Irish Church Missions

The Irish Church Mission to the Roman Catholics (ICM) is a conservative and semi-autonomous Anglican mission. It was founded in 1849 chiefly by English Anglicans with the backing and support of the Church of Ireland clergy and Bishops.

History

The inspiration for its beginning came from the Revd. Alexander Dallas (1791–1869), Rector of Wonston, Hampshire, who since 1843 had been involved in actively proselytising to the Roman Catholic people of Ireland. Dallas began his missionary work in Ireland by sending over 20, 000 letters to householders throughout Ireland. He followed this up by sending eight missionaries to preach throughout the country and personally conducted a preaching tour in the West of Ireland in Galway and Connemara. The result of his missionary work by 1848 was the setting up of a missionary school and church in Castlekerke, near Galway.^{[citation needed]}

The means by which Dallas advanced the work of what became known as the 'Second Reformation' was through the provision of Scripture Readers, missionary clergymen and the support of the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of Ireland. The Scripture Readers were fluent Irish speakers, who were trained to preach the Gospel and refute what they considered false doctrine. Whilst the work of ICM was strong in the West of Ireland, most of its subsequent work centred on the city of Dublin, where it drew many converts. By the time of his death in 1869, Dallas had planted 21 churches, 49 schools, and 4 orphanages and had between 400 to 500 full-time workers employed in preaching the Gospel throughout Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

Today, the evangelistic work of Irish Church Missions continues amongst the student and business communities in Dublin from its premises in Bachelors Walk.

Famine

The ICM was particularly controversial during the period of the Irish Famine (1845–1852) believing the famine to be a judgment from God on Irish Catholics who had clung to the Catholic faith - "The truth of the Scriptures was verified in the groans of the dying, and their wails for the dead". The organisation was also criticised for tying material to spiritual aid. The organisation is synonymous with the souperism of the famine period, particularly in Connemara, where relief was often conditional upon the conversion of the recipient to Anglicanism. For these reasons the ICM drew much of its support from outside of Ireland, receiving little support from the Church of Ireland. Miriam Moffitt, Postdoctorate Research Fellow at NUI Maynooth stated in her book Soupers and Jumpers, stated that in reality the poor of Connemara found themselves pawns in a power struggle between the Protestant and Catholic churches. The ICM at the time was receiving £26,000 annually in donations from England for their efforts.

Some of the ICM projects in the west were in partnership with The Irish Society for promoting the scriptural education and religious instruction of the Irish-speaking population chiefly through the medium of their own language, although Rev. Dallas' anti-catholic tirades cause much bitterness within The Irish Society.

Among the places set up and funded by the ICM were the Connemara Orphan's Nursery, Spiddal Orphanage, and Aasleagh Orphanage. John Hall an staunch protestant and supporter of the ICM bought Letterfrack from the quaker Ellis family for use by the ICM.

Ragged Schools and Residential Homes

After the famine the ICM began more vigorous activity in Dublin particularly in poor areas such as the Liberties. In many areas being in competition with the Roman Catholic organisation the Society of St. Vincent De Paul.

Rev. Dallas and the Irish Church Missions, with the philanthropist Mrs Ellen Smyly helped set up schools and homes in Townsend St., Dublin, what was to become the first of her The Smyly Homes. Rev. Dallas and Ellen Smyly opened The Irish Church Missionaries Ragged School in the Coombe opened initially in 1853 in Weaver's Hall, later moved to the corner of Newmarket Street, the home was closed in 1944 and children were moved to the Smyly home in Monkstown. For 20 years the ICM also sponsored a pamphlet Erin's Hope produced by The Smyly Homes and edited by a worker there, Sarah Davies. Other Homes or Schools of the Mission were at Lurgan Street Ragged Home, Luke Street Girls' Home and the William Henry Elliott Home.

TC Hammond

Perhaps the most famous of the those who served in ICM is Thomas Chatterton Hammond (1877–1961). He entered the ICM training school in 1895, working as an evangelist for ICM from 1895 to 1899, before studying in Trinity College Dublin for ordination in the Church of Ireland. In 1903 he was ordained as Curate-assistant for St. Kevin's parish in Dublin, becoming its Rector in 1910 until 1919 when he became the Superintendent of ICM. He left ICM in 1936 on the voyage to Australia to take up the post of Principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney. Hammond was a controversial figure both in Ireland and Australia as a member of the Orange Order, eventually rising to the position of Grand Master of the Orange Institution of New South Wales in 1961. In recent times, his involvement in the establishment of Bethany Home, a home for Protestant orphans, has also been raised for questioning. The home is subject to ongoing calls to be added to the State redress scheme for victims of child abuse.

Orange Order

Irish Church Missions has no formal relationship with the Orange Order. The history section of the ICM website states that as far back as the 19th century the organisation explicitly distanced itself formally from the Order, though a number of the Sociey's Scripture Readers were members. However, this distance appears hard to reconcile with the fact that in the twentieth century TC Hammond, Superintendent of the ICM, was a prominent member of the Order. Furthermore, the ICM has traditionally hosted the annual service of the Dublin-Wicklow Orange Lodge's annual service each October. It appears that this practice may have ceased since an internal reorganisation of the ICM whereby a newly named church - Immanuel Church Dublin - has replaced the traditional organisation of the Mission. However, it appears that beyond 2000 the ICM continued to receive financial donations from the Dublin-Wiclow and County Antrim Orange Lodges.

Stated Positions of the Organisation

Position on Homosexuality

Irish Church Missions maintains a traditionalist stance against homosexual lifestyles. The organisation has also come out against the Civil Partnership Bill, currently before the Irish Parliament, which proposes to grant limited civil recognition and rights in areas such as taxation and kinship to cohabiting same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

Position on Ecumenism

Irish Church Missions maintains a stance against 'theological ecumenism'. The organisation has recently welcomed the framework announced by the Vatican for the transfer of certain groups of Anglo-Catholics as a means of advancing their aims. According to ICM, the move has demonstrated the futility of the theological ecumenical movement. It is the position of the organisation that evangelicalism has always held that there "is no squaring the theological circle".

ICM does however support 'practical ecumenism' with other religious communities in tackling social issues on which there is common ground.

Position on the Church of Ireland

ICM is highly critical of the direction of its own Church, accusing it of developing a liberal identity which they believe 'has nothing to offer Irish society'. The organisation has stated:

"According to its own foundational documents, the Church of Ireland is a Protestant church. Unfortunately, it's a Protestant church without a Protestant message."

Position on Global Anglicanism

The Superintendent of the Irish Church Missions has been highly critical of the direction of the global Anglican Church, in particular the Archbishop of Canterbury.

According to a report in the ICM Magazine, ICM News:

Not only had these Anglican provinces ignored the pleas of the rest of the Anglican Communion to cease pursuing this unscriptural agenda, but there had been a manifest failure by the Anglican ‘instruments of unity’ (especially the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ meeting) to discipline them for it.

It appears from information available from ICM News that it is currently beginning to align itself with the Global Anglican Future Conference, which has come in for some criticism from many leading voices within Anglicanism, including the conservative former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

External links

• Irish Church Missions