Dean Andrew Furlong's resignation again shows faith and intellect to be most uneasy bedfellows, writes Emer O'Kelly

THE Church of Ireland has always prided itself on the breadth of its practice and belief. At least its liberal wing certainly has: the church undoubtedly also has its conservatives, not to say its fundamentalists. When push comes to shove, theologically speaking, a belief in the Christian god, trust in salvation and the afterlife, and commitment to freedom of conscience pretty well qualify one for membership.

One of the most common misconceptions in our wannabe free-wheeling society is that Roman Catholicism has an equally liberal fishing net. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that many Roman Catholics no longer obey the teachings of their Church doesn't change those teachings. Roman Catholicism does not permit freedom of conscience. You have to believe that the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ. You have to believe that the Virgin gave birth to God made man ( ... and remained a physical virgin, unrubbed by a relic, if you'll excuse plain speaking). You have to believe that the Virgin was born without sin, and was the only human being who ever was. And you have to believe that if you die 'in the state of mortal sin' such as fornication, adultery (including second marriages/relationships), lies and scandal mongering, you go to hell. And in case anybody forgets, you have to believe in hell. Without all of those beliefs, you are a heretic.

The fact that all of the above were made articles of Roman Catholic faith at a time when heretics were burned alive, when herbalists were judged witches/heretics and got burned alive also, is beside the point. Roman Catholic freedom of conscience is a cosmetic myth. It has been talked about only since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s as a means of preventing a general and hugely damaging exodus of the 'faithful' who are unable to take on board such a restrictive, illogical and gloomy version of virtue. Freedom of conscience, in Roman Catholic terms, is freedom to think about matters of faith, but only provided you then come to an orthodox conclusion.

The Protestant establishments burnt their heretics also, but as time went on most of them took on board the advances in scientific and medical knowledge, gave thanks for them, and adjusted religious practice to modern understanding while maintaining the basics of Christian belief.

But they do still require that to be a Christian one must believe that Christ was more than a teacher and an example; that he was in fact the son of God on earth.

And it was this requirement that created a problem for Andrew Furlong, the Dean of Clonmacnoise and Rector of Trim and Athboy. The Dean published a paper on his parish website last December in which he argued that Christ was not divine, and that it was time to move on from hidebound notions of the nature of divinity. His Bishop, Most Reverend Dr Richard Clarke of Meath and Kildare, suspended Dean Furlong. After reasserting his views, the Dean was about to be brought before a court of the General Synod on Friday, where he was to be tried for heresy.

Whatever his fate might have been, he pre-empted it by resigning, leaving himself without job, future, pension, or home; and presumably with a great sense of desolation at having had to abandon what had been a fulfilling 30-year vocation as spiritual minister to many people. Had he stood trial, he could hardly have lost more.

Some of the former Dean's co-religionists wondered why he just didn't stay quiet about his belief, or rather his non-belief. He was, they considered, a wonderful priest and pastor, and his private creed could well have been left to himself. It did not, they believed, make him any the less a good priest. It was his public declaration, akin to Martin Luther's Augsburg confession all those centuries ago, that threw down the gauntlet.

But broad though the Anglican Communion may be, it does have core requirements. In other words, despite its liberal inclusiveness, the Church of Ireland will not condone hypocrisy. Its priests must keep the rules in their hearts and minds as well as in their public practice. It is a blindingly simple indicator for the problems being faced by the Roman Catholic Church, mired in the consequences of its own hypocrisy in protecting rather than ejecting its vast numbers of child-molesting clergy.

Bishop Clarke said that the Church of Ireland encourages its members to question. The Roman Catholic Church says the same thing; and oddly enough both require that people come to the same conclusion. Seek the answers: but come to us because we have already found them. The difference seems to be that the Roman Catholic Church believes that there is no philosophical question one can ask to which it does not have the definitive answer. In fact, it believes that it has had all the answers for centuries, since it is still trotting out St Thomas Aquinas. The Church of Ireland has a simple bottom line: God as Creator, Jesus as His son, and the life of the soul after death. Andrew Furlong transgressed against that; one can feel sympathy for a man dispossessed of all that his life has meant, but there is logic and (harsh) justice in what has happened to him.

He has found, like many before him, that intellect and faith are uneasy bedfellows. The Church of Ireland may allow for a much broader sweep of intellectual life than the Church of Rome does; but the core of all religious belief has always been anti-intellectual. Andrew Furlong had the courage to follow the path of reason, and he paid the price.