Press Releases10 May 05

For many in Ireland "Progress" is dehumanising and demeaning - Archbishop Eames

In his Presidential Address to the Church of Ireland General Synod today, Tuesday 10 May 2005, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Revd Robin Eames will slate the "dehumanising and demeaning aspects of modern Irish society" saying that " these conditions would have struck our Victorian predecessors as totally unacceptable."

Referring to the lack of infrastructure supporting recent economic development and the consequent intolerable strains on family life, he will say "children are dropped with minders as early as six or seven o'clock in the morning and may not be reunited with parents until twelve hours later. I hear of young mothers whose only waking time with the baby is when the little one wakes crying during the night before a working mother has to stagger back out on the commuter trail at an astonishingly early hour next morning."

Quoting a Save the Children Report into Child Poverty in Northern Ireland and its finding that 50% of children in the province are living in poverty he will announce an initiative which will bring together Government and Church representatives, aid organisations and charities. He will say "I have called this project ?De-Coding the Culture? and I hope it will be one effort to look honestly at a situation which contrasts so sharply with the picture of an affluent Ireland. The Christian conscience demands that more is done for Irish children who are enduring the poverty-trap in their earliest years."

Closing on the topic of Child Poverty the Archbishop will say " We are now a society in which the Good Samaritan is possessed of the wherewithal to help the beaten stranger. We are a society, able to provide hospitality to friend and stranger in the name of Christ."

Turning to Northern Ireland, Dr Eames will highlight post-conflict criminality, violence and racism as three of the major challenges facing society. He will note the results of the recent election and call on elected representatives to recognise that "in politics as in much more power is a privilege which carries with it moral responsibility."

Commenting on inter-Church relations the Archbishop will re-iterate his sympathies to the Roman Catholic Church on the death of Pope John Paul II and express "the prayerful hope" that the new pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI we will see "a fresh emphasis on an ecumenical pilgrimage of genuine understanding."

On relations within the Anglican Communion, Dr Eames will comment on the Winsdor Report and say that "since its publication I have been encouraged by the way its proposals have been addressed across the Anglican world and by the positive signs of reflection among the Churches."