The Presbyterian Moderator, Dr Sam Hutchinson, said at the funeral of Philip Allen in Poyntzpass, Co Armagh, yesterday that history would be a stern judge if the current opportunity for a settlement is squandered.
Dr Hutchinson told a congregation that included the Allen family and also the family of Damien Trainor, who was murdered with Philip Allen in Poyntzpass on Tuesday night, that the killers were the enemies of all right-thinking people.
The small church was crowded. Several hundred gathered outside in the grounds and on the roadside. All shops and businesses were closed yesterday as a mark of respect to the murdered Catholic and Protestant, who were friends.
Dr Hutchinson said two fine young men "who lived in different homes and belonged to different churches, but who spent much time together and socialised together, eventually died together as the victims of terrorists, who are the enemies of us all.
"Such killings for political ends are totally wrong, totally misguided and totally inconsistent with the Christian faith and the demands of the Gospel. They are also counterproductive. A wave of revulsion has swept through Poyntzpass and far beyond, and however little support these gunmen had, they will surely have less now.
"How can anyone shield or help them? If they have relatives or colleagues who have any influence over them, will they not now use that influence to restrain them?"
Dr Hutchinson said while this was a time of righteous anger it was also a time for clear thinking. "We don't want the future of this land to be determined by the Poyntzpass gunmen, the Portadown bombers and their ilk, but rather by those courageous people who, amid a host of difficulties and discouragements, are desperately trying to find a formula that could bring a better and brighter future for us all."
The Moderator said there was no alternative to negotiation. "All reasonable people, whatever their personal preferences, should surely support any effort to move our society from confrontation to consensus, and from division to greater togetherness," he continued.
"Please support any effort to make the whole of Northern Ireland the kind of harmonious community that Poyntzpass has been for so long. History will be a stern judge of any who destroy the present historic opportunity of finding an accommodation that fair-minded people could live with," said Dr Hutchinson.
The local Presbyterian minister, the Rev Joseph Nixon, said he prayed that through the tragedy the people of the village would be drawn closer together than ever.
The people, he added, would "show the rest of our country that it takes more than the evil of terrorists to drive a wedge between the Catholic and Protestant people of Poyntzpass".
Among the mourners was Ms Carol Magill, fiancee of Philip Allen. They were to be married in the summer with Damien Trainor as best man. As Philip Allen's coffin was lowered into the ground in the graveyard adjoining the church, her tears streamed down. She dropped a bunch of red roses on the coffin in farewell.
