanding and advocacy of the causes and the needs of others. Subsidiarity is the principle that a central authority should have a lesser function and role than a local authority, in order to enable local flourishing. In this way, therefore, the central body performs only those tasks which cannot be performed at a more local level. This distinction is a key factor in our Godly independence when this is applied to the church context. Global justice is a much bigger and broader story. It draws us into a framework of transformation of structures of injustice in ways like this. The response to global injustice and the championing of global justice comes about through solidarity with those who are wronged and through respecting the principle of subsidiarity. We come to understand that, while we as external agents may want to help and feel we can help, local people know how best to plan and to implement. We work with them rather than working over their heads. It is a partnership. The humanity that is part and parcel of solidarity, the humility that is part and parcel of solidarity and the honesty that is part and parcel of subsidiarity are all needed. This is to ensure the energy to address the plethora of issues of global justice without being overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of response. Two–way co–operation is what will make this possible. All three of these values taken together being to identify and to address the colonialism within the Anglican tradition of which few dare even to speak and yet it is something that we in the Northern Hemisphere and in The West need to address. Such is the broad–brush view of the calling of The Anglican Communion offered recently by the archbishop of Canterbury.
COMMUNION
While The Lambeth Conference is neither the be–all nor the end–all of Anglicanism, it is one of the four Instruments of Communion, the other three being the archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates’ Meeting and the Anglican Consultative Council. This is the way of life of which we are members, to which we belong. We are eager to make our contribution to the common good wherever we are, even though we are a numerical minority of active adherents in every country where the Anglican tradition is lived out in a local, national church. The Conference’s voice is worthy of consideration for any Province or Diocese as the voice, in a particular moment in time, of those committed to the flourishing of the people of God through their service of God and the wellbeing of their neighbours and of the church – that is, the bishops of the Anglican Communion. At the heart of our searching lies the idea of communion itself as our identity.
It is good for us to understand and celebrate communion as a living, life–giving thing. Communion is our individual and shared belonging to God. It is given to us through God’s love for the world in sending his Son Jesus Christ to live among us as a human person, to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification. It is also a matter of being brought into the energy of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the lives we lead and in the ways we lead them. This comes about:
through the worship of the church, its Scriptures, its sacraments and its social action,
through taking this worship as witness to God into the world of relationships and decisions, of choices and of the graceful recognition of the presence of other people among whom we live, irrespective of their faith tradition or the derivation of their values,
through keeping awake and keeping our eyes open for what is happening around us in a world to which we belong and a creation of which and of whom we are part.
Communion is both structural and spiritual. Communion fires us as individuals. Communion consolidates us as communities. We are fortunate to have this communion–identity as our Anglican identity. It is both earthly and heavenly at the same time, as in the prayer Our Lord taught his disciples. The Anglican Communion is incomplete, it is a work in progress, with an ever–expanding number of Provinces. And at The Lambeth Conference 2022, the Provincial Cross of the Province of Egypt was presented to Archbishop Samy Shehata during one of the acts of worship in Canterbury Cathedral. Irrespective of cascading numbers in the part of the world we ourselves inhabit, Anglicanism is establishing a future of faith and hope and love in parts of the world largely unknown to us, witnessing among countless new people for new generations. It is with these people that we need to connect more urgently in order to develop our Anglican identity as members of a communion. We may be different from them; they may be different from us. So be it. This is how the rest of the world we inhabit works.
Words like ‘incomplete’ or ‘work in progress’ have a positive meaning when set in the context of what we read in Holy Scripture, for example in 1 St John 3.2:
Dear friends, we are now God’s children; what we shall be has not yet been disclosed, but we know that when Christ appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
It is as if Holy Scripture has come full circle in this verse. The promise made in Genesis 1.26, 27 comes to full expression. Our likeness to God becomes, in the specifically Christian context, Christ’s likeness in us as we become more and more like Christ: Then God said, let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness … God created human beings in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Creation and recreation come together in the dance of divine and human harmony. Not only does this take the harm out of it. Rather, it offers us a particular fulfilment with responsibilities for our adult faith in the purposes of God and a very direct part for this faith to play in our daily lives.
SOME LAMBETH LEARNINGS
LOCAL AND GLOBAL
For a number of people who attended in 2022, the Conference showed how significant were a number of shifts in composition of the international body of bishops there have been in the fourteen years since the previous Lambeth Conference in 2008. Many participants had never before been to a Lambeth Conference. The number of bishops who are women now stands at over one hundred. The number of bishops present from Provinces south of the equator outnumbers those north of the equator. Both of these facts provided a significant shift of emphasis and of tempo and of authority in how the Conference functioned. No longer was it a matter of a succession of people articulate in English as their first, and often only, language coming to the microphone and assuming that their values and their voicing of them were prescriptive for all participants. This time there were greater authority and power and influence in listening and in silence. In a way, to use language coming into vogue in relation to the Roman Catholic tradition, it was more synodal than synodical, more personal experiences than parliamentary expectations. This too was new.
MISSION AS RECEIVING
And there was something else too … We have become accustomed over the years and indeed generations to understanding mission as giving. I am not saying that there is anything inappropriate about giving. I suggest that this idea became embedded at the time of Missionary Boxes often brought into the home and filled on a regular basis with care, generosity and faithfulness – frequently by people who had little for themselves but were generous in the cause of others. The shape and the style of the Conference pointed everyone in attendance in the direction of receiving just as much as giving. This is going to be a hard lesson to learn more widely, but I suggest that it is worth the effort. Being told what you ought to be doing does not come easily to any of us. It will require of us partnership arrangements with dioceses and parishes in areas of the world that are experiencing the sort of things we are experiencing differently; and with other parts which are experiencing different things from what we are experiencing and where people are facing much more accelerated disintegration of geographical habitat, societal infrastructure and human dignity than we are. Only in such a way as this do we learn and grow.
As we have found already, in our link with The Diocese of Jerusalem and The Middle East, the key connector is prayer. More than once I heard bishops from other parts of the Communion say to me and to others: We do not solely want your money. We want your prayer. And we will pray for you. This is not to say that there are not occasions and situations where people need, and are very grateful for, our material and financial supports. Nor is it say that we should not continue to give. It is, rather, to pause and accept that relationships are more fulfilling and more enriching than transactions. Both the sophistication and the simplicity of Anglican witness in parts of the world other than our own are here to stay and are here to challenge where we have come in our own accommodation with secularism inside the church every bit as much as outside the church. We remain called to seek first The Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This realization is a genuine wake up call for all of us. The boomerang effect of mission can deepen and enrich our discipleship. We need to open our eyes and our ears, our hearts and our minds to receiving as much as to giving.
WAYS OF DOING THE BUSINESS: THE CALLS; THE THREE PARTS OF THE LAMBETH CONFERENCE 2022
The Conference began with an in–person meeting of those who were members of an on–line group in the year leading up to the Conference itself, beginning from 2021. This was the first time for us to do this as a group. The Conference turned out to be what I understood its origins to be: a theological house party with the archbishop of Canterbury as host. The welcome, the vast array of volunteers was extremely impressive and grounded the Conference in hospitality. Worship in traditions from Provinces across the Communion began each day, followed by addresses by the archbishop of Canterbury based in The First Letter of St Peter. These themes were carried forward into the daily Bible Studies which were themselves a microcosm of the Anglican Communion in the composition of their membership. The membership of the Bible Study Group was also the same as that of the Lambeth Calls Group which met each afternoon. This gave a continuity in relation to Scripture and strategy. This again was a new direction in policy making and, to my mind, welcome. During the afternoon, there were seminars that related to the themes of The Calls and to other presentations made during the conference. This was a sophisticated operation involving a range of languages, unafraid of technology and combining live presentation with pre–recorded perspectives. I would want to say that all of this is attainable and deliverable in our own diocese along with the combined forces of Scripture and strategy, if this is what the people of the diocese want to do and decide to do as a way of being and of working as generous Anglicans for the future. The third part of Lambeth 2022 is yet to happen. That is the implementation phase. It will once again involve the same group that originally met on–line meeting on–line once again and working on the implementation of the Lambeth Calls. Staff members have been working on revising the Lambeth Calls, taking into account the contributions of members at the Conference. This is a way of having the Conference, through the bishops, build a series of invitations to the people, clergy and dioceses of the Communion in order to follow through on the living theology of the Calls as they can best be lived locally. In this way of living things locally, by local adaptation, The Calls are a new expression of parts of The Chicago–Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1888 and are thoroughly Anglican.
APPEAL TO PRINCIPLES: THE FIVE MARKS OF MISSION
One of the recurring themes of The Lambeth Calls as they progressed was the appeal to The Five Marks of Mission of The Anglican Communion. For the sake of completeness, I repeat them here:
TELL: to proclaim God’s Kingdom
TEACH: to teach, baptize and nurture
TEND: to respond to human need
TRANSFORM: to transform unjust structures
TREASURE: to safeguard creation.
We in The United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough are not new to The Five Marks nor are they new to us. Thanks to the prompting of one member of the diocese a number of years back, we have done a lot of work in reimagining the diocese through the lens of The Five Marks of Mission. We have had extensive projects and programmes based around The Five Marks, including a day of discernment for all parishes held in The High School, Dublin; a presentation of findings in parishes across the dioceses with in depth discussion for all at Diocesan Synods, a publication entitled Growing in the Image and Likeness of God unique to our diocese through our Come&C Project; and a presentation to the archbishop of Canterbury on the method of implementation along with the benefits of the strategic use of the Five Marks of Mission when he came as preacher to the Service to mark 150 Years of Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. We are, therefore, well placed to move forward with The Calls to action locally, if members of the diocese through its Synods and its people and clergy want to be active members of the Anglican Communion in these ways. The Five Marks of Mission and our work on them to date has set us up well to move in this fruitful and faithful direction.
THE HIERARCHY OF URGENCY and THE CENTRALITY OF SCRIPTURE
Not only have we and everyone else come through Covid–19 as best we can, continuing and in many cases struggling to forge a new pathway in our personal and our spiritual lives with energy and with conviction. And in this regard I want to congratulate everyone on the good things you have done and to encourage everyone to face the emerging future without fear. But we are living in the midst of an horrific war situation in Ukraine and in Europe, grief–stricken for those at the kernel of such human and societal destruction; we now are also in the eye of the storm of a fuel and a food crisis such as few can imagine; and we are also teetering on the edge of a recession that few dare to name. One thing remains clear: those who are poor always suffer most and are the first to go to the wall. The hierarchy of urgency is more than a setting of priorities. It is a shake–up of values. It is the realization and affirmation of the centrality of others in our planning and in our living. It is the individual and the corporate committing of the decisions we make within the criteria of what matters most, and most charitably. This is capable of transforming our institution, our organization when we turn the lens outwards and, at the same time, with the sort of humility of which the archbishop of Canterbury spoke in describing the Anglican Communion as incomplete, let ourselves be viewed primarily through our responsibility for and with others. Such engagement necessitates both the solidarity and the subsidiarity which I explained earlier. The rapidity of change forces the pace around any hierarchy of urgency. So does our guardianship of tradition. But so also does our discernment of the glaring deficiencies in our own institution as we and others have made it to be. The hierarchy of urgency is a liberating hierarchy. This is because it reconnects us with impetus and inspiration. It gives us fresh energy to live beyond ourselves and for others. The question is: Does the diocese want to do this? Both the decisions and the actions lie very much with this synod.
For a Christian Church, the sense of direction can only come from The Kingdom of God as revealed by Jesus Christ and as witnessed to by Holy Scripture. It then needs to be expressed in the lives of those who, generation after generation, have prayed and responded, in faith and in action, to the calling to serve God and neighbour. And these are the people who respond to the kindling fire of The Holy Spirit of the same God. This is basic. This is straightforward. This is presence and engagement, being there and getting involved. For us, replete with more privileges than we can juggle without dropping some of them, communications have changed and developed. ‘Being there’ has never been easier – and never been easier to neglect. Heart–rending images bring instant and emotional understanding. Our calling is to empathy and to activity. It is through the gentle humility of ways like this that we refresh and grow our belonging to Jesus Christ and to the world of God’s creation. This is how we follow in the words of Holy Scripture: Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you …
and:
Go and do likewise …
Justice, environment, identity: these were the hierarchy of urgency identified by Archbishop Justin Welby for the Anglican Communion during the summer of 2022. The first two of these framed the third rather than the third dictating the first two. This is an hierarchy quite different from that which forces the pace in the world we inhabit. This points to a shift of focus and of direction in the life of The Anglican Communion for the future. This is the new Anglican Communion of which we are part and in which we are all called to minister and be ministered to.
WE LIVE IN THE TIME OF VISION NOT DIVISION
As I finish this address, I want to thank everyone who has made the smooth running of the diocese and the encouragement of its life of witness and service throughout the year past possible. In many ways, 2021/2022 has been three years all at once: in–Covid; through–Covid; beyond–Covid. These realities have left many bereaved; they have left many debilitated; they have left many ready for a new start. My thanks go specifically to Mrs Sylvia Heggie, Diocesan Secretary, who has indicated her intention to retire with effect from the end of the calendar year. The debt that we owe to Sylvia is incalculable. On my own behalf, I want to say how effective and how professional I have found Sylvia to be throughout my time of association with Dublin and Glendalough. Sylvia’s ethic has been and remains: What can I do to help? It is nothing short of incredible to recognize that Sylvia has done everything she has done through a half–time post. Sylvia has never refused to do everything she can to help those in need of advice and guidance and encouragement. To say that we shall miss Sylvia is the understatement of this synod.
I have a final question and it follows on from the things I have said about the impact of The Lambeth Conference worldwide and the energy now urgently required for our understanding what it is to be an Anglican in the world of today. It is our calling under God to live in a time of vision, not division. And my question goes like this. It is not a matter of: What sort of an Anglican Communion do I want it to be, in order that I may see myself at the heart of it? but: What sort of an Anglican Communion is it and what might I do to respond to it as an expression of my being part of a communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and of faith, hope and love for everyone in the complexities of today’s world? And this, of course, leads me to another question: What of us? and: Is the diocese willing and wanting to be one that is doing the Lambeth Walk?