Northern Ireland entered a new era on Monday when the largely Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and mainly Catholic Sinn Fein set aside decades of bitter opposition to secure a historic power-sharing deal.
Christian Today caught up with the Rev Earl Storey, Director of Hard Gospel, a groundbreaking initiative of the Church of Ireland to foster political reconciliation in Northern Ireland, to find out what he thinks of the agreement.
CT: How do you feel about the power-sharing agreement brokered between the DUP and Sinn Fein on Monday?
ES: Instinctively I work for reconciliation so I welcome the fact that there has been agreement. Regardless of anything else that has been said, I welcome it.
One of the other things that's got to be said is that I think we've got a process which has become profoundly dishonest, in which words don't actually mean anything anymore. People don't have any trust in the words of politicians.
CT: So there is disillusionment or cynicism towards this deal?
ES: I think fatigue would be the best word. I just think we have something now that we could have had at the Good Friday agreement nine years ago. In fact we could have had this 25 years ago.
So the question I have in my mind is why could we not have had this nine years ago. And I think there has been a high level of political dishonesty and I think people are tired of that.
CT: So how do you want to see things go forward from this agreement?
ES: I think we need to move with this agreement. And I would like to see a commitment to reconciliation and a political commitment to the common good, which I think hasn't been there. The political leadership has been about the carve up of power between the tribes in Northern Ireland and it hasn't by and large been about the common good. That has huge implications for the common good. A political agreement can't simply be about carving up power.
CT: So you want to see this agreement have some spirit to it and impact things on the ground?
ES: Absolutely. If the politics has just been about a carve up of power between the two tribes, which I think it has been, this political agreement can't just be another version of that. It is another form of apartheid where the two tribes just learn to live together but aren't in any way reconciled.
CT: And Hard Gospel is going to tackle that?
ES: Reconciliation is off the political agenda and I think if the church doesn't speak for reconciliation then what does it do? So Hard Gospel will constantly be speaking the message of reconciliation. The Archbishop of Armagh, when he was being enthroned, used two key words: reconciliation and forgiveness. And those are the two words Hard Gospel stands for.
CT: So you want the church to keep working for that beyond this deal?
ES: Yes, I think it is a moment of opportunity and I think that's why regardless of anything else that has been said it's got to be welcomed. I do think there is something about the political process that has been profoundly dishonest and cynical, but I am glad that we nevertheless have this moment of opportunity.
CT: Do you think the power-sharing will work?
ES: Yes I do, absolutely. I think the politicians are guided by the populations. And the majority of the population on both sides in Ireland just went to get on with life and the politicians are recognising that and that opposition just isn't going to work anymore.
