The Church of Ireland faces profound challenges in changing 21st century Irish society it was claimed today at the consecration of the new Bishop of Connor, Alan Harper, in St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast.
Delivering the sermon at the service Cannon Professor Adrian Empey, Principle of the Church of Ireland Theological College, raised the spectre of congregations "melting away" in post-terrorism Ireland.
Addressing hundreds including representative of the other main churches, Cannon Empey said: "Time was when the role of the church in society was accepted almost as part of the natural order, but we all know that that is no longer the case."
No-one could doubt that "rebuilding trust in a diocese traumatised by three decades of paramilitary atrocity and sectarian bitterness," would test the leadership of the new Bishop, he said.
But he added: "Even if such problems did not exist, we are all aware of the huge changes taking place in Irish society, north and south, which have nothing to do with the troubles, and everything to do with the pace of social and economic change - call it globalisation or post-modernity, if you must."
Cannon Empey went on: "I may be wrong, but I believe that the Church of Ireland, north and south, faces profound challenges which cannot be met by applying the old solutions.
"We are experiencing a fundamental paradigm shift."
He said he had a clear sense that clergy were well aware that the traditional pastoral structures were increasingly "out of sync" with the new social realities.
In East Germany before the wall came down, he said, there was substantial support for the church, around which much of the resistance to the communist regime revolved.
"Once the wall came down, those congregations melted away. Will the coming of peace to Northern Ireland have much the same effect?" he asked.
If the church was to meet such challenges "we will undoubtedly have to lighten ship," he said.
"Certainly our sense of who we are and what God calls us to be will have to be more keenly defined than the kind of negative identity - how we are different from Roman Catholics - that has so often been allowed to define our identity in the past."
The service was conducted by Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames , assisted by members of the House of Bishops and retired Bishops.
English born and reared Bishop Harper (58) succeeds the Rt Rev James Moore who retired last year.
He was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire, where he attended grammar school before going to the University of Leeds and Trinity College, Dublin.
Before his ordination in 1978 he was Senior Inspector of Historic Monuments with the Archaeological Survey of Northern Ireland.
Bishop Harper is a Founder Trustee and first chairman of the Ulster Historic Churches Trust and former chairman of the Historic Monuments Council for Northern Ireland. He was appointed an OBE in 1996 for his services to Conservation in Northern Ireland.
He started his ministry in Portrush before moving to Derry. He has served as Rector of St John's Parish in Malone since 1986.
PA