| IN his presidential address to the Irish General Synod, meeting in Ireland this week in Galway, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Alan Harper, launched a strong attack on dissident Republicans who are thought to be responsible for the attempted murder of an off-duty policeman in Northern Ireland on Monday night.
Referring to the perpetrators as “yesterday’s men”, he said that the new political dispensation north and south of the border deserved the support and prayers of the Churches, as they worked to build a normal society based on freedom, honesty, justice, equality, trust, and compassion.
“This is no easy task. It is a task from which, I believe, they will not allow themselves to be diverted by the abhorrent assassination attempt last evening.”
Archbishop Harper said that, despite events such as this, “there is emerging a new vision of an Ireland that lives with its past, but not in it. “If I am right that one of the characteristics of any new vision of Ireland must incorporate interdependence as a significant component, it is necessary also to assert the falsity of those outdated understandings which assume that all of life is a nil-sum game: that is to say that for there to be winners, there must always be losers. Experience insists that either all must be winners, or all will be losers.
“No conflict is fully ended and no economic benefit permanently assured until all parties derive some, preferably equal, advantage. What might most threaten continued stability in Northern Ireland is any well-founded perception that one group has gained at the expense of another. Peace and stability depend on the creation of ‘win-win’ situations.”
He said that such an outcome is of equal importance to the grievously suffering people of Israel and Palestine, from which he recently returned following a visit with other Irish church leaders (News, 9 May).
“If the vision of peace and an interdependent future can take root in Ireland, aided by the patient commitment and enlightened self- interest of the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Republic of Ireland, may not a similar vision overtake the embattled peoples of Israel and Palestine?”
On training for ministry, he spoke of a new approach that would eliminate the distinction between stipendiary and non-stipendiary ministry. It would provide better opportunities in education and oversight by experienced clergy to encourage new skills and learning techniques that were tailored to suit candidates.
The Archbishop also spoke of a new vision for the Church of Ireland. It is working on new integrated structures, a new central headquarters for the Representative Church Body, as well as the successor to the current Church of Ireland Theological College and the research library and archive facility.
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