POLITICAL parties should "set aside their red lines" on the Irish language to stop unrestricted abortion in Northern Ireland, a church leader has said.
The Rev Trevor Gribben, of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, called for the compromise yesterday following a joint message from the heads of Northern Ireland's main churches.
In it, the leaders from the Catholic, Methodist, Church of Ireland and Presbyterian churches as well as the Irish Council of Churches, urged political parties to compromise to restore the devolved institutions and prevent abortion being "imposed".
In July, MPs passed a motion a motion compelling the government to provide access to abortion in Northern Ireland unless Stormont is restored by October 21.
Rev Gribben, speaking on behalf of the church leaders' group, said the issue of unrestricted abortion is "too serious to be having what are pointless debates over the Irish language" and told unionists they have nothing to fear from the Irish language.
He said: "The Irish language is no threat to me... it's not a campaign, it's not giving in to republicans to agree sensible Irish language legislation - let's do that and get back to Stormont.
"We shouldn't be afraid to bring in sensible Irish language legislation and people that try and block it by saying it would be a big compromise are actually doing us a disservice. Abortion is more important - we should get back to our devolved settlement.
"My fellow citizens, often many Roman Catholics, people from a nationalist background - the Irish language is precious to them."
A spokesperson for the DUP said that in August 2017 leader Arlene Foster offered to legislate for the Irish language but that this was rejected by Sinn Féin "within 90 minutes".
"We are the only consistently pro-life Executive party. We will form an Executive immediately without any pre-conditions. It’s time for Sinn Féin to lift its boycott,” the spokesperson said.
Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw said she had worked on an Irish language compromise "which has been available since September 2017 as a basis for restoration of the institutions".
“I welcome any civic engagement which pushes the point it is for the DUP and Sinn Féin to recognise the deal already in place and to take the responsibility that comes with their mandate,” she said.
Sinn Féin did not comment.
In their statement, the church leaders also called on Secretary of State Julian Smith to recall the Assembly ahead of October 21.
However, a government spokesman said that while Mr Smith was happy to meet the church leaders the "responsibility for affecting these changes lies with Northern Ireland political leaders".
Grainne Teggart, Northern Ireland campaigns manager for Amnesty International, said decriminalisation of abortion does not equate to deregulation but "simply means that women will no longer be treated as criminals for accessing healthcare".
