Bishop becomes the new Irish Council of Churches’ president

Bishop Forster takes over from former Presbyterian moderator the Rev Dr Ivan Patterson in a body that comprises more than a dozen Protestant, Reformed, Orthodox, independent, and migrant–led churches. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member, but co-operates in the workings of the council.

The ICC president is part of the mainstream church leaders’ group in Ireland and co–chairs the Irish inter–church meeting – Ireland’s leading ecumenical Christian faith body. Bishop Forster’s two-year stint as president will coincide with the ICC’s centenary.

In his two years as Church of Ireland bishop in Londonderry and Donegal, the Rev Forster has built strong working relationships with his Roman Catholic counterparts Bishop Donal McKeown and Bishop Alan McGuckian.

Relations between the churches, however, have not always been so cordial.

Bishop Forster said that after the ICC’s first meeting in 1923, the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Ireland remained effectively at arm’s length for another 50 years. “There were historical reasons for the division,” said Bishop Forster.

However, things changed dramatically, in 1973, when representatives of the Irish Council of Churches and the Roman Catholic church met at Ballymascanlon, Co Louth. It was the first official meeting and dialogue between the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Ireland.

“Looking back, the ICC’s participation in the Ballymascanlon talks was visionary and, in the context of the early 1970s with the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, very necessary,” said the Bishop.

Bishop Forster was Church of Ireland chaplain at Queen’s University for seven years in the 1990s and, before moving to Londonderry, he was rector of St Anne’s parish in Dungannon.