Every year on Armistice Day - November 11th - a diminishing number of veterans of the First World War gather and remember with quiet dignity the sufferings and sacrifices of those who gave their lives in that dreadful conflict. That powerful desire to remember, amid prayerful whispers of `Never again', was the motivation behind the building of the Cenotaph in London, and the thousands of similar war memorials erected throughout the world since then. On Sunday, a memorial service to those who fell at the Somme will be held in Drumcree Church of Ireland parish church in Portadown. What quiet dignity will accompany this service? Very little, if the past six years are anything to go by. More ominously, the thuggish displays of recent days in Drumcree and the rioting elsewhere in Northern Ireland may yet be a harbinger for much worse to come.
What responsibilities befall those in positions of influence in this circumstance? For those of a Christian persuasion it is surely to act, and counsel others to act, in a manner befitting the message of the Gospel, Christ's message to love one's enemy. Precious little sign of that coming from the hill overlooking the Garvaghy Road. The Orange Order maintains it is not responsible for what others do while campaigning in support of its demand to walk down the road. It refuses to talk either to the Parades Commission (established by parliament) or the chosen representatives of the Garvaghy residents. It has adopted what many will regard as a grotesque position: its members cheer the antics of a notorious terrorist from the Shankill Road but refuse to seek peaceful accommodation with Catholic co-inhabitants of Portadown.
This annual display of hatred and intolerance, focused on the parish church of Drumcree, has also done severe damage to the image and standing of the Church of Ireland itself. Some of this damage is self-inflicted. Last year, the synod, the church's parliament, took a step forward when a letter was sent at its behest to the Orange Order seeking assurances about its conduct at the church. The Order did not reply. The synod then asked the Drumcree vestry, the parish's ruling committee, to withdraw its invitation to the Order to attend the annual service. Neither the rector nor vestry replied to the letter. This apparent contempt for the church's own democratic institution had no consequence: at this year's synod, Drumcree was barely mentioned.
On Monday last, a group of men, describing themselves as from the 2nd Battalion C Company of the UFF Shankill Road marched outside Drumcree church and later fired volleys in a Protestant housing estate in Portadown. One day later, the Church of Ireland Primate of All Ireland, Dr Robin Eames, issued a statement which, while appealing for restraint, not alone failed to condemn the UFF incident, it did not refer to it at all. Dr Eames has unique authority - moral and actual - when it comes to Drumcree: not only is he the head of the church in Ireland, he is also bishop of the parish. The wider community on this island is entitled to expect robust leadership from the senior members of a church which to date appears incapable of preventing itself from being used by people whose credo is hardly Christian.
On Sunday, in other parishes up and down this island, members of the Church of Ireland will say Morning Prayer. Many will recite the Third Collect, the collect for Grace. It urges the Lord to help them "do always that is righteous in thy sight". Is it righteous to abuse neighbours of a different religion? Is it righteous to disobey the law, to throw acid at the police, to stone them and spit at them? Is it righteous to hold `I am not my brother's keeper?' If it is not, that message needs to be proclaimed aloud. Leaders of the Orange Order and Church of Ireland should fulfil that proclamation as we enter this weekend of fear.