Address by the Archbishop of Dublin :

Most Revd Dr. John Neill. St.Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, Sunday 26th February 2006

“We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2Cor.4:6)

Our lives are an extraordinary mixture of times of joy or of sadness, of success or of failure, or indeed of building up or of breaking down. This is reality however painful it may seem, but it is not the full picture. The Christian affirmation in the midst of such experience is that God's purposes and indeed God's power is seen in the fact that sorrow, pain, failure and brokenness do not have the last word. The Resurrection is about God's power breaking through, it is about restoration and it is about new life in all its fullness.

Today's liturgy proclaims the same message to us in that one word “Transfiguration”. It is centred on that strange moment on a mountain top when the disciples closest to Jesus suddenly saw him, their friend, their teacher, in a new light – “transfigured before them…his clothes dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.” And “from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!' The gospel writer then adds those moving words, “Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus”. (Mark 9:2-9)

From the events on the mountain top, they came down to find that some of their fellow disciples had come a bit unstuck in their ministry, and from then on the Gospel story becomes a journey towards the events of Holy Week and Good Friday – the way is tough, but the experience of the Transfiguration reminds them that they are in the presence of Jesus in whom the divine power and love cannot be overcome. The Transfiguration prepared them for a tough road, a road on which many of them would for a time come unstuck, but a road that led eventually to Easter, to Resurrection. As the writer of the Epistle today reminds us – It is God who says “Let light shine out of darkness”. But we are also reminded that the Apostle in speaking of his ministry had to say very clearly, “We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.” The disciples coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration were no longer aware of Moses and Elijah who had appeared with Jesus on the mountain-top – they were only aware of Jesus.

Through the actions of and the resignation of the former bishop, this United Dioceses has been exposed in a very sad way to the fragility that is at the heart of all Christian ministry. We invest so much in those who are ordained to lead the Church of God , and yet we who are so called remain weak and sinful human beings. Not one of us as Christians is ever entitled to throw a stone at another, to seek the speck in our brother's or sister's eye and fail to see the beam in our own. We all stand as sinners before the mercy seat of Christ.

We are all sad for Bishop Peter and Anne and their family, and also for the other family equally broken in the sad events of the last few weeks and months. Those very few of us who were aware of the situation for just a few weeks longer than all of you did our best to seek a way in which the sad, indeed tragic, situation might be prevented. At the end of the day, Bishop Peter had to make up his own mind whether he wished to remain on as your bishop, and to remain in his marriage. Sadly as a result of both decisions, his family, he himself, and you his diocese, his colleagues in ministry, and indeed the wider Church, have each suffered much pain. This is a fact, rather than a judgement.

For such a sad situation, we seek not punishment, or further suffering for anybody involved. Instead we pray for healing, for forgiveness, and dare I say it for transfiguration? Yes, in the face of the fact of the Resurrection, the victory of Jesus over all that spoils and hurts, all that diminishes and disfigures, we indeed do pray for the power of God to bring light out of darkness, to bring that glimpse of the glory of Jesus that can transfigure our broken and hurt countenance.

What is diminished in all of this is neither the Church of God , nor the Good News of the Risen Christ. What is diminished is the standing of those who serve in ordained ministry. Those of us who are ordained are reminded of two things – the first is that though God calls us to be his ministers, deacons, priests of bishops – we have nothing in our own right, or because of our own worthiness. It is rather that as St.Paul puts it in the same letter to the Corinthian Church ; we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.

  However the second thing of which we are reminded at this time is of the warning issued to those who are ordained: “Remember in your heart that if it should come about that the Church, or any of its members, is hurt by reason of your neglect, your fault will be great and God's judgement will follow. So pray constantly for his mercy and for the grace that you will need to fulfil your call”. These words always haunt me as I read them to those whom I ordain and at the same time send a shiver down my own spine.

What is coming across therefore to me is first that the ministry of the Church is made up of those with their own weaknesses and sin. There is no perfect deacon, priest or bishop. But second, and just as important, the ministry of the Church is made up of those who by accepting this ministry are allowing themselves to be set forth as signs and instruments of the Christian way of life that must be at the heart of the Church, and therefore our failure hurts and injures the Church of God.

In all humility, as the one called at this moment to be your chief pastor, I must apologise to all those church members who have been let down or disappointed. I have humbly to remember the words of the Apostle Paul: “We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.”

There is pain all around. This pain is of course very obviously expressed first in deep sympathy for Anne and the family, and for Peter himself, and I have not been surprised by the depth of that concern – because it has been exactly as I would have expected of a Christian community.

Alongside that is the pain of the loss of a beloved pastor, a close friend to many, and one who has given pastoral leadership in the Diocese. We all feel puzzled and confused.

Some of you have felt annoyed at the lack of information from the Church, and that you were able to read stories in the secular press which were neither denied nor confirmed by the Church.   While I fully understand this feeling, it should be remembered that like any other family faced with this very sad, but very human situation the Bishop and his family have a right to approach the Church for pastoral support and expect that the details, none of which have or had criminal implications, be treated in confidence.

I take the opportunity this morning to thank all those clergy and parishioners who have shown such pastoral care and practical help in the light of recent events. I have heard so much of what people want to do, and I have received so many letters telling me of your concerns. I have also discovered throughout the Church of Ireland , including in no small way within the Representative Body of the Church of Ireland , a deep and practical compassion.

My visit to you today is to share with you where you are, but also to point to a way forward by expressing something of the significance of what has happened, and to share the good news of the God who in Christ Jesus remains the only one in whom we can trust – we fail each other in one way or another – but the message of this Sunday of Transfiguration is that at the end of the whole experience, we can share with those disciples who saw nobody with them in one sense any longer – only Jesus. “Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, but only Jesus”.

But the apostle who called us to look beyond the minister to Jesus himself reminded us powerfully that it is “the God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness' who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

And so we are encouraged to turn to the future. We are reminded that the process is already in train to elect a new bishop for this diocese. Pray for those who will be charged with this election – and pray that they may be led to discern the person whom God is raising up for this very ministry. There is an exciting ministry to be fulfilled here, there are people waiting once again for that ministry, and I detect among many with whom I have spoken a determination that all will move forward together in the service of Christ Jesus and the Church which we love – God's Church, in which we have each been given our place.

The Transfiguration of Jesus was a moment when they saw Jesus in a new light, in the light of God's eternal purposes. It strengthened and challenged the disciples for all that lay ahead. It was not followed by unqualified success at every turn, but it was followed by the way that led to Easter, and to Resurrection. May God grant to us each in our worship together today a sense of turning forward, not forgetting the past, not ignoring those still deeply suffering because of it, but yet a quiet confidence in the God who said “Let light shine out of darkness” – The God who in Jesus has given the only one who never fails to show his glory – Jesus Christ our Lord.