Orange Order tells members to stop saying 'RIP' because it is 'unbiblical' and 'un-Protestant'

Protestant group says using the phrase is a sign of 'spiritual confusion'

The Orange Order made the announcement in its members' newspaper, the Orange Standard (Getty Images)

Northern Ireland's Orange Order has told its members to stop using the phrase “RIP” to express sympathy when someone dies, saying the term is “unbiblical” and “un-Protestant”.

The phrase, which stands for "Rest in Peace" or "Requiescat in pace" in Latin, is commonly used to mark a death. But the custom is traditionally linked to Catholicism.

The instruction was made in The Orange Standard, the Protestant organisation's newspaper, in an edition marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

The use of the phrase is an “illustration of spiritual confusion within Protestant circles,” the article said.

“The letters ‘RIP’ meaning ‘Requiescat in pace’ or ‘rest in peace’, have long been used by the Roman Catholic Church, and can be frequently seen, for example, in death notices and gravestones."

The Orange Order said the article “clearly explains why Protestants and members of the Orange Institution should not use the term ‘RIP’”.

“For guidance on any matters like these we should refer to what the Bible teachers,” it added.

The article was based on a Facebook post by Wallace Thompson, secretary of the Evangelical Protestant Society.

He told BBC Talkback: "The issue is obviously a sensitive one because people are expressing their grief. Just observing social media we have noticed the letters RIP are used a lot by Protestants, and some are evangelical Protestants.

“From a Protestant point of view we believe when death comes a person either goes to be with Christ for all eternity or into hell. That’s what we believe the Gospel to be.

“I think Luther, when the scales fell off his eyes, he realised that it was all by faith alone, in Christ alone, the decision is made during life, on this earth, so that when death comes it has been made and no decision has been made after death.”