Winners and Loosers

To be a human being is to be in conflict! It may not be how the Creator intended but again and again we human beings define ourselves by what we are not.  From our very beginnings we have set ourselves up as distinct and above the rest of Creation, a fallacy that is only now beginning to dawn on us as we see the result of our arrogance towards the Environment made manifest in catastrophic global warming and climate change.

And yet despite all this we continue to reinforce our own status by undermining the status of others. Sadly the Christian tradition is no exception and may even be seen as a driving force in this perversion.  This is a culture of ‘winners and losers’ and it cannot conceive of God’s approval of one group without a simultaneous divine condemnation of another. This attitude is typified in the recent response of the Roman Catholic Bishops to the proposed Civil Partnership legislation where the concern is expressed that the extension of rights and protections normally associated with marriage to same sex couples will undermine the institution of marriage. To be fair, the Roman Catholic hierarchy are not alone in putting forward this argument – it is also very prevalent within our own Anglican tradition and symptomatic of the current division in worldwide Anglicanism over human sexuality.

As a married man and a father I really don’t understand this argument. I don’t see the prospect of same sex couples being afforded the right to register their partnerships and seek legal protection for their rights therein as any threat to my marriage! Without getting into the minutiae of biblical interpretation it does seem to paint God into a very narrow corner with little room left for the generosity of Grace.  On the contrary the Bill does not provide legal recognition for same-sex couples who are co-parenting children. Children in these families are seriously disadvantaged by being ignored in the proposed legislation.

I recall the same argument regarding the threat of same sex unions to Christian marriage being used when my good friend Bishop Gene Robinson (an openly gay man in a long term monogamous relationship) was consecrated Bishop of New Hampshire, and he quite validly pointed out that Brittney Spears heterosexual behaviour was far more undermining of the institution of marriage than his own exclusive and committed same sex relationship with his partner of many years.

The bishops and others will argue ‘but what about same sex parents’?

Nobody answers this question better than Spencer Burke, a contemporary American theologian who in his ‘A heretics guide to eternity’ comments: ‘If you’re a child, is it better to live in a home with a single dad-or even two dads-who really love you than with a mum and a dad who abuse you? Really, what’s more important: that your family “fits” or that it functions?’ 

This same winners and loosers mentality was evident in the depressing response of Gregory Campbell, a DUP Westminster MP to the recent Saville report on the Bloody Sunday killings, declaring it a waste of money and creating a hierarchy of victims. The implication of his statement was that the justice finally afforded to the innocent victims of Bloody Sunday undermined and threatened justice for those who had been killed by republican paramilitaries in Derry. In what parallel universe is the recognition of the truth of a grave injustice to one group of people an obstacle to the uncovering of further truths for others?

           

So where do we go from here? Surely we have to rediscover  a new openness to the truth that will set us free from the tyranny of former ages. Our world does not have to be about winners and loosers! God’s Grace does not conform to our mathematical formulae but rather a Spencer Burke puts it: “God’s Kingdom was made up not of one particular group of people but rather of all peoples who will gladly respond in mercy and compassion to the strangers they meet. Jesus established the the idea that God, not God’s people, determines who is of God and who is not.”

Is this the End for Enda?

Yes - hot off the mixing desk the lads have done it again!
Corrigan Brothers & Pete Creighton (There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama) bring you “you won’t shaft Enda Kenny” – a song for the difficult times in Fine Gael.

The biscuit thief

I came across this wonderful story (Source: Brett Blair) while preparing a sermon for Sunday next (2nd after Trinity) - Incidentally I will now not be preaching this Sunday as our son Aaron is participating in the Special Olympics Ireland National Games and my Parish Readers (Lay liturgical leaders) are covering me so that I can be with my wife cheering him on trackside. The Gospel for the day which inspires the story is Luke 7:6-8:3

The Biscuit Thief
A woman at the airport waiting to catch her flight bought herself a packet of biscuits, settled in a chair in the airport lounge and began to read her book. Suddenly she noticed the man beside her helping himself to her biscuits. Not wanting to make a scene, she read on, ate biscuit, and watched the clock. As the daring " biscuit thief" kept on eating the biscuits she got more irritated and said to herself, "If I wasn't so nice, I'd give him a slap!" She wanted to move the biscuits to her other side but she couldn’t bring her self to do it. With each biscuit she took, he took one too. When only one was left, she wondered what he would do. Then with a smile on his face and a nervous laugh, he took the last biscuit and broke it in half.
He offered her half, and he ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, " this guy has some nerve, and he's also so rude, why, he didn't even show any gratitude!" She sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look at the ungrateful "thief." She boarded the plane and sank in her seat, reached in her bag to get a book to read and forget about the incident. Next to her book was her bag—of biscuits.
The biscuits they ate in the lounge were his not hers. She had been the thief not him.
The biscuit thief story reminds us, as we see in today's gospel, that it often happens that the one pointing the accusing finger turns out to be the guilty one, that the complainant sometimes turns out to be the offending party. In the biscuit story, the woman believed she was such a wonderful person to put up with the rudeness and ingratitude of the man sitting beside her. In the end she discovered that she was the rude and ungrateful one and the man was wonderfully friendly. In the gospel the Pharisee thinks he is the righteous one who is worthy to be in the company of Jesus and that the woman was the sinful one unworthy to be seen with Jesus. In the end Jesus showed each of them where they really belonged and the woman was seen as the one who was righteous and more deserving of the company of Jesus than the self-righteous Pharisee.

Remembering Patricia Anglican's finest hour

This time last year my alter-ego, Patricia Anglican was at Bewleys of Newlands Cross en route to the Women's Mini Marathon - A year on I am feeling nostalgic and hope you won't mind me giving this a reprise:



More details HERE

Reflecting on Resilience - Seminar in Cloughjordan 31st May 2010

Reflecting on Resilience
A Seminar arranged by Cultivate.ie
Monday 31 May | 20.00 – 21.30 | €Free | St Kieran’s Hall, Cloughjordan
Our resilience can be described as our ability to deal with trauma, tragedy, and all kinds of threats. The more resilient we are the faster we bounce back from difficult experiences. The term ‘resilience’ is also widely used by ecologists and is defined as the ability of ecosystems to maintain themselves in the face of disturbance. Resilience from a community point of view refers to the capacity of a community to cope with stress, overcome adversity and adapt to change positively. The current economic and spiritual difficulties, along with the unprecedented floods and freeze that Ireland endured recently, highlight how unprepared we are to cope with any unexpected incidents and the level of our vulnerability.
Facilitated by Professor Peadar Kirby, this event brings a number of churches and faith groups together in Cloughjordan to explore the importance of nurturing resilience in these challenging times.
Featuring Noirin Ni Riain, theologian, musicologist and internationally acclaimed Irish spiritual singer; Sean McDonagh, Columban missionary priest and author; from Cloughjordan, Rev. Brian Griffin, the minister at the Methodist Church; Fr. Tom Hannon, a priest from the Catholic Church; and the Reverend Stephen Neill, Rector at the Church of Ireland.

Part Time Farmer - Corrigan Brothers and Pete Creighton

You've heard of 'Urban' music - now  an exclusive preview of this 'Rural' hit featuring in the forthcoming issue of the 'Farmers Journal' - Could this be the beginning of a whole new music genre?

A new Musical Genre “Rural”

Corrigan Brothers the Godfathers of Rural

Has Urban had it’s day? Are we tired of Drive by shootings and Gangsters . Well the Irish Band who had the international hit and have over six million you tube hits with “There’s no one as IRISH AS BARACK OBAMA” think so. They are pioneering a new musical Genre called Rural. Instead of gang war and angry homies there will be tractors, cows, sheep, eggs, rural pubs, marts and farmers markets. Lead singer Ger Corrigan explained “RURAL has arrived and we want to sing the praises of the country. We see joy in the smell of cow dung; we see love and vocation in the work of the vet. We love misshapen vegetables and we want to celebrate that in song”

Corrigan Brothers have released what they claim is the first track of the Genre called “Part time Farmer” – adapted from Stevie Wonder’s “Part time lover”- they are currently working with Stevie’s agent in the hope of a potential duet and live performance of the first RURAL super hit.

Corrigan Brothers are currently recording other RURAL tracks including “Turf Wars”- the sad story of EU regulation and the rights of the rural Irish people. Another track “ My carrots aren’t straight enough for the Supermarket” tells the story of the pressure on vegetable farmers to conform to supermarket specifications. While the sad and harrowing “Son please take on the Farm” is the heart rending story of a farming father who pleads with his son to abandon a career in hairdressing and keep the farm in the family name.

“Bittersweet tales and light hearted songs, that’s RURAL” , said Ger Corrigan of Corrigan Brothers- We think it will be big!

You can view Part time Farmer here on this you tube link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4ZxFOznySh8

www.corriganbrothers.com

Launch of 'Barack Obama - The Road from Moneygall' by Stephen MacDonogh

Great night in Moneygall - I had the privilege of launching Stephen MacDonogh's new book on Obama's Irish heritage. Below you will find links to reviews in today's Irish Times and Irish Independent as well as my 'few words' at tonight's launch:

Irish Times Review


Irish Independent Review

My Speech:

Ladies and Gentlemen – Many of us have been here on many occasions enjoying Ollie & Magella’s hospitality as yet another chapter of the Obama/Moneygall story unfolded. From the early days when the link was first discovered through primaries, the election campaign,  election night, the Inauguration itself, visits from the Ambassador and from various media crews, we have gathered here to celebrate and share our story, and how that story intersects with that of President Barack Obama.

Stephen MacDonogh has now provided us with the narrative of that story and it is a compelling one. The story is complex and Stephen’s greatest achievement is in drawing all the strands together and giving us what is both a hugely informative and hugely enjoyable read. I am not a historian, no more than I am a genealogist! (I am constantly amused and flattered to have been described as an expert genealogist in media coverage of this link) Stephen’s book is one for a person like me and I suspect most if not everybody present this evening because it doesn’t just present facts and figures, it tells a story and it tells it so well.

Central to that story is Barack Obama and this place in which we are standing, Moneygall, but it is about much more than that – It is a hugely revealing social history which sheds light on both good and bad alike. On the one hand we hear of some landlords who treated the people who worked for them with far less dignity than they deserved, but on the other hand we hear of how the famine relief committees in this area were characterised by Protestant and Catholic clergy and laity working together for the common good, and specifically in Dunkerrin & Moneygall where the Catholic priest and Protestant rector worked in tandem to set up kitchens.

Stephen’s meticulous research shows clearly that in the famine times, which are the backdrop to the later Kearney emigration to America, though there were tensions in the area as indeed throughout the country they were not so much sectarian as class centred. The sectarian element was to come later and bear bitter fruit for all traditions on this island. We can be thankful today that we have largely put the worst of that behind us but I can’t help wondering how different it might have been if the hidden history of better times and early ecumenism which Stephen so skilfully uncovers were better known and celebrated.  Just as Barack Obama’s heritage has proved to be complex and diverse so too Stephen reveals is our own and I certainly have learnt a lot about my own tradition, both good and bad by reading this fascinating book.

Equally interesting is how Stephen deals with the question of Irish identity in the United States as he provides the context for the arrival of the Kearney clan in America. I like many people assumed previously that the Irish American identity was largely if not exclusively a Roman Catholic one and was unaware of the fact that at least as many Protestants of various hues emigrated to the states at various periods, both pre and post famine. Also interesting was how members of my own Church of Ireland largely abandoned Anglicanism and became Baptists or Methodists due to the negative association of Anglicanism with England. In their desire to blend in their Irish identity was often if not disguised certainly not worn as a badge. 

Neither did Barack Obama trade on his Irish identity during the campaign though he did acknowledge it on many occasions. As Stephen observes in the book this did not stop the late Senator Ted Kennedy from giving him the endorsement of Irish America, because he recognised in Obama ‘an ability to deliver on his vision for Americans of all ethnic backgrounds’.

On a lighter note I also discovered something about my good friend Henry Healy from reading this book. Henry is as you know a cousin of President Obama’s. If you are at all sceptical about this the definitive proof of this came on the morning of the Inauguration when Henry and I, the Corrigan Brothers and other assorted chancers were on the very overcrowded Metro in Washington DC heading in to view the event of a lifetime.  The atmosphere on that train was electric – everybody was laughing singing and crying, not tears of sadness but of joy. When we introduced Henry to people on the train as Obama’s Irish cousin some of them were bemused and some were very excited but one African American woman asked by her friend if she could see anything of Obama in Henry said without hesitation: “Oh Yes! He has Obama ears!”  Henry if you don’t know it already it gets better – Stephen MacDonogh exclusively reveals in this book that through your relationship with your cousin Barack you are also a cousin of Wild Bill Hickok & ….. wait for it…. Brad Pitt! If you are ever looking for a pick up line there is plenty to go on there. (Its on page 191 in case you are interested).

Stephen I think all of us owe you a huge debt of gratitude for what you have produced. Not only does it tell the story of the Irish roots of someone who we hope and pray will come to be seen as one of America’s greatest presidents, but it also helps us understand a little bit better who we are. It reminds us that whatever party or tribe we belong to, whatever faith we hold, our stories are complex and intertwined through generations, and that our future is in working together to make this corner of our world a better place. I for one am proud to be associated with this story.

Thank you for writing it.