Armagh centenary service: Archbishop warns against ‘obsession’ with borders

The comments came from Church of Ireland archbishop John McDowell, who was just one of a medley of speakers who roved over issues ranging from sectarianism and racism to global warming – with the overarching theme being that of reconciliation.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney were among the VIPs present at Armagh’s Anglican cathedral for the hour-long event, which began at 11am.

The Queen had pulled out of attending on health grounds, whilst the Republic’s head-of-state Michael D Higgins had rejected the invitation on the grounds that it could be seen as political.

Nevertheless, security was incredibly tight, with parts of the city placed into a kind of lockdown.

Even miles away from the cathedral, teams with sniffer dogs combed the verges of the carriageways, and traffic in the city itself came to a virtual standstill.

Restrictions on journalists were tight too; access to the congregation was sharply limited, and filming was banned during the service (with only the BBC and RTE allowed to broadcast footage).

The event was titled “A Service of Reflection and Hope”, and was organised by the leaders of the main churches in the Province: Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican and Methodist.

It was the latter denomination which had an especially central place in proceedings – its president, Rev Dr Sahr Yambasu, delivered the main address to worshippers.

He said: “I tell you the truth. Grace alone can set free the people of this island from enslavement by the past.

“The result of the outworking of grace is forgiveness. And forgiveness is releasing others and oneself from a corroding past into a liberating future.

“This is the good news I bring you: that the grace of Jesus is available to you, to me, to all of us, today.”

Rev Yambasu, who hails from Sierra Leone in west Africa, added that his people had been “bought, sold, and used for profit” and his home continent “partitioned without any reference to or consultation with its inhabitants”.

He said he has spent the last 26 years “negotiating my acceptance” as the equal of Irish and British people.

During the service, Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin recalled having to go from Londonderry through “heavily-fortified checkpoints” into Donegal, to visit relatives.

But today he is convinced that “mistrust and division can become things of the past”.

And Archbishop McDowell (the overall head of Anglicanism on the island) recalled the “them-and-us” mentality of his childhood in working-class east Belfast.

“Now, as a church leader I am sorry that as disciples of Jesus Christ, we didn’t do more to become peacemakers, “he told the service.

“We obsessed about some things: especially borders.

“One way or another, we’re obsessing about them again, and being distracted from really thinking about what a good society would look like.

“There are still far too many people who live with poverty of many kinds-educational, economic, emotional.

“Far from creating a society with a common purpose, the pandemic and some recent political developments have exposed just how fractured a society we’ve become.”

But he concluded on an optimistic note: “I am hopeful. Hopeful in a new generation who know that the big problems we’ve landed them with, especially climate change and economic inequality, can only be tackled together.

“I think there are already signs that the next generation will see the things that we obsessed about as secondary, and place their priorities elsewhere.”