Sermon Preached by Right Rev'd Peter Barrett at his enthronement in St Carthages Cathedral Lismore Co Waterford

12th February 2003

Sermon for the Enthronement :

St. Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore

A.

1. This evening as we gather together in lovely Lismore, in the lee of its castle and beside its flowing river, within the sacred space of this historic cathedral dedicated to the learned Saint Carthage, 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. Dean, Billy, for all your helpfulness in preparing for this evening’s Service, and you Rose, for the hospitality of the Deanery.

4. In harmonious co-operation, as ever,with Dr Van Putten and the Saint Cartage’s Singers, your own fine musical and liturgical talents Mr Dean, are obvious to all. Thank you music-makers, one and all.

B.

Thank you to all those who have assisted the Dean in tasks large and small: bell ringers, greeters and flower arrangers; church wardens and dusters, and several others.
2. Thank you the parishioners, readers and clergy of the Diocese of Lismore for your welcome to me, my wife and family, and for the promise of your support just declared.

3. Thank you to our ecumenical brothers and sisters in for your deeply appreciated presence this evening. How fortunate we are in having thre great houses of prayer and praise nearby at Glencairn, at Mellary and at Tallow.

4. My friends in Christ, we are gathered 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. Amen.

C.

1. 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 look forward to listening to you, to learning from you; to sharing 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. To this I will return later.

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. I can assure you!

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.
We don’t want a clerical coup just yet! So I’ve decided to explore my ministry in a rather novel way.
4. I’m going to examine 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. This evening, I wish to share a few thoughts with you about one of the oldest ‘instruments’, symbols, associated with the life of a bishop: it is the pastoral staff, or crozier, which he carries.

What then does the pastoral staff symbolise in the life of the church; wherein lies its meaning ?
G.

1. The meaning is to be found in the gospel according to Saint John Chapter 10, in particular verse 14: Jesus said to them ‘I am the good shepherd, I know my own and my own know me’.

The pastoral staff symolises the pastoral ministry of the Church modelled on that of Christ the Good Shepherd. If the more ‘static’ bishop’s chair speaks about teaching in Christ’s name., then the ‘mobile’ staff speaks about healing in Christ’s name.
It speaks volumes about the Church’s ministry amongst, and care for people, through all of ‘life’s changing needs and scenes’.
4. Jesus the Good Shepherd is a familiar and loveable image for most of us, from the pages of our illustrated bibles to the

stained glass windows of our churches.

5. Perhaps on the page, he shepherds the flock away from danger and the prowling wolf. In glass, he leaves his flock, the 99 safely in their pen, and goes after the lost sheep, significantly ‘until he finds it and home rejoicing’ travels.

H.

These affectionate and pastoral images still speak to us in an attractive, perhaps in a child-like way. Well and good; so long as they do not become childish, or dangerously sentimental.
To our Lord’s disciples in particular, the image of the Good Shepherd was far from being sentimental. Why ? because, like many of the figures of speech used by our Lord as recorded by Saint John, it is soaked in Old Testament imagery.
In our context, from the prophet Ezekiel, who spoke out against the religious leaders of his ‘testing times’; those ‘bad’ shepherds who were leading God’s people astray, or indeed, who had deserted their flock at the time of greatest need in exile.
For example, he says: ‘Because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, nor fed them.. I will put a stop to their feeding the sheep…I myself will search for my sheep says the Lord God.’ (34: 8-11)
I.

It is in such a context of the failure of religious leaders to live up to their calling, that our Lord’s affirmation that he will be ‘the Good Shepherd’ must be set; and it is, of course, very threatening.
It implies that he is both redeeming the failures of past ‘shepherds’, and exposing the failures of present day ‘false shepherds’.
In short, in his healing as well as his teaching ministry, lie fresh pastures of renewal and direction. No sentimentalism here. Rather, sacrifice is close at hand.
The Good Shepherd image, taken up by our Lord, is then a corrective to false notions about shepherding which had dominated past memory. J.
Today the pastoral staff, should also serve as a corrective, a reminder to a bishop and to his ‘flock’, that whilst managerial, media and technological competence, his ‘public persona’ if you like ought to be expected. It is his pastoral role, his personal presence and ministry in the parishes of the diocese he is called to serve, which is of fundamental and primary importance.
However, the bewildering pastoral challenges of today, set within an ancient and often creaking parochial system, will exercise his vision.
3. The alienation of many with the Church as institution from different age groups and for different reasons, will make honesty and integrity vital.

4. Issues of development and peace, alongside engagement with dioceses and churches overseas, must be undertaken for the enrichment of the local church.

5. All this and more is rightly part of the bishop’s pastoral concern within his primary unit, the diocese, and about such, his pastoral staff speaks loud and clear. It is not for nothing that the bishop is encouraged in the Consecration Service to: ‘watch over and pray for those committed to their charge’.

K

But equally in the same breath as it were, the archbishop adds: ‘A bishop is to know their people and to be known by them’
Of particular concern, as I intimated earlier, will be his clergy and their families. The clergy are a very special part of the diocesan family, forming around the bishop a team of colleagues in Christ who share at the deepest level in the joy and pain of ministerial service, and which plays a vital role in the daily ministry of the Church in the parishes.
Faithful parishioners, it is trite to say that these are hard times in which to pastor. I urge you, in the words of Saint Paul to the church in Thessalonika: ‘to respect those who labour among you, and have charge of you in the Lord..(5:12).
I know of your care for and support of your clergy, and indeed of your appreciation of the fine work of our Readers; thank you for sharing their burdens in so many practical ways.
Do please go the ‘extra mile’ in caring for your clergy, and indeed the religious of your parishes, from whatever tradition; in praying for them and where possible, in tangibly showing your appreciation of them.
L.

Clergy of the diocese, priests of the Lord, keep bright your faith in the midst of the many perplexing challenges facing the Church, for He who called you is faithful to you.
Stay close to Jesus the Good Shepherd in word and sacrament, especially in the joyful reverence of your worship; in the joys and fears of those amongst whom you are privileged to minister, and whom you try to visit regularly, in sickness and in health, in spite of the spread of ‘committeeitis’ which blights so many of us at present.
Above all, neglect not your life of prayer in Christ. I know from personal experience how hard it is to develop a disciplined life of prayer. Perhaps you, like me, know too the cost of its absence.
Also, if ever you think I am neglecting my pastoral care of you and yours, or to those amongst whom you minister, remind me of the symbolism of my staff.
M.

However, in a world of potential parochial, never mind diocesan, ‘melt down’, and of profound, foundation shaking institutional mistrust right across Church and State, how does the above at best ‘sound theory’, and at worst pious aspiration, fit in ?
The words of the Good Shepherd ring out again in boldness and confidence, in pastoral concern: ‘Do not be afraid, little flock’, he says. (Luke 12:32).
Here, a word for all time resonates with our times, because it points us beyond our fears and cynicism , our endless need for words of critique to the living, nourishing Word, Christ the Good Shepherd,
To the One who abhors abuse and injustice of any kind, and who yes, wishes to drive out the wolf from within, never mind without the flock.
N.

But who, as the Good Shepherd, wishes us to follow his example, by going the extra distance to show how much the bruised and broken, as well as the stranger and indeed the ostracised in our midst, are cherished and loved by God. Are indeed, like us, in need of a Father’s welcome. This is part of the rich symbolism of the pastoral staff, because it is part of the message of the cross. The Shepherd is indeed the Redeemer; the staff is crossed shaped too.
Here is a challenge for all christians of good will. How God must long for a Church renewed in holiness and transformed by service witnessing in the bond of unity.
For the ‘little flock’ to find fresh pastures together in the ways of joint prayer and penitence; service and worship.
I rejoice in the excellent ecumenical relationships that exist throughout the United Dioceses; I pray for their strengthening in the Holy Spirit.
O.

‘Fear not’ says our Good Shepherd. Here is the encouragement we need ‘to keep on keeping’ on in his name. In profound sorrow for past hurts and failures; yes.
But in sure and certain hope that the Lord will not abandon his pilgrim people who are attentive to his renewing love present within by the Holy Spirit, and who spend and are spent in sacrificial service in his name.
The good example of the Good Shepherd goes before us. Well does the pastoral staff remind each of us, his pilgrim servants, of Chaucer’s description of the Parson, a god shepherd if ever there was one:
‘(Full) rich he was of holy thought and work. Christie’s love and his apostles twelve he taught; and first he followed it himself.’
Thanks be to God.

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