Methodist conference: The new president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Desmond Bain, has described as "disgraceful" that the Government, "with an economy itself boosted by others, has actually cut back on its solemn UN commitment to aid."
He also pleaded for "simple and transparent procedures" for immigrants and asylum-seekers.
Mr Bain was speaking after his installation as president in the Methodist Church in Thomas Street, Portadown, Co Armagh, last night at the opening session of this year's annual conference.
He commented that as "the G8 summit meets in Edinburgh next month and in a deluge of protest, leaders are expected to do more to alleviate world debt and tackle world poverty.
"They need to be confronted . . . but nations cannot do what individuals won't do. If we do not meet our own targets, where is the moral ground from which to confront policy-makers?" he asked.
Within the church they had not yet come near contributing as aid the 1 per cent of net incomes they had sought to do for nearly 40 years, he said.
Recalling the Christian Aid ad which said "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime", he said it taught the difference between aid and development.
"But teaching someone to fish is useless unless you move over to give him a share of the pond. And that is the next step," Mr Bain said.
Commending all who had made new residents and asylum-seekers welcome, he pleaded that families of non-nationals "be treated with compassion and given the opportunities to settle and find a home, in the same manner that we actually ask at least one other nation to treat undocumented Irish emigrants today."
Expressing firm belief in Christian unity, he said: "We are of Christ's church first, Methodist by denomination." Unity was "not about a super-church or one big organisation under one style of leadership . . . The Lord's call to unity does not mean he will take us out of our denominations, but he means he wants to take the denominations out of us."