Approval is secured for draft Methodist covenant

The Church of Ireland General Synod yesterday unanimously approved a draft covenant between it and the Methodist Church in Ireland. It acknowledged both churches "as belonging to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ and as truly participating in the apostolic mission of the whole people of God."

It acknowledged that in each Church the Word of God is preached authentically and that both administer authentically the sacraments of baptism and holy communion.

It acknowledged that both shared a common faith, as set forth in scriptures and summarised in the historic creeds, and a common inheritance of spirituality and liturgy. It recognised each other's ministers and looked forward to a time when ministries would be fully interchangeable "and our churches visibly united".

Speaking to the General Synod, the Methodist Church's President, the Rev Harold Good, pointed out that John Wesley was a devout Anglican all his life and "resolutely resisted any talk of separation during his lifetime. It was literally over his dead body that separation took place."

A private member's Bill proposing reform of representation at the General Synod, presented by Canon Brian Courtney, of Clogher diocese, was denied a first reading yesterday by 187 votes to 148. Canon Courtney proposed that representation be based on 50 per cent of the cures in any diocese, with no diocese being allowed have less than four clerical and eight lay representatives. He argued that allowing "the present inequality" (where Northern representatives are concerned) demeaned the synod and was "a contrived sectarianism within our own Church". It was "unfair and indeed indecently so", he said.

Opposing, Bishop John Neill of Cashel and Ossory, acknowledged it as "a fact that the majority of the clergy and of the laity who belong to the Church of Ireland are in Northern Ireland - but that is six counties out of 32 - and the General Synod needs to be fully representative of the whole island."