A church of Ireland study intended to "map the landscape" of sectarianism within the Church, North and South, is intended to be completed by the end of this year.
Details of the study were discussed at the Church's General Synod in Stillorgan, Dublin, yesterday.
The Right Rev Alan Harper, the Bishop of Connor, told The Irish Times the study would initially involve a survey of a representative 48 Church of Ireland parishes across the island by social scientist Dr Gareth Higgins. This would cost £52,840 and would be part financed by the International Fund for Ireland.
Sectarianism "cripples our mission as Church and makes us incompetent witnesses to the word of Christ", Bishop Harper said.
"We need to educate ourselves systematically about the issue," he added, pointing out that while the grossest forms of sectarianism were evident in the North, it existed in the South too, albeit in a more benign form.
The study would in itself be a validation (of the existence of sectarianism), while it would also be recommending programmes for dealing with difference, he said.
It would "ascertain the attitudes, experiences and needs of clergy and lay people throughout the Church of Ireland", regarding sectarianism.
The study follows from a much-praised report presented to the 1999 General Synod by the sectarianism committee. The Rev Doug Baker and Dr Cecilia Clegg, of Partners in Transformation, have been retained as consultants to the project.
"Our society has to face up to and affirm difference rather than regarding it as a reason for enmity," Bishop Harper said, "and some of us may be very surprised when confronted by our own [frequently unconscious] sectarianism," he suggested.
Addressing the synod on the issue yesterday, the Right Rev Richard Henderson, Bishop of Tuam, said "sectarianism has been a long time in the hatching and therefore will be a long time in despatching".
The Rev Paul Dundas, who serves at Sandy Row in Belfast, said people needed leadership on the issue.
Canon Jonathan Barry from Comber, Co Down, said that in the context, groups should be held more responsible for their actions. He pointed out that Millwall Football Club in London could face punitive damages as a result of the assaults and damage caused by their supporters following a recent defeat.
It raised the possibility that the Northern Ireland Office could, in principle, pursue the Church of Ireland where such behaviour followed a church service.
He asked whether this might lead to changes in the nature of certain services.
Dean David Chillingworth of Portadown, Co Armagh, stressed that the study on the scope of sectarianism was designed to help the Church of Ireland move beyond the simplicity of a "them and us" attitude, and was about helping people to understand themselves so they could recognise more clearly the things that bind rather than divide.
