Borderlands is a monthly event where we create a warm hearted space in a Belfast pub for music and reflection on the most pressing issues facing our societies today. The conversation is led by the voices of musicians, activists, civic leaders and artists.

This was our Advent event where our theme was Hope. Alan McBride works to advocate for those who lost loved ones in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. His own wife was killed in the Shankill bomb in 1993. He spoke about a book he is compiling about grassroots redemptive stories that emerged from the horror of the Troubles. Denise Bradley works for Corrymeela in the area of Marginalisation. She works with refugee communities and advocates for the victims of Gender Based Violence. Music is from Andy McClenaghan who plays a couple of songs he has written for Borderlands. Also we have two members of Na Leanaí, Fra Sands and Sorcha Turnbull playing some trad tunes and seasonal songs. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into a brave space for sacred stories.

Borderlands is an event run by a small collective. Guardians Of The Flame works to record these kinds of voices and events and uses the audio skill of Fra Sands and the filming and editing skills of Josh Eaves.

Brian McLaren is an author, activist and theologian. His many books and his public speaking have been an important resource for Christians seeking a more inclusive faith, a generous orthodoxy. Brian has a pastoral voice that is both challenging but also can be nurturing to those who have been hurt by their experience with faith. In this interview Corrymeela’s Public Theology Programme Manager Jonny Clark raises questions about Brian’s latest two books Faith Beyond Doubt and Do I Stay Christian.

Dave and Jill Hines work for the Methodist church in south Belfast, in an area called Ballynafeigh off the Ormeau Road. They are imagining what a new community could look like in the most ethnically diverse part of a city not famed for it’s diversity. Before this they lived in India for 8 years and dreamed up ways to build up a Community Development NGO in Calicut and Ooty in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in south India. Before that they developed an award winning cafe in Belfast called Common Grounds and were part of leading a church called City Church Belfast.

Throughout their marriage they have found a way to build fires of community while being schooled in the tradition of Wesley, Brennan Manning and Amy Carmichael. They bring a perpetual bright eyed idealism with open arms of embrace to everyone, all the time. In many ways they epitomise the idea of being Guardians of the Flame. Dave and Jill are lifelong friends of Jonny and Jenn Clark and it was a privilege to create space for them to tell their story.

Borderlands is an experimental attempt to create space for people from within the Christian faith tradition and those outside. It is trying to be a safe place at a time when many people are looking for spaces of gathering, belonging and a faith that speaks of doubt as well as hope, of values as well as belief.

Fr Martin Magill is a parish priest in Belfast who is also the co-founder of the Four Corners Festival among many other projects. Fr Martin is a passionate activist for reconciliation in our divided society. In spite of his very public voice, he is someone who embodies the best of the priestly vocation, the capacity to express vulnerability, devotion and to value the individual in front of him. Jonny Clark interviews Fr Martin about everything from his unique interest in Belfast street names to the vocation of being a priest. Notably Jonny discussed with Fr Martin the funeral of Lyra McKee which he spoke at. Lyra was an LGBTQ+ activist and also journalist who was tragically killed by dissident Republican paramilitaries in April 2019 in the city of Derry/Londonderry. Fr Martin in his sermon, powerfully challenged our perpetually gridlocked local political leaders with words acknowledging the gestures of unity and reconciliation after her death but asking “why…in God’s name…does it take the death of a 29 year old woman with her life in front of her to get to this point.” These were some of the most powerful public words we have heard in a long time in Northern Ireland. They received a standing ovation in St Anne’s Cathedral and in living rooms all over the country. Fr Martin was creating a Sacred Space, which was the theme of our Belfast-based event, Borderlands that night.

Borderlands meets on the second Tuesday of every month, usually in the Pavilion Bar and is described as a Brave Space for Sacred Stories.

Borderlands is an experimental attempt to create space for people from within the Christian faith tradition and those outside. It is trying to be a safe place at a time when many people are looking for spaces of gathering, belonging and a faith that speaks of doubt as well as hope, of values as well as belief.

Azadeh Sobout is someone we could describe as both an academic and an activist. But her words have a quality that leave the listener feeling that they are listening to a mystic. Azadeh is an Iranian Muslim who speaks here movingly on the theme of “Sacred Space” for our Belfast-based event Borderlands.

Borderlands meets on the second Tuesday of every month, usually in the Pavilion Bar and is described as a Brave Space for Sacred Stories.

Borderlands is an experimental attempt to create space for people from within the Christian faith tradition and those outside. It is trying to be a safe place at a time when many people are looking for spaces of gathering, belonging and a faith that speaks of doubt as well as hope, of values as well as belief.

Jenn Clark has spent a life time helping people feel that they belong. She is an expert at making people laugh, leading spaces of community and serving people through food. She is also a storyteller. This is a story she wrote around the theme of “Sacred Space” for our Belfast-based event called Borderlands.

Borderlands meets on the second Tuesday of every month, usually in the Pavilion Bar and is described as a Brave Space for Sacred Stories.

Borderlands is an experimental attempt to create space for people with different labels. Many who come and organise the event come from within the Christian faith tradition, Catholic and Protestant. But it also is for those who are from the borderlands of faith. It’s a space that seeks to welcome and include the presence and voices of those outside the belief tradition of Christianity. It is trying to be a safe place at a time when many people are looking for spaces of gathering, belonging and a faith that speaks of doubt as well as hope, of values as well as belief. The event typically includes reflections, stories, music and discussion on the public issues facing our society.

In November we included 3 people sharing and 2 musicians. The musicians were Maria Nickolay and John McGrath. In addition Jenn Clark, Azadeh Sobout and Fr Martin Magill spoke.

Live from Belfast in June 2022, Borderlands is a monthly event of music, activism, community and reflection, at the intersection of art, justice, reconciliation and faith.

Jason Miller is a brilliant pastor from South Bend City Church in Indiana. He paraphrased the Beatitudes in his own words, connecting them to the Holyland where he read them with new eyes, and to our context here in Belfast.

Live from Belfast in June 2022, Borderlands is a monthly event of music, activism, community and reflection, at the intersection of art, justice, reconciliation and faith.

Kathleen Gillespie was held at gunpoint while her husband was turned into a human bomb by the IRA in a horrific attack on the British army on 24 October 1990. Anne Walker was in the IRA until leaving and finding her way years later into a peace building workshop that involved telling real stories. Through that she met Kathleen and the two became great friends despite their very different pasts. Today they tell their stories all over, inspiring people to be agents of peace and change in the world. This event was held on the annual Day of Reflection where all communities are encouraged to remember together the pain of the Troubles.

Live from Belfast, Borderlands is a monthly event of music, activism, community and reflection, at the intersection of art, justice, reconciliation and faith.

From our Borderlands event back in June, Ramy Taleb tells his story of spending five years in Belfast, Northern Ireland and then moving back to Lebanon to start a peace building charity there called Al Shabiba Risala, which focuses on educating an emerging generation of Lebanese on Reconciliation and Peace.