The Church of Ireland Primate has criticised the arrogance of both sides of the gay ordination debate, which he said was torturing the worldwide Anglican Communion.Archbishop Alan Harper also criticised a recent Vatican document for not concentrating on Roman Catholic obstacles to better inter-church relations.
Preaching at the Clonmacnoise, Co Offaly, Archbishop Harper expressed fears that what he called 'the present madness of the Anglican Communion' following the ordination of an openly gay bishop in America may deteriorate.
He said he shared some people's fears that the Anglican Covenant, which is being drafted to avoid a threatened split, may become a further means of obstruction.
To avoid this it must be open and generous and broad, the primate said.
Turning to the Vatican's recent reiteration that Protestant and reformed Christians do not belong to true churches, Archbishop Harper said it reminded him starkly of the imperfections others discerned in his tradition.
But he said it might have been, in all humility, wiser for the Vatican to reflect chiefly upon its own shortcomings and the obstacles they placed in the way of mutual understanding and respect.
The Primate said that in the quest to deepen our knowledge and love of God and to live the life of resurrection, it behoved us all first to address the beams in our own eye before presuming to remove the mote from the eye of another.
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