Inspired to Act

Belfast's annual Four Corners Festival has been going for 12 years.  Its Christian organisers consider it subversive, but in a positive way.  They say they want to encourage people to step out from their comfortable places and meet others with differing backgrounds and opinions.

Diane and Will get around the table with Rev Steve Stockman, Fr Martin Magill, and Mylie Brennan to discover why they do what they do with the festival, and why they think they are right to  "...drop depth charges into the city's culture for a week".

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

It's the turn of Ed Petersen to join Diane and Will this time. It's fair to say he's made an unusual journey to end up working in peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.  How does a New Jersey boy, who very nearly studied at West Point to be a US Army Officer,  end up working at Clonard in West Belfast?  Fortunately Ed is very happy to tell us about that and his work building relationships and friendships across Christian churches. And he explains how he believes that despite all the twists and turns since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, "with God, all things are possible..."

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Diane and Will meet Rev David Campton, Methodist minister, actor, poet, peacemaker and onetime biologist.  He lives and works in Northern Ireland, having grown up in Belfast, and having once left, vowing never to return.  He's worked in many challenging areas, including some of Belfast's most volatile interfaces, and now serves as Superintendent of Belfast Central Mission.  He also plays a large part in Belfast's annual Four Corners Festival.  How does someone with such an unusual mix of skills end up having done so many different things to bring communities together?

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Diane Holt and Will Leitch are hosting a bit of a reunion this time - as three former members of ECONI, the Evangelical Contribution on Northern lreland,  join them at Commission.  It's a big day as the gang are allowed into Commission's hallowed Studio 1 because there are so  many of them to fit around the table!

Lynda Gould, David Porter, and Stephen Adams tell Diane and Will how they were inspired to act.  But they also have serious points to make about what they were trying to do with ECONI in the 1980s and 1990s, and how some other Christians were determined that it was the wrong approach.

What should have been the cry back then?  "For God and Ulster"? Or "For God and His Glory Alone"?  And what do they think the cry should be now?

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

A message for Advent from two Christians living in Israel and Palestine during a war. 

Diane Holt and Will Leitch hear from Rev. Nael Abu-Rahmoun, vicar of the Anglican Parish of Christ Church in Nazareth, in Israel, and Rev. Jamil Khader, vicar of the Anglican Parish of St Philip's in Nablus, in the West Bank, in Palestine. Their parishes lie within the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem

Both men are busy with their ministries and their parishes, not least at an extremely tense and difficult  time, but also in the run up to celebrating the birth of Christ.

In a frank and timely conversation, they help  their fellow Christians understand what they can do and how they can pray for "the land of the Holy One".

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Diane Holt and Will Leitch meet two of the people working at the heart of reconciliation and peace building in Northern Ireland.  Both provide support and services to victims and others affected in the years of conflict, but in subtly different ways.  Kenny Donaldson works with SEFF, the South East Fermanagh Foundation.  Alan McBride works with the Wave Trauma Centre based in Belfast.  He's perhaps better-known as the man who lost his wife  in the Shankill Bombing 30 years ago.

In this edition both men tell Diane and Will why they are inspired to do what they do, and why their Christian faith is inevitably a part of that.

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Will Leitch and Diane Holt welcome two men from East Africa to the Commission Studios - to see what they can teach us about peace building and reconciliation.  Christophe Mbonyingabo runs CARSA Ministries in post-genocide Rwanda.  Dr Allan Waihumbu runs WAPE in Kenya, where ethnic violence erupted in 2007-8 after a contested election.  Neither man has anything to learn about taking risks for healing and peace.  Diane and Will spent time with them during their most recent trips to Northern Ireland.  They have remarkable stories to tell,  and in this episode, they don't hold back!

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Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

Will Leitch and Diane Holt welcome the author, broadcaster and peace builder, Tony Macaulay, to Studio 2 at Commission.  Tony's first book, Paperboy was about his childhood in the Upper Shankill in West Belfast.  His latest, Killing The Devil is written with a co-author, and tells a love story set in the years following the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.  But he's also known for his work bringing communities and groups together.  Tony tells Will and Diane how his faith inspires him to act, and make a difference.

Tell us what you think!

Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council

News from journalist and podcaster Will Leitch, and Diane Holt, Director of Thrive Ireland.

Coming soon - a regular podcast telling the stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Tell us what you think!

Produced for Thrive Ireland

In association with The Northern Ireland Community Relations Council