Latest News from the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

Sermon preached on Saint Patrick’s Day 2026

at the Choral and Civic Eucharist in Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork

byThe Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross

I’ve never knowingly relied on artificial intelligence – personally I prefer the real thing with a human face, even with all its limitations.  But being my last year preaching to you on this occasion, out of interest, I asked Google Gemini to summarise the main themes of my sermons preached to you here on Saint Patrick’s Day over the last 27 years.  Here’s the summary of the recurring themes:  the message of Christianity and St Patrick (that’s reassuring); the Christian’s role in a changing society; pluralism and diversity; reconciliation and bridge-building (especially in the sermons of more recent years). 

Then Gemini said: 

The Bishop frequently uses the occasion to challenge political, civic, and religious leaders to reflect on their use of authority, to act with humility and service, and to address pressing social issues in a way that reflects the radical teachings of Jesus Christ.

‘P.S’ said Gemini ‘it’s your last year; so be nice to the politicians!’

Over those years I’ve often wondered what the book of Tobit – read by the Lord Mayor each year at this Civic Service – has to do with Saint Patrick’s Day. I don’t think I’ve ever quoted from it before.  It even occurred to me to ask the Dean to change it this year but then, now that I am a pensioner (as of last Friday), I decided ‘it’s time to start hating change’ – so I have stuck with what has always been at this Service:  Tobit.  I suppose it’s there because it calls to mind on our national day, when we  commemorate our national saint – Saint Patrick – and his role in bringing Christianity to our island – it calls to mind the enduring love and changelessness of God:

‘Blessed be God who lives for ever, because his kingdom lasts throughout all ages. …’ (Tobit 13.1b)

And in it there’s the call and reminder to us  – in a variety of phrases – to acknowledge, praise and worship God:

‘Acknowledge him before the nations, (v3) … Exalt him in the presence of every living being, because he is our Lord and he is our God; (v4) …

And it reminds us of God’s gracious promise to each of us: 

‘If you turn to him with all your heart and with all your soul, to do what is true before him, then he will turn to you and will no longer hide his face from you. ‘ (v6)

All those are timely reminders as the world around us changes, challenges, bewilders and so much still seems to elude us.   

I could keep you here for 28 years reminiscing about the last 27 in my ministry as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross – memories that include many of you and our work and partnership together.  Time does not allow for this as you need to get on with a busy day of celebrating locally our national day.

Permit me a few, however,  When I was elected bishop – and again I point out to the politicians among us, that election as a bishop in the Church of Ireland requires a two-thirds majority of two different electorates voting separately – lay people and clergy.  That was January 1999.  Fortunately, in my case, I didn’t even know that I was a candidate.  That was the way this Diocese did its discernment in those days.  Susan was at the hairdresser when the Archbishop of Dublin telephoned me – on a landline – to tell me I had been elected and asking would I accept.  Taken aback I asked ‘Do they want me?’  ‘They really do,’ he said.  I phoned Susan at the hairdresser and said – ‘You better get a blue rinse!’

Joe O’Flynn was Lord Mayor of Cork.  Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach; Mary Harney was Tánaiste; Micheál Martin was Minister for Education and Science.  The Education Act 1998 had been signed into law just over a month before on 23rd December 1998 and a week after my election, some of its main provisions were commenced.  I mention that, in particular, because, in many ways, that has been one of the things that has dominated my 27 years of episcopal ministry and Susan’s work as a teacher in the years since. Then there has been – ‘compliance’ – a word many leaders and organisations either had not to contend much with or, dare I say, sat lightly to, in decades past: compliance, in all sorts of areas, and rightly so – safeguarding, charity regulation, governance, meeting standards and good practice, data privacy and countless other spheres.  My first civic occasion, alongside, Bishop John Buckley, was the blessing of the Bloomfield Interchange, followed, not long afterwards by the Jack Lynch Tunnel. As I approach retirement it is a time of many memories.  As a kid growing up in Douglas Parish in the 1960s, Jack Lynch signed a football for me at a parish fete he had opened.  There were mobile phones when I arrived as bishop; but no smartphones or social media.  Many of the clergy here were not on email – so that was my first training exercise – evening classes for them at Ashton School.  One senior cleric objected so much that he poetically coined a Sonnet about the evils of email and sent it to me.  Now he is never off email himself!

As I prepare for retirement all these years on, I thank you today for your partnership in many things and for your solidarity and support, most spectacularly, as I believe we saw and experienced through the work of the Community Response Forums during the Coronavirus Pandemic, a time of national and international crisis when, urgently, all our resources were pooled and mobilised, from many backgrounds and expertises, not marginalising different outlooks but synthesising them and working together for the common good.  I think we can all call to mind seemingly intractable  issues that could do with that sort of  purposeful collaboration and common purpose.

And, by the way, thank you all for your faithful support of this important annual Service and civic event here in Saint Fin Barres’ Cathedral for many decades. Thank you to the team who helped Susan in our home and thank you to the scouts who, for decades, have done  the washing up for our invited guests.

Going back to Tobit for a moment.  It is one of what we call ‘the deuterocanonical books’.  In our Anglican/Episcopal tradition we do read those books.  According to Article 6 our Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion we read them for ‘example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine; …’  

What we can say about Tobit is the early Jewish Christians – among the very first to follow the way of Jesus Christ – found resonances in Tobit; and we see those in the Gospels – in Matthew, in Luke and in a very early teaching document of the early Church: the Didache.  Some even date it as early as between 20 and 40 years after the time of Jesus himself. The Didache: the Lord’s teaching through the twelve apostles to the nations opens with these words:

‘There are two Ways: one of Life and one of Death, and there is a significant difference between the two Ways. The way of life is as follows: First, you should love the God who created you; secondly, love your neighbor as yourself. Treat others as you would want to be treated. (Didache 1.1-2)

Tobit 4 (not read today) verse 15a is the verse I want to leave with you, on this occasion, as I soon vacate this office of Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross.  It’s a verse that should be the charter for all our lives and all our work – whatever path we walk or role we play. When quoted from the Gospels it is referred to as the ‘Golden Rule’ (a concept not unique to Christianity), but Jesus did proclaim and preach it.  Here is what Tobit (4.15a) said:

‘And what you hate do not do to anyone.’

In Matthew, in the preaching of Jesus, this became:  

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7.12) 

And in Luke’s Gospel he said:

‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6.31)

Those words of Jesus himself are not a bad charter and injunction to leave you with on our national day as I take my leave of you.  It’s so simple. Yet between nations, within societies and communities, and in human discourse and interaction, it seems to slip away from us again and again.     There’s something to think about on this St Patrick’s Day, 2026.

Thank you all once again, and God bless you all.