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ADDENDA
Friday 19 May 2000
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS
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THE THEOLOGICAL
COLLEGE COUNCIL
In furthering its long-standing and ongoing responsibility
for the selection, training and ordination of the clergy of
the Church of Ireland the House of Bishops has established the
Theological College Council. This Council will provide a
mechanism whereby the House of Bishops can support and monitor
the work of the College and its staff and ensure that the
training and pastoral needs of ordinands are being adequately
provided for. The Council first met in November 1999 and to
date five meetings have been held.
The Council consists of the Bishop of Meath and Kildare,
the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, the Bishop of Down and Dromore,
the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross and Dr Susan Hood,
Secretary, all appointed by the House of Bishops. Ms Clare
McCutcheon and the Ven Kenneth Good have been appointed by the
Standing Committee and Mr Frederick Rankin and the Ven Patrick
Lawrence by the Representative Church Body. The principal of
the Theological College, the Rev Professor John Bartlett, and
two student observers Ms Sandra Hales and Ms Maria Jansson are
also part of the Council. A further three members will have
been co-opted by the time the new structures are fully
implemented.
The Council will determine the policies of the College and
support and develop the overall work of the College, its
students, teachers and other personnel. It will also monitor
the work of the Academic Committee and the Management
Committee. The Academic Committee and the Management Committee
are answerable to the College Council and the Council is
answerable to the House of Bishops.
The Council and Committees are each chaired by a bishop.
The Bishop of Meath and Kildare is chairman of the College
Council, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe of the Management
Committee and the Bishop of Down and Dromore of the Academic
Committee. The former chairman of the Management Committee,
the Archbishop of Dublin, continues as Visitor to the College.
This will enable him to represent the interests of staff and
students in a fair and impartial way.
The Management Committee has been in existence for some
time and was appointed by the House of Bishops to take
responsibility for the overall financial administration of the
College and to deal with matters concerning buildings, ground
maintenance and the supervision and welfare of non-teaching
staff. The day-to-day running of the College is its primary
concern.
The Academic Committee will be responsible for the academic
concerns of the College including the arrangements for the
appointment of academic staff members and curriculum
development. It will also have responsibility for auxiliary
ministry training in co-operation with the present auxiliary
ministry board and will aim to bring the training of
stipendiary and auxiliary ordinands more closely together.
Like the Management Committee the Academic Committee will
report to the College Council and refer important issues to
the Council for approval.
The Bishops will receive regular reports regarding the work
of the Council and its committees and will arrange for an
independent inspection of the College every five years. More
effective lines of communication are being developed between
the College and the Representative Church Body staff in Church
House particularly in the area of budgetary requirements.
In establishing the Theological College Council and its
committees the Bishops have initiated a strategic plan which
will ensure an effective and co-ordinated approach to all
aspects of preparation of women and men for the ordained
ministry of the Church of Ireland. Furthermore it is their
intention to achieve the maximum level of transparency and
openness so that the whole Church will be better informed
about these important matters which have such a bearing on the
future spiritual well-being of the Church of Ireland. |
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CHILDREN AND COMMUNION
In the late nineteen-eighties, the House of Bishops set up a
committee with a fairly broad membership to report to it on the
issue of children and communion. In the light of this report, the
bishops then felt that the time was not right for a change in the
traditional discipline whereby children do not receive communion
until after they have been confirmed. They did however state that
there was no doctrinal objection to a change in this practice.
In 1991, a Select Committee was formed by the General Synod to
examine ".. the theological, pastoral and practical
implications of changing the present discipline of the Church of
Ireland so as to permit those who are baptised but not yet confirmed
to receive Holy Communion". Although the Select Committee
reported to General Synod in 1993 and in subsequent years, it proved
impossible to reach a general consensus on the matter, and the
Committee retired.
At the General Synod of 1999, a private member's motion was
passed, requesting the bishops of the Church of Ireland to address
once again this issue of children and communion, and to give
guidance and leadership to the Church on the issue. The bishops have
discussed this matter on a number of occasions in the intervening
period, and now wish to notify the synod of their conclusions, in
outline.
We believe that the starting point for all discussion on the
issue of children and Communion is the sacrament of Baptism. We are
of course aware that the Church of Ireland has for centuries
encompassed a variety of beliefs on the nature of Baptism (as is
made explicit in the preface to the 1878 Book of Common Prayer). We
would however suggest that there are a number of strands held in
common throughout the Church (in addition to the outward rites),
which perhaps suggest a way forward in this particular matter. Inter
alia -
- Baptism confers membership of the Christian Church and is
unrepeatable.
- Nothing which may follow Baptism adds to the status of an
individual's membership of the Church.
- Baptism is in the name of the Trinity and it is therefore
relational in its very nature.
Baptism implies the necessity for growth, for nurture and -
ultimately - for personal responsibility within, and testimony to,
the Christian faith.
Baptism therefore points to Confirmation.
Baptism points also to the receiving of the Holy Communion.
But Baptism does not of itself imply a particular sequence to
these events.
The discipline whereby admission to Communion was to follow
Confirmation was introduced into the western Church as late as the
thirteenth century. There is clearly, as was noted ten years ago by
the bishops, no doctrinal barrier to members of the Church receiving
Holy Communion before Confirmation. There may well be cultural or
pastoral reasons why this may seem inexpedient in certain settings
within the Church of Ireland. The Church is however having to live
with diversity in this area today, particularly in situations where
inter-church families have an active involvement in the worship of
our Church, or where there are families familiar with different
Anglican disciplines in the matter. We would wish that this
diversity be acknowledged and, if possible, given a proper
structure.
At next year's General Synod, the House of Bishops will therefore
propose the following rubric, as a replacement for the current
rubric on the matter, presently at the conclusion of the
Confirmation service: "It is intended in Baptism, that those
who have been baptised will be confirmed. They may, however, be
admitted to the Holy Communion prior to Confirmation."
The introduction of this legislation will give General Synod the
opportunity to debate the issue. We would however emphasise that
this principle would always presuppose a full understanding of the
nature of the Sacrament, and would equally demand adequate teaching,
spiritual nurture and pastoral care of the children of the Church.
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