Greetings to all in the Love of Jesus Christ:
I just returned from an educational trip to Belfast, where I was joined by Rev. Katie Sexton and Rev. Doug Bland and 21 other learners. The trip was sponsored by The Carter Center and invited civic and religious leaders from six states to learn about the role of civil and religious organizations in building peace in Northern Ireland. The trip included Republicans and Democrats, Evangelical and Mainline and Catholic Christian leaders, as well as professors from the Jewish and Muslim tradition and former government officials. We were hosted by Rev. Dr. Gary Mason of “Rethinking Conflict” and were hosted in the evenings by the British Secretary to Northern Ireland, the U.S. Consulate, and the Irish government.
Throughout the week we heard about the extremely painful sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland’s history, along with the horrors of violence during the period known as “The Troubles:” 1969-1998. We heard firsthand from one of the former commanders of the Irish Republican Army, sitting side by side with his former foe who was a leader of one of the Loyalist militias. In another session, we listened to an Irish woman who lost her son to an attack by a Loyalist militia, who shared her grief while sitting next to a British man who shared about losing his wife to an IRA attack. We met with leaders of the Northern Ireland Assembly (their parliament), Belfast City Hall, and several religious leaders – all while spending our nights in what they informed us was “the most bombed hotel in the world.”
While it’s hard to distill the experience of such a trip into a paragraph of “what I learned in Belfast,” I do want to share a few brief reflections. For Disciples who have always preached UNITY and encouraged people to stay at the table in conversation, recognizing that unity does not mean “uniformity,” it was striking to see just how deep the sectarian hatred had been between the Irish Nationalist/Republican/Catholics and the British Unionist/Loyalist/Catholics. Many in both groups didn’t really think the other had a right to exist. It really brought home what we have long tried to preach: that it is never okay to demonize another group of human beings, to turn them into monsters or something sub-human in our eyes; that no matter how much we might disagree, we simply have to stay at the table and try to find solutions that meet all of our most basic needs to survive and live in peace.
We reflected on how one of the most remarkable things about Jesus was that he didn’t demonize others, didn’t allow labels like “leper” or “tax collector” or “sinner” or “Roman soldier” keep him from talking to people, getting to know their needs, and looking for solutions that met everyone’s needs. We are called to follow Jesus in these efforts, reaching out across all kinds of barriers and divisions to try to connect with the humanity, indeed the imago dei, in each of our neighbors. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called “children of God.”
Dios les bendiga!
Pastor Jay
Regional Minister and President, Christian Church in Arizona
