It could be said of the Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, that, like the other three major church leaders, he has adopted a position of neutrality where the Belfast Agreement is concerned. There has "got to be change", he said, "there has to be give and take. Every single stratum of society has to be examined fairly".
Many believe Dr Eames, Dr Sean Brady (Catholic Church), Dr Sam Hutchinson (Presbyterian Church), and Dr Norman Taggart (Methodist Church), would embrace the document publicly as a major advance but for the uncomfortable fact that some of their congregations are somewhat less enthused. The church was "a spiritual base" for all, Dr Eames said, it was not a "party political" institution.
In each case there is also the matter of not wishing to appear to be interfering in the political process. Telling people how to vote "was totally contrary to the Church of Ireland ethos," he said. So personal views give way before the cooler, lonely duty of leadership, once more.
Welcoming the agreement, Dr Eames said that when, as he has been doing all his clerical life, one has been encouraging, even begging people to talk to one another, and when that dialogue produces an agreement, then he "cannot but welcome it". The agreement must be given very serious consideration, he said. He, like the other three leaders, had pleaded with people to see it as a whole, and not just from a narrow sectional-interest point of view.
People should try to rise beyond that and see also how it deals with their neighbours' concerns. They should ask themselves whether it represented an opportunity for a major step forward. But, almost above all else, he wanted people to vote. They must not fall into "the trap of apathy". They "must go out of their way" to vote, he said.
It worried him when people in the Republic saw the agreement as something wonderful for the North when it had such serious implications for the island as a whole. It worried him that amidst all the understandable euphoria of recent weeks, people saw the agreement as "the end of everything". It worried him because "no piece of paper can bring total peace to the people of Northern Ireland". That will take longer.
He believed the healing process was central to a real peace and that was where the churches would have such a major, even central role. They must become "healing agents". It was "a pastoral issue for all", he said.
He was all too familiar with the grief and injury that had been inflicted on so many people during the conflict. He had "spent an enormous amount of time burying countless murdered people".
Proportionally, his own church had lost more people to the violence of recent decades than any other denomination in Northern Ireland. The victims and their survivors were now, however, in danger of becoming "the forgotten people".
And he understood the revived pain of those bereaved as peace beckons and all those who made victims of their loved ones were about to enjoy political forgiveness and freedom. Inner healing had to begin. It was towards that end he had asked that the IRA prisoners express some sorrow, some remorse at least, for their "ghastly atrocities".
Not that he was ignoring the equally repulsive murders of loyalist paramilitaries. Just that, when announcing their ceasefire in October 1994, an integral part of the loyalists' statement was a recognition of the suffering they had caused.
Point scoring between paramilitaries was not the issue. He really believed "a statement of regret (from the IRA) would do a great deal towards the healing process". It would be "very worthwhile", even if it was greeted with cynicism in some quarters, as he felt it would be.
BUT the churches too, as part of the division, must also be part of the cure. They had to look into their own hearts and root out any prejudices there, which would be "an extremely exhausting process". The Church of Ireland had already begun this process, and its Commission on Sectarianism would submit an interim report to the Church's Synod in Dublin this week.
It had been "relatively easy" during the prolonged violence to know whom to condemn, he said. This would be harder during the period of healing, but the churches would have to struggle with that. He hoped they would do so openly, as openly as he hoped the search for the sort of Ireland we would like for our children and grandchildren would be.
Dr Robert Henry Alexander (Robin) Eames was 61 last month. He was born on April 27th, 1937, in Belfast, where his father was a Church of Ireland minister. He went to school at the city's Methodist College and Royal Academy, before going to Queen's University, where he studied law. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, from 1961 to 1963, and was ordained in Dromore Cathedral in 1964. In 1966, he married Christine Daly. They have two sons. He was elected Bishop of Derry and Raphoe in 1975, becoming Bishop of Down and Dromore in 1980. In February 1986, he was elected Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All-Ireland.