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March 2000
Dear Friends,
As many of you are well aware, Northern Ireland has been on a
political roller-coaster. Almost immediately after the Belfast
Agreement was signed on Good Friday 1998, disagreement arose over
the issue of decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. Unionists
viewed this as essential before they could enter a power-sharing
government that would include Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein viewed the
setting up of a power-sharing Executive that included themselves
as essential for creating the circumstances in which decommissioning
could begin to take place.
After long drawn-out negotiations between these parties and the
British and Irish governments, the Ulster Unionists agreed to
the setting up of the Executive in the belief that Sinn Fein would
insure that a credible start to decommissioning would follow within
weeks. When the Executive finally was established in December
1999, control of significant areas of government was in the hands
of politicians elected in Northern Ireland for the first time
in 25 years. Ten Ministers from Unionist, Nationalist and Republican
parties worked uncomfortably but nonetheless together. Community
and business leaders expressed the value of being able to deal
with local politicians for a change, instead of Ministers appointed
from elsewhere in the United Kingdom to oversee Northern Ireland
affairs. And ordinary people felt renewed hope that real political
progress was being made that would underpin a lasting peace.
Unfortunately, as hardening attitudes within the unionist community
resulted in more strident demands for decommissioning, Republicans
became increasingly determined not to be dictated to on this issue.
In early February, when neither Republican nor Loyalist paramilitaries
made any substantial moves toward decommissioning, David Trimble,
the Ulster Unionists leader and First Minister in the Executive,
felt compelled to offer his resignation to honor a pledge made
to his own supporters. Rather than allow that to happen and the
Belfast Agreement to have broken down completely, the British
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson, intervened
and, instead, "suspended" the new political institutions
in the hope that some way out of this impasse can be found relatively
soon.
One of my colleagues has likened the feeling many here have after
the collapse of the Executive to that of the two disciples in
Luke 24 on the road to Emmaus, who talked to the stranger they
met saying "We had hoped. . .but now. . . ." Truly,
many of us had hoped that the Good Friday Agreement and more lately
the establishment of the inclusive Executive had truly set us
on a new course leading to stability.
These are more disappointing than dangerous times. I don’t
expect a return to widespread violence—there simply isn’t
the stomach for it. But, we could be back in a direct rule situation
for months or years, rather than just weeks. And, too much is
being said that hardens positions and makes any steps forward
much more difficult to take.
So on this road to Emmaus we, too, look for surprising encounters
that will warm our hearts and restore faith and hope—and
from time to time in various ways and in different places we find
them. A few nights after the collapse I found myself in the back
room of a Baptist church in a provincial town meeting with folk
from several churches not particularly known for being open to
contact with Catholics. They had asked me to help them think through
how they could make contact and then work with local Catholics
in the design and management of a new ministry aimed at addressing
the sense of hopelessness found in many young people in their
town. Their conviction is that, though there may well be opposition
from some of their own members, visibly working together on those
things where we can is in itself one means of revealing the hope
we have in Jesus Christ. I had gone feeling deflated. I left knowing
more deeply that Christ is alive and does go before us.
Faithfully yours,
Doug and Elaine Baker
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page
79
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