Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland this referendum is equality under the Constitution and anything else is extraneous." However, some religious-affiliated groups were in favour of the referendum. In January 2015, the Church of Ireland LGBT group "Changing Attitude Ireland" welcomed the publication of the wording of the Marriage Equality Referendum. Dr Richard O’Leary, the organisation's chair, said that marriage should be "available to couples without distinction as to their sex", just as civil marriage "may be contracted by two persons without distinction as to their race or religion". On 7 May, at a "Changing Attitude Ireland" event, former Archdeacon of Dublin, Gordon Linney said "We
Christianity in Ireland This practice has been broken only once, when in 1999 the House of Bishops voted unanimously in public to endorse the efforts of the Archbishop of Armagh, the Diocese of Armagh, and the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland in their attempts to resolve the crisis at the Church of the Ascension at Drumcree, near Portadown. The Church of Ireland embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest (or presbyter), and bishop. These orders are distinct from functional titles such as rector, vicar or canon. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, operating on an all-Ireland basis, is