THE Dean of Christ Church Cathedral has said his congregation was "virtually evicted" from its church by yesterday's St Patrick's Day parade.
The Very Rev John Paterson, said the parade was a commercial project and should not have been held on a Sunday. He said church leaders should gather to, ensure that Christianity and not business mark St Patrick's Day.
Parade organisers said they were surprised by the Dean's remarks as he had not mentioned his concerns during discussions about the event.
Dean Paterson preached yesterday morning to members of the Christ Church congregation and others from St Werburgh's near the cathedral, both of which were on the parade route. They had gathered at St Michan's in Church Street.
"Those of us from Christ Church Cathedral and from St Werburgh's are grateful to be the guests of St Michan's this morning - though we're a bit glum about being virtually evicted from our own buildings," he said. "For St Werburgh's, total denial of access would have existed. For our own cathedral we could have squeezed in through the John's Lane door - but the noise of the parade would probably have made worship impossible."
He questioned whether the new-style parade was "yet a further sign of growing secularisation of this country."
Many churches in the city would have been "denuded of worshippers as people are tempted to see this new-style parade", Dean Paterson said.
"This Sunday morning the Christian faith of this city has been upstaged by a commercial project, he said. "Where can we find the faith of Patrick in this so-called St Patrick's Day parade? Where is the faith of any of our Irish Christian traditions in it? Shamrock-ery is a mere 150 years old. Green was never the colour of Ireland - as we can see from the President's flag (blue)."
Dean Paterson asked whether people had allowed themselves to be "conned that, in the keeping of a parade, we are keeping alive the faith of Patrick for a new millennium?"
He said Church leaders should gather to ensure that the next time St Patrick's day falls on a Sunday "it will be Christianity and not business that marks the parade on the streets of the capital".
"That next Sunday St Patrick's Day will be in the year 2003 if my arithmetic is correct," he said. "We have time to prepare. Have we the will to tackle head on the secular interest?"
Speaking after the sermon Dean Paterson said he was "quite happy" for there to be a parade, but it should have been held today, the bank holiday, which would now "fizzle out as a day with nothing to do".
"I'm very surprised to hear this," said Mr Rupert Murray, one of the organisers of the parade. "We had ongoing discussions with the Dean of Christ Church about decorating the cathedral and so on and never at any point has he expressed this to me. This is the first I've heard of it."