The local hall has come into its own. The Orange lodges and the Catholic parochial halls haven’t seen the likes of it for a long time.
What were considered the most extreme and the least reconciled local provisions have been busy hosting an introspective examination of their prospects and their futures. There is nothing more ironic than life itself.
After years of political turmoil and two years of Covid close down, the busiest places around, urban or rural, are the small local community halls of two of our major religious institutions, both of whom are worried about their future or even if they have a future.
Recently, 250 Orange halls opened their doors for the brethren to come and sign a petition against the Irish Sea border brought about in the Brexit settlement. The brethren were gathered to be told by their political leaders and, undoubtedly, confirmed by the chat amongst themselves, that the protocol is going to destroy the union and their way of life.
Meanwhile, up the street, small groups of faithful Catholics are meeting, invited by their Church to a synod, a word few had heard and fewer still had understood until a few months ago. Their leaders, Pope Francis and the Irish bishops, have called them to meet, to discuss and tell them what organisational and cultural changes are needed to ensure the relevance and survival of the Catholic Church.
The irony is that these conversations are taking place at the same time and roughly with the same underlying agenda of survival. There is a comedy sketch in there depicting someone only discovering after an hour that they have gone to the wrong hall.
The union, as most of the brethren knew and loved it, is indeed under threat. At least their political leaders are not telling lies about that. The Catholic Church, as many of its faithful knew and loved it, is equally under threat. Both institutions have fallen in stature and numbers to a remnant of what they once were. The challenge to both groups of loyal followers is just how honest and realistic will the conversation be.
The Orange is part of a tradition that cried ‘no surrender’, ‘never, never’ in most debates and excommunicated members who stepped outside the tradition. The Catholic Church did its share of excommunicating and, more pertinently, fostered a tradition devoid of dialogue, debate and listening. It is now trying to reverse that tradition in the space of a few months. History would not be on the side of a fruitful debate on either issue.
There is truth that the protocol undermines or weakens the union with Britain, in that it stimulates all Ireland trade and economic union makes political union easier. But if that is where the conversations between the brethren begin and end then they are fooling themselves. The British union is under threat for a multitude of reasons but probably the most pertinent is that the majority that was constructed to bring Northern Ireland into being is no longer there and is not coming back. How to respond to that reality would be an honest conversation, rather than blaming everyone else for their sorrows and woes.
Irish Catholicism has had a majority status for centuries. It is beginning to experience what it is to be a marginal presence and voice in Ireland, north and south. It will also discover that the laity, who are being asked to take greater charge of their parishes, have little insight or understanding of what that means.
On the positive side, there is a strong biblical theme about remnants, the smaller numbers who are left to acknowledge and repent for the sins of the past and how they can have a more prophetic future. That condition, if achieved, might well lead both the brethren and the faithful to open themselves to a more humble, reconciled and secure future.
