'˜He brought Gospel to millions'

The Service was the first organised by the Rev. David Houlton, who was instituted as Rector of the United Parishes of Conwal with Gartan in January this year.

He was assisted by his wife, Rev. Heather Houlton, the Dean of Raphoe, the Very Rev. Arthur Barrett, Rev. Canon Brian Smeaton and Rev. Katie McAteer. The Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Rt. Rev. Ken Good, presided. In his sermon, Rev. Houlton said he was raised in a church dedicated to St Columba’s, in Drypool, East Yorkshire.

“Standing here, where Saint Columba lived, if you look at the hills, and you can see the lakes of Donegal, it’s not hard to be struck, is it, in awe at the beauty of planet earth – the planet God’s given us to live in and care for?”

On a good day, the Rector said, it was like a foretaste of heaven, but this world wasn’t heaven.

“We, too, if we’re honest, are far from perfect,” he said. “Sometimes we can seem like angels and other times we can be rather more like the other lot. Famously, that is what Saint Columba found out in his own life. Although he was from a good family – well educated, a spiritual Christian and a good leader (he founded abbeys, including in Derry) – Columba, it is said, instigated a battle over the ownership of a book that led to hundreds of people being killed.”

Columba mourned this, Rev. Houlton said: “It seems to be the reason – that battle – why he [Columba] stepped outside his native Ireland and took the gospel to the pagan Picts in Scotland and from there, of course, his monks took the gospel of Jesus Christ south and east to the pagan tribes of England and the continent.”

“Thousands, no, millions of people who were living in darkness outside the Kingdom of God were brought to spiritual life – coming to know God in their hearts and lives – through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit because of his ministry and the monks and missionaries he inspired to take the gospel to other parts of Europe.”

Bishop Good revealed visited Gartan on retreat shortly before his consecration as Bishop of Derry and Raphoe 16 years ago.

“I did so again yesterday, and I was here, walking around this lake and praying – thanking God that he brought me to this place and this diocese and to these people.”