Drumcree is in the headlines yet again with its menacing and ugly scenes reported across the world with a Church of Ireland parish church as the backdrop. That hurts. The issue we are told is a people's right - even their God-given right - to attend church. It is no such thing and the sooner that is taken on board the better it will be for everyone concerned.
I accept that for some the religious side of Orangeism is important, but 30 years ago as a curate in the North, I saw some marchers on these occasions walk to the church and remain outside for the service.
The confrontation at Drumcree is part of an ancient political struggle which the Church of Ireland like the other churches on this island has been party to whether we like to admit it or not. Much of the sectarian bigotry that manifests itself at Drumcree and elsewhere is to some extent at least a crude expression of what churches thought and said about each other in slightly more sophisticated terms not so very long ago. And that is precisely why none of us can slip away quietly from Drumcree much as we would want to.
The Church of Ireland, led by Archbishop Eames, has said much these past five years. The appeals for calm and peaceful protest are now worn almost threadbare and one detects a weariness and a frustration that as they are repeated they will be ignored by those to whom they are addressed. In the records of the ancient Dublin Parish Church of St Catherine in Thomas Street, around the time of the Emmet rebellion there is an interesting little note which tells us that on a particular Sunday "there was no divine service today due to the tumult of the people".
We are told people are called by the Orange Order to walk to Drumcree to attend service. We are also told that the service is the normal routine service of the church and not some special event. Some would dispute that. We also now know from sad experience that the Orange Order, supported by various factions, engages in political protest which at times leads to confrontation and violence. That has to be unacceptable to any church and its rejection more than a matter of words. Every effort must be made to demonstrate that the Church of Ireland refuses to confer legitimacy of any kind on this event. We have not done enough in that respect yet.
Better still, of course, if the service was to be cancelled "because of the tumult of the people" but that depends on the local leadership. And it is not likely to happen in the present climate given that a letter sent to the parish following a General Synod resolution in 1999 asking that the invitation to the Orange Order be withdrawn had no effect.
At one level I can understand that reaction even if I believe it sad and unwise. Rev John Pickering has been rector of Drumcree since 1983 and he, like most clergy in the North, will have shared terrible times of pain and loss with his people due to terrorist violence. This is something the rest of us too easily forget. It is asking a lot of him that he should close the doors of his church against those very people in order to keep out less desirable elements. None the less I still believe he should try to lead his people to see the church cannot appear to have any part in the events taking place around them. Mr Pickering and the people of Drumcree are not the only ones who need to reflect on these matters. Thinking unionists having clearly reflected on the tide of history and decided to enter into that historic compromise we call the Good Friday Agreement with nationalism and republicanism albeit somewhat reluctantly and divided. There is little doubt that Drumcree is being used by elements opposed to that agreement.
BUT AS Mary Holland pointed out in this newspaper on Thursday, we must try to "understand the deeper emotions that underlie the [Drumcree] protest." She reported the comment of a hardline Orange leader who said that many ordinary working-class Protestants at Portadown felt "abandoned". This social divide is of enormous significance for these "abandoned" people who for years were marched in grand old Duke of York style up to the top of the hill and down again. Suddenly they realise that the duke and company are no longer marching and they feel abandoned by those they had always thought of as "their own".
But it is not only the working-class Protestants who feel abandoned. Recently at a function in the North, a member of the Church of Ireland, a professional man, told me that although he was a unionist and still had no problem with a united Ireland he did fear what he called the pan-nationalist front which he believed showed little respect for things that matter to him such as the principle of consent or the position of Northern Ireland within the UK.
He made particular reference to his understanding that the Dublin Government through the Minister for Foreign Affairs had expressed strong opposition to any manifestation of Britishness in the North. Quite simply, he felt he was being swamped by a republican agenda. For him Dublin was insensitive, London indifferent.
Now when one looks at Drumcree with the Orangemen on one side and the Garvaghy Road people on the other, one has to acknowledge the political difficulties facing both governments, but is there not some truth in the argument that the parity of esteem which was such an important and worthy element of the Good Friday Agreement has been neglected from a unionist point of view. We make a huge mistake if we think that Drumcree is only about extremists marching where they are not wanted.
For the church this is a painful and difficult time and will continue to be. We are paying a price for a past in which it was acceptable to cosy up to and identify with quasi-political and religious movements. We may correctly claim there are no links between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order but try telling that to the world every time Drumcree parish church hits the screen.
It is a challenging time for all the people of Ireland, North and South. It is too easy to walk away or to criticise from a distance without listening or understanding. We must find better ways of putting life into such cliches as parity of esteem, the principle of consent, an agreed Ireland and all the rest of the fine words. And most importantly political leaders here and in Britain have to prove themselves trustworthy, for nothing has done more to undermine public confidence in the North than broken political promises at high levels.
It is hard to find anything good or positive to say about Drumcree and its annual grabbing of the headlines. But perhaps against all its negative aspects we can set this one thing, namely, that it sets out in stark terms the challenge facing this country if it is to secure long-term stability and peace. To ignore Drumcree is to ignore reality.
The Ven Gordon Linney is Church of Ireland rector of St Paul's church, Glenageary, Co Dublin.