Former Green leader studying for priesthood
TREVOR Sargent, the former leader of the Green Party who lives in County Wexford, is studying to become a Church of Ireland priest.
A former deputy for North Dublin and Minister of State in the Fianna Fáil/Green Party coalition government, Mr Sargent, has was an active worshipper throughout his political career, and was church warden in his local parish in Balbriggan, Dublin.
After losing his seat in 2011, he moved to Tacumshane, where he lives with his second wife, Aine Neville.
In an interview in the Irish Independent’s ‘Review’, he said: ‘I have had a calling to the church since my school days. The long and winding road that we go on is sometimes hard to account for.’
He has been training at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Churchtown in Dublin and is studying for a Masters degree in Theology at Trinity College.
If all goes to plan, Mr Sargent will first be ordained a deacon and during that year he will be on placement in the Tullow Union of Parishes under Archdeacon Andrew Orr before becoming a curate which could take him to any parish in the country,
As a politician, Mr Sargent did not feel free to express his faith openly.
He said a life in politics and a life in the church are similar in some ways, but different in others.
‘ The common theme ought to be a sense of service. But the nature of a Christian calling is that you are never the boss, you are always the servant.
‘ The boss is Jesus Christ, and when you forget that you go off the rails.
‘In politics, you have to convey the idea that you are superhuman, because your competitors are going to convey that’.
Canon Arthur Minion, from St Iberius Church in Wexford, said Mr Sargent was being sponsored by the United Diocese of Cashel, Ferns and Ossory under Bishop Michael Burrows.
‘I have got to know him well and he has been assisting in taking services when he’s home from college,’ said Canon Arthur.