The Church of Ireland has appointed the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the Most Rev Richard Clarke, to chair the Church's Committee for Christian Unity.

Along with other commissions and committees of the Church of Ireland, the Committee for Christian Unity is in a process of re-appraisal and re-structuring at present.

Bishop Clarke has expressed the hope that the momentum for Christian unity may be reinvigorated and made more proactive by some serious re-thinking of purpose by this group.

In a comment made after his appointment to this position, Bishop Clarke said:
"Somehow, along with the other Christian traditions, we must seek to recover the excitement that was so much the mark of the ecumenical movement a generation ago."

He praised the Church of Ireland's many local community projects taking place across northern and southern Ireland, saying they were "hugely encouraging."

Bishop Clarke added, however, "But at the leadership levels of the Church, most people would admit that there is at present little mood of vitality or of urgency - the pursuit of a greater unity among Christians is clearly not the unrelenting imperative it must be, if those entrusted with Christian leadership are to be faithful to the Gospel."

He also acknowledged that divisions in the Church were making it difficult to attract new believers.

"All Christians on this island need to recall constantly that the unity of his followers was not the polite aspiration of Jesus Christ, but his emphatic command. We need to remind ourselves that, as competing and at times squabbling fiefdoms, the contentedly disunited traditions within the Irish Church will always be a barrier to Christian belief for many," he said.

Bishop Clarke concluded with a call to the Church to remember the need for "sensitive and intelligent" dialogue not only among Christians but also between the Church of Ireland and other religions.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the future state of this entire island will be radically affected by the level of seriousness with which all the Christian traditions take both ecumenical progress and inter-faith dialogue over the next decade."