26.09.2014
Choice and Identity Explored at Service Marking Start of School Year
St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, was filled to capacity yesterday evening (Thursday September 25) for the first service for second level schools to mark the beginning of the new academic year. President Michael D Higgins and the Minister of Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan TD, were guests of honour at the service which was attended by over 500 students from 19 second level schools from the Church of Ireland, Methodist, Presbyterian and Society of Friends traditions.
The new departure was organised by the General Synod Board of Education (RI) and was a celebration of the role that schools play in the lives of their students, families, the school community and the wider community. It followed a conference for principals and boards of management of Protestant second level schools which took place earlier in the day.
Minister Jan O’Sullivan met many students at the service and had already visited the nearby St Patrick’s Grammar School and Archbishop Marsh’s Library.
Prior to the formal service of Choral Evensong, Greg Fromholz, director of Dublin and Glendalough’s Ministry to Young Adults, and his team led an inspirational worship session for the students. The students took part in activities, watched a film and heard a reflection from Greg.
Preaching at the service the Bishop of St Andrew’s, Dunkeld and Dunblane, in Scotland, the Most Revd David Chillingworth, referred to the session with Greg and suggested that they were exploring questions about choice – choices about the things that shaped their lives and priorities. They had explored the choice of courage and he added the choices of kindness and compassion.
The Bishop said that the link between the conference earlier in the day and the service in the evening was in the area of identity. “Identity, I guess, means who you think you are and what description of yourself gives meaning to your life,” he said. “I’ve been thinking of that for most of my life and particularly during the referendum campaign in Scotland.”
Bishop Chillingworth explained that he had spent the years between aged 18 and 54 living through the Troubles in Northern Ireland were there were conflicting ideas of identity and belonging. He said often where there were conflicting ideas and when faith was involved, you ended up with something which was toxic.
“And yet in the middle of that experience there were people making choices. Many of those choices involved courage – people who had been bereaved and injured who made the courageous choice not to hate and possibly even to forgive. The courage to stand apart from what everyone else thought and to say and do and feel something different. Identity is a double edged thing. It enhances our lives. It is an enriching thing. But it always carries the risk of being something toxic that diminishes and divides,” he stated.
The Bishop concluded by saying that the bravest choice of all was to follow Jesus. “It is a camino of the soul to recognise that following Jesus is the costliest thing of all. The deepest fulfilment of all lies at the end of the greatest sacrifice. That is the bravest choice of all,” he said.
Photo captions:
Top – Minister Jan O’Sullivan with students from the schools present.
Middle – The Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral, the Very Revd Victor Stacey, greets President Michael D Higgins for the Second Level Schools Service.
Bottom – Greg Fromholz amid a sea of students in St Patrick’s Cathedral.