The head of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames, today urged the Provisional IRA to declare their terrorist campaign has ended.
Dr Eames told a meeting of his Armagh Diocesan Synod it was time for loyalist and republican paramilitaries to announce the threat of violence was lifted and there was no going back to the dark days of the past. He called on the leadership to make a new move.
|
|
The Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, during his address of the Armagh Diocesan Synod, at Church House hall, Armagh. Photograph: PA.
|
"Give us the reassurance that the war is over for good. Then let us move on with a new confidence across the community. But let us move on together."
Dr Eames, whose Church of Ireland has an estimated 370,000 members - 90,000 of them in the Republic, said trust had to be reestablished.
"This is a time for real statesmanship. This is a time for genuine reassurance.
"This is a time to say plainly, without reservation, that the threat of violence, the continued existence of paramilitary force, the dread of a return to atrocities have gone and are no longer part of the equation," he said.