MindMatters CoI is a three-year project aimed at promoting and supporting positive mental health within the Church of Ireland and the wider community. The Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross have launched a series of talks in support of this project, beginning with the keynote speaker Dr Chris Luke on the 3rd December. Dr Chris Luke’s topic will be Mind-ing Mental Health: our role and ourselves.
The Rev. Terry Mitchell, Diocesan Further Education and Training Officer, writes:
There is still a significant level of stigma in relation to mental health and these series of talks and discussions, in an informal setting, will help to address this issue. The talks will also help to provide the necessary information around mental health, for one’s own well being as well as supporting others.
After the initial launch on 3rd December 2022, the programme will continue early next year and follow a similar format of a guest speaker, sharing a meal together and a group discussion. Some of the topics planned for next year include mental health and bereavement, suicide, dementia, gender identity, migration, addiction, homelessness and supporting people with a disability.
It is hoped that participants will find these talks and discussions both informative and helpful, and we would like to encourage everyone to attend. We would also like to thank Victoria Trust Cork and MindMatters COI for their financial support for this important project.
Those who are interested in the event and would like to attend should please register via our event on Eventbrite.ie.
The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Dr Paul Colton is delighted to announce the appointment of Denise Stobart (née Brueckl) as Bishop’s Secretary and Personal Assistant. For the past sixteen months Denise has been working as the Diocesan Media and Information Technology Officer and from today, 1st November 2022, she takes on this additional role. Also included in this role is the grants administration for Saint Stephen’s Protestant Orphan Society and Cork Indigent Roomkeepers’ Society.
With this announcement Denise has also decided to use her new married name going forward.
Announcing the appointment, the Bishop said:
I am hugely pleased that, in addition to her half-time work as Diocesan Media and IT Officer in Cork, Cloyne and Ross, Denise Stobart has accepted my appointment as my part-time secretary and personal assistant. With some re-ordering of work in our offices – the Diocesan Office and the Bishop’s Office – Denise will also assume responsibility for the grants administration of the Saint Stephen’s Protestant Orphan Society and the Cork Indigent Roomkeepers’ Society.
Consolidating all of this portfolio of activities and roles in Denise, who is a very creative and active person and who has come to know and understand our United Dioceses well, represents a wonderful step forward for us all in this part of the Church of Ireland. I wish Denise well as she takes on these new roles and I look forward very much to working with her.
Upon her appointment, Denise said:
I really enjoy working part-time as Media and IT Officer for the Diocese and I have been having a great time getting out and about meeting people from all over Cork, Cloyne and Ross. I particularly enjoy working with Bishop Paul and I am delighted that he is giving me this opportunity to work more closely with him.
on Sunday, 30th October 2022 in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
Many of us met here on 23rd June. Adrian Wilkinson was elected to the office and work of a bishop in the Church of God. We’re here today for his episcopal ordination and consecration. It’s a big occasion – how do we know that? There are lots of Cork people here, led by our Lord Mayor. It’s not my role as a preacher to eulogise Adrian in life or to beatify him before he breaks for the border of Dublin and braces himself for the drive back down the M9 to Kilkenny to begin this ministry. In any case, he’s not an unknown quantity. His track record over the last 20 years in Cork, as Archdeacon since 2014, his previous ministry in Meath and Kildare, and his first curacy, also in Cork, are all well-known to you, as has been his involvement in Church life generally. It’s not my job either to ‘big him up’, so to speak, to launch him into this new ministry – that task of equipping is God’s, God the Holy Trinity, beginning in this ancient and symbolic liturgy this afternoon. It is my task, however, to preach a sermon – in this context, given these particular portions of Holy Scripture assigned for this liturgy. I didn’t choose them; they are a given. It’s my responsibility, therefore, as the preacher invariably does, to accept them, to work through them prayerfully, and to proclaim good news for this moment.
The lawyer in me was seriously tempted to take, as my text, the opening words of today’s Psalm
‘Great is the peace that they have who love thy law: .’ Psalm 119.165a
With a captive audience here, of the great and good of the Church of Ireland, I could’ve had a field day rehabilitating the place of law among all you sceptics who regard law as a burdensome nuisance. Think of all those affirmations I could make; about the law being there to empower the sort of Church, within our Anglican polity – Catholic and Reformed – that God calls us to be; how it energises our mission and ministry. All of this, and more, would have been right up my street.
Our reading from Numbers was equally tempting with its resonances of vocation, being chosen, hands being laid on, for service within a community of the faithful: ‘ … appoint someone over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD may not be like sheep without a shepherd… a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand upon him.’ (Numbers 27.16, 17 and 18 ) Plenty of scope there too!
No – neither of those made the cut. Instead I want to talk to you, first, about plastic ducks: specifically this one. During the recent Lambeth Conference, Susan picked this one up at the Canterbury Cathedral shop. Now, I also happen to know (and some of you may have seen on social media) that Adrian was also given one of these by the children of Saint Luke’s National School, Douglas as one of their parting gifts to him. I state the obvious when I say that his rubber duck bishop is identical to mine. And there were 100s of copycat ones in the shop; shaped by the same mould and mass-produced – erroneously, of course, because, as everyone knows, as my episcopal colleagues here definitely know, there is no such thing, properly speaking, as a purple mitre. The Bishops of Meath, Derry or Connor will, I am sure, be happy to explain all this to you about mitres at the tea afterwards.
Jesting aside, it’s worth emphasising that bishops do not come from one single mould. No bishop is the copy of another. We are human beings with frailties, vulnerabilities and, hopefully also, with a sprinkling of gifts from God. But there is no identikit bishop – and if there were, such a bishop would be soulless and not very effective. Such an automaton, ‘Stepford Wives’ type of bishop would not reflect the glory of what it means to be made in the image of God, or the vulnerability and uniqueness of what it means to live in the flesh, as God himself did, in Jesus: the incarnation.
God has called you, Adrian, as you are. You are not to become the mould of some other person’s way of being bishop or of thinking you should be a bishop. People of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory, that is how you must receive him and partner him. He’s not a ready-made bishop. Indeed, there’s no training to be a bishop. I still haven’t been trained to be a bishop. (‘That’s obvious’ I hear some of you say.) We learn on the journey. There are courses you can go on, but by then it’s too late. This is ministry, it is pilgrimage, it is vocation – it needs to be received, treasured and explored as such; by you all together.
And this plastic duck episode, believe it or not, does bring me back to today’s texts. This uniqueness of our humanity – this fragility and vulnerability of our relationship with Jesus on this journey is seen in the person of Saint Peter, and supremely so in the encounter in today’s Gospel between him and the risen Lord. We know how Peter, in spite of indignantly, promising otherwise, denied Jesus three times, how he let Jesus down … and what we are seeing now in today’s Gospel is clearly a fresh start. All of us have the potential again and again to make fresh starts in response to the invitation of Jesus, who already loves us, to love him. In today’s Gospel, across the centuries, the voice of Jesus still sounds and he asks each of us here today ‘Do you love me?’ ‘Do you love me?’
And what is significant, I think, about this encounter is that here Jesus does not call Peter, Peter. He goes right back to the beginning, to when they first met. As described at the start of Saint John’s Gospel, he was standing with Andrew and John and Jesus walked by. What Jesus calls him now is what Jesus called him then, at the outset: ‘Simon son of John.’ That was when he gave him a new name ‘Cephas… which is translated Peter.’ The entirety of Peter’s past and his journey since with Jesus, is encapsulated in this moment of a fresh start. Don’t expect your bishop, your bishops, your clergy, or any other fellow disciple, for that matter, to be any better than Saint Peter. Humanity is fragile. God calls human beings to discipleship and to ministry, to fresh start after fresh start.
Saint Paul alludes to this fragility in our second reading: ‘But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’ (2 Corinthians 4.7)And, moreover, we too ‘ … are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies ….’
In every age people have lived through such challenges. It is into such a time now that you, Adrian, are being called to be a bishop and that all of us together are called to be God’s people – the Church – proclaiming Good News. And that is why, meandering through all these texts assigned for today, having been tempted by the Psalm, by Numbers, and having been refreshed by the fresh start held out to us all in today’s Gospel encounter, between Simon Son of John and Jesus, and seeing the human solidarity of St Paul in the words I have, just quoted, I settled ultimately on one sentence among all today’s inspiring readings to leave with you and to highlight. It’s this – the first sentence of the second reading:
‘Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.’
2 Corinthians 4.1
We live in times when many lose heart indeed, many have lost heart or risk losing heart – and such people are not other people – the objects of our pastoral activity, they are frequently ourselves, or our co-workers in the Gospel, and fellow disciples on this journey. In the context of a pandemic and a war on our continent, with so many economic, commercial and political uncertainties, challenges such as migration, poverty, homelessness, the climate crisis, human fears and practical concerns, with all these and many more, you do not need me to spell out why there are many who are struggling not to ‘lose heart.’
This is the jazz weekend in Cork. The American Jazz Saxophonist, John Coltrane, whose creativity frequently took on a spiritual dimension, said that it often takes a ‘lonely persistence’ … ‘to create anything of beauty, daring, and substance that makes the world see itself afresh.’ That’s our challenge, for the sake of the Gospel, in a world that is being shaped and manipulated by online algorithms beyond the understanding of most of us. It’s a paradoxical time of, on the one hand, online radicalisation of minds, and on the other hand, the angry and indignant online discourse which translates into nothing creative and ends up down the siding of keyboard inertia and abuse. How do we get Church people to also translate their virtual energy on social media – Facebook likes, emoticons, opinions and rants into transformative energy and action for the sake of the Kingdom of God? We won’t fulfil the Five Marks of Mission with online clicks.
‘Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.’
2 Corinthians 4.1
And, of course, Saint Paul has told us clearly what ‘this ministry’ is. He has told us in the previous chapter. It is the ministry of the new covenant. God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus. The day of salvation has come. The activity of the Spirit of God is seen in the lives of believers. It is a ministry that brings righteousness – it won’t fade – it will last. All of this, says Saint Paul, gives us hope and this hope emboldens us. ‘Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold…’ he said ( 2 Corinthians 3.12)
Speaking to Cork clergy recently, the New Testament scholar, Dr Paula Gooder, reflecting about a number of scripture passages said that in the case of each of them ‘Nothing external happens to enable hope to happen. That which should transform everything has already happened. … Hope is running rampant in the world. The question is whether we can join with it. There is hope because God is there. Jesus is there.’
‘Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.’
2 Corinthians 4.1
We are called not to lose heart; not to give up. Why? Because of God’s love and mercy. Later on in this letter Paul is quite open and frank about his own vulnerability and his weaknesses (2 Corinthians 11.28) He lists an entire catalogue of the challenges and predicaments he encountered; the opposition he faced – beatings, stoned, shipwrecked, lost at sea, constantly on the move – in danger from rivers, bandits, his own countrymen, in danger in the city, in the country – sleepless nights, hard work, cold, naked, hunger, and ‘Besides everything else, ‘ he says ‘I faced the daily pressure of my concern for all the churches.’ Sounds, to me, pretty much like a normal diocese!
The Ordinal sets out what is not a mould but a template for the ministry of a bishop in such a world in who h we are to minister while not losing heart. . It is timeless. ‘Bishops are called …’ And then these words and phrases: ‘serving’ , caring for the people of God’, ‘working with them’, ‘oversight, ‘chief pastors, ‘special responsibility to further the unity of the Church’, ‘discipline’, ‘guard the faith’, ‘promote mission’, ‘duty’, ‘watching over and praying’, ‘teach’, ‘govern’, ‘speaking in the name of God’ (that’s why I give our politicians such a hard time), ‘interpreting the Gospel’, ‘ordain’, ‘sending new ministers, baptising and confirming, presiding at Holy Communion, leading worship – being merciful in discipline, special care for the sick, outcast and needy, and to those who turn to God they are to declare the forgiveness of sins.’ Don’t become passive while the Archbishop reads all this – pay attention to it all while it is being read.
I remember my first visit to a school as a Bishop. ‘What do bishops do?’ I asked earnestly. One young lad in West Cork – Mikey was his name – chirped up ‘Not very much – you go around a lot, visiting places and eating dinners’ In schools I often try to explain what an overseer is – a ministry of oversight and partnership. Let us remember please – that the task of oversight is not exercised by the bishop on his or her own. Ministry is entrusted to all of us – it is a God-given calling, responsibility, opportunity and joy passed to all of us together. Yes, these are tough times and the calling is daunting, but
‘Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.’
Templebreedy Parish with their friends from Carrigaline Union slept out for Focus Ireland on Friday, 21st of October at Holy Trinity Church helping to build awareness, support and raise funds for Focus Ireland.
In May, homelessness figures surpassed 10,500, the highest figure recorded since before the pandemic due to a lack of affordable, secure housing in Ireland. Right now, there are 1,483 families, including 3,220 children without a home. These families can spend up to two years in a one-bedroom room in an emergency accommodation situation, which has a significant impact on mental health, self-esteem, and child development.
The Rev. Isobel Jackson, Rector of Templebreedy Group of Parishes, said:
Sleeping out, for one night to shine a light on homelessness in Ireland is a learning experience, it puts one out of their ‘cosy’ zone; and one experiences the vulnerability of sleeping out in the elements, but it is well worth it to raise vital funds for Focus Ireland.
We had a great night and would like to thank those who came along, and those who donated so generously, and to the kind family who had pizza’s delivered on the night!
Last weekend, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most Rev. John McDowell, preached at the Celebratory Service of the 800th Anniversary of Saint Mary’s Collegiate Church, Youghal. As part of his visit, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Rev. Dr Paul Colton, also showed the Archbishop around Kingston College in Mitchelstown, where recently six houses have been renovated to accommodate Ukrainian families, and they went to Cloyne Cathedral, which marked the first time any Archbishop of Armagh has visited there.
From left to right: Bishop Paul Colton, Pat Brennan, Denis McGrath, Billy Skuse, Fiona Finn, Alan Dowling, Nick Haulburt, Morgan McDonogh, Charlie Daly, and Archbishop John McDowell at Kingston College. From left to right: Simon Elliott, Andrea Gunn, John Smyth, Archbishop John McDowell, Rowena Walsh, Alan Navratil, George Jeffrey, Dean Susan Green, Bishop Paul Colton, and Canon Andrew Orr.
At Kingston College, Bishop Paul Colton and Archbishop John McDowell met Fiona Finn, General Manager of The One Foundation who have donated €200,000.00 to the project, as well as the architects and builders involved. Bishop Paul and Archbishop John visited each of the families and talked to them about their experiences and how that have settled in at Kingston College.
Archbishop John and Bishop Paul talking to residents at Kingston College.
Bishop Paul, Archbishop John, Fiona Finn and Billy Skuse were invited to have refreshments with one of the Ukrainian families living at Kingston College.
Bishop Paul and Billy Skuse showing the Archbishop the Kingston College Chapel.
Archbishop John and Bishop Paul talking to residents at Kingston College.
Archbishop John and Bishop Paul talking to residents at Kingston College.
Bishop Paul Colton, Linda Bradley (standing in for the warden), Fiona Finn, and Archbishop John McDowell.
Later during the day, the Bishop and the Archbishop travelled to Cloyne to visit the Cathedral Church of Saint Colman. This visit marked an historic event, as Archbishop John McDowell is the first Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland to visit Cloyne Cathedral. He was welcomed by the Dean of Cloyne, the Very Rev. Susan Green, members of the congregation, and members of the Friends of Cloyne Cathedral. At the end of his visit, the Archbishop was presented with a book on sustainability by Cloyne parishioner Alan Navratil, The Global Imperatives A Primer for Sustainability.
The Dean of Cloyne, the Very Rev. Susan Green, said:
We were delighted to have Archbishop John McDowell visit Cloyne Cathedral. He was interested in all of the varied and long history of the Cathedral and already knew much about Bishop Berkeley. He was delighted to meet the small group of parishioners and Friends of Cloyne who had gathered for the occasion. The Archbishop and myself have both served our curacies in the parish of Antrim in Conor Diocese and it was pleasant to share these memories too.
Archbishop John McDowell and Dean Susan Green.
Dean Susan Green showing Archbishop John McDowell and Bishop Paul Colton around Cloyne Cathedral.
Dean Susan Green, Archbishop John McDowell, and Bishop Paul Colton.
Canon Andrew Orr, Archbishop John McDowell, Dean Susan Green and Bishop Paul Colton.
Archbishop John McDowell and Dean Susan Green.
Archbishop John McDowell and Bishop Paul Colton.
Alan Navratil presenting the Archbishop with a book on sustainability.
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