THE Church of Ireland primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, has said he "utterly deplores" the weekend loyalist pickets outside Catholic churches in Co Antrim.
Dr Eames said that when people start interfering with the right to worship God, "we have reached a very low level".
Calling on those protesting outside churches to stop, Dr Eames said: "The freedom of worship and the freedom to worship is in my book a total absolute and I utterly utterly deplore what is going on.
He made the remarks in Kildare yesterday where he was taking part in a service to mark the centenary of the first restoration of St Brigid's Cathedral in 1896.
The recently consecrated Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the Most Rev Richard Clarke, and the Dean of Kildare, the Very Rev Robert Townley, also took part in the service which was attended by local Fine Gael TD, Mr Alan Dukes.
Speaking before he delivered his sermon in the cathedral, Dr Eames also condemned as immoral the recent boycotts of shops by both Protestants and Catholics in the North which was "the road to ruin".
"I think it is utterly deplorable. Quite apart from the economic consequences, but for the whole community, I just think to go down that road is asking for serious trouble and I again would plead for it to end on both sides," he said.
On the issue of contentious Orange marches, Dr Eames said the right to march co existed with the right to object and a "sensible adult attitude" to the issue could lead to its resolution.
"There's no substitute for local agreement because there's no absolute right to march and there's no absolute right to protest. It's somewhere between the two," he said.
Dr Eames said the peace process was going through an extremely difficult period and called for a resumption of the IRA ceasefire in order to remove fear, misapprehension and wrong perceptions and open the door to those who say they are longing to see progress".
Dr Eames extended his sympathy to the Catholic Church in Scotland following the recent revelations that former Bishop Roderick Wright had fathered a 15 year old son.