IN Archbishop Donald Caird, who announced his retirement on Monday night, the Church of Ireland in the Republic had a leader perfectly attuned to its self-image and concerns.
A careful and courteous man, a trained philosopher who disliked politics, he disliked controversy even more. When he talked in an interview, five years ago of southern Protestants being a conservative community with "a rather gentle, reflective attitude to life", he could have been talking about himself.
He is held in almost universal esteem and affection by his church's members south of the Border. His willingness to step down from the pulpit and chat and shake scores of hands is famous. His modest manner is much preferred by most southern Anglicans to the forceful, "presidential" style of Archbishop Eames in Armagh.
His love of the Irish language and pride in his Irishness have won him similar respect from his non-Protestaut fellow-citizens. It was no coincidence that last year he became the first Church of Ireland bishop to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the National University of Ireland.
He is probably "greener" than many of his fellow church members in the Republic. Last year he differed noticeably from Archbishop Eames in suggesting that there should be moves towards all-party talks in the North on the understanding that arms decommissioning would happen gradually.
His refusal unless extremely provoked to criticise the Catholic Church and its leaders has won him friends in that church. His fellow-philosopher, Archbishop Desmond Connell this week expressed his admiration and said he felt he was losing "a very good and personal friend".
The practical things about which Archbishop Caird felt strongly were the kind of things that would exercise most mainstream southern Protestants. He argued strongly for the continued separate existence of Protestant schools in the Republic, suggesting that the State should positively discriminate to maintain them and warning that the 1992 Education Green Paper endangered them.
He felt similarly about the need for the Adelaide Hospital, with its Protestant ethos, to be given the major say in the running of the new Tallaght hospital, although he left the hard arguing mainly to others.
The 52-member electoral college which will elect Dr Caird's successor will meet within a few weeks of his retirement on Easter Monday, April 8th. It will be chaired by Archbishop Eames and have a strong representation - 12 clerics and 12 lay people - from Dublin and its linked Glendalough diocese.
The rest of the college will be made up of three bishops, and six representatives - half clerical, half lay - from every diocese in the Church of Ireland's southern province. This includes all the dioceses in the Republic except Tuam and Kilmore.
There is no obvious front-runner.
The name which comes up most frequently in conversation is that of the
Bishop of Cork, the Right Rev Roy Warke. Bishop Warke is a quiet, diplomatic and conservative man. As a former Archdeacon of Dublin, he knows the diocese well, and the fact that at 65 he is not far from retirement himself might be seen as a way of allowing a still-to-emerge younger candidate to appear next time round. But he may not want the job.
OTHER names mentioned include that of the Bishop of Tuam, Dr John Neill, a former rector of St Bartholomew's church in Ballsbridge, who is intellectually very able, a good organiser and an excellent communicator. However, some of his fellow-bishops have questioned whether he yet has the judgment for the church's second most important post.
The Bishop of Derry, Dr James Mehaffey, is admired in the South for his often courageous commitment to the cause of reconciliation in the north-western city. However, he would not let his name go forward for Dublin II years ago and is unlikely to do so this time.
The Bishop of Kilmore, the Right Rev Michael Mayes, is too young and recently appointed to move so quickly to Dublin. The Bishop of Limerick, the Right Rev Edward Darling, born in Cork and with most of his ministry, spent in Belfast, is virtually unknown in Dublin.
The Bishop of Clogher, the Right Rev Brian Hannon, the church's representative on the World Council of Churches, is another relative unknown who has spent most of his ministry north of the Border. The Bishop of Meath, the Most Rev Walton Empey, may be precluded from the stamina-sapping Dublin post for health reasons.
The likelihood of a non-bishop being elevated to Dublin is slim; the last time it happened was in 1863. If a 130-year tradition were to be broken, the most likely candidates might be the Archdeacon of Dublin, the Ven Gordon Linney, who would be a popular choice among the people of the diocese, or the Dean of Christ Church, the Very Rev John Paterson.
