The Methodist Church in Ireland has called for the appointment of "a victims commissioner" in the North and for further funding for victims' groups there, as a clear sign of Government commitment to a healing process.
It said it would welcome a meeting with the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, to discuss a healing process in the North that would put "the needs of victims before party political self-interest".
In a statement yesterday, released in Dublin at the church's annual conference, the Methodist president, Rev Dr Brian Fletcher, and the officers of the church's Council for Social Responsibility welcomed Mr Murphy's decision to visit South Africa to see how the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had worked there. However, they believed any such process in Northern Ireland had to be "unique to the particular circumstances, conditions, culture and convictions" of the people there.
Urging that no model for a healing process should yet be eliminated, they emphasised that any process needed "a major pastoral dimension". That would also allow "an opportunity for the churches - which have, arguably, been part of the problem - to contribute generously to the healing".
They encouraged "all parties to the past conflict to become partners in a peaceful and shared future by working together to find a common, and not disputed, understanding of the last 30 years".
Mr Robert Cochran, secretary of the church's Council for Social Responsibility, expressed disappointment at the conference that churches had not presented a stronger moral voice on the citizenship referendum.
He said that although people had voted overwhelmingly for change last Friday, the Methodists' strong stance for a No vote had "found a resonance with certain people". The church's role was "to be a prophetic voice in our society", he said. He feared the referendum had "given a certain legitimacy to voices out there" which might not have happened otherwise.
Though not arguing for an open-door policy in Ireland when it came to immigrants and/or asylum-seekers, he felt the Government was not so much closing loopholes in the law as making it increasingly difficult for people to come here by adopting a minimalist approach to the issue.
It was discreetly pointed out to The Irish Times at the Methodist conference yesterday that Archbishop Dermot Ryan was the first Catholic archbishop of Dublin to attend the installation of a Methodist president, and not Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, as reported. Archbishop Ryan did so in 1972, at Christ Church Rathgar. However it was graciously conceded that, last Saturday, and as also reported by The Irish Times, Archbishop Martin was the first Catholic archbishop of Dublin to address a conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland.