Sermon for the Institution of the Revd. Hilary Anne Dungan
to the Portlaoise Group of Parishes
preached by Canon Dr. Ginnie Kennerley. 15.2.2003

I bring you the good wishes and congratulations of your neighbouring diocese of Glendalough today, as you celebrate the arrival of your new rector, Hilary Dungan, and as we join together in prayer for her and for the parish under her leadership. Congratulations also on your new bishop - and my thanks to you, Bishop Peter, for inviting me to preach at your first institution. Shortly some of you will be joining with the bishop in the church's charge to your new rector and to the parish. What I say to you now will be more a few thoughts from me for you parishioners in her regard.

But first some not too ancient history: I first met Hilary some twelve or more years ago when I was serving as assistant priest in the parish of Bray, where she was for a time the organist and choir director. I remember that not long after we first met, the school where she was teaching closed, just as she had bought a house on the outskirts of the town. As I dropped in one day, to admire the new set-up, and in particular her well tended garden, we fell to talking of what she might decide to do next.

Only very few women clergy had been ordained at that stage, and the Church was still in something of a "wait-and-see" period, but since Hilary was from a clergy family - her father Victor Dungan had retired from the parish of Ballybrack a decade or so before - it did occur to me that she might sense a call to ordained ministry herself.
It seemed that it was not so, or at any rate she was cautious enough not to want at that point to be part of a development which a number of senior clergy still opposed. Yet neither did she want entirely to dismiss the idea of moving in that direction, so I remember I encouraged her to enlist in the Diploma of Theology evening course in Trinity College. It was no surprise to find that she loved everything about it, and no sooner had she completed that course than she was accepted as a mature student for the Trinity degree in Biblical and Theological Studies.

Hilary's vocation developed as her self-confidence grew and the general acceptance of women clergy grew with it. How delighted we all were to find her next at the Theological College, where she also undertook a Diploma in Ecumenics - so it's encouraging to see the ecumenical support in the clergy attendance here today. From the Theological College, Hilary was ordained for St Mark's Armagh in June 2000.

But Hilary Dungan comes to you with a far greater depth of experience of the ministry of the church than a two and a half year curacy would suggest. All her life, she has lived and breathed the worship and the pastoral ministry of the Church of Ireland: as a child growing up in the rectories of Killane in Co.Wexford, Dunganstown in Co.Wicklow and Leeson Park in Dublin; as an adult being responsible for the music in many churches in Dublin diocese; as part of a clergy family with more than a hundred years of ministry between them; as a teacher who has demonstrated again and again a gift of involving children in dynamic activities and entertainments, whether in church or in the community.

Yet - (and here comes the charge and the challenge to you parishioners) - with all her gifts and advantages, your new rector is going to need your cooperation if she is to be an effective leader of the church in this place. You have had a long vacancy in this parish, so I hope that you have used the opportunity to foster the many new gifts that the Holy Spirit will have given you as you sought to continue the worship and witness of your community. Don't let these new talents go; don't lie back now and expect your new rector to become a "one-woman-band", when she should rather be the conductor of an orchestra of Christian ministry and outreach. This parish can really take off now, if you play your part.

First of all, because she is new to this part of the country, Hilary is going to need the support of knowledgeable parishioners who will advise her on the history and social groupings and major anxieties within the parish. Second, and most important of all, she will need prayer support: people to pray with her and for her, not just on Sundays but during the week as well; and if some of you could do that by meeting regularly with her for prayer that would be absolutely invaluable. She will also need some practical assistance in terms of geography, office work, and pastoral care. And I hope you will encourage her to develop the worship in your churches and the devotion in your homes in a way that will help the spiritual life of the whole parish. And finally, do remember that she has the prisons, the hospitals, the nursing homes, the schools and the life of the wider community to attend to. She will welcome your assistance here as well. I think that's five ways of being part of the ministry team of this incumbency: 1) initial briefing; 2) prayer support; 3) practical help; 4) worship back-up; 5) sharing in outreach to those in need; and of course you'll find more.

With your rector, you are called not only to look after friends and fellow parishioners, but to reach out to new arrivals in the area, and to coax back others who have become estranged. With her, you are to seek out the lost and share the good news of God's love with unbelievers. You may not go with her into the prisons and the hospitals, but you can support her in prayer as she goes there, and there may be other unlikely corners of need where you can go before her.

As you share in this ministry, she, as your rector, will be helping you to understand what it really means to follow Christ, and encouraging you to share your own faith with those around you, and to bring up your children as believers in the family of the church. She will do this largely through her preaching in church, so do please make sure you attend church regularly. If you don't, you will be missing out on the teaching and the spiritual leadership she has been called to give. It simply can't all be done on a one-to-one basis. Above all, remember that your rector is bound to do God's will, which will not always be the same as the will of any individual or group.
We are in the 21st century now, so I hope that is no one here wondering, as they might have been a decade ago, whether a woman is able for the job in hand. I'm sure the Revd. Nancy Gillespie must by now have shown you that such doubts have no justification.

But, partly because she is a woman and partly because of new thinking about the ministry of the church, this rector's style of leadership may be different to what you experienced in the past. I know from talking with Hilary that she wants to be a priest with you, not over you. She will not so much tell you what she wants done, as help you to work with her to search out and discern and then put into effect what is God's will for you all.

To this end, she will both visit you in your homes, and encourage you to meet together - and not necessarily just at select vestry meetings. There will be a getting-to-know-you period, and as much discussion as you want, before any big changes are made - but some changes will inevitably be required, if the parish is to flourish. For as the saying goes, "To grow is to change, to be perfect is to have changed often"; and conversely to stand still is to be left behind, even to die.
As you begin to relate to your new rector, please don't be trying to impress her, to tell her what you think she wants to hear, to make yourselves out to be any different to what you really are, or to make others out to be misguided or malicious. Tell her the truth, present things as they are and as they have been. If you have a longstanding grievance or quarrel with some one, don't tell all the good on your side and all the bad on the other. Tell the truth of the story as you know it, but make allowance for hurt feelings on the other side, and maybe some mistakes on your own. And trust her to keep your confidences. She will.

Finally I want to remind you that the work of the clergy has changed a good deal in the past twenty years, along with everybody else's. There is a lot more office work to be done, a lot more variety in styles of worship to be worked on, a lot more meetings to attend, and usually more churches and longer distances to be covered by one rector.

I'm sure Hilary will make it her first concern to visit all of you who are available in your homes, being keen to get to know you and to hear about your family situation, your hopes and fears, your past experiences of parish life, and your ideas about the future. But do remember that that is only one part of her job, and there will be times when the only people she can visit will be those who are sick, bereaved or in some emergency situation. And if she's to know about these emergencies, you will need to phone her, or call at the rectory, to let her know what is going on. Clergy are not clairvoyant; so we do need to be told if you are hospitalised or depressed, out of work or bereaved, or in difficulties of any kind.

In minor matters, she will sometimes have to rely on you to care for each other, as I'm sure you always have done, as you are called to do as fellow Christians and as good neighbours. That is the reality of parish life today more than ever.

Yes, there have been changes in church life - but the central reality of the Church never changes. As we heard in the reading from 1st Corinthians, whether we are clergy or laity, leaders or helpers, we are all totally dependent on the Spirit of God, and on the grace given through the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hilary, as a follower of Christ and a priest called to pastor you, will always be seeking the Spirit's guidance and strength to lead you by example, teach you according to your need, and discern God's will for the parish alongside you. She will remind you always that Christ has called you to serve as he served, to love as he loved, and to share that love with your neighbours in all the world. May she be blessed in her calling, and may you all be blessed as you share it with her.

Ginnie Kennerley
15th February 2003

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