The Board of Social Responsibility’s (RI) report to the General Synod was presented today. However, the House refused to receive it and voted against the hearing of Motion No.4 which asked the Synod to acknowledge its inability to engage practically with social action in the Republic.

Proposed by the Revd David Catterall (Elphin & Ardagh), and seconded by Mrs Freda Stewart-Maunder (Derry & Raphoe), the Report called for the Synod to provide the resources required to enable the Board to continue its work.

During the year the Board re-examined its role within the Church and drew up a new mission statement which reflects its desire to be more hands-on in identifying social needs and in developing practical projects. However, the Revd Catterall told Synod that he feared that the Church “lacks at a very basic level the belief that such schemes are possible or indeed the conviction that they should have a high priority.”

The Revd Canon Horace McKinley (Dublin) agreed that there is a need for a new direction for the Board of Social Responsibility (RI). Given the huge importance of the issue of immigration in the Republic today, Canon McKinley suggested that the Hard Gospel Project, the Church in Society Committee and the Board of Social Responsibility should get together and form a synodical committee, tasked with addressing this single topic. The issue of immigration is such an important one that the Church of Ireland would benefit from having one focused committee which would work with other agencies and bodies as well as members of the new communities of Ireland themselves, he said.

The Rt Revd Harold Miller, Bishop of Down & Dromore, asked the Board whether they had responded to the Honorary Secretaries’ request for submissions on the review of committees process that is currently ongoing at central Church level. This process, the Bishop said, would hopefully result in such committees as the Church in Society Committee and the Boards of Social Responsibility being able to work together in a more imaginative way.

Mr David Bird (Cork) told Synod members of his hope that a report that speaks of frustration at what it cannot do, would not come before the House again.

Explaining the recent results of a Central Statistic’s Office survey, in which it states that 7% of people in Ireland in lone parent households are consistently poor, compared with 6% last year, the Bishop of Meath and Kildare said that, for this reason, the Church has to feel that it must and can do something.

The Rt Revd Michael Burrows, Bishop of Cashel & Ossory suggested that Synod should not receive the report and not be asked to pass a motion which is self-evidently untrue.

The Archbishop of Armagh put the Report to the House. It was rejected. Under Standing Order 33, the House then voted against Motion No.4 being proposed.