Sir - Sadly, we in Catalyst have to agree with your Editorial "Drumcree and Duty" (July 7th) and support your implied conclusion that there is an absence of "robust leadership" from the senior members of the Church of Ireland - and, we would add, from its key decision-making bodies.
We believe that the response of the standing committee and the synod to the report of the Church's sub-committee on sectarianism typifies the "absence" referred to. The report stated that "an act of public worship cannot be entirely divorced from the actions, attitudes and intentions of worshippers before and after the act of worship itself". It went on to say: "Where attitude and/or intention are seriously defective [that] may turn act of worship into something blasphemous."
Despite these trenchant words, the resolutions put to the synod were feeble, including the one dealing explicitly with the "Drumcree crisis". In brief they did not measure up to the seriousness of the challenge Drumcree poses to a Christian church.
And it is beyond comprehension that the May 2000 synod, meeting appropriately in Belfast, should have ignored Drumcree as if it were on another planet and not half-an-hour's drive away.
We in Catalyst have evidence that there is widespread concern among the clergy and laity of the Church of Ireland at the association of Drumcree Parish Church with the annual parade of the Portadown District Orange lodges, especially in view of the conflict surrounding it.
We are in no doubt that for the Church to take appropriate and decisive action raises profoundly important religious, ecclesiastical and other issues. But however difficult these may be it is critical for the Christian integrity of the Church that they are addressed with urgency and forthrightness.
We hope that those who are concerned, both members of the Church of Ireland and others, will raise their concerns with the clergy, members of the Synod, the Standing Committee and the bishops; they should not be put off by suggestions that everything possible is being done. We have all been too silent for too long, not just about the "Drumcree crisis" but about the whole issue of sectarianism and the tendency to idolatry that it represents for all the churches. - Yours, etc.,
Rev Charles Kenny, (Chairman of Catalyst), Faith Gibson, Norman Gibson, Very Rev Victor Griffin, Duncan Scarlett, Belfast.