THE raucous voice roared "for God and Ulster". The vast crowd listened in silence as if hypnotised. The "big man"

warmed to his task. He shouted at the top of his voice: "The person with the strongest force is going to win this battle."

He didn't give chapter and verse for it. He couldn't; it is not a biblical quotation. It was the rhetoric of naked power politics. Still they cheered him to the echo. Mouths were wide open but minds were closed tight.

The real significance of what he was saying escaped all but the most cynical of them.

He had more to say. He hadn't led them up the hill for nothing. He went on to give them his version of the promised land, a Protestant province for a Protestant people. Again they cheered him. It was like the replay of an old movie on the German situation before the second World War.

The publicity stunt over, the "grand old Duke of York", as Ian Paisley was once dubbed by the UDA, led the "God and Ulster" brigade down the hill into the real world. Ahead lay more deaths, suffering, disillusionment and despair.

That seemed to have happened light years ago. Since then, we have had a ceasefire followed by a peace process. Surely, it could not happen again. But it did - I saw it on television. This time it was a double act with Ian Paisley and a younger version, David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, who is both more energetic and more articulate.

The backdrop this time was a Church of Ireland church, parish hall and graveyard. I could not believe what I was seeing. I always thought a church was a symbol of reconciliation, but here it was undoubtedly a symbol of insurrection.

The church - Drumcree church in the diocese of Armagh - is now a familiar sight on our television screens. There, angry Orangemen confronted the police and mob rule won the day. This sparked off very serious civil unrest, polarised the Northern Ireland community, caused a rift in Anglo-Irish relations and placed a question mark over the whole peace process.

It was all very predictable. Hadn't there been a dummy run the previous year which ended with Ian Paisley and David Trimble celebrating their "victory" by dancing together in the streets of Portadown?

Did it need to happen? No, say some impartial commentators, and I agree with them. It would not have happened if the Church of Ireland had learned the lesson of Drumcree 1995 and made it clear to the Orangemen they would not be welcome at the church unless an undertaking were given that their parade to and from it would be kept within the law.

Such a courageous stand was not made and Drumcree church, with its barbed wire fence and mobs in conflict with the police, became a centre of insurrection. That was the sad picture the media flashed around the world, giving the impression that the Church of Ireland either fostered the insurrection or was too cowardly to stand up for law and order.

There are many decent, law-abiding church members, including Orangemen, who are horrified by the implications of what they saw on their television screens. They are still waiting for an explanatory statement or perhaps even an expression of regret from the appropriate church authority.

BUT a strange silence persists about the Church of Ireland's involvement in this affair. We are given instead a statement expressing anger and sadness about the recent attacks on Protestants, their churches, homes and property and the calls for a boycott of their businesses, and saying that nationalist leaders must work to end sectarian attacks against Protestants and ensure they too are given parity of esteem.

Are we so preoccupied with the mote in the eye of others that we cannot see the beam in our own eye? Surely these things would not be taking place if there had been no Drumcree.

What happened at Drumcree raises important questions for the Church of Ireland, and, not least, for its role in promoting reconciliation between a divided community in Northern Ireland. Drumcree cannot be described as a symbol of reconciliation and so it calls into question the credibility of that role. Drumcree has now come to be perceived as a symbol of the Church of Ireland, at least the part of it which is in Northern Ireland.

It is a symbol of a church which seems to be an adjunct of a particular political party that is too preoccupied with reflecting the political views of the majority of its members, that is clearly identified with an organisation regarded by many Protestants and most Roman Catholics as sectarian and divisive and that it bends over backwards to be supportive of those who willingly use force to achieve their political goal.

These, and other questions too, need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, for reconciliation is our ministry, given to us by Christ Himself.

Will there be another Drumcree next year? God forbid. Perhaps, on second thoughts, there is no need to drag God into it at all. We who are loyal members of the Church of Ireland, together with our sisters and brothers in the other churches, just need to get on with doing what needs to be done - practising what we profess to believe. This means giving priority to the spiritual over the political.