4 Corners Networking – Get Involved! New Weekly Feature on Faith Activism: Clonard Unity Pilgrims

mairtin-o-muilleoirI recently wrote a blog reflecting on the 4 Corners Festival, and asking people to share their stories about the Festival or about their own work as peace activists.

It is the hope of the Festival organisers that it would inspire people to cross boundaries in their everyday lives – not just for a couple of weeks in January.

During the Festival, there were two ‘networking’ events sponsored by the City Council’s Good Relations unit at City Hall, where representatives of various groups had a chance to meet, swap stories and collaborate.

In an effort to capture that energy, we asked those groups if they would allow us to share descriptions of their work on the 4 Corners website. So now, under the tagline ‘Get Involved,’ you can read about their work. Contact details for the groups are also provided.

This section of the site also includes the wonderful sketches from the event produced by artist Patrick Sanders.

Consider this an invitation to learn more about what’s going on, join in, or get inspired to start your own initiatives.

I also plan to feature the work of these groups each week on my blog – appropriately enough for a blog titled ‘Building a Church without Walls.’ The type of work they are doing really does embody the concept of building a church without walls in all four corners of the city.

All descriptions are written by the activists themselves and used with their kind permission.

Readers should also consider this an invitation to let me, or the Festival, know about their work if it has not already been included on the website.

Feature on Faith Activism: Clonard Unity Pilgrims

This week (beginning in alphabetical order), I start with the Clonard Unity Pilgrims. The Unity Pilgrims are among the more well-known Christian peace activists, being featured or mentioned in books such as Ronald Wells’ Hope and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and Friendship Towards Peace, and in this radio documentary by Barbara Walshe, among other places.

Clonard Unity Pilgrims – Contact: Ed Peterson, ejp@clonard.com

The Clonard Unity Pilgrims go every Sunday of the year to be with a Protestant congregation for their Morning Service. The visits are always arranged in advance with the minister of the chosen congregation to make sure the proposed Sunday is acceptable. The pilgrims ask nothing more than the privilege of being with a congregation in faith and friendship at their Morning Service. We receive a generous and warm welcome each week and have found that after a few visits to the same congregation, new opportunities for friendship and dialogue emerge. We seek to find our unity in Christ and share in an exchange of gifts for one another. The pilgrims meet weekly for an Inter-Church Bible reflection and for an hour of silent prayer for the unity of Christians and for peace across our communities.

 

 

One thought on “4 Corners Networking – Get Involved! New Weekly Feature on Faith Activism: Clonard Unity Pilgrims”

  1. “Go and do likewise”. BE A NEIGHBOUR

    It seems to me that if you were to try to summon up what Jesus was about by choosing one parable it would be the parable that ends with “Go and do likewise”

    Well done The Clonard Unity Pilgrims

    In my view, this is one “simple” action clergy everywhere can follow up on, if they are prepared to take the words of Jesus with any degree of seriousness!

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