25.06.2024
‘Fresh expression of civic values can be our contemporary witness’ – 200th anniversary of St Stephen’s Church
The 200th anniversary of St Stephen’s Church, also known as the Pepper Cannister Church, on Mount Street Crescent in Dublin, provided the backdrop to an exploration of the role of civic values and virtues in restoring stability to society. Speaking in the heart of civic Dublin yesterday evening (Monday June 24), both the Archbishop of Dublin and the newly elected Lord Mayor of Dublin addressed the importance of integration in a city experiencing societal malaise and anger and where for the first time people had been elected on a mandate of hate. The service was also attended by the Ceann Comhairle of the Dail Sean O’Fearghail and a number of public representatives.
Archbishop Michael Jackson urged those seeking to create a progressive society not to abandon a range of civic values that have long been associated with a religious way of life which enable people to deal with one another structurally and personally. Meanwhile, the Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr James Geoghegan said it was abundantly clear that faith had a role in integration and that integration was one of the priorities he had set for his term as Lord Mayor.
The Service of Choral Evensong was led by the Archbishop. It was sung by St Stephen’s Choir conducted by Amy Ryan and accompanied by the organist Siobhan Kilkelly. Their outstanding musical contribution was praised by the Lord Mayor who described them as “utterly uplifting”.
Dublin’s, and indeed St Stephen’s, diversity was illustrated by the range of faith communities represented at the service. The Gospel was read by Archbishop Dermot Farrell, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. A number of Priests from the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland who worship in St Stephen’s attended the service and members of the congregation were invited to pray in their own language.
St Stephen’s Church has stood, as Archbishop Jackson put it, “in its unmistakeable and in its unmissable place in the middle of the road in Mount Street Crescent” for 200 years. It has captured the affection of generations of Dublin people, in part because of its distinctive place on the skyline. The church was a gift to the city by the Earl of Pembroke. The church also has significant musical heritage as Charles Villiers Stanford was a son of the parish and Percy French was married there.
The Archbishop pointed out that everything changes but witness to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ remained a constant as it adapted to differing circumstances and expressions of the faith. “This is the faith of the earliest church which grew out of struggle and martyrdom into witness in social action and values of everyday discipleship,” he stated.
Turning to the readings [Genesis 28: 11–18 and John 10: 22–29] which look at what makes a place holy and the religious warfare in John 10, he observed that dedicated inheritance of faith is not enough if you cannot see the holiness of God where it is to be found. He said that the call to witness carries us forward. Compared with Christians in many other parts of the world, Archbishop Jackson said we live a charmed existence.
But looking outward into society he said: “We are nonetheless surrounded by tented homelessness, by the anxiety and fear of young men living in our communities, young men who have made it here because they are young, strong and resilient, and we set fire to their accommodation ahead of their arrival. We are surrounded by child poverty which mysteriously disappeared off the radar during Covid–19 and now is back on the map as ever it was. We are surrounded also by a societal malaise which is angry and retaliatory for a reason; and that reason is a manifest inequality of distribution while at the same time there is an ever greater quest on the part of good people making policy to offer opportunity to more and more people who are not in a position to access it or to avail of it”.
He added: “Instability and opportunity are unhappy companions as also are privilege and alienation in a society that is sophisticated and, in seeking to be progressive, needs not to abandon a range of civic values that have long been associated with a religious way of life that has little traction or attraction today but which need to come back to the top of our way of dealing with one another structurally and personally. Why? It is because these values embody virtues historically present in our societies and they have long been in danger of obliteration more through carelessness than by design in many instances”.
The Archbishop suggested that the fresh expression of such civic values and virtues could be the contemporary witness and constructive martyrdom to which we could turn our attention in light of the 200th anniversary of St Stephen’s Church. He suggested that words like integration, environment and regulation needed to be broken down to enable those who were irritated by them to discern their true meaning and benefit. “We need to start small, but fund big, to enable people in their localities to see that integration builds a more joyful society; that environmental conscientiousness builds a more functioning society; that regulation releases people to give and to receive the decisions and the actions of one another more safely and more fruitfully,” he said.
The Lord Mayor, who just took up office on Friday evening said that a lot of the issues the Archbishop spoke about resonated with him. He said that he had identified integration as one of the issues which he would focus on during his term. He recalled the night of 23 November 2023 “when all of us saw our city set alight”. He said this happened following a very distressing incident in Parnell Square and against a backdrop of disquiet at changes taking place in the city.
Cllr Geoghegan said that policy makers recognised that the question of integration was at risk and that it was necessary to focus on integration. “It is abundantly clear that faith has a role in integration. It is clear by the presence of members of the Romanian Orthodox community here this evening,” he said. “For many migrants who come to this country, church has been the first port of call and it is important that we champion the role of interfaith dialogue.”
He pointed out that for the first time people had been elected to the City Council on a mandate of hate and he said one of his priorities was to turn to those areas of the city to focus on the issue of integration. He said people from migrant backgrounds enriched our society and as an example pointed to the way in which they serve healthcare in this country.
You can read the Archbishop’s sermon in full here.
