Sir, - I am delighted to have elicited from no less a figure than the archivist of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Mr Cecil Kilpatrick (November 12th), the admission that Roman Catholics are God's children too. Logically this must mean that there are no chosen people and that the identification of Protestants as God's chosen people is therefore a false and misleading one. Does Mr Kitpatrick realise the implications of this?
Rank and file Orangemen and Apprentice Boys will have to be informed that any inference that God is on the side of marching Protestants is unfounded; Royal Black Institution members will need to redesign their banners; Dr Paisley will have to accept that continued Union with the Crown is not a divine right, but something about which there can be legitimate debate; Protestants generally should disavow the way Protestant claims to the land and the Penal Laws were supported by a view of divine election that saw Roman Catholics as damned.
They should also reject the idea of "a Protestant Parliament for a Protestant people" which led to the denial of the civil rights of Roman Catholics; and finally, they should welcome parity of esteem, power sharing, a bill of rights, sensible reform of policing arrangements, economic policies that address social disadvantage across the religious divide, and a new democratic vision for all the citizens of Northern Ireland.
Mr Kilpatrick's wistfulness for a return to the situation before direct rule, and his failure to condemn the lawbreaking and contempt for democracy surrounding Drumcree, would suggest that his politics has yet to catch up with his theology. He may not yet fully realise it, but he has laid hold of a great truth, one which, I would respectfully submit, brings the Orange house of cards tumbling down. - Yours, etc.,
Church of Ireland
Theological College, Breamor Park,
Dublin 14.