Sir, - Rev. John Marsden correctly sets out the need to take action without which there could be the prospect of the Church of Ireland incurring guilt by association with ethnic cleansing (November 5th), but he does not specify the action which he considers necessary.
What is required is the enactment by the General Synod, when it meets next May, of a new canon which would authorise the bishop, after consulting the parochial authorities, to direct that a particular service or other event shall not be held in a church or in or on other church property when he is of opinion that the holding of such service or event would not be in the public interest or liable to lead to a breach of the civil law or to cause offence to a substantial portion of the community; and, further, that disregard of such a directive would be an ecclesiastical offence.
A church is no more competent than civil authority to prevent persons who deliberately or recklessly cause a riot, but it can dissociate itself from any such activity (a) formally, and (b) in advance, and here the key point is the dissociation in advance.
The ultimate responsibility would rest where it ought to rest, that is, on the bishop, and if he failed to issue the directive and a Drumcree style situation were to occur, the responsibility would be on him for his grave misjudgment. - Yours, etc.,
Gartan, Bandon,
Co Cork.