THURSDAY'S NEWS

BSR (NI) calls for legislation response mechanism

The Right Reverend Alan Harper, proposing the report of the Church of Ireland Board of Social Responsibility (NI), called for the Church to establish a formal mechanism to communicate with the State in relation to proposed legislation.

Bishop Harper told the Synod that the Church of Ireland currently had to look to five different legislative bodies at once if it wished to keep abreast of new proposals that could affect its organisations and members. He drew attention to the increasingly urgent need for a “one-stop shop” mechanism to facilitate the process of responding to such proposed legislation. There was also, he said, no central memory of what responses the Church made.

Identifying the Board as the lead agency in social action within the Church of Ireland, the Bishop told his listeners, “The Board of Social Responsibility NI has the will and the capacity to be the lead agency of the Church of Ireland’s response in the areas of social need and social concern”.

The Board delivers services in the areas of adoption, fertility counselling, support of the Central Belfast Contact Centre, disability access and the support of parenting courses.

The Bishop asked members of the Church of Ireland to consider participating in the work of the Board. He also made a plea for more financial support for the work of the Board while acknowledging the generosity of the dioceses and of the Priorities Fund.

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