Churchmen at the funeral of murdered Portadown loyalist Mr Richard Jameson yesterday urged that there be no revenge attacks.
Mr Jameson's brother, Bobby, called on the public to assist the RUC in tracking down the killers rather than "taking the law into their own hands".
The funeral, to Tartaraghan Church of Ireland church a few miles outside Portadown, was attended by about 5,000 people.
The service had been due to begin at 2 p.m. but the attendance was so large that it began 90 minutes late.
In keeping with the wishes of the family, there were no paramilitary trappings. His family insists that Mr Jameson was not involved in the UVF, although security and leading loyalist sources say he was the organisation's commander in mid-Ulster.
Senior UVF members from Portadown, Belfast, Antrim and Scotland filed behind the cortege as it made its way from Mr Jameson's home on Derrylettiff Road - where he was shot on Monday evening - to Tartaraghan Church.
Several politicians joined the mourners, including Mr David Ervine, Mr Billy Hutchinson, and Mr Hugh Smyth, leading members of the political wing of the UVF, the Progressive Unionist Party. Also present were Mr Gary McMichael and Mr David Adams, of the Ulster Democratic Party, which is linked to the UDA.
DUP Assembly member Mr Paul Berry; former Ulster Unionist Party mayor of Craigavon Mr Ken Twyble; Workers' Party leader Mr Tom French; and the Portadown Orange Order district master, Mr Harold Gracey, were also there.
Canon William Fleming, who recently retired as rector of Tartaraghan church after 35 years, married Mr Jameson to Moira Wright in 1973 and baptised their three children, Glenn, Wayne and Kirsty in the same church. He described the killing as a "cold-blooded act of unspeakable barbarity".
"One would hope and pray that this is a one-off and that there certainly would not be any retaliation or retribution," he said.
The new rector, the Rev David Hilliard, said there was a desire for justice over Mr Jameson's murder, and perhaps also a desire for revenge. He said there should be no retaliation.
While the Loyalist Volunteer Force has denied involvement in the murder of Mr Jameson, UVF and PUP sources are convinced the anti-Belfast Agreement organisation killed him.
Mr Bobby Jameson, a brother of the murdered man, in a statement on behalf of the Jameson family to yesterday's Portadown Times, called for an end to "the murder, the violence and the misery of Portadown". He urged the community to help the RUC catch the killers.
The RUC last night said several people were still being questioned about Mr Jameson's murder.
