The increasing secularisation of Irish society, North and South, was a theme returned to repeatedly in yesterday's session of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
The church's Irish Mission Committee reported that Dublin was "one of the most secular cities in Europe, where vast numbers of people, especially those under the age of 40, have no significant church connection".
In his report as Evangelism Promoter, the Rev Dr Brian Kingsmore observed that every major denomination in Ireland was declining.
In his Home Board report, the convener, the Rev Dr Brian Moore, said: "Ireland today is going through a period of unprecedented change. The Republic is vibrant, economically booming, its life increasingly post-Catholic and pluralist. The North is politically breathless, still struggling to `live with difference', its Protestant heritage largely a veneer.
"In this `new' Ireland, the church is called not to a holding operation or a few sallies into enemy territory, but to mission - confronting the prevalent affluence, secularism, political uncertainty, social malaise and spiritual apathy with the Gospel of Christ."
This was something many Christians would not open their eyes to, "preferring to go blindly on their own sweet way, oblivious to what God is doing in some parts of our land".
Dr Moore continued: "We need men and women of character and grace, wise in judgement, open to guidance and flexible in approach, with the love of Christ in their hearts." This need was pressing, as numbers training for the ministry were dropping.
The convener of the Board of Evangelism and Christian Training, the Rev Dr Harry Allen, said: "In an age when materialism and secularism are pushing people into a convenient atheism that makes no demands upon them, we need to be challenging people to be distinctively Christian in commitment and lifestyle."
He spoke of attending the recent Church of Ireland Synod in Dublin and meeting Bishop Carlos, from the Anglican Church in Spain, who had told him of the growing trend in that country of people wanting "custom without commitment".
"They have `social baptisms', where families, suitably dressed, arrive at the church door, take photographs, and then proceed to the hotel for a meal, without ever going into the church. This also happens at confirmation time. They keep the custom but refuse the commitment," Dr Allen said.
"I have heard of moves to introduce this in our country. Some people would say that it already happens here, since many parents have their children baptised and then disappear. This is sad, but such behaviour suggests that even in this land many prefer an `imitation' faith which makes no real demands upon them."
He recounted a story he had heard recently: "In England, where Islam is so militant, a lady was recently ordered to remove some china pig ornaments from her window because they gave offence to her Muslim neighbours. Sadly, the distinctiveness of the witness of many people to their faith in Jesus Christ is so meagre that it would hardly raise an eyebrow, let alone cause offence."
Although decline was not inevitable, neither was growth assured, said Mr Alistair Bill. He pointed to the growth of congregations at Lucan and Kilkenny over recent years as an example of what could be done and said he was "delighted" to see a number of young ministers willing to be called to work in the Republic.
"No longer is it a place for ministers to go if they cannot get a call in the North," he said. "But the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, with its Northern centre of gravity, needs to remind itself constantly that what happens in the North - politically and ecclesiastically - affects our work in the South."
Taking what he described as "an unlikely example", he said: "If we were to major on `For God and Ulster' policies, that would do two things: (a) discomfit our members in the South, (b) affect our outreach and evangelism."
To illustrate this point he told of how he had asked one of the church's outreach teams last year how they thought the programme would run. Their reply had been that it depended on how Drumcree went.
