Kearney, Northern Ireland First Minister Paul Givan and Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (the latter two both having prominent connections to the Orange Order), thereby publicly commemorating the college’s previous role in hosting the first Parliament of Northern Ireland. However, the college evidently also hosted the Orange Order on a number of separate occasions during the same year, apparently without similarly attempted notification of the broader public at the time. In January 2021, the premises of Union Theological College were made available to the Grand Orange Lodge to film a video of the first of various planned services marking the centennial of partition on the island of Ireland. At this time churches in Northern Ireland had already decided to close in response to increasing cases of COVID-19. In September 2021, Queen’s Orange Society (LOL 1845) held another service in Union Theological College, subsequently parading past Queen’s University. Whereas Union Theological College claims to welcome “students from all backgrounds” whenever advertising its new undergraduate programme with St Mary's University, there is no comparable evidence to date regarding either previous or potential use of the college chapel (nor other college premises) for celebration of Mass. Indeed, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland requires that professors at the college should subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which describes the “popish sacrifice of the mass” as “most abominably injurious to Christ's one, only sacrifice”. Meanwhile, the Orange Order has deliberately excluded Roman Catholics from its membership, and it has been a stated requirement that Orange Order members “should strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome and other Non-Reformed faiths, and scrupulously avoid countenancing … any act or ceremony of Roman Catholic or other non-Reformed Worship”. Although the Orange Order has been otherwise characterised as “a society with secrets”, a survey of 1,500 participants throughout Northern Ireland in 2011 nevertheless indicated how over 60% of its membership were convinced that “most Catholics are IRA sympathisers”. New partnerships outside Northern Ireland In 2020 Union Theological College announced it would partner with the Roman Catholic St Mary's University, Twickenham for the awarding of undergraduate degrees. Whereas Union Theological College faced allegations that students “have experienced bullying, as well as sectarian and homophobic attitudes” from its faculty members, St Mary's University had already published resources to tackle homophobic and biphobic bullying in educational contexts, established a network to support LGBTQ+ staff,