Church leaders in Northern Ireland have called for a unified political response to recent violence and rioting.
An open letter from the Church Leaders' Group to political leaders in Northern Ireland, the Irish and UK governments, and the European Union came in the wake of what they described as "heartbreaking scenes witnessed on our streets last week".
It appealed for them to "treat Northern Ireland's fragile peace with care".
The letter said the causes of the most recent outbreak of violence are "complex" and "deep-rooted".
"Church representatives and other community leaders working on the ground in affected communities have spoken to us of their frustration at seeing another generation of young people risk their lives and their futures because repeated warnings about the need to treat our fragile peace with care went unheeded," it said.
In the letter, church leaders emphasised the importance of the Good Friday Agreement and the responsibility to respect all identities and foster good relations within Northern Ireland, on the island of Ireland and between the UK and Ireland.
The leaders expressed their support for the PSNI and also called on the Northern Ireland Executive to make a joint approach to the EU and the UK government about challenges posed by the Northern Ireland Protocol.
"We have previously advocated for the need to protect all these relationships in the context of Brexit.
"The Northern Ireland/Ireland Protocol presents many challenges to the flow of trade and also the flow of goodwill across and between these islands.
"Some of the challenges were foreseeable and have been planned for and mitigated (at least in part).
"The political outcomes of the Protocol are more difficult to address because they are tied in with very big issues of world trade and sovereignty.
"The only way in which these will be constructively handled, from a Northern Ireland point of view, and with a good chance of a successful outcome, is if the European Union (including the Irish Government) and the Government of the United Kingdom are approached jointly by the entire Northern Ireland Executive advocating for the protection of the common good across the whole of Northern Ireland.
"Such a joint approach would be difficult to turn down, but to develop it will require a renewed generosity of spirit from political leaders on all sides of our community".
The letter was signed by the Most Reverend John McDowell, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Most Revd Eamon Martin, Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, the Right Revd Dr David Bruce, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Revd Dr Tom McKnight, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, and the Very Revd Dr Ivan Patterson, President of the Irish Council of Churches.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Archbishop Martin said that "there's fierce anxiety on the ground" and people are worried after the damage to property, the burning of vehicles and the "huge danger of a threat to life".
He said the church leaders coming together is "to symbolise the importance of unity of purpose that we should all work together to get ourselves out of this quagmire that we've entered into once more".
Archbishop Martin said there is a sense that "for a while, that maybe Dublin has stood back and that London has stood back and said ''look, they're big enough now, they're big enough to get on with themselves', sadly that's not the case, we do need the help of those parenting bodies once more".
He said it was sad that when Brexit was being brokered, that the Northern Ireland parties were not even sitting in the Assembly and "there was a sense of disenfranchisement from the people on the ground here that this was happening outside of us and now we've been left with the repercussions of Brexit including the protocol."
