Giving Wings
When I began my job as the New Zealand National Support
Coordinator for the Edmund Rice Network one year ago, I
knew very little about Edmund Rice or the schools and
Groups that his vision had spawned over these last couple
of centuries. All I had was a story about a man in Ireland
from 150 years ago – translated to me one evening by
a man named Daire Keogh. The story was ordinary to me in
some ways. I was raised on mission stories and tales of
radical transformations. I knew how the Spirit of God could
engage a person to action - especially through periods of
great tragedy. Once upon a time, I had made a radical
choice towards a life of service, to forsake all worldly
wealth and income opportunities to work with other
marginalised youth. For me it had happened at 19 but only
lasted till I was 25.
Those mission tales had never been able to ring quite
sweetly enough for me. And my own story of dedication had
turned sour with physical and emotional burn-out. There was
something always bothering me.
In the quiet seven years that followed as my husband
studied and began his teaching career, I raised our two
children through their pre-school years; I constantly
racked my brain and theology – ‘What went
wrong?’ How could a life so nobly dedicated to the
greater cause become such a humiliating failure?
The simplicity of the answer that dawned inside me was so
gentle that it couldn’t possible have been the IT
that I was looking for. But there it was and indeed it had
been from the first time I ever walked out my door to try
and ‘change the world’.
“Be real – have no agenda. Love for the sake of
love itself.”
The thing that had continuously bothered me was the sense
of control that I felt exuded from so many examples of
mission. A common arrogance, set to change everyone’s
thinking and actions to become uniform and theologically
‘correct.’ Often resulting in cultural
bankruptcy and a loss of creativity all round.
And then I heard it. Perhaps it was just fate, the way
Daire Keogh presented the mission of Edmund Rice that day.
But I heard the words – “service – with
no agenda.” I sat up in my seat and heard something
that I had been longing to hear my whole life. What I
heard, was about a kind of love and service, even a type of
evangelisation that did not seek to change minds, but
sought to give freedom - Real love for love’s sake.
Maybe that’s what I should I call myself instead of ‘National Support Coordinator’. ‘Wing Maker’ - For the People in the Edmund Rice Network of New Zealand. At least, that is what I hope to become.
Damaris Kingdon
ERN National Support Office
Auckland NZ
ernnz@st-peters.school.nz.
Please send your reflections to Peter Harney (ptrharn@aol.com) {member of the Congregation Renewal Team.}