Sir, - Contrary to the impression that may have been given by Mr John Taylor MP (October 16th) and a number of others, the 11 members of the Church of Ireland Catalyst group all live in Northern Ireland, mostly in the greater Belfast area. Most of us were born and reared here too. Therefore the inspiration and motivation for our recent letter to the rector of Drumcree Parish Church comes from our experience as members of the C of I living in Northern Ireland. We circulated our letter to all the clergy of the C of I on both sides of the Border to allow them to join us in our request to the rector of Drumcree. The first that Archbishop Empey knew of this letter was when it arrived in his hallway.
We undertook this exercise because we firmly believe that the events surrounding Drumcree affect the whole Church of Ireland and therefore Anglicans all over Ireland are legitimately concerned about it. So far, 161 clergy have signed our letter, half of whom are Northerners or have considerable pastoral experience of Northern Ireland.
Nowhere do we call for Orangemen to be banned from Drumcree or from any other parish church. Hence, no signatory to the letter was calling for this. We agree strongly with the principles of open access to church services and of freedom of worship.
However, as Archbishop Eames wrote to the Portadown Loyal Orders on June 25th, the right to worship brings with it responsibilities. Any group that fails to meet such requirements of the Church as those specified by the Archbishop would not be banned but could reasonably be inferred to have excluded itself. We suggest that in extreme circumstances bishops might be given the authority to postpone or relocate such controversial services.
The objective of Catalyst is to promote healing of sectarian religious divisions in Ireland. It has no political aims or affiliations: we are a religious group. The fact that we have received such widespread support shows that there is deep disquiet and frustration at what happens around Drumcree, and at the assumptions behind much of our church life here. We are encouraged that church people are beginning to ask awkward questions about the nature of our Christianity and its faithfulness to the Gospel. We regret that some people, instead of welcoming this self-examination, seem to prefer the old simplistic certainties which have contributed to our present unhappy situation. Catalyst's own suggestions may not be the right way forward, but the old tribalism is not good enough. - Yours, etc., Canon Charles Kenny,
Rev Brian Stewart,
Belfast 9.