Northern Ireland Must Move On, Says Archbishop of Armagh

The Archbishop of Armagh has said that Northern Ireland must "move forward" from its violent past in his last ever diocesan synod address this week.

In his presidential address at his last ever Armagh Diocesan Synod as Archbishop of Armagh this week, the Most Rev Dr Robin Eames reflected on his last 20 years as Archbishop.

He noted the demise of the Church as the bedrock of society with bulging congregations just 40 years ago to today's empty pews in the face of an ever-secularising society.

Archbishop Eames, also the Primate of all Ireland, said that in just half a century the change in the Church in Ireland had been "vast and significant".

"Large congregations on a Sunday are no longer the norm: the voice of the Church on community issues is judged on a basis of its relevance or importance in the eyes of a secular society: natural respect for clergy is dependent now on individual worth and the acceptance or rejection of the Gospel of Christ has to take its place beside a clamour of ideas, solutions, principles and beliefs, many of which make no reference to Almighty God," he said.