The Presidential Election

Sir, - It has been suggested in reports coming from the Republic that the Redemptorist peace and reconciliation ministry team…

Sir, - It has been suggested in reports coming from the Republic that the Redemptorist peace and reconciliation ministry team has been promoting a Sinn Fein agenda.

The leader of the Redemptorist Order in Ireland has firmly rejacted such allegations and we wish to underline the accuracy of his comments from our own personal involvement with the Redemptorists in Clonard Monastery, Belfast.

For the most of this decade, together with others from the Protestant tradition, we have worked closely with the Clonard peace and reconciliation ministry team. We have been involved together in both extended and short-term dialogue with representatives from a wide range of political and religious opinion in Northern Ireland, and not just with Sinn Fein.

As ministers from within the mainline Protestant denominations and from the unionist community, we wish to bear witness that, in all of these contacts, we have never detected in our Redemptorist colleagues a desire to promote any party political agenda. We would have strenuously challenged any attempt to do so.

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We want to put on record that the Redemptorist peace and reconciliation ministry, as we experienced it, was motivated solely by the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and his command to speak the truth to one another in love. We acknowledge that seeking to do so transforms relationships - though not without pain and patience.

We encourage everyone in our divided society to become involved in such genuine pain and patience. We encourage everyone in our divided society to become involved in such genuine encounter and dialogue with those whom they have heretofore held at arm's length, treated as strangers or regarded as enemies.

Rev Ken Newell, Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Belfast.

Rev Sam Burch, Methodist Minister, Cornerstone Community, Belfast.

Rev Tim Kinahan, St Dorothea's Church of Ireland, Belfast.