Politicians in Northern Ireland should "avoid at all costs" the use of inflammatory language during the UK general election campaign, the Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, said yesterday.
"In Northern Ireland, words can hurt, and too often, as we know, words can kill," he said in his address to the Church of Ireland General Synod in Dublin.
Dr Eames appealed to those involved in the political process to "do all in their power to regard language as a most sensitive and important element of the election process".
"Issues must be debated freely. Views must be expressed clearly. But intemperate language, sectarian feelings expressed through word or attitude, which can inflame local tensions, must be avoided at all costs."
Dr Eames appealed to all involved in the dispute at Drumcree to focus on what was possible through mediation. "The Church of Ireland does not, cannot and will not condone the scenes of sectarian hatred we have seen in previous years, so often orchestrated by those who have their own agenda and little or no interest in the concerns of the Orange Order or the Residents' Coalition."
He said simplistic solutions, criticism from afar and insensitive comment all made the work of accommodation more difficult. The Church of Ireland had used every available avenue to condemn the scenes of sectarian hatred, he said, and he would not be intimidated into silence.
Dr Eames paid tribute to the RUC, "a force which has been a political football and a force which has had to face up to its shortcomings, but also a force which has held the line between terror and ordinary decent people."
He encouraged young Church of Ireland members to consider a career in the new Northern Ireland police service and said the vast majority of people wanted to see an independent, effective and modern police service for the entire community.
Dr Eames criticised those whose behaviour had led to the spreading of foot-and-mouth disease, saying: "We condemn the irresponsible, even criminal, actions of the few who have shown such disregard for the welfare of others."
The foot-and-mouth crisis was a "sobering reminder of our dependence on the benefits of God's earth and God's creation". It reminded us that modern humankind needed to devote more care to nature. "Nature has a habit of bringing us up short and reminding us of priorities in God's creation when we fail to devote sufficient attention to the rules of nature."
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey, said the "extraordinary display of solidarity" during the foot-and-mouth crisis was a "great tribute to all". He said he had criticised politicians North and South in the past, but he believed that "praise should be lavished on Brid Rodgers and Joe Walsh", agriculture ministers in both jurisdictions. These remarks were loudly applauded.
The effect of the economic boom on the individual was questioned by Dr Eames, who said that the economist had become the Irish prophet of the new millennium. "What does economic prosperity say about the ways we make judgment of what is good, what is success, what is failure and what makes up the truly compassionate society?"
With such changes in society, "the church must change when ways of presenting the eternal Gospel were no longer relevant to society", Dr Eames said.
"An Ireland which loses its spiritual dimension is an Ireland which is set on course to community crisis. An Irish church which fails to preach the value of an individual is a church which has already become irrelevant."
