Protestant clergymen have called on the Loyalist Commission to help secure the removal of a death threat against a Co Antrim priest.
Father Dan Whyte, who carried out a blessing of graves at Carnmoney despite a loyalist protest, was told of the paramilitary threat at the weekend.
A group calling itself the Loyalist Action Force threatened the priest's life following the stand he took last week on the targeting of Catholic graves in the cemetery and the continuation of vandalism against the Church of St Mary's on the Hill.
Father Whyte officiated at Cemetery Sunday at Carnmoney on the outskirts of north Belfast as up to 200 loyalists protested at the entrance. Many blew horns and whistles while others shouted abuse. Two cars were hijacked and set alight and there was one arrest.
Protesters claim their action, the third in as many years, was purely against the use of a public address system in the cemetery for the ceremony.
However, Father Whyte told The Irish Times last night that the noise made by the protesters drowned out the prayers of those at the gravesides.
Police officers advised him on his personal security after they received an anonymous death threat from loyalist paramilitaries on Saturday night. "They were able to tell me that they had received a call on their confidential line that I was to be executed because of the stand I had taken in regard to the damaged graves in Carnmoney," he said.
"Community relations between some sections of the Protestant/loyalist and Catholics are at an all-time low," he added.
"But on the other hand, I was at a meeting this morning of my fellow clergy and that really uplifted my heart. Their solidarity is both public and private."
A statement from Newtownabbey Clergy Fellowship, which includes representatives from Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist congregations, condemned the vandalism, the cemetery protest and the threat against Father Whyte.