Church of Ireland Synod: A Church of Ireland bishop has said a study on sectarian attitudes within the church and presented to its General Synod yesterday made for "chilling reading".
Bishop Michael Jackson of Clogher said "we have been told, and presumably are now happy to tell ourselves, that we are the first church to admit to our own institutional sectarianism".
It was decided that the Hard Gospel Scoping Study, reported in this newspaper yesterday, should be disseminated for discussion at diocesan synods.
Bishop Jackson said that while sectarianism was wrongly perceived to be a Northern, rather than a Northern and Southern problem, "there is a particular problem in Northern Ireland about sectarianism and it is truly massive".
To many in the North "the language of human rights is long overdue, to many others it is very threatening," he said.
But all in the North were being called "to grow up socially in such a way that we work effectively for an understanding which goes way beyond tolerance or mere toleration of the other," he said. Reflecting on questions, "What has your Belfast Agreement to do with me?" and "Where do I fit into your two communities?" from a French Algerian atheist at an open consultation in Stormont, he remarked that aspects of the agreement were "already outmoded" as people from other countries came to live here.
"The fear now is that sectarianism will be succeeded by racism in Northern Ireland," he said. At a press conference about the report the Bishop of Connor, Right Rev Alan Harper, chairman of the church's Sectarianism Education Project Committee, agreed many members in the Republic tended to think of sectarianism as a Northern issue.
But colleagues of his in the South had encountered similar sectarian responses, particularly where inter-marriage, property, and land were concerned. Underlying which was the same human issue of the problem of living with difference.
The report had "implications for the church at every level", he said, and was "in this for the long haul".
Attitudes which had accumulated over centuries were "not going to be cured by throwing a switch," he said. He also felt the report had "better make a difference, otherwise I am wasting my time. And I don't like wasting time." He said he would like to see the report discussed at diocesan synods and reports sent back to the committee.
It would then put together "a flexible strategy for keeping the issue within the life of the church". Sectarianism was "the single most high priority issue for the church to address," he said, and "it was incompatible with Christianity".
He disagreed that being a member of the loyal orders was incompatible with Christianity. He knew order members who were good Christians.
For him the most surprising finding of the study was the discovery that they were "pushing an open door" within the church where the issue was concerned.
"Everybody" was asking that something be done and to get on with it, he said. He had been "stunned and delighted" at that.
In his address to the General Synod Bishop Jackson suggested, as a practical measure in addressing sectarianism, that parishes consider "tithing friendship to those of other nationalities and denominations as a way of getting to know our neighbours".
It would "enable people of goodwill to challenge those who manipulate public opinion downwards towards stalemate, antagonism and confrontation," he said.