A Church of Ireland bishop has called on the churches to take a more pro-active role in countering sectarianism and in working for peace and reconciliation in Ireland, and to accept they must change and adapt in order to survive.
Speaking at the McGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, yesterday, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr James Mehaffey, was addressing Christianity's place in the new millennium. He said that first and foremost Christianity must be relevant, and the churches in Ireland had a responsibility to bring about mutual understanding and to promote mutual respect for different traditions.
"Failure in this crucial area will lead to the churches being pushed further out on to the periphery of society," he said.
Secondly, Christianity must be "more user-friendly" as the tension between the churches' authority and the rights of individual conscience becomes an increasingly important focal point. This means people will demand to be allowed to work out in conscience, for themselves and their families, moral and ethical questions, particularly those concerning sexuality, marriage and family life.
Thirdly, Christianity must be more open. "Any attempt by the churches to conduct business behind closed doors will become a thing of the past," he said, as "people will demand to know and be informed".
Fourthly, Christianity has to be expressed more and more in ecumenical terms. In the new millennium there will be increasing emphasis on the common ground of faith "and a corresponding reluctance to speak of denominational Christianity".
This, he believed, would be a major challenge to the Irish churches, where there is "little ecumenical work". It will mean a growing impatience with problems in areas such as inter-communion and inter-church marriage.
Fifthly, he said, there will be an increasing emphasis on the importance of personal religious experience, which will be characterised by "its warmth and immediacy" and will have "a direct bearing on the lifestyle of the individual concerned".
He forecast a continuing decline in church attendance, but believed this would be offset by a growing number of people whose personal faith in God will be the dominant and all-controlling factor in their lives.
As regards prospects for the churches in Ireland in the next millennium, he felt these were dependent on acceptance by the churches that they must change and adapt to survive. This was a part of the "very genius" of Christianity, which had enabled it to survive, grow and develop over 2,000 years.
There must also be a concerted attempt by the churches to recover the core values of the gospels. This spiritual renewal "is the greatest single thing needed by all the churches". There had also to be a recognition by the churches that Christianity is divinely initiated and inspired, "and that it has an inherent eternal and indestructible quality about it".
