The Rt Rev Michael Burrows, bishop of Cashel and Ossory, has been a target for the anger of conservative and evangelical members of the church since the same-sex union of Dean Tom Gordon almost a year ago.
Last Saturday, the church’s annual General Synod in Dublin voted by a majority of more than two-thirds to agree a motion which stated that marriage is only between a man and a woman and that any sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong.
And, in an interview with the News Letter on Monday, the leading evangelical bishop, Harold Miller, urged Dean Gordon to state whether his civil partnership was celibate or sexual.