21st day of Lent
MARCH 21st 2017
PRAY FOR THE MEN OF VIOLENCE
21st day of Lent
MARCH 21st 2017
Today a man died. He was a man of violence. He was a man of peace. He died with blood on his hands. He died as a friend of enemies. He was Martin McGuinness. One half of the 'Chuckle Brothers' - the other half was the implacable defender of Ulster, Ian Paisley.
It is a day for prayer. Prayer for those whose lives were so marred and devastated by terrorism. Prayer also for a changed Northern Ireland. Prayer for peacemakers. Footsteps to peace have taken years of painstaking effort. And today it is still fragile. There are still walls, called 'peace lines' in Derry /Londonderry and Belfast. There are still huge suspicions between both sides. Yet, the sight of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness sharing power, sitting besides each other, chuckling, is surely one of the most extraordinary fruits of peacemaking. These photographs come from the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland, which we visited last year. They are from Portrush, where the Giant's Causeway is a truly magnificent and mysterious landscape. A most beautiful country. A place and people who deserve peace as much as we do. May Martin McGuinness rest in the peace of God and the forgiveness of God. And may those harmed and marred by violence find peace too.
It is a day for prayer. Prayer for those whose lives were so marred and devastated by terrorism. Prayer also for a changed Northern Ireland. Prayer for peacemakers. Footsteps to peace have taken years of painstaking effort. And today it is still fragile. There are still walls, called 'peace lines' in Derry /Londonderry and Belfast. There are still huge suspicions between both sides. Yet, the sight of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness sharing power, sitting besides each other, chuckling, is surely one of the most extraordinary fruits of peacemaking. These photographs come from the Antrim coast in Northern Ireland, which we visited last year. They are from Portrush, where the Giant's Causeway is a truly magnificent and mysterious landscape. A most beautiful country. A place and people who deserve peace as much as we do. May Martin McGuinness rest in the peace of God and the forgiveness of God. And may those harmed and marred by violence find peace too.
I remember the day the Good Friday Agreement was signed, 10th April 1998, because of the impact it had on our church services. It was signed late afternoon, and so when we arrived for our evening act of worship with our sisters and brothers from Warley Woods Methodist Church, the news was very new indeed. It was the Methodist Minister who was preaching and he had clearly had to add to his sermon, and respond quickly to this historic event.
ReplyDeleteI remember feeling so thankful, so relieved, almost disbelief, that after years of conflict, violence, and fear, which scars our own city of Birmingham, there was an agreement for peace. There had at last been a break through what had seemed impossible to negotiate.
And so as we worshipped, we stood at the foot of the cross, where Jesus reconciled us to God, offered forgiveness, where peace is made possible with God and with one another, and we gave thanks.
Peace, however, is a process and so we pray for peace for all who live with painful memories, and for all who continue to build bridges of reconciliation.
The equivalent, for me, as far as peacemakers go, would be when Nelson Mandela, F.W de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki became joint leaders of the new South Africa.
ReplyDeleteOn the 11 of February 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, it seemed like the impossible had happened. For us who watched on from the outside, the idea of an independent South Africa was a possibility too remote to contemplate in our life times. After years of apartheid and violence, South Africa was finally independent in 1994, and mortal enemies became friends; Nelson Mandela, the new president, F.W de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki the vice presidents. Integrity and uprightness triumphed over violence and segregation, an echo of Isaiah 11: 6,
"The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them."
I should have said, in the above post; not an independent South Africa, but one free of apartheid, 1994 was the year of South Africa's first non racial elections.
ReplyDelete