The new president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Winston Graham, has warmly commended "the newly drawn up covenant" between his church and the Church of Ireland.
The covenant, which was approved at the recent Church of Ireland General Synod in Dublin, will be the major issue for debate at this year's conference of the Methodist Church in Ireland, which opened in Enniskillen last night.
The general synod was attended by the outgoing Methodist president, the Rev Harold Good.
The covenant will mean closer relations between both churches, if agreed to this afternoon.
At the general synod it was clarified that it was "but another step in a journey which started for our churches in the 1930s".
It was stipulated that "we remain separate churches, but now in a covenanted, or special, relationship with each other".
And it was made clear that both churches had not yet reached complete agreement on certain theological issues.
Seeking such agreement was "part of the onward journey", it was stated.
It is known, however, that there are fears on the part of some Methodists that agreeing to the covenant might mean being subsumed completely by the larger Church of Ireland, with a loss of Methodist identity.
In his installation address last night at Darling Street Methodist Church in Enniskillen, Mr Graham also said he would be using his year as president "to encourage the church to look beyond itself both ecumenically and to the wider world of church".
He would also be urging people "to learn from the past, but to stop being held back by it, both in our church life and political aspirations". He would be encouraging the Methodist people "to move on and out".
Mr Graham was designated president of the church for the coming year at the 2001 annual conference in Lisburn last June.
Born in 1942, he was educated at Wesley College in Dublin, the Methodist College in Belfast and Edgehill Theological College in Belfast.
He has served the church North and South, from a period in Birr, Co Offaly, to Glengormley, near Belfast.
He is currently superintendent of Knock Methodist Circuit.
Married to Blanche, they have three adult children, Laurence, Christine and Kathryn.
His father was also a Methodist minister, as are two of his brothers.
