wfn.org | Marching season, other concerns challenge peace process

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 20, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212)870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{285}

NOTE:  This report is a sidebar to UMNS story #284. For more related
coverage, see UMNS stories #286 and #287.

By Kathleen LaCamera*

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (UMNS) -- Every July, the Rev. James Rae knows his
Irish Methodist church literally will be squarely in the middle of one the
most contentious annual celebrations in all of Northern Ireland.

The march of the Orange Order at Drumcree begins only a few feet from the
front door of the Thomas Street Methodist Church. Orangemen, who are part of
a centuries-old order of Protestants loyal to the British crown, walk
traditional parade routes through towns and villages all over Northern
Ireland during "the Marching Season."

The season reaches its climax on July 12, the anniversary of the victory of
Protestant King William of Orange over a Catholic King James more than 300
years ago in the Battle of the Boyne. Traditional routes take marchers
through heavily Nationalist Catholic communities. Many in these areas find
the parades deeply provocative and offensive and have taken steps to stop
the marches coming through their neighborhoods. In recent years, the
Drumcree has been the site of some of the worst violence during this period.

Rae said he has "deep concern" about this year's marching season. With the
fragile peace process under great stress, he worried that the marches at
Drumcree could be a rallying point for many in Northern Ireland who do not
want the process to survive.

It is only since May that the Northern Ireland Assembly, established under
the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, has been able to resume meeting at Stormont
Castle near Belfast. This elected assembly already was dissolved once this
year by the British government after the paramilitary Irish Republican Army
(IRA) refused to begin "decommissioning" or handing in weapons. Methodist
leaders fear a violent marching season could deliver a "body blow" to the
assembly and the peace process.

"The Orange Order is in a make or break situation. Both sides (Protestants
and Catholics) have rights, and there are mixed feelings within the life of
the church in this area," Rae told United Methodist News Service. "Orangemen
feel they are being deprived of their civil right to walk down a main public
thoroughfare. ... Additional elements such as the paramilitaries have now
got involved. Like the Orangemen, they too are feeling marginalized."

The Rev. William Laverty, an Irish Methodist minister and member of the
Orange Order himself, agreed.

"There are deep hurts in the Unionist community," he explained. "People feel
they have lost a lot and have given a lot, on both sides. (This area) used
to have nine to 10 parades. Now it's down to just one. This is not just a
walk down the road for the Orangemen."

Rae said his congregation faces another marching season with understandable
dread. "A big number of people just wish it (the march) wasn't here. They
want to completely and utterly distance themselves from it all but don't
know how. They are afraid of intimidation and abuse if they do."

Rae has publicly advocated that Orangemen talk directly to Catholic
residents about the standoff; a recommendation that hasn't made him popular.

"I talked to residents and leaders of the Nationalist community directly and
now I'm distrusted ...," he said. "The great pastoral challenge is: Do you
compromise your convictions and stay in the peace process as a mediator or
say what you believe in and become distrusted?"

With this year's marching season shaping up to be a potential flashpoint, it
would be easy to overlook the countless changes in Northern Ireland, large
and small, which have added up to significant progress and grounds for hope
in recent years.

No longer do motorists on the road to Belfast National Airport have to pass
through a military checkpoint. Gone are the British soldiers patrolling on
foot and in armored vehicles with guns trained on random passers-by. Open
are some of the gates along the Berlin Wall-style "peace line" separating
Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.

The Rev. Roy Cooper of Ballymena Methodist Church said the elected assembly
has given ordinary people a sense that something new and better is happening
in their communities. Until recently, decisions on issues such as education,
health and economic development were made by a handful of high-ranking
British government officials.

"For the first time, members of the community are doing politics," he
explained. "They see they have a real voice through their local assemblies;
they have something that is truly `different' from the past."

But the past is always present in both politics and the church in Northern
Ireland. One of the most divisive issues in the peace process is the
recommendation to rename Northern Ireland's police force, the Royal Ulster
Constabulary (RUC). The RUC has been at the center of investigations into a
number of civilian deaths during "the Troubles," most of them Catholic.

RUC supporters say officers have risked their lives to keep the peace.
Critics accuse them of excessive violence and sectarianism in their policing
over the past 30 years. For Catholics, even the words "Royal Ulster" firmly
link the RUC to the Protestant "side." Nationalist leaders argue that a
new, more neutral name could help rebuild trust and set the tone for a
nonsectarian force.

The Rev. David Clements, a Methodist minister whose father was murdered
while on duty as a police officer, sees the move for a RUC name change as
one of the most difficult challenges ahead. For the families of the 302 RUC
officers killed and the many more injured during the Troubles, a name change
is a slap in the face of their sacrifices, said Clements, who also works for
the WAVES, a victims support group.

The Rev. Stuart Burgess hopes that the optimism he has encountered
throughout Northern Ireland will sustain Irish Methodists in the rocky
period around the police bill. Burgess is president of the British Methodist
Conference and presides over the Irish Conference as well, a tradition that
goes back to the days of John Wesley and one which Irish Methodists have
voted to keep.

Burgess told UMNS that as part of his duties in the Irish Methodist church
he had recently met with Catholic Nationalist leader Gerry Adams. Adams made
a point of telling him that the Methodist church had been the most
"supportive" of all the churches to his work in the peace process.

Looking ahead, church leaders say people here have come too far down the
road to peace to ever slide back to the bad old days before the major
paramilitary cease-fires.

However, small paramilitary splinter groups that have not yet signed up to
any cease-fire are still using violence to make their views heard. And they
are actively recruiting. One inner-city pastor reports that young people in
his area are more polarized and militarized than ever.

Incoming Irish Methodist President Kenneth Todd is urging the church to
repent of a complacency that has hampered the peace process in the past.

"We have witnessed death and division in the name of religion, and disgrace
has been brought on the Gospel around the world," he said. "We repent
wherein the churches have been part of the problem instead of being part of
the solution."

# # #

*LaCamera is a UMNS correspondent based in England.

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United Methodist News Service
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