Called to Belfast 2014

Editor's Notes

• #2: GM. We are Marda and Ward. I grew up in south central LA and attended Chinese Presbyterian church a mission planted in the late 1800s for immigrants. I attended the Urbana Missions conference in 1967 and was relieved and encouraged to hear that all believers are called to mission, wherever God puts them. Ward grew up in the Bronx. Both of his parents were descendants of Irish immigrants. His mother was a practicing Catholic and Ward attended Catholic schools up through high school. Ward moved to SF after college to work in the progressive school movement. In 1970 he accepted the truth of the gospel through the ministry of Francis Schaefer.
• #3: More than 15 years ago Ward started seeing and becoming aware of Ireland. Knowing that Ward is NOT adventurous or a traveler I knew this was something special. This heading is the heading of our website. “The Quon Stothers Journey”. You can see all about our work on www.quonstothers.com Our talk today has three themes: -The Northumbria Community which we affiliated with in the last year. -A wee bit about our work in which we sometimes were called missionaries -A few readings from Ward from his book Plain Drink Tea
• #4: First about Northumbria Community
• #5: Patrick Brigid Columba left Ireland and established a monastery on Iona which lasted from 500s to 800s and is famous for preserving scripture though illuminated manuscripts King Oswald went to Iona and was converted to Christianity and invited the monastery to send missionaries. Lindisfarne was given to Aidan a tidal island also called Holy Island. Aida was successful and was followed by Cuthbert. The venerable Bede was also of this era and both are buried in the Durham Cathedral.
• #6: From 1994 an Anglican, a Baptist and a Catholic. A dispersed community. Novitiate process is like a discipleship process. You receive a mentor and read their material but most important practice your faith. Characteristic of monastery are practicing a rule. The vows are renewed annually. We discovered a NI group and have been attending house group meetings for about a year. Lane Stahl visited and the three of us went to the mother house in Northumbria. Retreats are held and the daily rhythm of morning, midday, evening and compline are recited together.
• #7: This poster was given to us by the NI community when we left. Please read it with me. May the peace of the Lord Jesus christ go with you… I suppose this applies to CAPC as God has shown us wonders and has brought us back rejoicing.
• #8: The practices of the early church in Ireland. The emphasis in monastic rhythm. Monastery on the crossroads and spread faith to Engla and Europe. The story of Aidan’s success is the monks worked and meditated when the tide was in and when it was out they walked out and helped the people.
• #9: Several communities in various places Community of faith practices, contemplation, liturgy and prayer From Protestanism but transcends denominations Especially for Protestants that think the church before Martin Luther was another church. Northumbria Community Celtic prayer liturgy uses Peters testimony ‘To whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life. Jn 6:68 St Patrick’s breastplate “Christ as a light illumine and guide me, Christ as a shield overshadow me. Christ beside me on my left and my right. Columba who was sent to Iona and was instrumental in preserving Christianity. St Brigid influenced Ireland and for me personally gives me a women model since Biblical times who was a leader even if her history is muddled with a Druid goddess. Part of the Northumbria community commitment is to volunteer at the mother house so I hope someone here will be interested as we would like to visit Ireland next spring and volunteer at Northumbria community and return to visit Belfast.
• #10: Moving on to the second part of our talk. Our work in Belfast The Loom was named by Maria Garvey and we have lived there since September 2010. We came to CAPC in 2000 with the vision of Ireland. We were commissioned in April 2008. We were invited to Crumlin Road Presbyterian and they offered us their intern house in which we lived for 2 ½ years Then this house came up for rent a block and a half from the church. We left Crumlin Road church in March 2012 and went to Townsend St Presbyterian a church across the Shankill Road about a mile from the house. We left the sponsorship of the Presbyterian Church and went under East Belfast Mission a methodist group. Jon Kennedy from San Jose came to live with us in 2013. The work expanded from the beginning to community and thus our move closer in and became multi-church and cross denominational.
• #11: A house that was used by the church as a community center where advice for govt services, crisis pregnancy counseling, mom and tots clubs were held. We began paying rent in 2010 with the help of Maria Garvey.
• #12: We literally had 10 sets of houseguests not counting that Jerem cam twice last year. Perhaps after five years people got the idea that we meant it when we said they could come.
• #13: From the beginning we listened There are stories Wounds are deep and scabs are thin Walls of separation and walls of the heart Many encouraging signs
• #14: Nothing is wasted in God’s economy. Ward is a poet and I am an artist. Art became more and more important each year we lived in Belfast. This illustration is for a play that was written for the centenary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant, a divisive document. The play was written by Philip Orr a Protestant and an historian, and Fr Allan McGukian a Jesuit. Protestants said it was unfair to Catholics and Catholics said it seemed to slam the Protestants. Successful. We saw it 4 or 5 times in 1912 and then we were able to facilitate a visit to LMU last fall where the playwrights read it and then it was delivered again at Townsend St Presbyterian church for the visit of the LMU students in March which we arranged. It was said that artist are is important in the peace process because they think differently. Artt is nuanced and can show things that can’t be said.
• #15: Closure Visa health, and family and friends. How do you know God’s timing. Peace and confirmations.
• #16: Read intro paragraph 1 and peace section This is a photo of our church from the other side of the security barrier. This mural was painted in 2012 for a street festival. This gate is open during the day and locked on evenings and weekends. When I asked in a Session meeting can the barbed wire come down…
• #17: Section 2 are prayers PFTW, Call to Worship and Benedictions Prayers are just talking to God These are offered for corporate or personal time
• #18: This section is a collection of poems that were written for occasions and which don’t fit under Peace or Prayers. Our assignment at Crumlin Road Church was visitation and when you visited you would be offered a cuppa. And always with a biscuit which is a dry cookie or a sweet
• #19: Written in 2004 after Summer Peace Making Institute Ward was able to read this poem several times while in NI, but the story I want to tell is how he was able to read it to the President of the Republic of Ireland. Jack Lamb calls and asks Marda do you know who the president of Ireland is? A chap named Higgins. And do you know what he did before he became president? No clue. He was a poet and you and Ward are going to meet him tomorrow. Are you sure? Ward reads Armagh Read to and by president Michael Higgins A video of the visit is linked on our website.
• #20: Cat Black is a poem about the security barriers called peace walls Ward reads Cat Black and I advance slide
• #21: Conclusion Last year the first minister Peter Robinson and deputy first minister Martin Mcguiness said all the walls would coe down in 10 years and David Cameron and Barack Obama praised them. No plan. A journalist came to our house and said the low hanging fruit 5 areas with no violence and the people on both sides said no way. There is work still to do. Work like the Dock church in the Titanic Quarter, the Four Corners Festival project, our friend Jon Kennedy who is Orthodox and neither Catholic or Protestant working to encourage interest in CS Lewis. Wards book, maybe something you can do. Thank you. There are many areas we can go deeper into. We were privileged to have this experience.