The Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, said last night that chairing the Archbishop of Canterbury's commission on the ordination of women "will long remain one of the most rewarding tasks I have ever done".
Known as the Eames Commission, it paved the way for the ordination 10 years ago of the first woman priest in the Church of Ireland. It was the first Anglican church in these islands to open both the priesthood and episcopate to women.
A service was celebrated at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin last night to mark the event. The celebrant was the Rev Ginnie Kennerly, and it was attended by Dr Eames and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walton Empey.
In his sermon, Dr Eames recalled those first days of women priests in the church. "I recognise again as you do that there are some who find it hard to accept that women's ordination has occurred in the church."
He appreciated their feelings and the sincerity of their views. "Sensitivity to those views is just as important as our thoughts here tonight as we mark the 10th anniversary of the decision of our General Synod," he said.
He thanked God "that sensitivity to the deeply-held convictions of others and a lack of triumphalism has been so obvious in the past decade in our church".
Recognition of deeply-held convictions was a priority for the church which sought God's will. "Insensitivity should have no part in our life or witness."
He described priesthood as "the noblest of all callings". He wanted to affirm all who served the priesthood of the Church of Ireland. No priest should ever forget "our unworthiness to serve let alone witness. Pride should never in worldly terms be any part of our make-up as priests," he said. "Privilege' was the key word, God has granted us privilege in service."
Today the call to priesthood came in a world of great contradictions, he said. "Can there ever have been a time when the challenges of ministry were greater?" he asked. "On the one hand, secularism in the developed world, on the other the continuing cry of want and need in the poorest regions."
In Ireland "the call to the church is above all one of identity," he said. "We are living at a time of transition. The old Ireland and its ideas of what was important is dying", with the priesthood "struggling to find how best to communicate an ancient faith in ways a generation of both self-analysis and indifference can understand".
People made judgments of the church in terms of its relevance. That relevance was "more or less in terms of the world than of things spiritual", he said. The greatest task today's priests faced was "to show that the things of God are relevant, are important and indeed vital to ideas of justice, decency and satisfaction", he said.
Addressing the crisis of confidence in Anglicanism, he said the answer was in renewal. "We surely need to be reminded that the vocation to the priesthood is to offer a dimension to life which is first and foremost spiritual" rather than passing judgment in secular terms. "It is the spiritual element in humankind we are called to minister to. It is spiritual values we must emphasise."
