Time to take ecumenism further, says new bishop appointed to native Cork

Thirty-nine-year-old Paul Colton, the new Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, is a native of Cork, unlike the …

Thirty-nine-year-old Paul Colton, the new Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, is a native of Cork, unlike the others who have lived in the graceful Palace opposite St Fin Barre's before him.

That is no discredit to his predecessors, because each of them in his own way made a lively contribution to the local and national debate and ecumenical trends and shepherded a flock that was not always sure of itself.

Bishop Colton studied law at UCC before moving to Trinity and then various ministries in Northern Ireland. His career led him southwards again to Castleknock in Co Dublin. But he got the call and then the wheel came full circle.

The Bishop says he has no doubt what his priorities are. He wishes that the churches would become more interactive and identify even more ways in which they could combine effectively.

READ MORE

Sharing church services together was an important but, in a sense, not very deep step on the road to ecumenism during its initial stages. The time has come to move on. He is looking for more dialogue, more ways in which the Christian faithful can share the faith.

And as the bishop in charge of the United Dioceses of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, he wants his clergy to reflect the changes in modern Ireland by undergoing whatever new training they feel they might need.

Evidence of ecumenism is the way Cork people have helped the restoration project at the cathedral.

If you sing The Banks and you know the city, then St Fin Barre's is just as much a Cork landmark as the Mardyke. There has been a coming together. Let the process take its own course, but it is encouraging.

At a cost of some millions of pounds, an interpretative centre will be built on the grounds. The cathedral is inextricably linked with Cork and, long before the churches made ecumenical gestures to one another, it was a place to which Cork people looked with pride.

It is a majestic part of the city and looms large over it. Also, it is a vibrant monument to a living Church of Ireland tradition in Cork which, throughout the various parishes, calls almost 10,000 people to worship each week.

Paul Colton told how he was taken by surprise when he was elevated. The spokesman for the church's electoral college had a simple question to ask. "Do you want it?" he asked. "Do they want me?" the reluctant bishop asked over the telephone. The answer was in the affirmative, and how could a minister about to become a bishop refuse?

The bishop has already hit it off with his Roman Catholic counterpart, Bishop John Buckley. He concedes that the road-bowling bishop hasn't yet thrown down a challenge, but the pair have attended a hurling championship final in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Not a hurling man himself, the new bishop said he looked on in awe at the skill and speed of the game.