The General Synod has received the report of the Covenant Council and has passed Motion No 9, agreeing to receive the "Second Statement on the Interchangeability of Ministry and Episcope" and encouraging congregations to celebrate the Covenant relationship between the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church.  Proposing the report and accompanying motion, the Most Rev Richard Clarke, Bishop of Meath and Kildare, emphasised that this would not "organically unify" the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church, but would "effect a relationship parallel", as in the case of the Porvoo Agreement.  It was crucial at this point that there be an identical intentionality in both Churches and not a "mere
crafting of a form of words", the Bishop told Synod members, in order that the shared place of the two Churches within the tradition of the historic episcopate should be made public and manifest.

Seconding the motion, the Rev Nigel Dunne (Diocese of Cork) told the Synod that the discussions between the two Churches had now arrived at the stage where both could mutually endorse each other's expression of the office and function of "episcope", and that the time had come to move forward and bring this theological and ecclesiological agreement into real and tangible expression, in order that the mission of Christ's Church on this island might be strengthened.

The President of the Methodist Conference, the Rev Paul Kingston, was invited to address the Synod and told members that he was "very excited" about what was being proposed.  Speaking of his positive experience of co-operation between the two Churches, Mr Kingston hoped that both would wholeheartedly embrace the concept of interchangeability of ministry, "in obedience to the prayer of Christ that his people might be one".

The Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Rev Harold Miller, thanked the Covenant Council for its work and spoke also of his excitement about the direction of Church of Ireland-Methodist relations since the signing of the Covenant between the two Churches nearly a decade ago.

Contributions from other speakers were supportive of the motion and touched on a variety of positive personal experiences of ecumenical relations.