Church of Ireland General Synod 2026: Archbishop John McDowell speaks out against 'so-called Christian Right'
Immigrants to the island of Ireland are not bent on creating a Muslim state - but want exactly the same thing as the original Irish immigrants to the USA - "civic and religious freedom", the leader of the Church of Ireland has said.
Addressing 600 representatives at the denomination's General Synod in Newcastle, Co Down, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland John McDowell said it was time to "put a few myths to bed" from the political far right - such as allegations that Christians are suffering "discrimination" in Britain and on the island of Ireland.
He said: "Migration is not some form of organised conspiracy aimed at the colonial dispossession of the Irish people, as has been claimed by the extreme right in Ireland," he said.
"Nor is it an attempt at creating a Muslim majority or a Muslim state, as has been called by many on the British extreme right.
"Migrants to this island are motivated by exactly the same desires which motivated the Irish immigrants to the USA in the eighteenth century - a desire for civic and religious freedom - or which motivated many Irish people to the emigrate to the USA and Britain in the nineteenth century: hunger and destitution.
"Migrants to this island want what we all want-to bring up children in security and decency; to provide them with a good education and the chance of a stable future.
"And to contribute to the communities in which they live.
"They bring with them enormous energy and fortitude and very often scarce skills. For these and other reasons there is every rational reason to welcome them."
He noted PSNI statistics for 2024-25 show the worst levels of racist violence since monitoring began in 2004, and an increase of almost 50% on the year before.
In the Republic of Ireland, data also shows a multiyear increase in racially motivated incidents.
“That increases in migration should be seized on by the extreme right who are bereft of any other ideas is not surprising, although it is less edifying when mainstream parties equivocate in the face of the horrendous violence which migrants suffer,” he said.
However the more worrying development is the rise of "the so-called Christian Right", he said.
"These groups emphasise what they claim to be the undermining of 'Christian civilisation' or 'Judeo-Christian' values and the discrimination which they say Christians are subjected to."
The cleric noted that church and Christian civilisation gave the world the first hospitals and schools and "heroic women and men who lived with and cared for the world’s outcasts".
But he added: "Exactly which aspect of discipleship in Jesus Christ is being exercised by baying outside a hostel while terrified children are inside?"
In his view our attitude to immigration is "one of the great touchstones and tests of our Christian authenticity".
"It is possible to take a wide range of views on immigration policy which may be broadly consistent with belief in Christ and in the particular form of human equality which is articulated in the New Testament."
But he said Christians are nonetheless called to care for the stranger in our midst regardless of ethnic differences - as seen in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
"But perhaps the most sobering of all are the words of the Lord Jesus when all the nations of the earth stand before him as Shepherd and Judge: 'I was a stranger and you welcomed me…as you have done unto the least of these my brothers and sisters you have done unto me'."