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Something very big happened 10 days ago, in Northern Ireland history, which hasn't had the attention it deserved. It was the death of Paisleyism, an explosive cocktail of religion and politics which has plagued Stormont politics for more than a generation.
I know, Ian Paisley continues as First Minister and says he will go on preaching for as long as there is breath in his body.
But he's no longer Moderator-for-life of the world-wide concern which he built, and from now on his focus will be on politics, which means wheeling and dealing, not red-blooded Free Presbyterianism.
Moreover, he didn't resign as head of his church. A majority decided he had to go, because he was sitting in government with Sinn Fein, and the only way of avoiding a monumental split was to agree on an early hand-over.
We'll have to wait until his memoirs - hope someone's helping him - to find out how the church's ultimatum affected him, but it can't have been as easy as has been pretended.
You don't abandon control of an empire with 108 affiliated churches, over 56 years, without shedding a tear or wondering if you shouldn't have chosen to give up politics instead.
But, just as Gerry Adams had to face the contradiction between the Armalite and ballot box, Ian Paisley has looked at the separatist, anti-ecumenical roots of his religion and the requirements, in his elevated political role, of inclusivity in all things.
The two were hopelessly incompatible, denouncing Rome and the IRA on a Sunday and doing business with all manner of representative Catholics, and ex-terrorists, on the other days of the week.
Having seen how they operate, and been greeted with nothing but respect since the deal was done last May, Paisley chose to stick to his political job, rather than toe the line set by his church opponents.
In doing so, he was signalling the end of old-style Paisleyism, with its policy of permanent opposition to unbelievers, liberals and political compromisers. The process of change began back in St Andrews a year ago, but the extended honeymoon with Sinn Fein has been the clincher - even Paisley has given up on Paisleyism, in which no offensive holds or words were barred.
Was it a conscious choice to join the political mainstream, or was he backed into a corner from which there was no retreat?
Did he lead his flock down this new road, regardless of the risk, or did he give in to threats of 'joint authority' from London and Dublin?
Certainly he has made little attempt to explain such a radical change of heart to his own people, either in church or party.
Leaders like David Trimble had to unburden themselves at party meetings every time they deviated from the orthodox line, but not Ian Paisley. When he did a U-turn, his people had to guess why. It's one way of leading, and perhaps the crisis would have come earlier if explanations had been given, but eventually the opposition found its voice.
If you can't prove that you've won - and that's impossible, when the DUP and Sinn Fein are political partners - challengers are bound to emerge.
That's where we are now, in a completely new political environment, and we're still learning whether and how it works.
The Causeway row may be the shape of things to come, when DUP ministers decide, or seem to decide, what's best, without any consultation.
(If Arlene Foster was trying to get a debate on private versus public ownership of the visitor centre going, I'd agree with her. But to say she's " minded" to go with a certain developer on such a major project, without knowing his background in detail, is astonishing. She didn't know anything about him, she said, as she gave him a vote of confidence in a £20m scheme.)
Back to the death of Paisleyism, I wonder how the Paisley dethronement will go down with the world-wide Free Presbyterian Church, which presumably was as surprised as anyone else. From the website, there are 61 churches in Northern Ireland, 16 in the USA, 10 in Canada, 15 in England, Wales and Scotland, 2 in the Irish Republic and 4 in Australia.
It also has eight schools here, as well as two in Canada. And there are 13 missionaries dotted all over the world, from Adra Pradesh to Jamaica, Kenya, Spain and Cork.
They have to cope with the fact that Ian Paisley, the most caustic preacher of his day, is no longer Pope and that they could become just another evangelical sect.
Presumably they'll stick to their motto "We are free from all association with liberalism or ecumenism", but the website of their European Institute of Protestant Studies, which hasn't managed an update since last March, will have to find someone else to highlight "the errors of Rome".
It's all change, and all to the good. People who have spent their lives bad-mouthing governments and spreading discontent are learning the hard way that they have to work with old enemies, and bury bigotry, if there is to be any sort of future for Northern Ireland and its children.
It will be painful for them, but they've earned it, and it can be a sort of penance.
The rest of us can only look on, in wonder, and hope they survive it all, wiser and less certain that they alone have the keys of the kingdom.
Like the rest of us, they'll have to embrace compromise, because there is no other way in a divided society.
