The Church of Ireland’s Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop John McDowell, has offered his congratulations to Bishop Sarah Groves and the Moravian community in Ireland following the announcement that Gracehill has been recognised as a World Heritage Site.
“Anyone who has visited the Moravian settlement in Gracehill will have been struck immediately by its very distinctive atmosphere of peace and orderliness, qualities often in short supply in our modern lives,” Archbishop McDowell remarked.
“Gracehill is a place of spiritual healing and of solid physical beauty which has now been recognised as such in by this UNESCO award.”
In recent years, the Church of Ireland and the Moravian Church in Britain and Ireland have been developing a closer formal relationship which will allow for clergy from both denominations to serve in either.
Bishop Michael Burrows, who serves as the Church of Ireland Co-Chair of the Church of Ireland-Moravian Reference Group alongside Moravian Bishop Sarah Groves, added: “I’m thrilled to hear this great news from Gracehill. Bishop Sarah and her community deserve our warmest congratulations.
“On my many visits to that place of history, holiness and beauty I have found that its very atmosphere is the midwife of trust, friendship and ecumenical fruitfulness. I hope that many more people in the years to come will find that a visit to Gracehill sends them on their way rejoicing.”
To celebrate the Armagh Agreement, consolidating the new relationship between the two Churches, a special service took place on Monday, 18th March, 2024 in St Patrick’s Church, Ballymena, and continuing in Gracehill Moravian Church, accompanied with tree-planting in the Square and a reception in the Cennick Hall.