Many will admire the decision of the rector, Canon Adrian Empey, and the Select Vestry of St Ann's Church, in Dawson Street, Dublin, not to accede to a request by Dublin and Wicklow Orange Lodge to hold a special service on the occasion of its parade on Sunday, May 28th. Others clearly will not, although importantly and significantly the Orange lodge itself has indicated that it understands the reasons for the decision.

That attitude deserves generous recognition and praise, and would suggest caution in regard to those who for their own reasons vilify everything and everyone Orange. It is also important to underline the fact that it was the request for a "special" service that was turned down. No one is excluded from the public service of the church, whereas a service of the kind requested would, by its very nature, be exclusive.

The St Ann's decision has to be understood in the context of Drumcree and the fact that for several years a Church of Ireland church has been closely associated in the public mind with attitudes and activities that are quite inconsistent with what the church is supposed to be about.

I was in the United States with relations the first time Drumcree hit the television screen and I was overcome with shock and dismay at the image conveyed of the church I love and serve. Numerous newspaper and television reports ever since have been seen all over the world with Drumcree parish church as the backdrop, and given that there is a church service held it is not surprising that many assume, quite wrongly, that there is a formal link between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order.

There is no such link, although we have to be honest and accept that there has been a long association through membership and historically shared attitudes, not only with the Church of Ireland but the other Protestant churches as well.

This explains why clearly some members of the Orange Order feel let down and even betrayed. But the fact is that the churches have moved on, and although all of us record in our historic documents bitter words and bitter memories - just like the Orange Order - as Christians we are trying to rediscover and relearn what love of neighbour requires in the Ireland of today. In this we have to accept that not everyone advances at the same pace. Indeed, for too long the churches, in order to protect denominational interests, taught their members something quite different. And we wonder why some people now lag behind, bemused.

The Church of Ireland structures that permitted the rector and people of St Ann's to say No are the very same that permit the rector and people of Drumcree parish church to say Yes. So at once we are reminded that context matters and people matter.

Those of us who are unhappy about Drumcree do not live or work there and we would be foolish in the extreme and unjust to ignore the deep sense of hurt and alienation that any Protestant people in that area and beyond it feel. The fact is that there are two sides to the dispute and the difficulties are not confined to one side, as those who have sought to mediate have discovered.

But while allowing for all that, the St Ann's decision establishes the important principle that we must not allow the particular to decide the norm and that, given the proper circumstances and opportunities, Church of Ireland people, North and South, want to reach across the barriers that continue to cause so much pain on this island.

As a political gesture the decision to allow the Dublin parade has to be welcomed. To have refused would have been a declaration that our claims to be pluralist, tolerant and all sorts of other good things are fraudulent.

Some may argue that this view is inconsistent with the St Ann's decision, but that is not the case. There the parish was making the point that there is no link between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order and therefore no right as such to have the exclusive use of the church. But the right of free speech and free association within the law is basic to any democracy and at least some of the protests at the decision have come from sources that would not immediately come to mind as defenders of those principles. But their attitudes have roots in a past of which we are all part and which finds it difficult to accept or live with difference and which still exists and will be exploited where it is deemed to have electoral appeal. Travellers, asylum-seekers and others will know about that.

An inclusive Ireland that accepts and welcomes all its sons and daughters with their diverse culture and traditions, including the Orange Order, will have to go far beyond the length of Dawson Street and a memorial set in the pavement outside a building occupied by, would you believe, the Department of Heritage.

Deciding whose heritage is the hard bit.

The Ven Gordon Linney is Archdeacon of Dublin and Church of Ireland rector of Glenageary