250 years of child ministry is marked in Church of Ireland

A special service was the setting in the historic St Mary’s church, organised by the board for ministry with children and families (BMCF) and the Church of Ireland youth department (CIYD), with the Rev Dr Mark Griffiths as guest speaker.

Dr Griffiths is director of mission resources with Scripture Union in England and Wales.

Welcoming guests to the service, Down and Dromore bishop the Rev David McClay introduced Bishop Moses Zungo, from the diocese of Maridi in South Sudan, Africa.

Children in Maridi have recently benefitted from the 'Pancakes and Prayer' fund-raising initiative from CIYD, Fields of Life, and Bishops’ Appeal for World Aid and Development.

Bishop McClay thanked the rector of St Mary's, church, Newry, Rev Captain Scott McDonald, and his parishioners for their hospitality and welcome.

“This service is about the future,” said Meath and Kildare bishop Belfast-born Rev Pat Storey, as President of CIYD.

“It’s a service of potential and we are going to come before God to surrender ourselves to what God’s future might look like.”

Extracts from the Sunday School Society of Ireland’s late 18th and early 19th century books of reports were read, sharing stories of changed lives and the care shown by local churches for families in their communities around Ireland.

Connor bishop George Davison, chairman of the CoI's board for ministry with children and families, led the congregation in prayers and also acknowledged where the Church of Ireland had fallen short in how it had ministered to children, and seeking that Jesus would revive it in its calling.

Dr Griffiths said: “All ministry ultimately becomes a matter of the heart, what we are truly like and God is looking for people with the right heart for ministry.

"A motivation of 'I love God' leads to incredible things when that motivation flows through us and this is especially important when presenting our faith to the highly empathic generations of young people and children today.

“You have got to keep yourself spiritually sweet and you have got to keep your heart free of baggage,” he added, also noting the value of perseverance in St Paul’s message in Philippians about pressing onwards in faith: “If you bring these things into your lives, you communicate that to children and young people.”

Dr Griffiths also emphasised the importance of knowing what the church is trying to do.

"Amy Carmichael, a Christian missionary to India who was born in Co Down, once dreamed that she was trying to keep people from falling off a cliff while others were making daisy chains – the church of her time was “wrapped up in complacency, apathy and indifference” whereas today “our enemy is activity”.

There is a role for “rescue services at the bottom of the cliff” but it is far better to invest in helping children and young people “to become everything that God wants them to be.” This includes teaching them how to deal with hurt and harm, and introducing them to life in all its fulness in Jesus before the fall takes place.

Dr Griffiths focused on the value of the individual young person, recalling that a clergyman in a Scottish fishing village was once criticised for his perceived lack of success – only one boy had come to faith through the Sunday school in the previous year. This boy Robert Moffatt grew up to become father of modern missions, who in turn encouraged the celebrated missionary David Livingstone to go and plant the seeds of church growth in southern Africa.

"Similarly, when Peter and John made one person the focus in the healing at the Beautiful Gate (in Acts chapter 3), the miracle attracted the attention of thousands of people."

* Representatives of the 11 dioceses in the Church of Ireland received the gift of a plaque to commemorate the 250th church ministry celebration.

The plaques will be displayed in a location in each diocese and lit up on the next day of prayer for young people and youth ministry, which takes place on the Sunday before Advent (November 23).