Dean raises Orange link with C of I

A SENIOR Church of Ireland figure has called on the church to reexamine its links with the Orange Order after the Drumcree incidents…

A SENIOR Church of Ireland figure has called on the church to reexamine its links with the Orange Order after the Drumcree incidents, and to be more forceful in promoting links with Catholics.

Dean Victor Griffin, the former Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, told the BBC Radio Ulster programme Sunday Sequence yesterday he found some of the order's rules offensive.

"I think that the Church of Ireland must make it perfectly clear that it opposes what I would describe as the anti ecumenical attitude of the Orange Order."

Dean Griffin expressed honour at the events surrounding the Drumcree stand off. He said: "I dearly love the Church of Ireland, and I was very saddened, and indeed angered, to see the Church of Ireland humiliated and dragged into the mire following a church, service in Drumcree.