YOUNG people, especially Generation Z, are looking for authenticity of experience rather than “the yada-yada which passes for the discussion of faith and spirituality”, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd John McDowell, told the Church of Ireland’s General Synod, meeting in Naas, Co. Kildare, on Friday and Saturday.
“For them, Christian leadership is an active expression of faith,” he said. “They have very little time for ecclesiastical jargon. They can see that Christian discipleship is not the line of least resistance in life, and their experiences of the ups and downs of their lives so far commends that to them. It has the smell of reality about it. They are all too well aware of the arbitrariness and unfairness of life. They prefer a divine foundation to a polite atmosphere.”
The heartbeat of many parishes continued to be strong, he said. But, while rural and county-town religion appeared to have held up much better than inner-city and suburban religion, no more than about 20 per cent of people who saw themselves as Church of Ireland attended worship regularly. Although that was not “the gold standard by which faithfulness to Jesus Christ and his teachings is to be measured”, it was of great significance, he said.
“But to make inroads into even the Church of Ireland shortfall, never mind wider evangelisation, we need leadership in parishes and in the Church in general which has three qualities: confidence, humility, and resilience. . . For every resurrection to celebrate, there will first be a cross to carry.”
Moving on to speak of reconciliation — which he declared at the start of his archiepiscopate would be his constant theme — he reflected: “For me, at least, it was encouraging to hear An Taoiseach speak about the primacy of reconciliation across this island, as something that must be prior to any dramatic political developments. . .
“Whatever we make of it as a political statement, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we cannot sidestep our vocation to be peacemakers and reconcilers in the many and varied circumstances in which we find ourselves.
“Reconciliation is the exchange of the bread of life for the bread of truth. It is the way in which those whose humanity has been damaged in any way can tell their story and have their story listened to. It cannot draw a line under the past, but it can somehow incorporate or miraculously integrate the past, with all its shadows and injuries, into future life.”
The Archbishop acknowledged as one of the great obstacles to a reconciled society in Ireland the “huge and unresolved physical and psychological trauma that is being carried, usually unseen as a legacy of the Troubles. It is now intergenerational, and has left thousands of people with the unanswered question ‘Why does what happened to me or to a person whom I loved not count?’”
Pastoral resources have been produced to help members of the Church most affected by the legacy of the Troubles. The Synod called for these resources in 2023, from the Church and Society Commission. In the course of wide consultation with communities such as Corrymeela, and visits to border areas, a working party, led by Zephryn Patton, heard what it described in December 2024 as a clear message.
There needed to be, she reported, “a co-ordinated approach by the Church to acknowledge the hurt and pain of the past and the difficulties of achieving or grasping forgiveness. That extended to victims of the past who felt that their stories needed to be heard, and their pain recognised, in order to help them start their steps to healing.”
The resources comprise a liturgical response through a service and set of prayers; a leaflet signposting victims to existing organisations well versed in dealing with trauma, and able to provide meaningful assistance; and training for clergy in dealing with trauma, as part of the programme of continuing ministerial education.
Reflecting on broader societal developments, Archbishop McDowell described immigration as perhaps “the issue that has dominated world and domestic politics, and how it can be responsibly and humanely managed.
“It is not the fault of people coming into this island or anywhere else in the Western world that governments have failed to seriously address this dilemma of immigration in a way that respects treaty obligations and legal norms. In the mean time, significant numbers of people from the widest variety of countries have come to Ireland, North and South, very often with the intention of making this their home.
“By and large, the response of governments has been to bundle them into what are effectively detention centres, or to scatter them to far-flung corners of the country. When immigrants of any sort have been able to get a toehold in communities, often by their own unaided efforts, they have contributed not just to the diversity, but also to the productivity, of those communities and society at large. . . A very large proportion of immigrants, particularly from Africa, come from strongly Christianised societies.
“We have a Christian duty — indeed, a vocation — to maintain active solidarity with people, believers and unbelievers alike, who have become the subject of dehumanising and sometimes violent language and often intimidating and discriminatory behaviour.”
Addressing the question of assisted dying, he reminded the Synod that the Church of Ireland had consistently opposed any such legislation. Speaking for himself, he said, “any such legislation would involve not just a technical change in medical procedure but would amount to a kind of cultural revolution in the relationship between doctor and patient, and also in the basis on which judgements and decisions about the value of human life are made.
“Death is one of the great facts of our existence, but it is a social fact as well as an individual one. . . In the case of the Church of Ireland in general, I think we would need a great deal more persuading to depart from our stated position that life in its entirety is a gift from God, and that what sustains people, even in the most horrible of terminal illness, is the certainty of human love and support right to the end.”
He concluded: “It remains a collective disgrace that the hospice movement remains pitifully underfunded by the State and so heavily dependent on fund-raising activities.”
