Seeing Reconciliation

Wow, it has been a little while since someone has posted one here so I’ll catch you up quickly. For the past couple classes we have had speakers from reconciliation sites and a movie critic. Our afternoons are filled with cooking, homework, and mostly going into downtown Belfast to walk and shop around without really buying anything. At night we go out to a variety of different places, sometimes pubs, sometimes places to dance and sometimes just back to our youth hostile where we stay. The interaction with the students at the residence hall where we cook are going great. They are really some great people. We usually just eat together and watch their amazing satellite T.V. with them for about a half hour or so. The past couple of nights, the ones without exams, they have been going out with groups of us to wherever we are headed for the night. Also, I am thankful that they have been very accomodating to us during the American Football playoffs.

But what I really want to highlight is our trip to Clonard Church/Monastery two nights ago. The reasons we went there were many. One, we thought it nessessary to experience a good Catholic mass. It was on a Thursday night so it was not a normal mass. It was calleda Perpetual Novena and was dedicated to Mary. A very new experience not only because it was Catholic (as some of us ARE Catholic) but also because it was distinctly European. Another reason for our going to the monastery was to meet Father Gerry Reynolds and Pastor Ken Newell. That is right. Pastor.  Rev. Ken Newell is a Presbyterian minister in Belfast and recently completed his term as the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Northern Ireland.  Father Gerry and Rev. Ken are two leaders of major churches in Northern Ireland and they became friends about 18 years ago and have been working to bring peace and reconciliation between Catholics and Protestants ever since.  They gave us a personal interview for about an hour on their lives, friendship, views on issues and hopes for the future. It was a privilege.

Keep reading!