The Church of Ireland General Synod begins in Armagh tomorrow, continuing to Thursday. A Church spokesman said it would be "the first time the General Synod has met in Armagh. Moreover on the first day members will be presented with the church's new Book of Common Prayer."
Up to 600 representatives will attend from parishes around Ireland. Guests will include the Catholic primate Archbishop Dr Seán Brady, the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Rev Dr Ivan McKay, and the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland, the Rev Jim Rea.
In his presidential address tomorrow, the Church of Ireland primate Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev Robin Eames, is not expected to dwell at any great length on the issue that has threatened to split the worldwide Anglican communion - that of homosexual clergy.
He is chairman of the Lambeth Commission, set up at a meeting in London last October of Anglican primates from around the world, to address the issue and which is expected to report back by September next.
In a letter to the worldwide Church leadership last week, the archbishop advised against "actions and statements however well-intentioned which express definitive positions on relationships within the Anglican Communion" as they ran the danger of limiting the opportunities and options available to the commission.
He said it was important "to maintain the highest possible degrees of communion among those who adopt differing views at this time" and that support for groups who may dissent from decisions at forthcoming major meetings of Anglicans in north America, while the commission was still at work, would be "a further damaging of trust and mutual life and of the very clear guidelines" agreed at various Lambeth conferences.
Dr Eames is expected to speak about the political stalemate in the North. He is also likely to speak of Church ministry in the 21st century, in anticipation of the Commission on Ministry report to be presented on Wednesday. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will be preacher at the General Synod service tomorrow evening.
