REPORT ON TUESDAY'S BUSINESS
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the Revd Gregg Ryan, Irish Correspondent of the Church
Times
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The Church of Ireland General Synod 2001 began on Tuesday in the
O'Reilly Hall of University College Dublin. There was an attendance
of approximately 450 out of a total membership of 648.
WELCOME
The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, is President of the
Synod and welcomed members from all the dioceses of the Church of
Ireland. Also present were Visitors
from other Churches including the Greek Orthodox Church in
Britain and Ireland, the Church in Wales and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Finland.
WORSHIP
The opening worship was conducted by the Right Reverend Kenneth
Clarke, Bishop of Kilmore, the most recently-elected bishop in the
Church of Ireland.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
The Archbishop of Armagh in his Presidential
Address referred to:
· the pain and distress caused by the Foot and Mouth outbreaks
· a changing Ireland and the spiritual dimension
· the value of the individual
· elections in Northern Ireland
· policing
· Drumcree and Garvaghy Road
· He welcomed Bishop Clarke to his first General Synod as a bishop.
· He paid tribute to the life and work of the late Deans Jack
Shearer and Maurice Carey
· He thanked Professor John Bartlett who is retiring from the
position of Principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College
· He referred to the excellent service given to the RCB by
Professor Spearman and Judge Buchanan.
PREPARATION FOR NEW PRAYER BOOK
Much of the business of the day was the careful attention which
has to be given to the preparation of services for inclusion in the
new Book of Common Prayer, due to be published in 2004. One of the
Bills for the revised Holy Communion Service (Bill no 2)
had no fewer than 43 amendments!
SYNOD REJECTS PROPOSALS TO REDUCE NUMBERS ON
GENERAL SYNOD
Rather more emotion and excitement were aroused by a proposal (Bill No. 5)
to reduce the size of General Synod from its present 648 to
approximately 400 members.
In 1870 there were 2230 ordained clergy in the Church of Ireland.
Now there are 550.
Now the Report of the Synodical Structures Working Group is making
proposals for a quite drastic reduction
Many moving speeches were made praising the value of Synod as it
exists and urging that no reduction should take place. Other
speakers fully supported the proposals of the Working Group.
After a very interesting debate, the Synod voted by 192 to 163 to
reject the Bill in principle . Therefore it will not receive a
second reading and the proposed reduction will not now take place.
BILL ON PENSIONS
In the final business of the day Lady Sheil introduced a Bill (Bill No. 6)
to improve provisions for pensions for retired clergy, clergy widows
and dependants.
SERVICE IN ST PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL
The first day of Synod ended with the General Synod Service of
Holy Communion in St Patrick's Cathedral at which the preacher was
the Right Reverend Richard Henderson, Bishop of Tuam. His
address can be downloaded in .RTF format or
.HTML format.
This was an inspiring service attended by a large number of General
Synod members.
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From the Revd
Gregg Ryan,
Irish Correspondent of the Church
Times
ECONOMISTS THE NEW IRISH PROPHETS, EAMES TELLS
SYNOD
In the Ireland of the Celtic Tiger, the economist has become the
prophet of the new millennium, Church of Ireland primate Dr. Robin
Eames told the General Synod at Dublin in his Presidential address.
"We see such frequent evidence that in the process of change
the community has adopted new language to express ideas and new ways
of discerning what constitutes success and failure. In this process
of change there have been positive and encouraging signs for human
advancement. But there are also questions about the nature of life,
the quality of life an the ways we judge what is worthwhile for
society," he said.
Together with issues about the nature and quality of life, there are
also issues about the sanctity of life, about the bondage of past
grievances and human rights.
However, Ireland is in danger of becoming an unbalanced and even a
sick society if the individual's economic contribution is to ignore
the lifelong process of education and development, and fails to
recognise the holistic nature of individual growth.
"Surely there is a need to endorse the individual's spiritual
development and understanding of community, the sense of the
aesthetic and the ability to have \creative and stimulating leisure
interests - this is the challenge I see for the Church in a changing
Ireland today, and tomorrow."
Archbishop Eames said the church must change when ways of presenting
the eternal Gospel are no longer relevant to society, and it is in
that process of change that the value of the individual must be
recognised.
"Flexibility and he ability to change and to grow are not just
characteristics of a strong economy. They are the marks of a society
composed of individuals who can draw strength from a faith both
eternal and unchanging but never static and lifeless - to transform
that society into a community for all. That is definitely a
spiritual message. That is definitely a spiritual dimension to life.
But I have to ask: is Ireland failing to hear that message because
of the church?"
"An Ireland which diminishes the value of an individual is an
Ireland in trouble. An Ireland which loses its spiritual dimension
is an Ireland which is set on a course to community chaos. An Irish
Church which fails to preach the vale of an individual is a church
which has already become irrelevant."
On Northern Ireland, Dr. Eames urged young Irish Anglicans to join
the new police force. "I want to say with confidence that I
encourage them to give serious consideration to a career in the new
police service. As reforms emerge I feel I can make that call with
confidence. The training, the ethos and the acceptability of the
police in Northern Ireland in the days to come will depend to a
large extent on the calibre and character of its members. I believe
the young people of the Church of Ireland have much to offer in that
regard. I encourage them to seek that career."
The Primate said the Drumcree stand-off remains "the most
serious, searching and defining issue to confront the Church of
Ireland for many years….a tragic one which haunts us as a
Church."
"The search for a solution has continued exhaustively during
the year. This is a cameo of the darkest side of life in Northern
Ireland - a situation in which people are prisoners of the past and
hostages of the present."
He said independent legal advice has examined all that the C of I
has said and done in the tragic situation. "It has confirmed
that as the laws of the Church of Ireland stand at present we have
utilized every available avenue to express our condemnation and
state our position. But there is the other aspect that has nothing
to do with technicalities: it is the moral issue and the duty to
confront the evils of sectarianism with the Christian voice".
Dr. Eames said the Church "does not, cannot and will not
condone the scenes of sectarian hatred we have seen in previous
years - so often orchestrated by those who have their own agenda and
little or no interest in the concerns of the Orange Order or the
Residents Coalition."
Stressing that the focus must remain on mediation, he promised that
"together with continuous encouragement to reach a peaceful
solution which respects the rights of all, no-one nor no pressure
will silence the voice I have tried to make heard - we condemn
without reservation the scenes of sectarian hatred which have
accompanied the protest at Drumcree. These scenes are at complete
variance to the Gospel the Church of Ireland is called to
proclaim."
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From the Revd Gregg Ryan,
Irish Correspondent of the Church
Times
PROPOSAL TO REDUCE SYNOD NUMBERS
A Bill to reduce the number of members of general synod in the
Church of Ireland was voted out by a substantial majority without
receiving its second reading on Tuesday. The proposal would have
meant a reduction of approximately 40% in the current membership
from 650 of which one third are clergy, to 400 and would provide for
a minimum clergy representation of 20%.
The Bill has provoked much debate in the church, with opponents
arguing that it would diminish the democratic voice in more sparsely
populated areas in favour of the dioceses with strong urban bases.
Proposing the Bill in principle to synod, Canon Philip Patterson of
Down & Dromore Diocese said the proposed reductions would not,
as some had feared, deliver power into the hands of an oligarchy
rather than a democracy.
"The principle of this Bill is a return to the guiding
principles used in 1870 when General Synod came into being. Namely
that each diocese should be represented in proportion to the number
of its clergy and that the lay representatives should be in the
ratio of 2:1 of the clergy."
"In 1870 the proportion of clergy used was 10%. Unfortunately
no provision was made to adjust representation in line with a
changing demography of the church and so we have the present
imbalance."
The proposal before synod was to use a 20% proportion of clergy as a
base for calculating the the diocesan representation to General
Synod. "That is twice the level used in 1870, but of course the
church population of 2001 is such that, this increase of base will
not increase the size of Synod but will actually result in a
significant reduction in the overall size of General Synod."
The outcome would be a synod of 400 members, and the transition
would not be without pain, given that the church had changed so much
in its demographic make-up and that this was the first revision of
composition of the House of Representatives in 130 years, Canon
Patterson said.
"Built into the Bill is an automatic review every third
triennium so that never again
will the levels of representation get so out of kilter as they
presently are," he added.
Seconding the proposed Bill, Mr. Denzil Auchmuty of Tuam diocese
noted "the disproportionate number of males compared to the
number of females who occupy the pews of the majority of our
churches. Likewise the number of younger people represented at synod
is small, but they are the future of the church and they should have
their voice heard."
However, feelings in the opposition camp ran high, and one synodsman
from Kerry said that "the laity of the Roman Catholic Church
would give their eye teeth to have a Synod like this. They would
have women priests, women bishops and cardinals too…..and a lot of
other ecumenical things."
Canon Billy Neely of Armagh said the concept as proposed filled him
with dread. "Nothing less is at stake than the whole future of
the Church of Ireland. Accept this and the character of Synod will
be altered for all time and there will be no going back."
A last appeal by Canon Patterson left the majority unmoved. He said
the Bill offered fair and equitable representation and would not
create a "Church of Ulster" as some might fear. Throw the
Bill out, he warned, would effectively dismiss the committee and
synodical reformation would be 'a dead duck' for the forseeable
future.
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