Orange Order audit ‘deserves to be read and reflected upon’ – Bishop of Clogher
Stuart Brooker (centre) presents a copy of Audit, Good Relations Strategy & Action Plan to the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers MP. Looking on are officers from the Co. Fermanagh Grand Orange Lodge (from left) Robert Dane, Tom Elliott MP and Canon Mark Watson, County Grand Chaplain.
The Bishop of Clogher, the Rt Revd John McDowell, has told the Gazette that he hopes the recent publication of the result of an audit – commissioned by the Co. Fermanagh Grand Orange Lodge with the intention of increasing community understanding and good relations – will mark “a new beginning in a process of mutual understanding and discovery between all community organisations and individuals who have the well-being of the county [Fermanagh] at heart”.
Through the initiative, Audit, Good Relations Strategy & Action Plan – first discussed in 2012 and completed over the last year – the Co. Fermanagh Grand Orange Lodge sought to discover how it was experienced and perceived by both its own membership and the wider community.
More than 600 members of the Loyal Order in Co. Fermanagh and a significant representation of people from across the community – including the Churches and the voluntary, statutory and public sectors – took part in the extensive, information-gathering exercise which was supported by Fermanagh District Council and delivered by the Fermanagh- based Green Hat consultancy.
