In this he was mistaken and had been duped by right-wingers. Thirty-four years later Orangemen continue to be duped, and this year's resolution attacked 'Protestant clergy and laity' involved in 'ecumenism which brings them into close relations with Roman Catholic clergy and laity'. Coincidently, as I watched the Orange parade on Drumcree Sunday in Portadown, I was given a Free Presbyterian leaflet on 'ecumenism'. They say that a proposal was made at these talks that the Pope be head of a 'one world church'. The document ended with a Biblical quote, 'Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing'.
Reliable sources confirm that an atmosphere of intolerance pervades some meetings of Grand Lodge.
Recently we had the spectacle of eight members of the Orange education committee resigning after a witch-hunt. After 1966 some members of the clergy never again darkened the door of a lodge room. The last Church of Ireland Bishop to be a grand chaplain, Dr RC Elliott refused to attend the field at Finaghy that year. The Rev Dr John Mercer, a deputy grand chaplain and Archdeacon of Connor, condemned the resolution and also refused to go into the field. A number of clergy stated, in the strongest possible terms, that they were not going to Rome, but the Grand Lodge was impervious to denials.