Members of C of I have `a respected place' in Republic

The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin said last night that members in the Republic had failed to get across to their Northern church members the message that they were proud of their country and were happy to play their part in its life and development.

Addressing the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan synod in Dundrum, Dr Walton Empey said that in the North there was still a perception that the South was a theocratic state as in the days of Archbishop McQuaid, whereas "we are light years away from those days".

Church members in the South had a respected place in the life of the country even if Drumcree had damaged them, and he urged the synod to encourage Northerners "to come down here and see for themselves just as they want us to try to understand the North".

On Drumcree, he said: "We have all been hurt, ashamed and damaged by the events following the service there," but there was no question of it causing a split in the church, as suggested recently by Mr John Taylor MP (a Presbyterian). Mr Taylor's "ignorance of the Church of Ireland seems to be total", Dr Empey remarked.

Events surrounding Drumcree had "shocked members of the church in both jurisdictions and indeed, to be fair, a large number of decent Orangemen also". He added: "As Christians we need to ad dress the cancer of bigotry in religious rather than political terms."

He asked how those responsible for the violence at Drumcree could justify all in terms of the Christian gospel.

Dr Empey also appealed to the IRA to tell relatives of the missing where their bodies could be found. Their refusal to do so was one of the most cynical and unnecessary causes of further pain to the relatives.

Devoting the major part of his address to Third World debt, Dr Empey recalled how he went to the recent Lambeth Conference "somewhat concerned" about the issue but returned "shocked, horrified and not a little angry".

He took part in a recent street protest in Dublin about the issue and alongside him was a little Filipino child with a placard which read: "I am only five years old but the IMF tells me I owe them $500."

For every dollar earned in the Philippines, 43 cents were spent on paying the debt incurred by Ferdinand Marcos, he said. "This was not merely an immoral borrowing, it was also immoral in terms of the creditors. Surely before God it is corrupt lending agencies and not the children of the Philippines who should bear the moral and financial responsibility for the scandalous and immoral lending?"