Bishop Empey's flock will miss a man of great good humour, much common sense and rare emotional intelligence, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent
A colleague recalled her surprise on seeing the rather ample middle-aged figure dash behind a car to avoid the "arrows" of advancing "injuns" as she arrived at her home in Dublin. Her surprise grew when she realised the unlikely "cowboy" under siege from neighbours' children was none other than the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev Walton Empey.
He had been visiting his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren nearby, but was "ambushed" as he left. It was typical that, instead of standing on the dignity of office, he would play with the kids.
He loves people. It is obvious. If the priesthood is not about people "then I don't know what is", he said when interviewed this week.
He has that gift rare among prominent prelates - great emotional intelligence. His empathy is spontaneous, natural, even unconscious. So, too, is his anger, as this reporter once experienced at a memorable General Synod some years ago. It followed an article critical of the church's handling of Drumcree. The anger, although rare, is part of the package, and rooted in the same, unstifled, unsifted emotional honesty.
He is retiring because he is tired. He has been a bishop for 21 years and feels it would be good for both him and the church if he stood down. The Slaney, near where his new home will be, beckons. He will fish there till kingdom come.
When he was ordained in 1958, he remembers the church leadership believed in keeping the head below the parapet. That began to change about 25 years ago, led by such doughty men as the former Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, the Very Rev Victor Griffin.
In the early 1970s, he made his own contribution to this process. He was Dean in Limerick at the time. He had been to visit two parishioners in Limerick jail, who were serving long sentences for shoplifting and salmon fishing.
On his way home, he passed a public meeting being addressed by an IRA killer on the run and unhampered by gardaí. The double standard incensed him and he said so in no uncertain terms. It sparked veiled threats about his children and sinister phone calls. None of which distracted him. He continued to speak out.
His independence of mind he attributes to his parents, Rev Frank and Mildred Empey. Both were strong, colourful people. Though he feels his brother, Canon Adrian Empey, principal of the Church of Ireland Theological College in Dublin, is most like his father. It was from his parents that he inherited his deep-seated ecumenism. When Rev Frank was rector at Donoughmore, Co Wicklow, he and the local Catholic parish priest were fast friends. It was very unusual at the time.
And when he was a young minister in Canada during the 1960s, he was close to Catholic clergy there. Ecumenism comes easy to him. So much so, as he explained, he "detests" the recent controversies around the issue in Dublin.
As well as hoping his successor would be as happy in the post as he has been, his fervent hope was that whoever took over "would continue to work hard on the ecumenical front and, if he is more academically-minded than me, that he will do so on that level." It was "very important to build on the very good relationships at local level," he said.
He remembers when such local relationships were otherwise. His father, who was a minister in Enniscorthy, died at the age of 53. It was during the grim 1950s and, despite the cross-community popularity of the Rev Frank Empey, local Catholics still had to seek permission from the then Catholic Bishop of Ferns, Dr Staunton, to attend the funeral.
They were refused. However, between 20 and 30 local Catholics attended, defying the ban. With characteristic forthrightness, Archbishop Empey recalled that just a short time before his father died, he was one of the young men in an FCA guard of honour for Bishop Staunton. On hearing of the ban on Catholics attending his father's funeral, he immediately regretted not giving Bishop Staunton a poke of his FCA bayonet while in that guard of honour.
He joined the FCA through a family friend in Enniscorthy, and soon discovered that "... in all modesty, I was a good shot." He enjoyed the life and later, as Bishop of Meath and Kildare, a diocese which includes the Curragh, Gormanston, and Athlone military barracks, he visited the Irish UN troops in the Lebanon four times.
He leaves office on July 31st, when he and his wife, Louie, retire to Rathmore, Co Carlow.
In the words of the Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, Dr Jim Moriarty (Cardinal Connell is in Rome), Archbishop Empey "has been not only a gifted and committed pastor of his own flock in the Church of Ireland, but also a very good friend to our community. We have greatly appreciated his friendship, understanding and his deeply ecumenical spirit."