CHURCH OF Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson has called for
fresh thinking about our past in the run-up to a series of important
centenaries, including that of 1916.
Facing into a decade of
commemorations, we had to re-evaluate the great events rather than
simply reheat history, he said.
“We really have to do more than
microwave the past.”
Speaking to The Irish Times, he was referring
to centenaries ahead such as that of the founding of the Ulster
Volunteers in 1912, of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, the Larne and
Howth
gunrunnings and the signing of the Ulster Covenant in 1912.
He
was also referring to the Easter Rising and Battle of the Somme in 1916,
the First Dáil in 1919, the War of Independence from 1919 to 1921, the
establishment of the Stormont Parliament in 1920, and the founding of
the Free State in 1922.
“We should address the context out of
which these events happened, in which we shared, and how and why we now
live in a different type of world,” he said.
Archbishop Jackson,
who assumed duties as Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough on April
11th, will be formally installed in a ceremony at Christ Church
Cathedral in Dublin next Sunday. The office brings with it the title of
Primate of Ireland.
He said the Church of Ireland was probably a
unique institution on the island in that members participated on all
sides in the events referred to including, for example, those who fought
and died in 1916 at the Somme and in the Easter Rising.
The
archbishop was ordained a priest at Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral in
1987 and served as curate at Zion parish in Rathgar, as well as chaplain
at nearby St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin until 1989, while also lecturing
at Trinity College Dublin and the Church of Ireland Theological
College.
Between 1997 and 2002, he served at St Fin Barre’s in Cork,
becoming Dean of Cork before being elected Bishop of Clogher in 2002. He
is highly regarded for his ecumenical and
interfaith work, in Ireland
and internationally.
In 2004 he became chairman of the Church of
Ireland’s Hard Gospel project, which set about vigorously addressing
sectarianism within its own ranks following the Drumcree crisis.
Last
week his Roman Catholic counterpart, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin,
revealed he had asked Archbishop Jackson to take part in next year’s
Eucharistic Congress in Dublin.
Archbishop Jackson said he had been
“tremendously honoured” to be invited to lead a reflection on baptism at
the Monday event of the Congress in June 2012.
This, he said, was “an
act of trust and generosity” on the part of Archbishop Martin.