Sir, - Anyone who knows me will recognise that the censoring of any journalist's work is foreign to my nature. But reportage must be sensitive as well as accurate. Patsy McGarry (April 3rd) must surely recognise this?
Of course it is legitimate that the Roman Catholic bishops should issue a directive such as One Bread One Body, which clearly sets out the teaching of most Christians that eucharistic sharing is the goal and fruit of Christian unity. It should be noted, however, that it does not completely ignore circumstances where the rule of charity may be more important than the rule of law.
The Church of Ireland works from the principle of the exception in One Bread One Body. It sees eucharistic hospitality, offered to a visitor who is a duly recognised communicant of his or her own Church, as a means towards our ultimate unity. It is not a fudge for it takes equally seriously the principle of total inter-communion as the ultimate goal and fruit of unity.
Consequently the rubrics governing the service in Christ Church Cathedral (i) offer Holy Communion to the visitor who in conscience wishes to share even momentarily in the desired goal; (ii) offer a blessing to those who in conscience feel that as yet they cannot receive the sacrament but wish to identify with a Christian act of worship; or (iii) offer the opportunity to remain in prayer or reflection during the period of the communion. This is how we respect the integrity of those who come as visitors to worship in the cathedral and we must hope for no less a degree of respect for conscience from journalists who may be reporting the event.
For Mr McGarry to "play" one church against another I find ecumenically unhelpful. For him to comment on the personal choices people make - even public people - on occasions such as the consecration of Bishop Colton I still find intrusive and distasteful. It is not being facetious if one says it smacks of 19th-century "felonsetting", 1950s "McCarthyism", or 1990s "outings". Judging by the correspondence I have privately received, so too, it would seem, do many of your own readers. - Yours, etc., Very Rev John Paterson, Dean of Christ Church,
Chapter House, Dublin 8.