Northern Ireland

Online Synod challenged to do better than division and sectarianism

Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell
Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell

RECONCILIATION in Northern Ireland is "still fresh in its wrapping paper", the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell has said as he challenged individuals and the Church to do more to tackle sectarianism.

"We have tried many things in Northern Ireland," he said. "A lengthy peace process. An attempt to strengthen a very unbalanced economy. A wider and deeper tolerance of one another.

"Some attempts at shared schooling. But very, very few of shared living or social integration."

Archbishop McDowell, who became Archbishop of Armagh in April, was giving his first presidential address to the Church of Ireland General Synod yesterday.

The annual meeting of lay people, clergy and bishops is taking place online until today; it should have met in May, with Croke Park in Dublin as the venue, but the coronavirus pandemic forced its postponement.

"Setting Covid-19 aside for a few moments - because one way or another it will be laid aside - the question that we as individuals and as a Church need to ask ourselves is: 'Do we really want to say to our children and grandchildren, "I'm sorry, but this is the best I could do for you?" - a society north of the border which is still divided in virtually every department of life and with much sectarian feeling still at its core,'" he asked.

Archbishop McDowell praised the Church's response to the pandemic, saying he was "proud of how we've adapted our ministry in the face of uncertainty", and, in a reference to Brexit, warned of "forces at work within Ireland, between both parts of Ireland and between this island and Great Britain which have the potential to be more than a little disruptive of many decades of stable relationships".

The Archbishop spoke of how he had met with a group of "black, Asian and minority ethnic clergy and readers" from the Church in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

He said he had hesitated to speak about the killing at the time. "That hesitation wounded a number of people in the Church of Ireland who had expected some words of solidarity from a senior figure within the Church," he said.

"Here was a group of people who love the Church of Ireland, who are dedicated to the faith communities where they live and serve. They bring skills, insights and perspectives which we have not drawn upon."