Meeting with those of the Abrahamic Faiths

I had, possibly, my best weekend at Corrymeela yet. Saturday I spent listening to and collaborating with a group of Turkish/Turkmenistan Muslims who are seeking to raise awareness and create inter-faith dialogue within the Irish/Northern Irish communities. They hold a lot of passion for what they do. I was very much inspiring to hear them speaking the same language of peacemaking that we speak. I will be meeting with them again, and hopefully that will be helping me plan an inter-faith youth conference for next April.

Sunday we had two visitors from Jerusalem, a Rodef Shalom (a Jewish order of people who are anointed to be pursurers of peace in the Orthodox tradition), and a Muslim Sheikh from the Sufi tradition, who have chosen to work together in Jerusalem for peace. They formed a organization called Jerusalem Peacemakers, the website is www.jerusalempeacemakers.org I was blessed with the opportunity to spend the evening with the two of them and our Centre director. It was fascinating to hear their stories and recieve their wisdom in building peace. In the morning they joined us in worship and taught us to pray in Hebrew and Arabic, quite the experience. We were told that we would be welcome at any time in their homes, so maybe we'll just take them up on it.

I've found over the last little while that the idea of peacemaking between religions gives me a lot of energy and captures my imagination. I've had many chances lately to meet people from the Muslim faith and they've all captured my respect very quickly. I really admire their deep spirituality and their dedication to building peace, which is contrary to how the media has been potraying people of the Islamic faith lately.

Update

Just a quick update about our week. Since our trip to Dublin I worked with a youth group that was thinking about bullying in their own communities and coming up with ideas on how to support other youth. This I have noticed is a major issue in Northern Ireland because people are being pullied and over extended abuse many are committing suicide because of this. Even mean texting is a problem here. Niki worked with a church group looking at Celtic spirituality. This past week I have been on resource updating the Corrymeela website (check out the photo gallery and bookings section), making a comprehensive list of available dates at Corrymeela up to Jun 30th and doing an analysis of the cottages for three fiscal years to give an estimate of how much income Corrymeela will lose moving volunteers into the cottages next year while Coventry is being rebuilt. Niki was on housekeeping and during the evenings she spent some time painting an encouragement tree in Coventry similar to the tree at Camp Valaqua. This weekend we are both on resource and Niki is present for a couple of day groups. Next week we are off to Edinburgh for a few nights holiday to celebrate my birthday. Today is a significant day for Northern Ireland and if you would like to find out more about the current events start by checking the BBC news online. www.bbc.co.uk

Dublin

Jason and I spend a lovely (and rainy) few days in Dublin. We spent our time wednesday visiting some of the historical sights of Dublin such as the old jail, where many of the leaders of rebellions against Britian were kept and executed, and the Dublin Castle, really a parlimentary palace. Ireland gained independence in 1921 and they are very proud of their history. Our passports did get checked by an officer coming onto the bus on the way into Ireland, but not on the way out. So it's pretty difficult to tell that you've moved into a new country. However, in some ways Ireland was a breath of fresh air, because you no longer have to watch what you are refering to or what to call people etc... Most of the signs in Ireland are in both English and Irish, Irish is the official language and students have to take it in school.

We spent Thursday on a day long tour into the Wicklow Mountains right outside Dublin, beautiful territory. Our stay was spent at a downtown hostel, which was in the perfect location and not to much of an expense, but besides that Dublin is a very expensive city to travel in. We also enjoyed a really good celtic music band one evening. Unfortunetly the trip home was a little frustrating as Northern Irish public transportation is not great.

Last weekend I worked with a lovely church group exploring celtic Christianity and Jason worked with a youth group looking at ways to reduce bullying in their communities. This week I get the great pleasure of being on Housekeeping and Jason is on resource. After that we're going to head out to Scotland for Jason's birthday trip! We'd love to hear from everyone who's reading, so keep sending emails or comments our way!