Letter from former Archbishop of Dublin in this weeks Gazette

walton-empeyRECENTLY, MY wife and I attended a humanist wedding between two young women, one of whom is a family friend.

My daughter was a witness for this friend and injected the only piece of religion in the ceremony by reading a few verses from the Epistles. My granddaughter was a ring bearer.

I do not know whether or not the two lovely young women would have liked to have been married in church but in any event they had no choice.

As it happens, they are both from Roman Catholic families but they would have been in the very same position if they were members of my own beloved Church of Ireland.

I felt that it was so very sad that because of their particular orientation neither Church would reach out and provide for them on the most important day of their lives. They, too, are God’s children.

As I drove home I wondered whether in 50 years’ time Christians would look back at the Church’s attitude to the gay community much in the same way that we look back on attitudes to slavery, or even in more modern times, to our treatment of single mothers and their children.

It is all so sad and we can be so wrong, as I believe we are in this matter.

+Walton Empey

Rathmore, Tullow

Co. Carlow