BISHOP Walton Empey, who was elected yesterday as Archbishop of Dublin, says he would like to see more members of the Church of Ireland involved in public life, and joining the Army and the Garda.
The new archbishop succeeds Dr Donald Caird, who has retired.
The Church of Ireland college of electors, comprising clergy and lay people, deliberated from 10.30 a.m. until shortly after 5 p.m., with a break for lunch. It is understood that there were fours ballots before Bishop Empey received the necessary two-thirds of the votes from both the clerical and lay voters.
Bishop Empey, who has been Bishop of Meath and Kildare since 1985, describes himself as a pastoral clergyman rather than a scholar. He is deeply committed to ecumenism and was one of the Church of Ireland clergy invited to the meeting of the Catholic Council of Priests earlier this week.
However, he stressed that ecumenism should take place at local level. "Without that, all the documents in the world will not do it. Theological agreements are important, but they are not everything."
He described the Church of Ireland as an increasingly confident minority in the State. "That is not to say that in outlying areas there are not problems. There are. But we are dealing with them," he said.
Educated at a national school in Co Wicklow, he attended Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, before going to Trinity College, Dublin. He has worked exclusively in the Republic since returning from Canada, where he spent six years, in the 1960s.
Immediately following his election as archbishop, he sharply rejected a journalist's description of the Church of Ireland as "the Unionist Party at prayer".
"I would hope that would not be the perception. That is certainly not the case here", he said. "Church of Ireland people are entering into public life at every level. I hope that will continue."
He told The Irish Times that he was the only Church of Ireland bishop to have served in the FCA, adding jokingly: "I am a warrior off the State."