Northern Ireland's politicians must now overcome the "scepticism and loss of confidence in political institutions" left by the decades-long conflict, Rev Harold Good told the MacGill summer school.
Rev Good, one of three witnesses to the IRA's decommissioning, jointly presented the John Hume lecture to the summer school last night, alongside another of the decommissioning witnesses, Fr Alec Reid.
Although hopeful that the Troubles are now finally ended, many in Northern Ireland still hold "lingering doubts" about how genuine are the actions of those long seen to be on the other side.
"'Is it for real,' I am regularly asked." He added that the confidence "of the people cannot be assumed", however genuine the transformation of policies and practice that has taken place.
"In the middle-class drawing rooms of Northern Ireland, which have suffered the least, there is general support for a plague on all political houses," said Rev Good, a former president of the Methodist Church.
"Those in economically and socially-excluded communities expect little more than another string of broken promises. Younger voters are largely disenchanted and disengaged with politics of any hue," he said.
Politicians must now earn political confidence "through delivery of product", with better public services, by tackling poverty and by helping those under-achieving in school. To build confidence, "a wise government" works closely with voluntary organisations, "not reluctantly as one might tolerate a lesser partner, but as a crucial player in the task".
Equally, he said, space "must be found" for those "who mistakenly resorted to totally unacceptable means to promote their political causes, but who are now committed to making a constructive contribution to their communities: a contribution they are uniquely placed to make".
However, he said, there are already "encouraging signs".
He said the "most memorable image" of May 8th, when the Northern Ireland Executive formed, came when Dr Paisley and Mr McGuinness entered Stormont through its revolving doors.
"Remember the hand of one gently navigating the other? The offering of respect and safe passage by one and acceptance by the other. In another context this would be considered a trivial incident, but for me this was 'the hand of history' and worth more than a thousand choreographed handshakes," said Rev Good.
Fr Alec Reid said the lessons learned from the peace process to date should weigh heavily on those who are now tasked with setting the priorities for government on both sides of the Border.
He said one lesson was that dialogue "is the most powerful, and, at the end of the day, the only effective dynamic of peaceful and democratic conflict resolution".
Another lesson was that both men and women must be involved: "Experience shows that to ensure the necessary balance, the ratio of men to women, or of women to men, should not be below 40 per cent to 60 per cent," Fr Reid said.
