The Church of Ireland Dean of Clonmacnoise and rector of Trim and Athboy, the Very Rev Andrew Furlong, has refused a request from his bishop to resign from the church ministry.
This follows declarations on a parish website by the dean late last year that he no longer believed Jesus was the son of God. In early December last he had his episcopal authority removed for three months to allow him a period for quiet reflection.
Since then Dean Furlong has expanded on his views in media interviews, while also revealing he had held them for 30 years. He also expressed a desire to remain in his current position within the Church of Ireland.
In a brief statement yesterday his bishop, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Most Rev Richard Clarke, said that, following a meeting with Dean Furlong, he had invited him to resign.
He had done so as he "believed Dean Furlong's position as Dean and rector of Trim and Athboy to be untenable in light of the doctrinal views held by him. The dean has decided not to accept this invitation," he said. Bishop Clarke has now referred the matter to the court of the Church of Ireland's General Synod.
Dean Furlong will retain his income as Dean of Clonmacnoise and rector of Trim and Athboy. However, he remains without episcopal authority.
On return from a month-long visit to the US, where he had attended a conference on Jesus research in San Francisco, Dean Furlong met Bishop Clarke to review the situation on March 4th.
Also at the meeting were the Dean of Kildare, the Very Rev Robert Townley and Dr Andrew Mayes, professor of Hebrew at Trinity College Dublin, and brother of the Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, the Right Rev Michael Mayes. Dr Mayes attended the meeting as a supporter of Dean Furlong.
Bishop Clarke has not commented on the case, believing his obligations in the process involved preclude him from doing so.
However, and because of the restriction on Bishop Clarke, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev Walton Empey, within whose province as Primate of Ireland the diocese of Meath and Kildare also falls, has said he was horrified to learn that the dean had held his views for 30 years "without making them known to those who had appointed him to various positions within the church".