In a report brought on the first day of business by the Church’s Council for Public Affairs - which also included resolutions on abortion and education - it stated that, “If we concede that people have a right to die in certain circumstances it follows that society has a duty to provide the means for their death.”
The report also said that if assisted suicide and/or euthanasia was normalised the underlying social dynamic will change: ‘The message that would be sent in this case is that if you are sick or old and a burden, ending your life is something you ought to consider.’
Speaking during the debate, Lindsay Conway, Secretary of the Council for Social Witness, which provides a range of services for older people and people with physical and learning disabilities, said that the Assembly needed to be aware of the ‘slippery slope principle’, saying that in The Netherlands mental health issues were now grounds for assisted suicide and euthanasia.
“Church members and service users must have a clear understanding of where the Presbyterian Church stands in this area. In all we do we must reflect the compassion and understanding of Christ…the Christian response must be one of palliative care and more hospice beds,” he said.
The Assembly also strongly commended palliative care, ‘calling on the governments in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to ensure the adequate resourcing of both research and delivery in this important area.’
Eighth Amendment Referendum
In a separate resolution, the Assembly expressed its ‘sadness’ at the outcome of the Eighth Amendment Referendum in the Republic of Ireland. It also repeated its call for ‘the best possible life-affirming care and support to be made available to women facing a pregnancy crisis.’ At the same time, in an amendment to the original resolution, the General Assembly commended the services of foster care and adoption among Church members who feel led to such ministry and service.
It also urged “the Government and the Oireachtas to keep to the promises made to the electorate that abortions will be ‘rare’ in Ireland and that unborn children with disabilities will not have their lives terminated.
Speaking during the debate, Very Rev. Dr. Trevor Morrow, who convened the group that looked at the denomination’s approach to the Eighth Amendment, said that it was seen by the majority of Irish men and women as the last expression of Irish Catholic social morality. It seemed to him that it was “in this context you must understand the voting and response to the referendum result. From the pro-choice movement’s perspective it was a celebration of being released from the shackles of the past.”
Dr. Morrow posed a question, however, “So, what is our calling at this time? As a Christian community we need to be more radical and compassionate than the world in which we live - especially in this area.”
Paraphrasing the retired ethicist and retired professor of Theology in Duke University Stanley Hauerwas, Dr. Morrow put Professor Hauerwas comments in an interview in a local Irish context. He said, “I say in a hundred years, if Christians in Ireland are known as a strange group of people who don't kill their children and don't kill the elderly, we will have done a great thing.”
Continuing to paraphrase he said, “That may not sound like much, but I think it is the ultimate politic. I mean, if we can just be a disciplined enough community, who through the worship of God has discovered that we are ready to be hospitable to new life and life that is suffering, then, as a matter of fact, that is a political alternative that otherwise Ireland will not have.”
Political situation in Northern Ireland
The General Assembly also expressed its ‘deep concern and frustration about the prolonged absence of an Executive in Northern Ireland, the resulting stagnation in public policy and the negative effects on the most vulnerable in society…’ repeating its ‘call for all involved in the political process to find a resolution that establishes good and stable government based on good working relationships.’
Talking about the political environment, Very Rev. Dr. Norman Hamilton, convener of the Council for Public Affairs said, “I have said it before, but want to say it again, that we seem to be building a politics ‘that is almost devoid of consistent Christian or gospel values.’
“It is clear to me that we are in an environment where we worship the ever changing god of personal choice and political preference, and where the Biblical commitment to the common good with shared national and community values has almost disappeared. This is one of the core reasons why the so called ‘progressive’ politics of abortion and assisted dying / euthanasia are so deeply disturbing.”
Referencing ‘The Code’, the Church’s constitution, he said that paragraph 10 states, ‘The Word of God as set forth in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments is the only infallible rule of faith and practice, and the supreme standard of the Church.’
Dr. Hamilton concluded by saying, “I suggest that this means, amongst other things, that when I go to the polling station, I am to vote in accordance with my best understanding of what the Scriptures say about what and who is being offered to me in the election. For example, the implications of the call in Jeremiah to serve the common good, or the call of Christ in the Beatitudes to have a hunger and thirst for righteousness in public life as well as personally.
“If all of us who are followers of Christ were to take the Scriptures seriously, I do believe that we would be in a different place to where we are now.”
Details of each day’s business of the 2018 General Assembly can be found at www.presbyterianireland.org/GA18. Resolutions and reports before the General Assembly can be found in the 2018 Blue Book here.
Most of the public sessions will be streamed live via this website. All public session proceedings can also be followed via live Twitter feed @pciassembly using the hashtag #PCIGA18.