THE Church of Ireland's new Archbishop of Armagh praised the "most remarkable and influential" GAA and thanked those involved in the fight against coronavirus as he took up his post yesterday.
John McDowell (64), who moves to Armagh after being Bishop of Clogher for almost nine years, was elected to the Church's most senior role last month by his fellow bishops.
Had coronavirus not intervened, there would have been an enthronement service in St Patrick's Cathedral to mark Archbishop McDowell's 'translation' to Armagh.
But with public gatherings, including church services, cancelled that formality will have to wait until less difficult times.
Another victim of social distancing measures is the Church of Ireland's General Synod, its annual decision-making meeting of lay people, clergy and bishops.
The Synod's hundreds of members were due to meet next week at Croke Park in Dublin, and would have expected to hear the new Archbishop share his priorities for the years ahead.
However, the gathering has been cancelled, though the Church holds out some hope that it may be able to meet later this year if the public health situation allows.
In the absence of the traditional opportunity to deliver either an enthronement sermon or presidential address at Synod, Archbishop McDowell published an article reflecting on his appointment.
A General Synod meeting in Croke Park would have offered "some quite extraordinary opportunities to speak and to listen provided by the chances of history", he said.
"This would have offered an opportunity to acknowledge the role which the GAA plays in every corner of this island - surely the most remarkable and influential cultural and sporting organisation in Ireland today."
Croke Park would, said Archbishop McDowell, have been an especially appropriate setting to reflect on "the tragic loss of life which was occurring all over Ireland in 1920" and "to have listened and spoken about the acknowledgements needed and the lessons learned".
The Archbishop suggested that the Covid-19 crisis may be comparable to the trauma of the First World War.
"In some senses, it is even more destabilising," he said.
He wanted to "give heartfelt thanks for those people, especially those working in hospitals and care homes, who have put the saving of the lives of others above the protection of their own lives".
"Some have already paid the ultimate price for their bravery and their compassion," he noted.
Archbishop McDowell said that "we are now most certainly a post-Christendom, if never quite a post-Christian, society" and that in this context, the Church of Ireland, with its "northern majority but insisting on and valuing the voices of southern brothers and sisters", could model reconciliation.
"Without wishing to be too dramatic, the scars of suffering are the tokens of peacemaking, at the very least peacemakers risk bearing the emotional scars of being ridiculed," he said.
"Just as Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded European Christianity about the costliness of grace, those of us who talk about and plead the urgency of a deepened sense of reconciliation need to make no bones about the cost."
