Ecumenical Relations
Conway was keen throughout his time as Primate of All-Ireland to develop and maintain good relations with the leaders of other Christian churches on the island. He enjoyed a particularly close friendship with his fellow Primate in Armagh George Otto Simms. In 1973 Archbishop Simms invited Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey to lecture at the Refresher Course for Church of Ireland Clergy. The visit took place from 30 April to 3 May and Simms arranged for Ramsey and Cardinal Conway to meet. Conway held to the policy of Church leaders acting together, so that they could best advance their cause for peace.
In the 2006 releases of Public Records from the year 1975 there exists a one-page note of a meeting between Harold Wilson, then British Prime Minister, and the leaders of the main Churches in Northern Ireland (Cardinal Conway, Archbishop Dr George Otto Simms, Dr Temple Lundie, Rev Harold Sloan, Rev Donald Fraser.) The background to this was the fact that representatives of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) had held secret talks with Protestant clergymen at a location in Feakle, County Clare, on Tuesday 10 December 1974. On 18 December 1974 the Protestant clergymen met with Merlyn Rees, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to report on their meeting with the IRA. These developments had led to an IRA ceasefire that began at midnight on Friday 22 December 1974 and was scheduled to end at midnight on 2 January 1975:
The Prime Minister said that he had been impressed by the earlier reference to children going out to parties again. Peace created its own dynamic. The Church leaders had planted a fragile tree (which one might call a Christmas tree) in the desert of terrorism and we must consider how this tree could be watered.
Read more about this topic: William Conway (bishop)
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