The Church of Ireland has stated that its links with the Orange Order are "irretrievable".
In a comment on the Drumcree situation, published in the Church of Ireland Gazette, it described most Orange Order members as "manifestly a decent, religious people, yet who are fearful of the erosion and disappearance of their culture and heritage".
The church said that it offered its views "in all humility . . . aware of the complexities and sensitivities involved". The comments were prepared by the standing committee of the General Synod, its ruling body.
Members of the Orange Order "would need and would welcome guidance from their church, not ostracism or dissociation", the church said, and while "ostracism is clearly unChristian, dissociation probably also". Dissociation would also appear to be historically questionable. "The links with the order, whilst not exclusively Church of Ireland, are irretrievable; the fact that we feel it so keenly in the Church of Ireland, North and South, proves also our present association". Dissociation was also theologically questionable in that Christ's incarnation was fundamentally an association. "We may dissociate from events or actions, but not from the people; from sin, but not the sinner."
It continued: "Fundamentally, we (Roman Catholic or Protestant, Orange or Green) share the same basic human hopes, for life . . . for happiness and fulfilment; for justice and truth; for meaning and purpose, for identity and security."
Equality of worth was the teaching of Scripture and the preaching of Christ. "Political opinion (Green or Orange) or geographical location (Falls or Shankill) does not negate this basic principle."
Where rights were concerned, "clearly they cease to be rights when they squash the rights of another . . . rights must be relational and not isolationist".
Christians were called on to be good citizens. Jesus had rendered to Caesar the things that were Caesar's and to God the things that were God's. He had submitted to the political authorities of his day. Christians were exhorted to do the same.
Where the denominations were concerned, "rather than emphasising our church differences, should we not first be proclaiming what we share in Christ? Belief ought to unite, but so often it divides if preoccupied with personal identity and unaccompanied by love".
It continued: "Ought we to repent specifically for this situation, and for our historical and present endorsement of sectarian attitudes and constitutionally-enshrined sectarian principles? Can we possibly profess to love our neighbours while supporting an institution that (at least historically) celebrates their defeat?"
Christ's prayer in John 17 that they may be one remained as a "constant prayerful rebuke to our divisions", it concluded.
