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United Kingdom and Ireland
 Youth from Whitehouse Presbyterian and St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church work to become peacemakers and peacebuilders.
In August 2002, Whitehouse Presbyterian Church suffered an arson attack amid ongoing sectarian tensions in North Belfast. The sanctuary burned to the ground. Though no one has ever been charged, all indicators pointed to youth from a nearby Catholic/Republican district, carrying out what they would have viewed as a revenge attack for damage done to their “side” some months earlier by individuals from a nearby Protestant/Loyalist area. With the help of many others, not least their neighboring Roman Catholic parishes, the Whitehouse congregation raised funds to rebuild, and the sanctuary reopened in February 2005.
Today, one of the weekly activities in the new structure is a “Friends and Neighbours” club for those over 50 — including many from that same Catholic/ Republican district. As those divided by decades of sectarian tension meet to drink coffee, play Bocca, and share a meal, they are also restoring trust. Likewise, youth from Whitehouse and youth from St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic Church, which was burned down two years before Whitehouse, took part in a Kairos program designed to enable young people to be creative peacemakers and builders for the future. Neither the older nor the younger people view justice as getting revenge for something that has happened to them. For them, doing justice is about rebuilding right relationships and making sure that the future can be different from the past.
Partners/Ministries
United Reformed Church [England]:
Rev. Robert Rominger, general secretary, Rev. Dr. Philip Wood, director, International and Ecumenical Relations
Time for God [Great Britain]: Rev. David Williamson, director
Presbyterian Church in Wales: Rev. Ifan Roberts, clerk
Church of Scotland: Very Rev. Finlay MacDonald, principal clerk
Churches Together in Britain and Ireland: Rev. Robert Fyffe, general secretary
Iona Community ([Scotland)
Rev. Kathy Galloway, leader
Irish Council of Churches/Irish Inter-Church Meeting
Michael Earle, general secretary Presbyterian Church in Ireland
Rev. Donald Watts, clerk of the assembly, general secretary Irish School of Ecumenics
Dr. Linda Hogan, director
Corrymeela Community
Dr. David Stevens, leader
PC(USA) General Assembly Staff
Emily Kiefer, PPC
Robert Kile, BOP
George Kim, BOP
Reconciling God, we pray for all those who by refusing to be controlled by the past do justice as they help to build your new future. May we also be given the courage to respond to injury by reaching out across divisions to foster right relationships. Amen.
Ps. 51, 148 Ps. 142, 65
1 Sam. 3:1–21
Acts 2:37–47; Luke 21:5–19
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