Conference of Churches vote loses urgency

Decisions on whether to join the planned Conference of Churches in Ireland (CCI) and on its proposed constitution which were due to be taken at the Methodist Conference in Cork today may have been rendered redundant by the Presbyterian General Assembly in Belfast this week.

A significant majority of 224 to 144 at the General Assembly voted against joining the CCI because it would include the Roman Catholic Church. Speakers feared that being part of such a body might mean they could be compromised theologically.

The conference would have included all Christian denominations on the island but it was agreed in advance that none would participate if all did not participate. Effectively, the proposed body is now on ice until the Presbyterians decide differently. It was expected the Methodists would agree to join the conference.

In his last address as President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev David Kerr told delegates to the conference last night it was of the "utmost urgency that the political parties find a solution to the current impasse". Neither the vast majority of people nor history would judge kindly those elected with such an overwhelming mandate who failed to deliver on implementation of the agreement, he said. He urged both sides in the Drumcree crisis to continue talking "until they reach an honourable compromise which will remove this sorry blot from the life of our society".

The new president of the church, Dr Kenneth Wilson, paid tribute to all in Ireland who work as reconciliators. Reconciliation would be one of the main themes of his year, he promised, saying that in his experience it was only when people became truly reconciled to God that they had the desire and energy to live at peace with their neighbours.

The Methodist Conference will continue until Tuesday. The church is the smallest of Ireland's four main Christian denominations, with a membership of 57,459 on the island as a whole, over 50,000 of whom are in Northern Ireland.

One of the issues to be considered this weekend is morality in politics. A report, being presented by the church's southern executive, said "unfortunately, the high standards which should be present have not always been adhered to", as illustrated, it said, by the need "to set up several tribunals of inquiry to investigate a succession of alleged shortcomings in the past".

Another report is very critical of Government policy on refugees. It said that "unfortunately, we have to report again that only limited action had been taken by the Government on this matter". There was, it said, "little evidence of the generous and caring attitude either by the Government or by society which we believe is the correct Christian response".

A strongly worded motion from the Dublin District calls for all those refugees awaiting a Government decision on their status for a year to be automatically granted asylum. It also wants refugees who are in the country six months to be allowed work, the immediate implementation of the 1996 Refugees Act, an independent body to handle appeals against deportation, and greater transparency by the Department of Justice in all its dealings with refugees.

The Church's Education Board has welcomed the Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) syllabus as "an enlightened attempt to prepare young people for adult responsibility in the context of family values and religious beliefs".