11.03.2026
Homelessness an Affront to Humanity – Cathedral Lenten Sermon Series
Homelessness is an affront to humanity within a fully functioning society, as Ireland claims to be, Archbishop Michael Jackson said in his sermon in Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday morning (March 8). The term ‘homelessness’ defines people by who they are not and by what they do not have, he stated.
The Archbishop was preaching as part of the cathedral’s Lenten Preaching Series which is exploring the theme of ‘The homelessness crisis: A Christian response’. The series is organised by Christ Church’s Priest Scholar, Canon Prof Anne Lodge, and aims to take in a wide range of perspectives.
The series was opened by Dean Dermot Dunne whose sermon was entitled ‘The Homeless Jesus in Context’ and continued with Fr John Collins, acting Chair of Mendicity Institution on who the charity supports those in homelessness. Archbishop Jackson was preaching as chair of the Church and Society Commission on the Church of Ireland’s response to homelessness. The series continues this coming Sunday with Canon Prof Lodge who will share stories homelessness and hope. Barbara Comerford will bring the series to a close on the last Sunday of Lent with an address entitled ‘Christian discipleship: volunteering with those experiencing homelessness’.
The Archbishop said that the term ‘homelessness’ reinforced the inequalities and injustices in our societies.
“Homelessness has become mangled with refugeeism, asylum seeking, racism, nationalism, personal inadequacy and local territorialism – and most iconically tangled with flags… It makes some people a failure in their own understanding and this, as we say in our documentation, is a rucksack that nobody wants to be carrying. It makes some other people guilty about having a home, about having been able to make provision for their own home. It makes people who come to church guilty and helpless in an emotionally frozen way about how to respond caringly because it looks as if any individual response to this polar bear sized problem will be too meagre, too mean, to make any difference,” he commented.
Archbishop Jackson highlighted a resource produced by CASC for parishes. It outlines a number of actions that people can take.
“The following are general principles: that people like ourselves think before we speak and that we act along with speaking; that we all contest publicly and with public figures the injustice of housing insecurity and deprivation; that we lobby for local social housing provision; that we make work to the advantage of those in need the Social Services available in our area and, where possible, facilitate this by having the church plant become a location for this,” he stated.
Recognising that there are many forms of homelessness, the Archbishop said: “For me, the one rule of thumb is: give to homeless people of your best and of your best self rather than of your leftovers and of your exhaustion”.
You can read Archbishop Jackson’s sermon in full here.
You can find the Church and Society Commission’s resource on homelessness here.