Peacemaking Programme

Peacemaking Department goes International!

This summer sees PCI Peacemaking Department embark on international peace building work.

Debs is currently hosting a visit from Westminster PC, Amarillo youth team. The young people (around 30 in total) arrived in Belfast this week (30th June 08) for a 10 day visit to Northern Ireland. The group will be involved in street reach activities and community outreach in Tullycarnet and through the 174 Trust, Antrim Road. Rev Jeff Conway, minster, Westminster PC, has co-ordinated this trip with Debs and has travelled to Northern Ireland with the youth team.

Laura is preparing to visit Kenya later this month (10th- 27th July). She is going to an annual Wycliffe conference in Turtle Bay (north of Mombasa) for a week to help with pastoral support. The following week, she will be in Nairobi. The Presbyterian Church in East Africa has invited her to deliver 2 days training on peace and reconciliation. This will take place in PCEA Lay Training Centre, Nairobi. Thomas Leramore, Peacemaking Officer, PCEA is organising the residential and has invited 40 people from different parts of Kenya to attend the training. Laura is looking forward to this new venture and hopes that all who attend the training will find it worthwhile.

Peace-Making and Identity, June, 2008

Some 40 people gathered for this Seminar in Union College to hear Professor Stephen Williamson develop some ideas contained in his article on 'Making Peace and Shaping the Future' which appeared in the May 2008 edition of the Presbyterian Herald. The speaker later invited those present to discuss in small groups three questions about peace-making and identity.

Stephen had been struck by the number of students on the Youth Ministry Certificate course who had reported a deep interest in the question of identity.

Bringing a theological perspective to the connection between peace-making and identity, Stephen introduced, in sonorous Welsh tones, several related ideas:

Our prime identity is as Christians; the noun 'Christian' may then be qualified by adjectives such as 'Protestant', 'Roman Catholic', 'Irish' or 'Welsh'; implicit is that the adjectival part of our identity may be subject to change as our theological perspectives change or as we move about, without our inner core or sense of ourself being changed;

Paul's statement in one of his letters that 'Jesus is our Peace' -- this introduces a horizontal aspect of peace, which in New Testament times referred to peace between Jew and Gentile. The name 'Christian' replaces 'Jew' and 'Gentile' as the believer's core identity;

The concept of the 'Children of God', starting with Abraham and traceable through the Israelites, the Early Church and the Protestant Reformers among others down to the present; a vertical God-Man relationship that runs through time; closely related is the idea that it is as we recognise that we are loved by God that we realise our true value and identity (rather as Peer Gynt in Ibsen's drama found an identity after a life of wandering through the enduring love of Solveig -- and one might add a parallel from Showboat in which the drifter Gaylord Ravenal finds peace when he returns home and finds to his surprise that his deserted wife has brought up their daughter to treasure his memory);

The idea that a secure sense of identity is important if a person (or a people) is to be settled and at peace with itself and its neighbours; a horizontal aspect of peace and identity;

The question of whether the pursuit of peace is the same as the pursuit of justice, in connection with which Stephen noted the influence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was driven against many of his principles to complicity in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, and whose writings contributed to the transformation of Polish society in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many of these thoughts were pulled together in the reflection that Christ shapes our identity in line with himself, integrating us under his Lordship. With his peace within, we should live in His Will as People of Peace in the World.

The 3 questions discussed in groups were:
          Is a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Northern Ireland needed?
          Is Sectarianism the main barrier to peace?
          If someone says 'Jesus Christ has given me my identity', what does it mean?

A variety of answers were put forward by the groups. Not many present were convinced that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission would serve a useful purpose. Sectarianism was recognised as a long term problem in our society. Possibly answers to the third question are suggested in some of the ideas which Stephen outlined above.

Habitat for Humanity Day, January 2008

Earlier in the year PCI's Peacemaking Officers, Laura Coulter and Deborah Erwin, along with a few game volunteers, rolled up their sleeves, donned hard hats and mucked in with the builders on Habitat for Humanity's mid-Shankhill building site. It was a great opportunity to put faith into action by helping to build homes for people in need and contribute to regeneration and reconciliation in a local community. For more information on Habitat for Humanity check out their website at www.habitatni.co.uk and to help build homes for a day in Northern Ireland or for a longer period overseas find out more by ringing (028) 9024 3686.

Launch of Gospel in Conflict in Lisburn, October 2007

Pictured in the Mayor's Parlour last Monday afternoon (15th October) at the launch of the Peace and Reconciliation course 'Gospel in Conflict' are the Right Worshipful the Mayor, Councillor James Tinsley (seated) and L to R: Mrs Laura Coulter - Peace-Making Officer (Presbyterian Church in Ireland), Mr Joe Topping - Presbytery Peace Officer, Mr David Mitchell - Good Relations Officer (Lisburn City Council) and the Rev Gary Trueman - Moderator of Dromore Presbytery.

The Dromore Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church, supported by Lisburn City Council's Good Relations Programme and financially assisted through the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister, are offering running a Peace and Reconciliation course 'Gospel in Conflict' (Loving your Neighbour) in the city. Developed initially by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland as a single identity course to raise awareness of how the gospel speaks about of peace issues, the course, which was launched by the Right Worshipful the Mayor, Councillor James Tinsley last Monday afternoon (15th October) will run for five sessions on the following evenings: Monday 22nd October, Monday 29th October, Monday 19th November, Monday 26th November and Monday 21st January. Each 2-hour session commences at 7.30pm and takes place in the Island Civic Centre.

Launch of Gospel in Conflict, March 2007

Next Tuesday, 20 March at 11.00am in Church House, Fisherwick Place Belfast, the Presbyterian Church will launch a major peace building initiative entitled 'The Gospel in Conflict.' Press are invited from 10.15 for pictures and interviews.

The initiative will be launched by Presbyterian Moderator Dr David Clarke and the General Director of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK, Rev Joel Edwards.

"The Churches in Ireland can claim, with some justification, to have been a force for stability and tolerance during the decades of 'the troubles'," claims Dr Clarke. "Regrettably, we must also concede that we have not been as proactive as we might have been in the task of peacemaking. It is therefore encouraging that a greater emphasis is now being given to this dimension of our mission."

Funded to £250,000 by the International Fund for Ireland, the Community Relations Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs, Youth Link:NI, the Kennedy Charitable Foundation and the Presbyterian Church, 'The Gospel in Conflict' is a five week course that Presbyterian congregations are being encouraged to run either by themselves or with the help of trained facilitators.

"The Presbyterian Church has clearly expressed its commitment to peace building," explains Laura Coulter, one of two full time Peace Officers funded by the project and who has responsibility for the new initiative. "In 1992 the General Assembly agreed its Peace Vocation, then it developed a network of peace agents across the church to promote peacemaking in congregations and over the last five years the 'Preparing Youth to be Peacemakers' programme has been running very successfully among our young people."

Aimed at Presbyterians, 'The Gospel in Conflict' course reflects on peacemaking as an integral part of discipleship, focusing on the biblical mandate to love our neighbour and rooting it within the experience of participants. Five themes are explored: Living in a Divided Society, Exploring our Presbyterian Identity, Dealing with Disagreement, Relating to our Neighbours and Taking Steps in Building Peace. By considering how the early church dealt with conflict it helps those taking part develop ways in which the divisions they experience today can be dealt with from personal, church and community perspectives.

"'The Gospel in Conflict' aims to build up the confidence of Presbyterians in their own faith," adds Rev Liz Hughes, convener of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Panel. "It will encourage everyone to be involved in practical faith based peace building that will help create harmony both in our own lives and in our communities."

On Tuesday evening, March 20, at 8.00pm also in Church House, Joel Edwards will be the guest speaker at a further event to launch the course which is open to all. This will be introduced by Paul Clark and include worship lead by Ian Hannah, music, interviews and clips from the DVD that accompanies the course.