Last week (31 March) I took part in a panel discussion at the Irish Council of Churches 99th Annual General Meeting at Skainos in East Belfast. The theme of the AGM was ‘The Unfinished Work of Peace’. Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Andrew Forster, was elected the new President of ICC.
Panelists spoke about our work in local peacebuilding projects, so I reflected on my involvement in the 4 Corners Festival. Other panelists were Hedley Abernethy of Corrymeela; Rev Tracey McRoberts, rector at St Matthew’s on the Shankill; and Ed Petersen of Clonard Monastery. I’ve reproduced my own remarks below.
The 4 Corners Festival & the Unfinished Work of Peace
I’m Gladys Ganiel and I work in sociology at Queen’s University. I previously worked at the Belfast campus of the Irish School of Ecumenics. One of my main areas of research has been the role of religion in peace processes. I am also a Christian and I attend Fitzroy Presbyterian in Belfast. I’ve been asked to speak in my capacity as a committee member of the 4 Corners Festival, based in Belfast. But I am happy to take questions of a more general nature as well.
Some people in the room already know something about 4 Corners or may even have attended events; others I am sure know nothing about it. The idea for the festival came from Fr Martin Magill (now parish priest at St John’s on the Falls Road) and Rev Steve Stockman from Fitzroy Presbyterian. They were beginning to strike up a friendship and over coffee one day, discovered that they had both recently travelled to parts of Belfast with which they were unfamiliar. They had been pleasantly surprised by what they found. This conversation sparked the idea of a festival with events spread across Belfast’s diverse geography, designed to get people to visit new places. So, events that would appeal to Protestants would be held in venues in Catholic areas of the city, and vice-versa.
This approach is well-illustrated in our tenth edition of the festival, which took place last month. The festival opened in St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral with a personal video message for the festival from Pope Francis, which had been recorded by his biographer, Austen Ivereigh. Ivereigh then spoke about the Pope’s recent book, Let us Dream. The festival closed with an address by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in St Peter’s Catholic Cathedral.
Watch: Pope Francis’ personal message to the 4 Corners Festival:
I became involved in the festival in its first year, when my fellow panelist Ed Petersen and Fr Magill visited me at the Irish School of Ecumenics to ask me if I thought the idea was crazy; or if it had life. They framed it as a sort of ‘fringe festival’ for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, taking place the week after. I had previously written a blog post about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity titled: ‘Is Ecumenism Boring?’ The fact that I got involved in the festival from the start probably gives you some clue as to how I answered that question.
The festival has grown over time. In 2016, less than 1500 engaged with our 15 events. In 2021 (all online) we reached 3800; in 2022 (a blended online/in-person approach) we reached around 3000.
Each year we choose a theme for the festival: This year it was ‘Common Ground, Common Good’; other themes have been ‘Breathe’ (during the pandemic); ‘Scandalous Forgiveness’; and ‘The Art of Listening’. Events range from lectures and panels, to art installations, to drama, to music, to children’s sport through PeacePlayers.
We want our festival to raise issues that are hard for the churches to tackle, acting as a kind of prophetic voice to the wider church.
This can be controversial. In this building in 2013, a conversation between Jo Berry (whose father was killed in the Brighton bomb) and Pat Magee (one of the IRA bombers) provoked a small riot.
And in this building in 2022, in an event about Susan McKay’s book Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground, Anton-Thompson McCormick spoke about being wounded and excluded from churches due to gender identity. Rev Dr Heather Morris, General Secretary of the Methodist Church, responded to this panel discussion. She apologized for the way Anton and others had been treated by the churches.
Watch: On Shifting Ground with Susan McKay:
Although we are a local-level festival, we share some of the same challenges as national-level bodies like ICC. Many of our events draw audiences that suggest we are ‘preaching to the choir’, consisting of people already interested in inter-church work. Most attendees are women of middle-age or older; and Protestants are more likely than Catholics to attend. With rare exceptions (like this year’s event in Clonard with boxer Carl Frampton), we fail to reach young people from working class areas.
Pope Francis has identified the lack of dialogue between generations as a big problem in our world. This problem is reflected in our churches and Christian organizations, at local and national levels. So the youth miss out on the wisdom of older generations; and older generations miss out on the insights of the young.
One practical way national-level bodies like ICC might support the work of local peacebuilders is to consider how it might help a new generation become involved in inter-church work.
Could ICC facilitate dialogue between generations, especially in the area of the unfinished work of peace?
This might take the form of a mentoring scheme, stretching over several years, in which younger and older Christians were paired and had the opportunity to develop real relationships. Could those younger Christians, perhaps drawn from among those who use university chaplaincies, seminarians, and local congregations, inspire us with fresh ideas?