ROBERT WILLIAMSON,
Sir, - I was surprised and disappointed to read the statement by the Archbishop of Dublin in which he says he was horrified by the views of the Dean of Clonmacnoise (The Irish Times, January 9th).
In an interview in the Sunday Times some weeks ago, Dean Furlong said he informed a previous Archbishop of Dublin about his views, and was told by him to go on searching. Surely this was the time to remove him from his duties, if they were found to have been so unorthodox.
I agree with the letter from Prof Andrew Mayes (January 9th) and would like to see Andrew Furlong continue searching in dialogue with the Church.
I am secretary of the select vestry of the cathedral in Trim but am writing this letter in a personal capacity.
For 50 years I have attended Church services regularly. Most of them were boring in the extreme, and in many cases I believe the preacher spoke in ignorance of both the Bible and of the world in which we live. By contrast, since the appointment of Andrew Furlong as dean and rector in Trim, I have been uplifted, drawn towards God and searching for myself, and touched by a very obviously deeply spiritual man.
Nobody in the parish of Trim who had needed spiritual or pastoral help has anything but praise for our dean, and as far as I know nobody, until the Bishop suspended him, had anything to say by way of criticism about the way he read the liturgy or preached to us.
As a result of the Dean's suspension, we in Trim have been left without a "hands-on" rector to run the day-to-day affairs of our busy parish. The suspension particularly at one of the busiest times of the year, has left the parish rudderless and the sick and bereaved without the continuity of a familiar face and friend.
Is this a worst-case example of theology before people? - Yours, etc.,
ROBERT WILLIAMSON,
Knightsbrook House,
Trim,
Co Meath.