In the current issue of Close News, letters have been published which have been sent to the Dean of St Patrick’s , Dublin, Very Rev Dr RB McCarthy, following the attack on the Dean by a Board member, Alan Graham in The Irish Times.
This followed a letter by the Dean to all the candidates in the recent presidential election to consider and support St Patrick’s becoming a national cathedral for all Irish people.
The Dean states:
The following are some of the letters I have received following Alan Graham’s attack on me in The Irish Times:-
1. Copy of a letter sent to Mr Graham – “I refer to your letter published in
last Friday’s Irish Times.
Frankly, as a member of the Church of Ireland, I was deeply offended
with the comment you made in the final paragraph of your tirade against
Dean MacCarthy when you suggested that the Church of Ireland community
felt the Dean should resign and ‘the sooner the better’!
What was the basis of your sweeping hostile remark? Have you carried
out some type of opinion poll in the form of unhealthy quasi whispering
& bitching?
I have no doubt that Dean Robert MacCarthy is a thoroughly decent man
and it was quite wrong of you to choose the medium of the Irish Times
letters page to publicly ‘advertise’ your apparent deep rooted rift with
him.
It may well be time to, at least, further consider an expanding ecumenical
role for our beloved St Patrick’s Cathedral & I would suggest that cool
calm Board members need to settle their differences in a private manner
asap. Yours sincerely, Norman F. Lowther”
2. “I write to express my continued support and my horror at the immoderate knee-jerk letter by a lay member of the Board which appeared in the
Irish Times yesterday. Whatever his own views and the uncharitable
style in which he couched them, he had no right to assume to speak of
what is or isn’t “generally felt…in…the Church of Ireland” or in my
opinion in the “cathedral community”. His letter read especially badly in
the eyes of Irish Times readers outside the Church of Ireland, and he certainly does not speak for me.
I had been preparing a letter regarding your reported proposition which
certainly has merit (and I suspect would have Dean Swift’s approval) –
but I have not yet come up with a properly formulated idea of how it
might be achieved – so I am emailing you so that my assurance of sup
port, such as it is, is not further delayed. I shall write in greater
detail in due course.
Your proposal does however resurrect rather more quickly than I had expected the need for your inclusion as an ex officio member of General
Synod, and I shall refer to this again if I am re-elected to that body.
Yours sincerely, David Millar”
3. “Sir, I welcome the three letters in today’s Irish Times in support of the
Dean of St Patrick’s, the Very Rev Robert MacCarthy. One way of
showing support might be attendance at Holy Communion/Matins on
Sundays in the cathedral at 11.15. There must be many Dubliners, not
to say Irish catholics in general, who have never been inside our great
cathedral. To their detriment and ours. Gerald Morgan”
4. “With regard to the letter from Mr Graham published on Friday 28 Octo
ber 2011 I wish to state that I totally disagree with its contents.
Furthermore I consider Dean Robert MacCarthy’s instigation of the mat
ter is progressive and worthy of support. Yours sincerely, Norman M.
Sudbury, Board member”
The Dean concludes, “Dean Griffin has telephoned me to say that he made a very similar proposal in 1970 and that he didn’t consult either Chapter or Board before doing so.”
See:
Today’s Blog on this site – access above masthead
Irish Times: A National Cathedral?
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/1107/1224307165250.html