The Church of Ireland Primate, Dr Robin Eames, has questioned if the Orange Order is to be regarded as "a truly Christian movement". Is it one "in which the love of God, love of neighbour and obedience to Biblical principles are more important than party political advancement?", he asked.
Dr Eames also revealed that a letter he sent the Orange Order before Drumcree this year "stressing the importance of linking Christian worship to behaviour outside and after the service [there]" was not replied to. "I was told my letter had been noted." In a letter published in the current edition of the English Catholic weekly, the Tablet, Dr Eames also says: "The response from so-called loyalist sources to my call for the Drumcree protest to end was a defiant increase of calls for support. It was also a response of threat to me personally and to the Church of Ireland in general. Enough said."
The letter, responding to a Tablet editorial last week which asked why the Church of Ireland allowed its property at Drumcree to be used for an Orange service "when everyone knew this was a prelude to violence", said Portadown Orange lodges had been attending the "normal statutory service" at Drumcree since 1807.
But, Dr Eames continued, "the Church of Ireland cannot be used for political purposes - no matter how many of its congregational members claim membership of the order."
The dilemma for the church, he writes, "is to preach a gospel of love in a society of division while recognising the dangers of being used in ways that question its integrity to be a church."
The Church of Ireland at Drumcree "has been used and no local accommodation has yet been offered. The Church of Ireland is suffering pain - and the pain runs deep. How do we balance the freedom of attendance by anyone at a church service with influence over their behaviour once the service has ended?"
Whatever the way forward may be, nothing can be the same again, he wrote. "Out of the agony, out of the scenes of over 25,000 people on the hill at Drumcree, out of the pain of those days for all of us in the Church of Ireland, there can be no going back, no repeat."
Reflecting on recent events, Dr Eames recalled that "much of what I saw happen at Drumcree Hill in the days following [the service] was far removed from a gospel of love, a gospel of peace and a gospel of reconciliation. I saw hatred and viciousness. I saw bewilderment on the faces of people who had never before had to question what membership of the order involved in a time of crisis.
"For them traditional membership of the order was a family matter - an expression of what they perceived to be their cultural and religious ethos. At Drumcree 1998 they found they had choices to make. I believe they have reached a crossroads."
