22.04.2013
Restoration of St Paul’s Glenageary Celebrated
St Paul’s Glenageary celebrated the completion extensive restoration work which has been carried out on the parish church over a number of months this evening with a special service this evening (Sunday April 21).
The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, delivered the sermon at the service which was followed by a reception in the neighbouring parish hall.
The Archbishop’s sermon is reproduced in full below.
Sermon for the dedication of fresh work in St Paul’s Glenageary,
diocese of Dublin by Archbishop Michael Jackson
Easter 4; Sunday April 21st 2013
Readings: Jeremiah 31.31–34, psalm 127, 1 Corinthians 12.14–31
Psalm 127.1: Except The Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.
The completion of a work of restoration in any church is a double delight and a double achievement. I have been there, done that and there is NO tee shirt.
Why do I congratulate this parish on a very special achievement in relation to the work you have brought to completion and on a double achievement? I do so precisely because everyone simply assumes a roof and repairs and all of the things that go with this and imagines it to be an entirely normal state of affairs. It is something entirely to be expected and something which just happens in the regular course of events. People, even the most sensible of people, sometimes do not work out the economy of scale between their own house and the house of God. We drive past a parish church, we park and come in to church, we take for granted the fact that the roof is safe and does what roofs do, that is keep out the elements and keeps us all warm and dry, and we are shocked at how much it costs to replace when that day comes. But in our day and in our time the people of this parish today have taken up the challenge and have risen to it and we are here today to celebrate with thanksgiving the completion of an essential work and an expensive work. This is a tremendous credit to the parish itself, to all benefactors and all craftspeople, to the rector and Select Vestry of St Paul’s. We are now well placed to make our contribution to the total life of this community.
St Paul’s Church is without doubt a response on the part of the Church of Ireland in the middle of the nineteenth century to the population explosion is south Dublin. It is in fact one of the seven churches which were built in the old parish of Monkstown. To the benefaction of Miss Shannon from Belfast in the third quarter of the nineteenth century our diocese owes Zion Church, St Barnabas and St Kevin, as well as St Paul’s. Each of these churches points to a concentration of living in different parts of the emerging city of Dublin as we can identify with it today in its suburban personality. The report in The Daily Express of 3rd January 1868 almost reads like the dimensions given us of the Ark of Noah in Genesis: “The building measures 101ft 6 inches internally by 35ft 6 inches wide and 55ft 6 inches high to the ridge. It comprises a nave and chancel measuring 18ft 6 inches by 21ft.” Clearly the Victorian breakfast table was rather interested in statistics. Over the next almost fifty years the building was added to with organ, bells, transept, chance apse to give us substantially the St Paul’s we have and love today but with the relocation of the organ as the most noticeable alteration.
Such settlement gives to a parish a sense of security. It also faces a parish with a very clear decision. Does it simply enjoy this heritage or does it do something with it? To express it more starkly: Does it lie back or does it get on with it? This challenge continues once the work is completed. It does not go away. This getting on with it falls into two parts and each I think has led to the joyous celebration of completion which we celebrate today. The first is the dynamic work of mission which St Paul’s has undertaken and sustained in Uganda in particular. It has involved buy in by all the generations and has given that tangible expression of who we are in relation to others whom we many never see as children of God and as disciples of Jesus Christ. The humility and the generosity involved in putting your own abilities, your talents and your money at the service of others in fact enriches all that you are and do at home. And it is therefore no real surprise that generosity has come to the work of completion of what you have done in this church building in order to challenge and to enhance the mission of St Paul’s at home. This shows itself in the work which we dedicate for use this evening and in service of the community here as it will change and develop over the next century. Roof, attic, spire external and internal stonework, glazing, electrical works, heating, bells, sensitive access for all through universal access doors at the entrance; that period piece the wash hand basin in the Vestry has been replaced and shelving has been added, the main robing room has been refurbished and decoration undertaken throughout. All of this enhances the beauty and the life of this church and also makes a place from which the witness of hope and generosity can continue to grow.
Psalm 127 speaks about building. The person who wrote psalm 127 speaks not from the position of sitting in a comfortable suburban church on a Sunday in early Spring but from a situation in which there is danger all around. The presence and the involvement of the Lord in every part of this city and its buildings is most important to the person who wrote this psalm. His spiritual antennae are sharp and he sees the need of The Lord everywhere: in the building and in the safeguarding, in the daily work and in the children. He talks about the house, about the city itself and about the next generation who are essential to the defence of the city. Their security is vital for the city to fulfil its function and to perform its role of being a community where people can flourish and where people, can ward off evil, where people can display confidence and where people can – in this case literally – live to fight another day; and the psalm concludes on a note of realism:
They shall not be put to shame when they dispute with their enemies in the gate.
The psalmist is entirely and essentially practical. He enjoys the construction itself of the city; he also enjoys its security and its capacity to enable life to flourish within its walls. This surely is the opportunity which the work which we all dedicate tonight offers to St Paul’s as a people and a community.
Jeremiah speaks of a new heart in the people of God. St Paul himself in writing, not quite to the Glenagearians but to the Corinthians, speaks of the ways in which we are bound together in interdependence. All of this spirit of service and priority of the needs of others is shown in the work completed here to the glory of God and the good of the people of this community. Our thanks go to the Project Manager Dave Stanley who previously worked with the parish in the Kisiizi Hospital work which truly is a part of St Paul’s life. This combination too speaks volumes. My congratulations go once again to all concerned on fine work sensitively and courageously completed in difficult and hard times and to all those living and departed who have made this possible by their gracious generosity.
Jeremiah 31.33: I shall set my law within them, writing it on their hearts. I shall be their God and they will be my people.