Church of Ireland bishop’s love letter to Romanist excusing republican thugs in Londonderry

Psalm 1:1: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

The Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe has expressed his great admiration for the Roman Catholic Bishop of Derry at a major Church of Ireland youth event.

As part of their attempts to normalise compromise with the papacy with the youth of the Church of Ireland, Bishop Ken Good (Church of Ireland) and Bishop Donal McKeown (Roman Catholic Church) “talked and joked before an audience of Christians about their friendship and ministry”, according to a report on the Church of Ireland Diocese of Derry and Raphoe website.

The report stated that the “close rapport” between the pair “was on display at the Summer Madness festival”, a major gathering for the youth of the Church of Ireland.

Speaking at a seminar entitled ‘Our Journey Together’, Bishop Ken Good, (pictured, right of the image, below) was gushing in his praise for Bishop Donal McKeown (pictured, left of the image).

He said: “I think he has a remarkable way with people. His memory of names, his ability to just relate to people – and I saw this in Rome particularly – he’s a real people person and there’s a warmth about him, there’s a ‘down-to-earthness’ about him.

“I actually think he’s a very good bishop – I’m quite serious about that, it’s true – and he has that warm ability to get on and relate to his people.”

Bishop Donal McKeown continued the adulatory ecumenical exchange.

He said: “We do complement one another as well. I can bring a certain amount of energy but you can bring the focus to it, the structure to it, so together we’re blessed having each other by being different, because we recognise the skills that the other has – which is a wonderful way to have a relationship.

“We’ve been blessed in having each other to complement one another.”

It also appears to be the case that they have each other to compliment one another.

And Bishop Donal McKeown, in recent days, has excused the vicious sectarian actions of republicans in Northern Ireland’s second city, Londonderry, targeting relentlessly for a week a small Protestant area surrounded by republican strongholds.

Referring to the thugs, he said: “Some communities that suffered much in the past are still suffering disadvantage.

“There are young people who feel life is passing them by and looking down on them.”

Therefore, presumably the natural reaction in that circumstance is to, with violent intent, target Protestants simply because they are Protestant. What utter nonsense!

However, this is the type of character that the supposedly Protestant Bishop Ken Good has opted to cosy up with.

Back to their little get together and the Papist bishop then also pointed out that many of their ecumenical ventures were thanks to the determined efforts of the so-called Protestant bishop.

Referring to a number of “Columban pilgrimages” the pair had engaged in together, he said: “I may have my strengths but Ken, all those walks came from you calling meetings in your office; you were the organiser.”

So Bishop Ken Good was the driving force behind the Columban pilgrimages, a Papist practice.

He certainly has not followed the example set by David, as he stressed in Psalm 26.

Verses 4-5 say: “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked.”

The Roman Catholic system is a wicked one, as it expressly tries to robs its adherents of salvation by denying the precious truth of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Instead it preaches a corrupt system of works, which can never offer salvation.

It does not go well when we make alliances with those who are at odds with God.

One must only look at the sorry example of King Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah who aligned himself with the notoriously wicked king of Israel, Ahab.

The husband of the evil Jezebel, Ahab was that man whom Elijah had boldly told was the one who had troubled Israel with his blasphemous idolatry (1 Kings 18:18).

He had not changed by the time he made an alliance with Jehoshaphat, who, to that point, had pleased God.

However, he very nearly paid for his folly with his life.

First, Ahab made friendly overtures towards him, seeking to win his confidence, which he did.

2 Chronicles 18:2-3: “And after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead. And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Wilt thou go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art , and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war.”

Is that not even the spirit of the ecumenical movement? Do its cheerleaders not say that we’re all really the same, we are all Christians and all serve the same God?

This is a lie and a deceit from the pit, just as it was in the day of Jehoshaphat.

Ahab presided over an evil kingdom and enforced blasphemous worship of Baal in the land, yet Jehoshaphat foolishly sought to team up with this reprobate.

Jehoshaphat equivocated for a time, but eventually gave in to this ecumenical alliance with the idolater, Ahab, and went into battle with him.

However, Ahab sought to protect himself and expose Jehoshaphat to the most danger in their battle with the Assyrians.

2 Chronicles 18:29,31: “And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and will go to the battle; but put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went to the battle. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him; and God moved them to depart from him.”

Were it not for God’s mercy, Jehoshaphat would have been killed by those assuming he was in fact Ahab.

This is typical of the ecumenical process, whereby it is the Protestant who must compromise themselves to align with the Roman Catholic. It was the same for Jehoshaphat, whose kingdom was much closer to God, as he put himself literally in the firing line to aid the God rejecter, Ahab.

However, God made the plans of men to come to nothing when he caused Ahab to die in the battle, regardless of his efforts to disguise himself.

2 Chronicles 18:33-34: “And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: therefore he said to his chariot man, Turn thine hand, that thou mayest carry me out of the host; for I am wounded. And the battle increased that day: howbeit the king of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the Syrians until the even: and about the time of the sun going down he died.”

While God intervened on behalf of Jehoshaphat and spared him, He was displeased by his actions, as he told Jehoshaphat through Jehu the prophet in the next chapter.

2 Chronicles 19:2: “And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.”

Jehoshaphat lost out through an unholy alliance with someone who was at variance with God.

We ought to take heed to such a warning, rather than supporting the ecumenical efforts of the likes of Bishop Ken Good.

2 Corinthians 6:17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”.