Have you noticed that people and places in the Dioceses have been in the news in recent times?

Take the focus on Longford for example with the passing of the former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.

The challenges of up-keeping Crom Castle in County Fermanagh were also the focus of media attention. Viscount Crichton whose family have been living in Crom for 350 years was the subject of a documentary “Keeping the Castle” shown by the BBC.

Sadly Florence Court (in Florencecourt Group) on the other side of Lough Erne was in the news because of an arson attack on a beautiful rustic summerhouse.

Sligo, too, was the centre of attention with the annual Fleadh Cheoil, which brought traditional music to its streets. Over in Roscommon, Boyle was featured in an Irish Times’ piece about the plight of “forgotten towns”. Nearby Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim felt the pinch of redundancy as the MBNA Bank reduced its workforce in the town.

People and places feature heavily in the story of God in the Bible. Out of the debris of Eden when people turned their back on the Creator God, He takes the initiative. From an elderly couple, Abraham and Sarah, God promises a people who will have a place on the earth. Israel, the people of God as they became, are to be a blessing to the peoples of the earth.

Jesus takes up this theme in His Sermon on the Mount, found in the Gospel of Matthew. Speaking to His people, the Church, Jesus describes their essential character. They are to be salt and light, metaphors, which indicate their influence for good in the world.

As salt, the Church was to penetrate the world, to savour and to restrain the world’s tendency to deteriorate. Light illuminates the darkness, which permeates the world.

Through the Dioceses, each church, a distinct local community of faith, exists to be salt and light: as salt being distinct yet part of the community bringing flavour and keeping things from decay. Likewise, light shines as a beacon of truth and love for Jesus.

How can we be salt and light among the people and places where God has located us? Prayer functions like salt through which God works in a community. Outreach and social action also act like light in a place.

Reaching out to people draws them into the light of Christ. Working together for the good of all in the community is a practical example of what matters to Jesus.

Salt and light, that’s what Jesus says we are and what we should be among the people and places he has placed us.

+ Bishop Ferran

South Carolina Visit, May 2014

For a number of years now the dioceses of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh, has had a warm working relationship with the diocese of South Carolina in the United States. This relationship grew from Bishop Ken and Bishop Mark Lawrence of South Carolina (pictured above) meeting at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. Over the years people from both dioceses have crossed the Atlantic to further the relationship.

 

Last month, I was the latest to visit South Carolina. It was my first time there. What did I find? On a personal level, I was met by warmth and friendliness. People could not have been more welcoming and considerate. I felt very much at home. It was a reminder to me that we belong to God’s Big Family—we have brothers and sisters the world over, in this case in South Carolina.

 

Secondly, I found the place warm in terms of climate. Can you remember the great days of last summer? Well most days in my stay were like that, clear blue skies with temperatures in the mid-20s. Warm but not too hot. When it rained, as it did occasionally, it down poured for about 15 minutes before the normal sunshine resumed. The parish that I stayed in Bluffton, was warm as well. In the seventies, the county surrounding Bluffton was a kind of backwater. At that time around 50 people normally attended Sunday worship in an historic wooden church by the river. Then the area started to develop as a tourist destination with good weather, lovely beaches and big rivers. It became popular with the over 50s as a retirement resort. People then began to move and settle in the area as infrastructure and reputation was built. In the nineties, the Rev. Chuck Owens, was appointed rector of Bluffton. Chuck came from a teaching background and he and his wife Becky began to mobilise the modest and oldish congregation.

 

Since then the parish has taken off based on the Biblical principles enshrined in the Book of Common Prayer. Today, some 1500 people worship most Sundays in two centres in the parish. I preached at 3 services in the historic church: one at 5:28, ‘Gracetime’ on Saturday evening. Then at the 8am and 10am Holy Communion services on Sunday. These were Prayer Book services that we would recognize although done in a distinctive style. I also managed to catch a bit of the 9 am service held in the parish school, which was contemporary and informal in style. Since Easter of this year, a second service at the school has started to cope with ever increasing numbers. In 15 years things in Bluffton parish have flourished.

 

What do you put that down to? They are Christ-centred, take the Bible seriously, have inspiring leadership (clerical and lay), get involved, are outward looking and generous in Spirit. As a result, they have grown not just numerically but also in depth as well. We could learn so much in the dioceses from their experience, for they not so long ago were very much like many of our parishes.

 

I also had the privilege of meeting Bishop Mark, who lives in Charleston (of the dance fame). He is a very courageous church leader, who has overseen the diocese disassociating itself from the American Episcopal Church (TEC). Indeed 4 other dioceses have had to take the same course of action. Although independent of TEC, the diocese takes its place in worldwide Anglicanism.

 

What happened for this divorce to take place? Dioceses like South Carolina saw TEC drifting away from its historic and Biblical roots. TEC was driving a social and cultural agenda which was at serious odds against the Scriptures. Bishop Mark put it like this….. “When there is no norm, what guards one generation to the next? The Word of God is our anchor in the sea of cultural confusion”.

 

I returned from South Carolina refreshed and strengthened in faith. I wish to continue and develop our links. In the isolated place they find themselves through no fault of their own, they need friends in the Anglican Communion. I assured Bishop Mark, that we would be firm friends. In a changing world we need to learn from them how to be principled and how to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Will you join me to pray for:

 

• Bishop Mark Lawrence
• Very Rev. Chuck Owens
• The Diocese of South Carolina as a whole
• The Church of the Cross, Bluffton

 

Like me, why don’t you follow their story on the diocesan and parish websites and commit to support them as partners in prayer.

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Church of the Cross:

www.thechurchofthecross.net

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Diocese of South Carolina:

www.diosc.com

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+ Ferran