The real issue in the recent debate about the President, Mrs McAleese, taking Holy Communion at Christ Church Cathedral was not about the presence or absence of Christ in the sacrament but about power and control, the Archdeacon of Dublin said yesterday.
"Power and control; the parents of bigotry and sectarianism, an extreme indication of the absence of Christ and tragically manifested in the outrageous murders in Northern Ireland of recent weeks, where people on both sides were slaughtered simply because of their religious/political identity," the Ven Gordon Linney said in his sermon at the cathedral.
He praised the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, who had expressed regret for any hurt he had caused. The archdeacon said Christ was palpably present in the words Dr Connell spoke at a recent ecumenical service.
On the issue of power and control he asked: "Where is the active leadership at a senior level in any of our churches that indicates any awareness that unresolved tribal and denominational prejudices filter down to street level in forms that give credibility to men and women possessed by hatred and fear and allows them - even encourages them - to feel justified in committing atrocities?"
The archdeacon said that in an interview on RTE Radio 1 he had made the point that the Communion debate need not necessarily be a bad thing. He had reminded listeners that the controversy and even the harsh words could be helpful both as a warning and as a stimulus.
The warning was of the dangers of religious arrogance and bigotry and the stimulus was to all to advance with greater urgency the cause of ecumenism and the work of reconciliation on this island.