This weekend's enthronement of the Most Rev Walton Empey as Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin could not have come at a more propitious time. On the eve of the 21st century Ireland needs church leaders who are not afraid of pluralism, multiculturalism and even secularism. The new archbishop appears to be very much in this mould.
Archbishop Empey is a popular and down to earth figure. He admits that he is no scholar, unlike his two predecessors, Archbishops Caird and McAdoo. His skills are those modern ones of the bishop in touch with his priests and his people - the counsellor, the listener. He is a far cry from some of, the remote, authoritarian prelates, from both the Anglican and Roman Catholic traditions, who have presided in the past. That is all to the good. Irish people in this day and age need moral and spiritual leaders whom they can admire and identify with for their personal qualities.
They particularly need leaders from the Protestant tradition to do three things: courageously criticise the still existing excesses of a once overweening Catholic ethos; take a lead in pushing forward the vital work of ecumenism, still in its infancy in Ireland; and proclaim to Northern Protestants that the Republic is not the Catholic dominated theocracy they still appear to fear, but a youthful, effervescent and rapidly changing society which cherishes the values of personal freedom and responsibility so dear to Protestants.
Archbishop Empey's predecessor, Dr Caird, was enormously loved and respected for his wisdom, scholarship, gentleness and humour. If he had one shortcoming it was that he shared the traditional Southern Protestant reluctance to speak out strongly on moral political issues which are the subject of, national controversy. Thus, for example, the Protestant voice was largely missing from the debate on divorce last autumn.
In his previous posts, Archbishop Empey showed no such reluctance. Like Archbishop Caird, he is proud of his Irishness, stressing the need for more Protestants to become involved in politics and recalling his own commitment to the country's defence through his youthful membership of the FCA. But he has also shown, in Limerick in particular, that he can be strong in his criticism of the reactionary and sectarian identification of Irishness and Catholicism of which the late Bishop Newman was the main exponent.
If pluralism is to mean anything in the Republic of Ireland in the closing years of the century and it has to mean something real if this society is to begin to become attractive to Northern Protestants - we need spiritual leaders who are both comfortable in, and constructively critical of, a pluralist society.
As a young minister, Archbishop Empey spent six years working in Canada, one of the more successful examples despite the strains over Quebec of a tolerant, multi cultural society with a strong religious element. Maybe some of the lessons he learned there can be applied in his all important new post.