Controversial Dean to be tried for heresy
Tuesday April 09 2002
The Court of the General Synod met yesterday to consider the charges against Dean Andrew Furlong, but the public hearing was adjourned until May 10 to allow voluntary discovery between the parties and further time for the Dean to brief his advisors.
Dean Furlong (51) had been suspended from his ministry in the diocese of Meath and Kildare since last December by his Bishop Richard Clarke.
He is the Dean of Clonmacnoise as well as the rector of Trim and Athboy parishes.
The Bishop said he had withdrawn the Dean's episcopal authority for ministry in order to facilitate a period of quiet, during which time the Dean could reflect on his statements.
But yesterday the seven members of the Judges of the Court of the General Synod convened to deal with a petition from the Bishop of Kildare and Meath, asking that Dean Furlong be charged for denying the divinity of Christ and the efficacy of the sacraments.
In his petition to the court Bishop Clarke said that the Dean did in or about November 2001 and thereafter publish or cause to be published in electronic format and subsequently within the print and broadcast media, beliefs contrary to the doctrines of the Church of Ireland, as contained and expressed within the Historic Creeds and the Book of Common Prayer.
When the hearing opened yesterday morning, counsel for Dean Furlong, Joe Revington, said he would be requesting an adjournment on the grounds that his client had not received the petition 21 days before the court convened.
Mr Revington submitted that the Dean was also entitled to call more than two witnesses if the case turned on employment as well as doctrinal issues.
"I do think it is reasonable and fair to my client that he be allowed to call all the witnesses he needs to meet the danger he is in, and evidence will be required from senior members of the Anglican community worldwide," Mr Revington added.
He said he believed a temporal court had a role to play in this matter, to deal with the question of employment and contract of service.
"My client's livelihood is now threatened. He has no other source of income," Mr Revington declared.
He said Dean Furlong has spent his entire life working for the Church of Ireland and so came before the court in jeopardy of his livelihood.
Richard Nesbitt, SC, for Bishop Clarke contended that the temporal courts had no role to play in the issue.
"This is clearly a doctrinal issue, simply the issue of the office which the Dean holds," Mr Nesbit said.
The chairman of the judges, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, said the issue was that Dean Furlong had published an opinion contrary to the teaching of the Church of Ireland. It was not unreasonable that the court should focus on Bishop Clarke's petition, and matters relating to employment were for another time.
After a 40-minute adjournment, the court agreed to postpone proceedings until May 10.
- Lorna Reid
