The Bishop of Derry and Raphoe said yesterday that what he called the trust deficit between Northern Ireland's politicians was heavily in overdraft.
Addressing his first Church of Ireland diocesan synod in Derry since his appointment last summer, Bishop Ken Good also said that the continued existence of loyalist and republican paramilitary groups not only undermined trust but also dissipated confidence.
Bishop Good told the synod that while trust levels had increased over recent years, trust building was a very slow and tedious process.
"Those politicians who have taken a risk in modelling engagement in our devolved government and have shown courage in attempting trust-building, deserve credit for stepping beyond their comfort zones and giving a lead", he said.
"The strain of increased mistrust of late has now put in jeopardy the survival of the very institutions that were designed to build trust. The trust-deficit is still heavily in overdraft.
"One of the features of our society that most undermines trust and in fact ferments and perpetuates the deepest of mistrust, is the lingering determination by a small number to pursue the path of paramilitary violence, or even to maintain a link of any kind, be it a blatant or tenuous connection, with paramilitary influences", he said.
Bishop Good added that paramilitaries should be reminded that their threat, patent or shadowy, must be declared by their leadership to be over.
"Is it not clear to them that their methods are so destructive and negative that any violent actions they engage in now entirely undermine the very cause they might have been seeking to promote?
"The days ahead will be in the hands of the trust builders, not the trust destroyers, and the very existence of such organisations does nothing but undermine and dissipate confidence.
"The apology to the 'loved ones of all innocent victims' which accompanied the Loyalist ceasefire in 1994 and the more recent apology by the IRA to 'non-combatant's families' are steps in the right direction, but need to be followed up now with unambiguous trust-building evidence of disbandment", he said.