This weekend the Church of Ireland General Synod will vote on whether to insert a declaration in the Book of Common Prayer clarifying the use of the historical sectarian language it contains. The 39 Articles of Religion established in 1563 set out the founding guidelines of the Anglican religion and many of the articles use offensive language when referring to the practices of the Catholic Church.
For example Article 31 calls the sacrifices of the Catholic Mass ''blasphemous fables, and dangerous deceits'', and many articles describe ''Romish doctrine'' on purgatory, relics, Transubstantiation and the Latin Mass as ''repugnant''.
In light of the stand-off in Drumcree, the Church of Ireland Synod of 1999 issued a declaration explaining that the language of historic documents written at a period of conflict between Churches, no longer reflected the relationships between those Churches.
At last year's Synod, a two-thirds majority agreed to a resolution put forward by Rev. Patrick Rooke, Dean of Armagh, to hold a vote on inserting this Declaration into the Book of Common Prayer.
''The language of the 39 Articles was written in another century for another century.
''The language is outdated and we simply would not use it now,'' Rev. Rooke told The Irish Catholic.
''I hope that this clarification will be seen by other Churches, not just the Roman Catholic Church because other Churches are affected, as making a foundation document relevant to the times we live in and particularly relevant to where we are ecumenically.''
The proposed Declaration states that ''negative statements towards other Christians should not be seen as representing the spirit of this Church today'' and says that the Church of Ireland ''regrets that words written in another age and in a different context should be used in a manner hurtful to or antagonistic towards other Christians''.
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