Bishop's St Patrick's Day Message
Each year Saint Patrick’s Day gives me the opportunity to invite different people to our celebrations in Saul and Downpatrick and this year I have extended a warm welcome to those of other nationalities and ethnic backgrounds who have come to live and work amongst us in Northern Ireland. It is very important to me that those who come to live in this land (as Patrick himself did) are welcomed and given hospitality. We need to learn to say, with a real sense of warmth: "If you’re not Irish come into the parlour, there’s a welcome there for you, too"!
Patrick must surely be the patron saint of people from other nationalities who come to live in Ireland – after all, he was one of them! In particular, he is the patron saint of those who are not always made to feel welcome – that was true of Patrick, too.
Just over a week ago there was a racist attack on St Colmcille’s church on the Upper Newtownards Road, which is in our diocese. The clergy and some members of our churches, were amongst those from the Belmont Council of Churches who attended mass on the Sunday morning in St Colmcille’s to show solidarity. Some of the St Colmcille’s parishioners are from the Indian and Filipino community.
And, of course, Patrick was a person who was used and abused in employment – far from the last in this country – as someone who was taken into slavery and had all his rights taken from him. We must protect the human rights of people who come to wrok here, and whose work is often very important to the development of our economy.