The new Archbishop of Armagh

Reform Ireland issues a call to prayer

Reform Ireland calls on all members to pray for Alan Harper to fulfil all the vows of his consecration as he takes up position as Archbishop of Armagh. In particular, we will pray for him to fulfil the promises that every Church of Ireland bishop makes: to faithfully teach Holy Scripture, live by its standards and defend the church from teaching and practices that are contrary to God’s Word written. A faithful adherence to those promises is the tone that the Church of Ireland desperately needs in this new era.

The new Archbishop begins his ministry at a very difficult and potentially divisive time in the life of world Anglicanism which includes the Church of Ireland. In the 1990s, the whole Anglican Communion had been encouraged by the 1988 Lambeth Conference to actively commit itself to a ‘decade of evangelism’. The Church of Ireland’s embracing of this call was muted and sporadic; whilst some churches flourished, ultimately there has been a failure to stem the steady decline in church attendance. We call on the Archbishop-elect to make the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the key priority of the whole Church of Ireland, and to actively promote the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and evangelism. The Church of Ireland needs once again to recapture its missionary vision and zeal.

A recent independent report on theological education in the Church of Ireland, has confirmed that the Church of Ireland Theological College is deficient in the quality of the theological training provided for ordinands which has resulted in a lack of pastoral skills and an inability to preach the Word of God with conviction. Such deficiencies have resulted in declining parish numbers and a severe reluctance to engage in evangelistic outreach within the Church of Ireland. CITC is the sole responsibility of the House of Bishops and it is imperative therefore for the Archbishop-elect not just to make the House of Bishops formally accountable to the wider church on the direction and quality of ordination training, but to ensure that a biblically-literate and faithful clergy have the ability to minister the Gospel of Christ to their churches and surrounding communities.

No doubt many difficult tasks face the Archbishop-elect, not the least the thorny issue of General Synod representation which is unduly weighted in favour of the numerically smaller dioceses. However, much of the future direction of the Church of Ireland under this new Archbishop-elect will depend on his willingness, not only to actively promote the Gospel, but also to defend the Church of Ireland from teaching that is contrary to God’s Word.

The human sexuality issue is the centrally divisive issue of today within Anglicanism. Reform Ireland was alarmed at the comments made by the new Archbishop-elect in his recent interview with William Crawley, on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence (14th January 2007), and especially at his failure to uphold the orthodox, biblical and traditional church teaching on this issue. Reform Ireland is aware that the new Archbishop-elect has in the past expressed similar unbiblical views which led to some of the clergy in Connor diocese writing to him to express their grave concerns. We note that in the past the new Archbishop-elect has stated that he would not permit the blessing of same-sex relationships but last Sunday’s interview raised serious doubts about the direction he would lead the church of Ireland on this issue. We would call on the new Archbishop-elect to shun false teaching and to state publicly that he is in agreement with the traditional and orthodox teaching of the Church of Ireland on the issue of human sexuality and that he agrees with Lambeth I.10. Failure to uphold the orthodox teaching of the church on marriage and sexuality may well lead to the Church of Ireland itself being cut off from world-wide Anglicanism that is remaining faithful to the Bible and traditional Christian teaching.

Reform Ireland humbly requests all to pray for the new Archbishop, his wife Helen and family that God may richly bless him with the gifts, vision and courage to lead the Church of Ireland according to Scripture and with the aim to win this island for Christ Jesus.

19th January 2007