Bishop of Clogher's address at Synod Eucharist
Bishop of Clogher’s Sermon at General Synod Eucharist, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin‘Straitened financial circumstances bring their own opportunities.’
The Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd Dr Michael Jackson, preached at the General Synod Eucharist in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin on Thursday 6 May 2010. Worship is a key part of each General Synod and the special service in the National Cathedral, St Patrick’s, followed the close of the first day of Synod business held in Christ Church Cathedral nearby.
In his sermon, Bishop Jackson focused on the opportunities open to the Church during economically challenging times. He said, ‘We know that we are called to a future which is the kingdom of God living in and through us ... Discomfort shapes response and yet response is the route to something different and something far better.’
He continued, ‘We have the opportunity to reclaim, as Christian people and as committed members of the Church of Ireland, the reality that wise use of existing resources can take us very far when combined with spiritual imagination … Straitened financial circumstances bring their own opportunities. We need to see and to seize them.’
Bishop Jackson referred to what he sees as Church of Ireland strengths: ‘Historically, a willingness on the part of individuals to take opportunities offered them, a sense of connectedness with one another and a desire to live in communion - these are the things which have enabled the Church of Ireland to do good things and big things from a small base.’ He also said that members of the Church need to ‘hold our nerve in the face of secular society. For the Church repeatedly to seek the status of being a "special case" is a weakening of its scope for mission. We are called regularly and repeatedly to engage with who people are and what they do – and to leave the rest to God. Such courage and conviction are a pearl of great price.’