Marching season, other concerns challenge peace process

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.