Press Releases06 Jul 04

Inability to resolve our problems beggars belief - Bishop Jackson

INABILITY TO RESOLVE OUR PROBLEMS BEGGARS BELIEF - BISHOP JACKSON

The Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, Rt Revd Dr Michael Jackson, has warned that Northern Ireland is losing international sympathy as the political and social future in the country remains uncertain.

The Bishop was speaking at a Thanksgiving and Dedication Service in the Parish Church of St James, Rockcorry in the Diocese of Clogher on Sunday 4th July 2004.

Bishop Jackson said: "The divisions in society have worn us down, we have lost international sympathy six years after The Agreement. Our inability to resolve human problems and dilemmas in the name of Christ Jesus loses us such sympathy daily because to so many people it beggars belief and defies comprehension.

"Inertia is a poor dividend for a people committed to peace with justice, for with God and Gods children the two have to go together. The political and social future in Northern Ireland remains quite uncertain. Enhanced and entrenched extremism will contribute nothing towards the fabric of a society which really wants and needs to tear down the Berlin Wall of its soul."

Bishop Jackson also called for caution in implementing a peace and reconciliation process and suggested that bringing over a model from elsewhere into a context which is very specific to itself may not be the way forward.

Bishop Jackson added: "A veneer of justice without the hard grind of peace is worthless. A façade of peace without the scrupulous fairness of justice is just as worthless."

And Bishop Jackson predicted that paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland is not going to be given up readily or willingly. "Individual interests are very well served by it," he said.

Click here for the full text of Bishop Jackson's sermon