C of I has `let Drumcree parishioners down badly'

Like his two sons, his father and grandfather, he (who asked that his name not be used) is a member of the Church of Ireland …

Like his two sons, his father and grandfather, he (who asked that his name not be used) is a member of the Church of Ireland congregation at Drumcree. Like his sons, father and grandfather, as well as the majority of the congregation and the select vestry at Drumcree, he is member of the Orange Order.

He feels the Church of Ireland and its Primate, Dr Robin Eames, "have really let the rector [Rev John Pickering] and the parishioners of Drumcree down very badly".

They hadn't given them the support they should have had, he said. He recalled that at the Diocesan Synod in Armagh last October Dr Eames had said he would meet the Drumcree vestry.

"Nine months later he still has not done so. He has never met the vestry as a whole since this crisis began," he said.

READ MORE

He was also critical of Dr Eames saying at the synod that the Orange Order must decide whether it is a political or religious organisation. "He should decide himself whether he is a political or religious leader, because he has accepted a seat in the House of Lords."

Asking that the invitation to the Orangemen to attend last Sunday's service be withdrawn was "a bad step" by the church, he said. For 51 weeks of the year he was welcome to attend the Sunday morning service at Drumcree "but because I put on a collarette he's [Dr Eames] saying I'm not welcome. I think that is most disgusting".

He is also "very disillusioned with the Archbishop of Dublin [Dr Empey] and the bishops down South". He accused Dr Empey of speaking out of turn last week in calling for the sacking of Mr Pickering. "I think it was very unfair to the rector and don't believe it is any of his [Dr Empey's] business."

He is not happy with the church's Northern bishops, who were "not supportive", particularly the Bishop of Down and Dromore, Dr Harold Miller. (Though Drumcree is in the Archdiocese of Armagh, its immediate bishop is Dr Miller in whose diocese it also falls). Dr Miller, he noted "spoke out against us, too".

But there remained some good clergy in the church who stuck by the principles of the Church of Ireland and the Reformed faith, he said. "The church belongs to the people and does not belong either to the archbishop or the bishops down South, and I will not be driven out of the Church of Ireland by them," he said.

They were driving people away from the church, many of whom had already "gone Free Presbyterian". It was also the case that the Northern members of the church were under-represented. Over two-thirds of the church membership was in the North, he said, but most of the bishops and most of those who attended the General Synod were from the South.

It seemed to him and other vestry members that the church in the South, "maybe because they are a minority down there, are running very close to Roman Catholicism. They don't preach the gospel the way the Rev Pickering does. They don't stand up for the Reformed faith they way he would. I feel the bishops in the South have become too ecumenical. They don't accept the 39 Articles the way the Rev Pickering does", he said.

The church had given the Orange Order "a hammering for violence in the past year". "But we are not responsible for the violence. Portadown did all it could to keep things peaceful", he said. Despite the violence of the republican movement over the last 30 years he felt the Church of Ireland had never come out and spoken as strongly about those murders as it did about the violence at Drumcree. "Especially the Archbishop of Armagh, where 378 Protestants have been murdered. I feel very sore about that", he said.

He emphasised his respect for other people's beliefs and only asked that they respect his. He genuinely believed in civil and religious liberty for all, he said, but could see no need for ecumenism. It meant "a dilution of Protestantism". Nor was there a need for any bridge to be built between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

"If we stick by the Reformed faith there will be no need for Protestantism to dilute. They [Roman Catholics] have their faith and we have ours. They should be allowed theirs and we should be allowed ours. There's no need for a bridge," he said.

He does, however, draw a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Roman Catholics. He is still involved in sport and plays with Catholics four or five times a week. And though they would not be his closest friends he would like to think they are his friends.

He sees no reason why Roman Catholics and Protestants cannot live side by side, separately practising their different faiths, while co-operating civilly across the other divides.