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Brian Kennaway has weighed into the debate about Ian Paisley's participation in a service during which a Catholic priest led prayers. Mr Kennaway, a Presbyterian minister and former member of the Orange Order's education committee (before he wonders why people are so surprised. In a letter published in today's News Letter, he notes that Ian Paisley was present at the June 26, 1982, service of thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral which marked the end of the Falklands War. Cardinal Basil Hume was one of those who led prayers on that occasion. Mr Kennaway writes: "Evidently, the seeds of ecumenism are slow to spread from Westminster to Ballymena." What's different in the December 29, 2007 service in Ballymena is that Dr Paisley actually participated in the service, by giving the address. Father Paul Symonds argues that the Ballymena service was not "ecumenical", but few members of the Free Presbyterian Church, I suspect, would accept his narrow definition of "ecumenical".

Meanwhile, Wallace Thompson of the has been taking some flack for his claim that the papacy represents the Antichrist. He was also displeased to discover that rosary in a Church of Ireland cathedral. (Rosary beads, of course, play a role on the spirituality of many Anglo-Catholic Christians.) It soon emerged that Mr Thompson is a civil servant and an advisor to the enterprise minister, Nigel Dodds. Can it be right, some have asked, that a civil servant in such a role should be making public statements of this kind? Mr Thompson was, clearly, not speaking on behalf of the government or his department; his religious views were stated in his capacity as a private individual who enjoys the same freedom of speech as other members of our society. One suspects, on the other hand, that he may have faced a few frowns in the office this week.