The new President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev David Kerr, has said he would view a total ban on abortion in the Republic "with some alarm". "It would make it impossible for those whose consciences dictated otherwise," he said. Last Monday similar views were expressed in this newspaper by the Rev Dr John Dixon, the new Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
Mr Kerr, who was installed as President of the Methodist Church in Dublin last Friday, said at the opening of its annual conference: "I would view limited abortion as a lesser evil than a return to backstreet abortions." And though he would not be happy to see abortion freely available, "I would accept it in certain medical cases".
Where the life of the mother was threatened it was "the lesser of two evils", and where rape was concerned "we are moving into a very grey area where it is difficult to be prescriptive".
"There ought to be the opportunity for abortion, following careful consideration and professional counselling," he said.
He instanced circumstances where he would find abortion acceptable, following such consideration and counselling, as including cases of severe deformity of the foetus, as well as some rape cases and where the life of the mother was threatened.
Mr Kerr's presidency begins at a buoyant time in the church's history. While its numbers have remained more or less static since 1992 - holding at around 57,500 on the island - its revenues reflect the prosperity of the times, with a pension investment fund worth more than £10 million.
The Methodist Church is the smallest of the four major Christian denominations in Ireland. According to Mr Kerr, members may have been too close-knit in the past. But in recent years, particularly in the Republic, members had become more involved in mainstream life, with growing confidence.
"We are finding our minority status respected; we are listened to," he said, whereas in the North he felt they still thought along denominational lines.
Division between the churches
The churches have tended to think along such lines, he said. "We have been the inheritors of `denominationalism', chaplains to our own tribes, ministering pastorally to our own people. So now it can be difficult to reach out when you still feel under threat."
He believed all of the churches had problems acknowledging the sectarianism within and agreed all of them had contributed to the divisions in Irish society.
"The churches must be honest and own up to this. The 20th century has been a time when the major world churches have drawn as close together as conscience allows and with a growing awareness of what they have in common in this growing secular age."
He agreed it was ironic that it took an outside "enemy" - secularism - to force the churches to address their differences. "Sometimes God has to force us to do His will. The churches, like society, are made up of sinful humanity."
Ecumenism operated at different levels: that of the theological drawing together and of understanding each other's doctrinal stances. A revision of liturgy in all churches had begun to highlight their similarities. "During the octave of Christian Unity (last January), I attended a service in a Roman Catholic church in south Belfast. I asked some of my congregation to come with me and they did. "We were warmly welcomed and at the conclusion one of the recurring comments (from his congregation colleagues) was how similar the service was to our own."
Personally, he had no difficulty attending services in Catholic churches. He served in Limerick from 1969 to 1974, "a very formative experience for me". "The ecumenism trend had begun. I found a warm and ready welcome at Catholic services. There were many peace services and people were eager to talk about things. I did not think I was personally compromising anything I believed in (by taking part in such services) and I had a rich, personal fellowship with other Christians."
Inter-church Communion
He believed the recent controversy over the President, Mrs McAleese, taking Communion in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin was "an unfortunate row when some ill-considered comments were made which could be, and were, interpreted as quite hurtful to members of the various Protestant churches".
"I recognise, however, that the Roman Catholic Church has a very clear direction on interchurch Communion." But he was reminded of the words of Eric Hoffer, a US sociologist, who had said: "In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists."
But all the Irish churches had a common Celtic church history "which had a great capacity to see what was good in society. The tremendous thing about the resurgence of Celtic Christianity is the awareness that the Celts had such a world-affirming faith; it saw the world as good." Somehow the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches had become world-denying. He found the recovery of Celtic Christianity "very refreshing, and it is not just confined to Ireland, but includes Wales, Scotland, Cornwall and Brittany".
But he "fully respects" the current Roman Catholic position on inter-church Communion. "It would be my prayer that, sooner or later, it would be possible for all Christians, in good standing with their own church, to be able to take Communion at one another's table." Currently all such Christians were welcome to take Communion at relevant Methodist services. The Methodist Church had an "open table" policy.
Inter-church marriage
He welcomed the progress made on interchurch marriage and was grateful to "all the Roman Catholic dioceses who have appointed a priest with special responsibility for the pastoral care of inter-church couples". He himself was glad to take part in marriages within the Catholic tradition and was personally open to having a priest present at marriages within the Protestant tradition.
Asked about the Catholic Church direction that the Catholic partner in an inter-church marriage should not take Communion in a Protestant church, and that the Protestant partner should not take Communion in a Catholic church, he said: "I think it is sad that people who are brought together in love, with a deep faith in the common Lord, find it is not possible to share together at the Lord's table in what is probably the greatest expression of His love outside of Calvary."
It was true that his own church had also suffered under the Catholic Church's Ne Temere mixed marriages decree, particularly among Methodist farmers in the Republic, "but the impact (of Catholic teaching on inter-church marriage) is not as great now, though it is still very real".
He agreed the Methodist Church was close to the Church of Ireland/Anglican Church from which it originally emerged and discussions by an inter-church theological commission were making "good progress".
The main differences between Methodism and Anglicanism centred on government structure and liturgy. There were no bishops in the Methodist Church, where authority resided at circuit, district, and conference level, with the President being but a first among equals for a year. And Methodist liturgy was more freeform than was the case with Anglican liturgy.
Post-referendum Northern Ireland
Mr Kerr said that while he, like so many ministers, has ministered to those who had suffered through violence in the North, he believed people had to put the release of prisoners' issue in perspective.
"In the past number of years, 13,000 prisoners have been released with little evidence of them reoffending. We are talking about 250 (prisoners) or so and I understand three-quarters of them were due for release within the next two years anyhow. Yet I do understand the very emotional thing of seeing people who have done such terrible things being released."
His own experience, and that of so many among his own and the Catholic community, on seeing "the powerful images of the Balcombe Street prisoners and Michael Stone was the same revulsion". The release of Stone just added to the misjudgment. "Gerry Adams and the Sinn Fein leadership seem to have been a little taken aback (at the reception given to the Balcombe Street prisoners). As a Protestant, I need to note that."
However, he did not think Mr Adams's comment in the US, that the IRA would decommission when the security forces did likewise, was helpful. "It was not a helpful comment to link the security forces of the state, under the control of elected lawful authority, with paramilitary groups." However, he looked forward to the day when decommissioning had taken place and there was enough confidence for there to be an unarmed police force in Northern Ireland.
"The imbalance in the RUC distresses everyone," he said. He welcomed Mr Chris Patten's new commission. "I look forward to its first report. But you have to be aware it has been difficult for Catholics to join the RUC. I know (Catholic) officers for whom it has meant loss of contact with their families. There's a double standard in operation there. Sinn Fein then complains about the composition of the RUC."
While the matter of former paramilitaries in the government of Northern Ireland was a cause of a lot of heart-searching and unease among many, he reflected that "at the heart of the Gospel is the offer of forgiveness and an opportunity for a new life".
"And already there are many examples in the community of former paramilitaries who have worked to promote peace and reconciliation. I don't see why they shouldn't take their place in an administration."