From Bishop Burrows – November 2006
Dear FriendsOne of the many joys of life for me in these weeks is the opportunity to visit schools all over the dioceses. By Christmas I hope in particular to have visited all twenty eight primary schools which are under the patronage of the bishop of Cashel and Ossory. They are a richly varied group of institutions - there are small schools in superbly situated rural settings, larger schools in the midst of towns, elegant (if sometimes problematical) old buildings and some fine modern structures. Several schools too include building sites where works of extension or renewal are taking place and funds for which are being keenly sought.
Wherever I have gone I have met welcoming and committed teachers, willing Board of Management members and enthusiastic pupils. I look forward on each occasion to the questions pupils will put to me - they always come with a delightful mix of honesty, perception and humour. One small child told me recently that they knew I was a bishop because I had very shiny shoes - something I rarely achieve but which serves as a new definition of the episcopal uniform! And I become keenly aware of my journey into middle age as I meet children whose parents were in school or college alongside me and teachers who were barely born when I taught other aspiring teachers music (badly) myself in Colaiste Moibhi!
The reasons for these visits of course is that the Patron of a school ought at least occasionally to be visible within it. Patronage used to be something of a formality - now it demands careful and detailed oversight of many matters concerned with school administration and procedure. But, more importantly, the bishop's patronage of a school is one of the key ways by which the ethos (that favourite word of elusive meaning) or 'characteristic spirit' of the school is defined. I find it moving and humbling when I enter a school to recall that the office I hold and my momentary presence in that school says something about what that school stands for and the values of the community which it exists to serve. As is so often said of the ethos of the Church of Ireland - one cannot really define it but one knows when one is in its presence! We continue to be confident that our schools, in an open and inclusive way, will do much to reach out into the communities in which they are set, to make people aware that our faith affects the whole of life rather than one small aspect of it and to form the good Christian citizens of the coming generation.
So this is a moment to relish the schools we have the responsibility of running, to affirm their busy staff and in a special way to acknowledge the voluntary contribution of so many Board of Management members whose task these days is no sinecure but remains truly also a labour of love
MICHAEL CASHEL + OSSORY