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Sermon
for the Enthronement :
Saint
Laserian’s Cathedral, Leighlin
A.
This
evening, as we gather together in Old Leighlin inside this historic medieval
cathedral, dedicated to the scholarly Saint Laserian, my opening words
are words of thanksgiving to God the Holy Trinity.
2. I wish to thank him for the enormous privilege of his call to serve
as a Bishop of the Church in this United Diocese.
3.
I wish also to thank you Mr. Precentor for your welcome, and express my
gratitude to the Rector, organist and choir from Bagenalstown, for all
their helpfulness concerning both the necessary legalities of an occasion
such as this, and for leading our praise.
4.
A special word of gratitude must go to Canon Dowd and the Rev’d Ken
Sherlock for all their hard work in preparing for this evening Thank you
Gary and Ken very much, for your capable shoulders have borne the weight
of matters great and small, and not just this evening but week by week.
B.
Thank
you to all those who have assisted you in such matters: flower arrangers
and greeters; cleaners and dusters; church wardens and several others.
2. Thank you the parishioners, readers and clergy of the Diocese of Leighlin
for your welcome to me, my wife and family, and for the promise of your
support just declared.
Thank
you to our ecumenical brothers and sisters in for your deeply appreciated
presence this evening. In particular, Bishop James Moriarty and Fr Tom
Lalor, and to you both we express our gratitude for providing us with
the venue for our post service refreshments.
Thank you also to the Revds Stephen Johnston and Stephen Taylor from the
Presbyterian and Methodist congregations respectively, and to the Reverend
Sisters and other Religious here this evening. I wish to assure one and
all of my commitment to our ecumenical pilgrimage in Christ.
Friends in Christ, whilst we are gathered to welcome the new Church of
Ireland Bishop, we are here to celebrate, indeed to enthrone the Gospel
of the Love of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to whom be the glory
to the ages of ages.
C.
1.
People of the diocese, I look forward very much to visiting your parishes
and to journeying with you into a fresh discernment of God’s loving
purposes for us.
2.
In particular, I look forward to coming alongside my fellow servants of
the Gospel, the clergy of the diocese.
3.
I wish to listen to you, to learn from you; to share in worship with you
and your parishioners.
4.
My brothers and sisters, graced by the call to Holy Orders, your hopes
and fears; your joys and sorrows will be a special concern of mine. About
this I particularly spoke in Lismore last week.
D.
1.
In speaking of the clergy, I wish also to acknowledge and give thanks
for the ministry of Archbishop Neill throughout the United Diocese, and
to wish him and Mrs Neill well in their onerous new responsibilities in
Dublin
2.
In all things as I begin my ministry as your Bishop, I ask for your continued
prayer and understanding, and where and when necessary, your forgiveness
when I fail you.
3.
Of one thing you can be certain: this Bishop will not get it right all
the time!
4.
Some of you have heard this before, but because I am to be enthroned on
six I’ve decided to preach on a different theme on each separate
occasion.
E.
Not
only because of the challenge, or to spare many the boredom of listening
to the same thing over and over !
But also because I wish to keep in with my clergy who may, by dint of
office rather than by choice, be present at all six, not least good Canon
Wynne !
We don’t want a clerical coup just yet! So I’ve decided to explore
my ministry in a rather novel way.
4. By exploring an instrument, a symbol, of the Bishop’s Office at
each Service, and see what it tells us about the "office and work
of a bishop" in the Church of God today.
F.
1.
For example in Ferns, I explored the significance of the ring worn by
the Bishop. The ring traditionally symbolises unity in the faith, in the
diocese, in the Church.
2.
In Ossory, I explored the symbolism
of
the mitre, the hat worn by a bishop on special occasions such as this.
The mitre traditionally symbolises the Holy Spirit’s life-giving
presence in the Church and in the world.
3.
In Lismore, I explored the symbolism of the pastoral staff, carried by
the bishop within his diocese. It symbolises his pastoral ministry modelled
on Christ the Good Shepherd.
This
evening, I wish to explore the symbolism of the other most ancient of
the symbols of the bishop’s office, from which this building derives
its name. It is his ‘cathedra’: the bishop’s seat or throne.
What is its significance for the Bishop’s life and ministry? What
is its relevance to the life of the Church in the year of our Lord 2003?
G.
If
the bishop’s pastoral staff speaks about his movement out and about
and amongst his people, his chair perhaps speaks about something more
static.
For his chair, his ‘cathedra’, is the place of teaching. It
is in fact his teaching chair. It has a biblical, and indeed academic,
setting.
In the Jewish synagogues, where our Lord listened to the scriptures and
worshipped with his parents, the ‘principal persons’, as it
were, had special seats.
Indeed, St Mark records his criticism of them: ‘Beware of the scribes…who
like to be treated with respect, and have the best seats in the synagogues
and places of honour at banquets’ (12:39). I hope he is not watching
too closely tonight !!
However, this arrangement was adopted by the Church. So that by the 3rd
century if not earlier, the priests had their appointed seats in the church,
with the bishop’s chair in the middle, distinguished by its linen
covering.
H.
Later,
as affairs became more permanent, those chairs were placed around the
apse, with the bishop’s chair in the middle exactly behind the altar,
slightly raised. A very fine example of this exists in Norwich cathedral,
for example.
From such a vantage point, the bishop could both see and be seen by the
worshippers, and from here he taught the faithful, as it were in the centre
of things, seated. Again, there is biblical precedent for this stress
upon being ‘seated’ to teach:
Remember that it is recorded our Lord, when visiting the synagogue in
Nazareth, and after standing to read from the prophet Isaiah that, ‘he
sat down…and began to say to them’. (Luke 4:20-21).
This emphasis upon the bishop speaking, teaching seated, in his chair
was, of course, adopted again, this time by the academic world, with the
chief teacher, the professor, being given a ‘chair’ in his subject
about which he would teach and expound his scholarship. To this day, we
still speak of a ‘chair’ in medecine or history, or some other
discipline, don’t we ?
I.
However,
architectural developments and changes in style over the centuries, have
largely determined the appearance and location of the bishop’s ‘cathedra’,
his chair to this day, and this cathedral is of course no exception.
So what is the relevance of this interesting but archaic history, and
wherein lies its relevance to my ministry and your expectations of it
?
Three words are important in this context, which bring us to the heart
of the matter.
The first is teaching. A bishop by virtue of his ordination is called
( and I quote from the Consecration Service) ‘to teach and govern
after the example of the Apostles..’
J.
In
short, the guardianship and proclamation of the catholic faith as taught
by the Church of Ireland will be a primary concern.
The telling and retelling of the ‘old, old story of Jesus and his
love’ by word and sacrament will be his duty and his joy. Scripture
and sacrament, nourished by reason and experience and refreshed by prayer,
will be his ‘bread and butter’.
The story of the life of the Church in all its beauty, in all its ugliness,
will also weave through such a proclamation.
But history and doctrine will merge in such a way that Tradition itself
becomes a repository both for understanding the past, and for fresh growth
in theological exploration. In short, for exploration and for thanksgiving.
K.
He
will teach the faith. But I ask you, how ? In the midst of so much confusion
in understanding christian basics, never mind ‘sound doctrine’,
how, in the name of the Lord , will he teach ?
Like his Lord, he will sit down. Before he dare stand up, he will sit
down. He must sit down, in order that occasionally he might stand up,
and have something potentially worthwhile to say.
Yes, you have a right to expect your bishops, and other religious leaders,
to stand up and to speak up. But you have no right to expect them to stand
up and to speak out on everything, or on topics in which they will have
little or no expertise.
Saint Paul is right to warn us against becoming a ‘noisy gong or
a clanging symbol’ (1st Cor 13:1).
The bishop must ‘sit down’. To pray, to reflect and to read,
almost in the old Barthian way, with the bible in one hand and the newspaper
in the other.
Indeed, silence may be a far more appropriate and eloquent statement than
an endless stream of pious words or well meaning sentiment. Who was it
who wisely said that you can know the worth of a bishop by.. his silence
?
L.
The
bishop’s chair speaks of ‘the what’ –teaching; of
‘the how’ –seated. It speaks also of ‘the where’.
The chair is traditionally placed ‘in the middle’. The bishop
is seated, amongst his deacons and priests, in the context of the worship
of the all God’s faithful people, in the middle.
The middle ground is not a comfortable world in which to inhabit, never
mind a position to honour.
Yet for an anglican, it should not be a doctrinal impossibility, bearing
in mind that we are often depicted as a bridge church, between the two
great streams of western christianity, catholic and reformed.
M.
The
bishop as chief pastor, sits as it were in the middle amongst his people,
clergy and laity alike, in order that he may listen and learn. To grasp
more attentively, more carefully, those issues which are truly ‘of
the Lord’ in the life of the parishes and diocese.
The bishop, as a religious leader, must be seen in the middle of the ecumenical
movement in the diocese, alongside his brother and sister pastors, and
all men and women of good will. Realising how in the healing of history
and doctrine, lies the future of the Church on this island.
The bishop as a community leader, must be in the middle, with those who
seek to welcome in the service of the Kingdom the stranger, and those
who by dint of class, colour or indeed sexual orientation, do not feel
welcome, for whatever reason.
The bishop, in the middle between the fanatic and the apathetic, urging
deeper reflection on issues relating to war and peace: the fragility,
yet sacredness, of the whole of creation.
Well do we read that Jesus ‘rolled up the scroll, gave it back to
the attendant, and sat down…Then he began to say to them.. (Luke
4: 20&21).
May we all pay attention to such an example. Thanks be to God.
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