Archbishop: Queen's visit to Republic 'of profound significance'

The Queen’s Christian beliefs were described today as the bedrock of her “duty, devotion and service” to others throughout her 60-year reign.

In a thanksgiving service sermon to mark her Diamond Jubilee, the Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev Alan Harper, also praised the Queen’s groundbreaking visit to the Republic of Ireland last year, which dramatically advanced Anglo-Irish relations.

Her conciliatory words and gestures had allowed many to throw off the “shackles” that had been loosening since 1998’s Good Friday Agreement, and to “positively” be themselves, he said.

A congregation of 700 filled the pews of St Macartin’s Cathedral in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, today to hear the Archbishop’s sermon to the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh including the North's First Minister Peter Robinson.

The town was the scene of a devastating IRA bomb attack in November 1987 which killed 11 people during a Remembrance Day service, and the Queen will meet relatives of victims later in the day.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in the North earlier for a two-day visit whose start was delayed by almost an hour after bad weather forced her flight to divert from Enniskillen to Aldergrove Airport, near Belfast.

Tomorrow a historic handshake will take place between the Queen and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness in Belfast.

Speaking about the planned meeting, Mr McGuinness, Stormont’s Deputy First Minister, has said: “This is about stretching out the hand of peace and reconciliation to Queen Elizabeth who represents hundreds of thousands of unionists in the north.”

The Archbishop, head of the church of Ireland, drew parallels between the Queen and her ancestor, Elizabeth I, who addressed Parliament in 1601.

He described how the monarch said in her 17th century speech: “’And though you have had, and may have, many princes more mighty and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had, nor shall have, any that will be more careful and loving’.

“In that, the first Queen Elizabeth was mistaken. She did not anticipate the reign of her Elizabethan successor for whose 60 years of duty, devotion and service we say ’Thanks be to God’.”

The Queen endeared herself to many across Ireland during her state visit to the Republic last year when she laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, which honours republicans who died fighting British rule, toured the headquarters of the GAA and spoke Irish at a banquet in her honour.

The Archbishop told the congregation today that the tour had great importance: “For many it was an occasion of profound significance and deep emotion. It felt like the completion of an assent, at the highest level, to a process announcing a new day for all the people of this island.”

He went on to say: “Shackles, which had been steadily loosening since the ceasefires and the Belfast Agreement, finally fell away, giving us a new freedom to be positively, rather than merely negatively, ourselves.”

The Queen's strong faith was highlighted by the Archbishop: “’Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them,’ Jesus said, ’will be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock’ – the rock of the words and the wisdom of the son of God.

“Your Majesty, it is upon that rock that you have built your life and answered every call of duty.”