SÉAMUS AHEARNE: ONCE UPON A TIME…
DWINDLING MINISTERS; ABANDONED CHURCHES:
I was fascinated by the ‘spread’ of news, around a simple interview. Irish Times Saturday 12th September 2026. It was a surprise to me, that the paper was so short of news, to show a big photograph of myself. Word reached me from faraway countries and places. On this piece, Patsy McGarry apparently did a fine job. My comment to him was very clear: Ask anything you wish and do whatever you want with it. And then I told him, ‘I won’t be reading it anyway’. Let it go where it will, and do whatever it can. I can only say that Confirmation wasn’t in any way central to what I had to say. Though I am strong in saying that Confirming youngsters in Sixth Class is meaningless and almost blasphemous. They are Confirming nothing and we cannot be party to such behaviour.
Now I will go back to the main reason for the Interview – age and ministry. I wrote a piece some weeks ago, (it got lost somewhere) following a Third Leader in the London Times. It was written in the paper from the perspective of the Church of England. There was a sadness in the Leader that Churches were closing; that ministers were disappearing; that the whole fabric of society was being torn apart. They saw it as a big loss. There is then a commonality in the issues raised by that spread – The Irish Times.
TIMOTHY SCHMALZ AND ALAN COUNIHAN:
It came to my attention last week, the work of Timothy Schmalz. The Canadian Sculptor. I admit that I hadn’t known of him previously. A friend of our family, Alan Counihan, is a Sculptor. He has done many well known pieces, and he has also put on Exhibitions in Kilkenny. He did a fine programme/documentary on some of ‘the left overs’ in St Brendan’s Grangegorman. ‘Personal Effects.’ In my own mind, it recalled for me, walking through Auschwitz. The glasses. The shoes. The cases. The hair. The stories behind those personal effects. The debris of lives. The ‘left-overs.’ Alan did the same in Grangegorman. I also remember when my brother-in-law John died, Alan appeared. He wanted to help. He went down to the cow-house and shovelled out the cow manure. That was very different sculpturing.
I now return to Schmalz. There are so many evocative pieces. ‘Homeless Jesus.’ ‘When I was a stranger.’ ‘A quiet moment.’ ‘Matthew 25 series.’ ‘When I was naked.’ ‘Be welcoming.’ (It is powerful.) ‘Angels unaware.’ The portrayal of Jesus in the many suffering ones, is extraordinary. Timothy’s own explanation of what he is trying to do, is impressive. He is like Michelangelo. He is releasing the figures from the stones. I like to think that ministry is much the same. Poets. Artists. Sculptors. Setting free what is already there. Our task. Our role. Our faith, can never become stodgy and prosaic. Or fixed. Or rigid. Or imprisoned. In formality.
Seamus Ahearne osa
14th September 2026.