IRELAND: Archbishop reflects on Holy Land visit, condemns car bomb attack
Episcopal News Service, Galway, Ireland. May 13, 2008 [051308-01]
Matthew Davies
Archbishop Alan Harper opened the Church of Ireland's General Synod May 13 reflecting on a recent visit to the Holy Land, condemning the car bomb attack on a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer, and outlining a "new and sustaining vision for the Church of Ireland in the 21st century."
The General Synod, the main decision-making body of the Church of Ireland, is meeting through May 15 in Galway, a city on the west coast of the Republic of Ireland.
Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland since February 2007, told a news conference following the synod's opening session that the Church of Ireland remains in communion with every part of the Anglican Communion and spoke about his hopes for this summer's Lambeth Conference of bishops. "I believe that we will find a way to manage the differences that we have with respect to everyone's ethically held positions," he said.
Harper described the July 16-August 3 conference in Canterbury as an opportunity for the bishops "to pray together, to study together, to discuss the problems and issues which are particularly current from their own perspectives and in their own backgrounds, to gain strength from one another, and to recognize in one another a Communion which goes back over many centuries."
Acknowledging that it has the power to make resolutions, but that the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces are not required to conform to them, Harper said the conference "was never set up as a legislative body and it is not that now. If there is a particular direction that is to be embraced by the whole Communion, it isn't the Lambeth Conference that makes that decision."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has invited some 880 bishops to attend this year's gathering. Harper noted that certain bishops and primates have indicated their intention to boycott the Lambeth Conference, but said he expects the once-a-decade gathering to "reinforce the relationships amongst those bishops who attend."
In his presidential address to the General Synod, which meets once a year, Harper described his April 29-May 2 visit to the Holy Land as "harrowing but not hopeless."
Joined by Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh Seán Brady, the Rev. Roy Cooper, president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Rev. John Finlay, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Harper said he had been "deeply moved by the resilience of West Bank Palestinians in circumstances of intolerable hardship, denial of dignity and severe restriction of freedom of movement."
The ecumenical delegation visited the Holy Land at the invitation of Trócaire and Christian Aid.
Condemning the "abhorrent assassination attempt" on May 12 of a PSNI officer at Spamount near Castlederg, Northern Ireland, Harper said the synod's first concern "must be to pray for the full recovery of the officer concerned. Our second is to thank God for the courage of the member of the public who pulled the officer from the wreckage. Our third is to declare unequivocally that such actions…are totally unacceptable, an affront to God, to human decency and to the democratically expressed will of the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland today."
The officer, who was rushed to hospital after the vehicle in which he was traveling exploded, reportedly suffered leg and lower body injuries in the blast.
"The perpetrators are yesterday's men, they do not represent the aspirations of any significant body of opinion in Ireland," said Harper. "The future will not be determined by violence, it will be determined by building on trust, respect and consensus."
Harper identified three key words -- growth, unity, service -- which assisted the bishops in articulating a vision for the Church of Ireland in the 21st century.
He suggested that a mission statement, developed by a review team, along with the bishops' vision statement "set overall priorities for the work of the Church of Ireland, making it easier to determine the focus of our energies."
"Important though the work of the Church in its central councils may be, we all recognize that the work of the kingdom takes place first and foremost in the dioceses and parishes," he said. "The bishops are very clear that these statements are intended to have particular relevance in shaping daily life at diocesan and parish level. We are also clear that there is a tremendous variety of need and emphasis among dioceses."
Saying that "one size does not fit all," Harper noted that each diocese "is free to interpret the components of the mission and vision statements in ways that most faithfully meet the priorities of mission in their own back yard."
Concluding his address, Harper commended the bishops' vision. "May it nourish and direct us as we seek to discern what God is already doing and then to join in."
The General Synod welcomed representatives from the Church of England, Methodist Church in Ireland, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Moravian Church of Britain and Ireland, and the Irish Council of Churches.
President of Ireland Mary McAleese will address the General Synod on May 14. McAleese's speech will mark the first time a President of Ireland has addressed General Synod.
The Church of Ireland includes 12 dioceses with 390,000 members throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.