History was made in St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin last night when Catholic priest, Fr Enda McDonagh, was made an ecumenical canon of its chapter for the first time since the Reformation at an evensong service.
The dean of St Patrick's, Very Rev Robert MacCarthy, described the occasion as "very historic" and said the idea originated in a book on Irish Anglicanism by Fr Michael Hurley SJ, published in 1970, which suggested that St Patrick's might become more ecumenical.
Last Sunday, at a ceremony Canon McDonagh was unable to attend, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rev Dr Ken Newell, was also installed as an ecumenical canon of its chapter.
Speaking at that ceremony the Church of Ireland primate, Archbishop Alan Harper, said "division among the people of God is a horrid thing, a scandalous thing".
He said Canon Newell had been elected to St Patrick's Cathedral chapter "because of his immense stature as a prophet of reconciliation in the midst of the maelstrom that was that most recent paroxysm of violence and division we euphemistically call the Troubles".
He described Canon McDonagh as a "distinguished representative of another church, the Roman Catholic Church, a theologian of international stature and one generous in his engagement in and commitment to dialogue with Christians of other traditions".
He continued that "bringing a former Presbyterian moderator and a distinguished Roman Catholic theologian and teacher into the midst of the life of the Church of Ireland at the level of the national cathedral is a declaration by us of our own incompleteness and the scandalous brokenness of the Body of Christ.
"We hold up to ourselves a mirror wherein is reflected the wounds inflicted by generations of self-proclaimed Christian people on the body of Christ," he said.
Canon McDonagh is a retired professor of moral theology and canon law at the Catholic Church's Irish national seminary, St Patrick's College, Maynooth.
A priest of the Tuam archdiocese, he was ordained in 1955 and taught at Maynooth from 1958 until 1995 when he retired from full-time teaching.
He has written 15 books, the latest of which, Immersed in Mystery. En Route to Theology, was published just recently.
Last night he said he was "grateful for the honour" and hoped it would help with bridge-building, as well as helping him "learn about this particular Anglican strand". He also hoped it would help "deepen dialogue".
