The Church of Ireland Synod has passed a motion calling on the rector of Drumcree and his select vestry to withdraw their invitation to the Portadown Orangemen to attend the July 4th service if they do not adhere to three pledges of good behaviour.
The motion was passed by a very large majority of 363 to 67.
The Synod also passed a motion, again by a large majority, banning the unauthorised flying of non-church flags like the Union Flag on church buildings or within church grounds.
The pledges, spelled out by the Primate of All-Ireland, Archbishop Eames, called for "the avoidance of any action before or after the service which diminishes the sanctity of that worship; obedience to the law of the land before and after the service; respect for the integrity of the Church of Ireland by word and action and the avoidance of the use of all church property or its environs in any civil protest following the service".
Earlier, the debate ended on a dramatic note when time was allowed for a final plea by the rector of Drumcree, the Rev John Pickering, for the Synod not to support the motion.
He asked its members not to make his "task more difficult at Drumcree". He warned that "nobody can be prevented from attending worship of Almighty God, Orangemen or anyone else". Drumcree was a "cameo of Northern Ireland" and could happen in the parish of any Synod member. All any minister could do in his position was to do the same as him, to fulfil "a pastoral role".
The motions on Drumcree, flying flags and removing certain negative statements towards other churches from the church's historic documents, were proposed by Archdeacon Alan Harper of Connor, who called the situation at the Portadown church "a serious and dangerous scandal".
He said "the actions and attitudes of those congregating outside the church after public worship have made a mockery of the worship itself, have damaged seriously the Church of Ireland in the eyes of the world, have compromised its mission and witness and have scandalised very many of its members. Such a situation is intolerable. An act of worship must not be perverted by using it as an occasion for acts of violence, verbal or physical."
Archdeacon Gregor McCamley of Down, seconding the motion, said for the first time the Church of Ireland was "being forced to face head on some of the issues of sectarianism". Canon Michael Burrows from Cork said the Drumcree tragedy had "damaged the mission, the witness and the credibility of the Church of Ireland in the South in a manner such as I had not previously witnessed in my lifetime".
He said one of the church's great strengths was "the manner in which it has provided a spiritual home for those who are rootless, or who are searching, or whose spiritual journey has led them in new directions". Such people had seen the Church of Ireland as "a place of spaciousness of thought and remarkable tolerance. Now, however, they are increasingly asking themselves as they look at the Church of Ireland: is this church concerned with the relentless pursuit of the truth of the Gospel or is it perpetually compromised by a very ugly form of political Protestantism?"
The Rev Eric Culbertson, an Orange Order chaplain from the Armagh diocese, said the motion on flags would be "gravely damaging". He said he would be "besieged by people complaining that the Church of Ireland is taking the Union Jack off our church towers".
He said he was minister in a 95 per cent Protestant village where the flag "stands for the survival of our community through the Troubles, through the IRA bombs and the murder of six people". He said "peaceful, kind, moderate Orangemen" were "the backbone of the church in the North".
The Rev R.C. Thompson from Fermanagh said the flags motion was "very, very untimely in the present climate of Northern Ireland".
He asked whether such a motion could not wait until there was "some real peace and stability in the province".
There was an unprecedented request by the bishops, through the Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Dr Richard Clarke, to have their votes publicly announced on the three motions. In the event, they voted unanimously in favour of all three motions.