Skip to main content

Dates for Your Diary - The Four Corners Festival


It is usually around this time of year that I have traditionally received gifts that many laypeople would be deeply jealous of... Funeral Directors' pocket diaries... One year I received 4. I offered them to members of my family but they thought them a tad ghoulish. But a member of my then congregation heard me commenting on this and asked me for one... And from there on in he sidled up to me in mid-December and asked had I a spare diary going. As the years went by I received fewer, but I had long since stopped using paper diaries anyway... Then two years ago my friend died... And this year I haven't received any Funeral Directors' diaries at all (just a pen so far, which my eldest son has purloined
In the days when I was receiving them, one of the most frustrating tasks was filling in the first batch of dates (including birthdays etc). With a rolling electronic diary backed up online I don't have that problem... But this year I have more dates than usual coming in to January, because I am involved with the group organising the second year of the "Four Corners Festival" based around Belfast at the time of Christian Unity Week.
The theme for this year's Christian Unity Week is "Is Christ Divided?" The question might also be pertinently asked "Is Belfast Divided?" The answer to both to a certain extent, sadly, is yes... But this festival is a way of both demonstrating and promoting unity in the church and our wonderful wee city...
Here are confirmed dates for your diary so far... You can get more information at the 4 Corners Festival site, and can sign up there for facebook or twitter updates:

WED. JANUARY 15th  – 4 CORNERS FEAST
in conjunction with Simon Community, Vincent De Paul, Welcome Centre and Salvation Army
in CITY HALL (by invitation only)

THU. JANUARY 16th @ 4pm – PEACEBUILDING NETWORKING (South and East Belfast)
in CITY HALL

FRI. JANUARY 17th  @ 7pm – 4 CORNERS, 4 STORIES
with politicians in STORMONT LONG ROOM

SUN. JANUARY 19th @ 7pmTHE PSYCHOLOGY OF PEACE in THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
with RODDIE COWIE in FITZROY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, University Street

TUE. JANUARY 21st @ 4pm – PEACEBUILDING NETWORKING (North and West Belfast) 
in CITY HALL

WED. JANUARY 22nd @ 7:30pm – TENX9 with 4 CORNERS 
in THE BLACK BOX

FRI. JANUARY 24th @ 7:30am – 4 CORNERS PRAYER BREAKFAST
in 174, Antrim Road

FRI. JANUARY 24th (time TBC) – AN ALTERNATIVE BURNS’ NIGHT
with PHILIP ORR and MIKE GASTON in SACRED HEART CHURCH, Old Park Road

MON. JANUARY 27th @ 7:30pm – 4 CORNERS, 4 STORIES
with Church leaders
in BELFAST SOUTH METHODIST, Agape Centre, Lisburn Road

WED. JANUARY 29th @ 7pm – SORRY FOR YOUR TROUBLES
with PÁDRAIG Ó TUAMA in AN CULTÚRLANN, Falls Road

THU. JANUARY 30th @ 7:30pm – LISTENING TO YOUR ENEMY
with PAT MAGEE and JO BERRY chaired by Rev Lesley Carroll in SKAINOS, Newtownards Road

SAT. FEBRUARY 1st (time TBC) – PRAYER FOR ALL CORNERS
across BELFAST

Further information will follow... 

Shalom

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Woman of no Distinction

Don't often post other people's stuff here... But I found this so powerful that I thought I should. It's a performance poem based on John 4: 4-30, and I have attached the original YouTube video below. A word for women, and men, everywhere... "to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known." I am a woman of no distinction of little importance. I am a women of no reputation save that which is bad. You whisper as I pass by and cast judgmental glances, Though you don’t really take the time to look at me, Or even get to know me. For to be known is to be loved, And to be loved is to be known. Otherwise what’s the point in doing either one of them in the first place? I WANT TO BE KNOWN. I want someone to look at my face And not just see two eyes, a nose, a mouth and two ears; But to see all that I am, and could be all my hopes, loves and fears. But that’s too much to hope for, to wish for, or pray for So I don’t, not anymore. Now I keep to myself And by that

Psalm for Harvest Sunday

A short responsive psalm for us as a call to worship on Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday, and given that it was pouring with rain as I headed into church this morning the first line is an important remembrance that the rain we moan about is an important component of the fruitfulness of the land we live in: You tend the land and water it And the earth produces its abundance. You crown each year with your bounty, and our storehouses overflow with your goodness. The mountain meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are filled with corn; Your people celebrate your boundless grace They shout for joy and sing. from Psalm 65

Living under the Empire... (2) Where is Babylon?

We were driving back from school last week, talking about books that we had been reading and my younger son, Ciaran, asked me "Where is Babylon?" I have to confess that my history is better than my geography, and I said that it no longer exists as an inhabited city, but its ruins were to the north west of the current capital of Iraq, Baghdad. When I checked however, I discovered that it is actually about 50 miles south of Baghdad and the modern town is the administrative centre of the province of Babil... But just as the modern city is but a shadow of the historic capital of 2 ancient empires, first under Hammurabi in the 18th century BCE and then the "Neo-Babylonian" empire (under Nebuchadnezzar etc) in the 6th century BCE, so the earthly Babylonian empire/s was/were fleeting in comparison to the enduring metaphorical idea of Babylon. The original Empire under Hammurabi was probably the ultimate origin of some of the early Biblical stories, including the &quo