Abstract
Volume three completes the trilogy for Salvador Ryan; the title and contents certainly match in Treasures of Irish Christianity: To the Ends of the Earth published in the year that marks the 1400th anniversary of the death of St Columbanus, himself a great Irish missionary. As in previous volumes, the reader is given a veritable feast; a five-part work featuring 77 short articles, a few handy references for further reading, excellent and well-chosen photographs in an easy to read volume which has been beautifully produced by Veritas Publications. The book is a delight to hold and read. As Ryan mentions in the Introduction, the theme chosen for this volume considers the Irish abroad and their long-standing reputation for wanderlust and inordinate passion for travel. Throughout history the Irish have demonstrated the capacity to leave behind the familiar shores of the Emerald Isle and to carry within their hearts and souls so much of the history and identity of the country they have loved so much. After reading this volume, it seems that there is a little bit of Ireland in every corner of the earth.
The global reach of this collection is simply outstanding. Going beyond the well-known shores of the Irish diaspora such as Continental Europe, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, this volume takes the reader’s imagination to places such as Madras, Athens, China, the Caribbean, Pretoria, Bengal, Zambia, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Peru. The ecumenical breadth is also to be commended for we see the perspective, and walk in the paths, of Anglican clergymen, Baptist Evangelicals, Presbyterians, the Dublin University Mission and the independent lay-led Brethren Mission. Catholic Ireland sent forth bishops, priests, brothers and nuns by the shipload but in the pages of this volume, other stories are told of clergy and laity who came from different traditions, brought different gifts and lived out quite diverse spiritualities all for the sake of planting the seed of faith, winning adherents for the Gospel and glorifying the name of God.
These missionaries and travellers were poets and priests, missionaries and evangelists, saints and scholars, cultural ambassadors and carriers of a national story and identity. The stories are interesting and remarkable. Cork-born John England (1786–1842) was the first bishop of the diocese of Charleston. He founded America’s first Catholic paper. His writings on the separation of church and state enabled him to address the United States Congress in 1826 on the issue of religious toleration. He was the first Catholic clergyman to do so. Irish missionary sisters who travelled to the Kimberley region in outback Western Australia in the late 19th century were the first women religious to minister to the Aboriginal people. They worked in primitive conditions, extreme heat, and extraordinary isolation, often travelling vast distances to what may have seemed to many of the sisters as the very edge of civilization. On seeing the stretchers that served as beds with no mattresses or pillows, Sr Antonio O’Brien cried out, ‘Heaven be praised! We’ll not be tempted to be sleeping in!’ (p. 180). We are so used to the traditional image of fervent missionaries, often in competition with each other, attempting to win over converts ‘for the faith’ that we sometimes ignore the wider social and cultural implications of their ministry. Rutherford Waddell (1850–1932) was a Presbyterian Radical in New Zealand who combined a radical commitment to justice and egalitarianism with a staunch theological conservatism. He defended women’s rights, established the first kindergarten in the country, and started a library, a credit union, a newspaper and numerous literacy, literary and debating societies. He was influential in prison reform and helped kick-start technical education in New Zealand. In an era when most of these things are organized and funded by the state, this collection reminds us of the new and radical frontiers opened up by missionaries of various denominations, especially in the care of the poor, the marginalized and the ones society forgot.
This volume at times was uncomfortable reading, especially with regard to a missionary strategy that is no longer in vogue in these enlightened times. A mite card of the foreign missions shows three young Nigerian children and makes reference to the ‘Grace of God shining through those three pairs of merry black eyes.’ On the back of the card is an appeal for ‘Our immediate work is the evangelization of TWO MILLION PAGANS in Southern Nigeria.’ As embarrassing as it may be, it is important that such records are not expunged or filtered-out of the historical record. Likewise in this volume we hear of ‘troublesome’ clergy sent away by frustrated bishops and superiors, who sometimes engaged in fund-raising tours that seemed to extract from the poor in the Irish diaspora endless amounts of money for the post-famine, post-emancipation drive to build an extraordinary network of cathedrals and churches in Ireland. The built fabric of Irish Catholicism at home and abroad was becoming bigger, grander and more extensive.
In many respects, missionary styles and strategies have changed significantly, and yet they remain unchanged for those who hear the call to missionary service and social justice whether at home or abroad. In a very moving way, Ronan Scully shares his memories and reflections after facing the challenges of working in Calcutta, especially among poor children. He asked God ‘how can you let these children live in this poverty?’ God replied to him in prayer, ‘how can you?’ (p. 267). We are called to reflect on the fact that today in western societies there are the ‘new poor’ such as refugees and asylum seekers, victims of substance abuse and domestic violence, the reality of suicide and mental illness and those who fall through the cracks of rapid social and economic change.
Ryan is to be commended for this volume that completes the trilogy and for helping the reader to see how there is a little bit of Ireland in almost every corner of the earth.