09.10.2023
‘Keep reaping where you and others have sown’ – Archbishop Dedicates St Nahi’s Renovations
Worshippers at the ancient and beautiful church of St Nahi in Dundrum gave thanks for the completion of recent refurbishment works at their Harvest Service yesterday (Sunday October 8). The service was celebrated by Archbishop Michael Jackson who also dedicated the works which included the renovation of the baptistry, the church tiles, the floor and the brass behind the altar as well as the purchase of new chairs throughout the church.
St Nahi’s stands on the original site of Dundrum Parish Church where, according to official records a church was built in about 800AD, probably on the ruins of an older building. It was dedicated to St Nahi, a saint of the very early Irish church who is thought to have lived in a monastery at Churchtown around 600AD. The church was rebuilt several times, with the most recent restoration completed in 1910.
In his sermon the Archbishop drew on the Gospel reading [St John 4.35: But look, I tell you, look around at the fields: they are already white, ripe for harvesting.] He said the reading encourages us to focus on the harvest of potential and opportunity and suggested that we need more of this in church life. “We need to find this hope and this joy in the life beyond the church, outside the church, and bring it into church as a harvest which we have gathered and which we can celebrate,” he said.
Noting the church’s historic connection to the Middle Ages of Christian heritage, he said that week by week we reap where others sowed and we also sow afresh for future generations for them to reap again at another time. “This is what worship is, this is what liturgy does. Work such as this is essential for the wellbeing of any building and for its inhabitants. In some ways, a church is no different from any other building. And yet, in many ways, it is radically different because it is particularly special and dear to the community of hope, to the body of Christ and to the individual pilgrim soul. It is the place to which generations of people come in faith, in hope and in love for occasions sad and sorrowful, joyous and uplifting – and they do this on a regular basis – and sometimes they are able to move from one way of being to a different way of being, because God is in the place where they are and God comes to meet them face to face in good ways. Beauty and quietness are two ways in which this often happens, as restoration and healing take their course,” he stated.
The Archbishop said that the service of thanksgiving honoured the depth of loyalty which made possible a depth of responsibility, and both had made possible a depth of generosity. He thanked the Rector and parishioners for all they had done which he said was testimony to their spirit of resilience. He stated: “I want to encourage you to keep this up and to keep this going, to keep reaping where you and others have sown. Stand back and look at what you have achieved; stand back and look at what you have built – and keep achieving and keep building. You have shown that you can do it. I want you to continue and to keep going. I have every confidence that you can and that you will – together”.
You can read the Arhbishop’s sermon in full here.
