Jesus not God's son: priest
Agence France-Presse
09apr02
FOR the first time in more than a century, the highest court of the Protestant Church of
Ireland today put one of its clerics on trial after he denied Jesus was the son of God, a
spokesman said.
The Very Reverend Andrew Furlong, Dean of Clonmacnoise, faced seven judges at the church
court in Dublin after his Bishop, Richard Clarke of the diocese of Meath and Kildare,
asked he be charged and brought to trial.
In his petition, Clarke said Furlong, 55, has denied "the divinity of Christ and
efficacy of the sacraments" in website, print and broadcast media since November.
In December, Furlong, who served parishes north of Dublin, was suspended and his clerical
licence withdrawn.
Furlong declined an invitation to resign, saying he wanted to remain within the Church of
Ireland -- the largest of the small Protestant churches in the predominantly Roman
Catholic Republic of Ireland.
On a parish website Furlong said he believed Jesus was "neither a mediator nor a
saviour, neither super-human nor divine; we need to leave him to his place in history and
move on".
"The world has seen religions come and go; to my mind, no religion is guaranteed
permanence, only the searching human spirit, mind and heart are perennial."
The court has the power to admonish Furlong, remove him from his position and stop his pay
or defrock him.
The court has only sat 39 times in 130 years, mostly to rule on technical church matters.
It has only ruled on matters of doctrine on two previous occasions, both of those over a
century ago.
Dublin-born Furlong, who was ordained as a cleric in 1972, has also served in parishes in
Northern Ireland, England and Zimbabwe.END OF REPORT
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