Skip to main content

What's THAT got to do with it?


One of the week-long events at this year's 4 Corner's Festival is "Never in my Wildest Dreams", a photo exhibition at the Artcetera Centre in Rosemary Street. It is an exploration of homelessness in our city and beyond by Westcourt Centre's Camera Club. A few weeks ago, someone, who sees 4 Corners as primarily a peace and reconciliation festival, asked, "What has homelessness got to do with reconciliation?" 
On one level the answer is that homelessness is something that affects people from all corners, and indeed sectors of our city, and whilst its most obvious form is most evident in the increasing numbers of rough sleepers of the city centre, "hidden homelessness" is a feature across every postcode.
But it is more than that. If we are to talk about a city really at peace with itself, then it should be real peace... Biblical shalom, which as Martin Luther King Jnr. repeatedly stated, is not just absence of violence (and those who are homeless are sometimes there because of domestic violence and breakdown, and sadly experience a higher degree of violence than others in our society), but the presence of justice. Today is Martin Luther King Day, and the theme of this year's festival, "Dreams", is, in part, inspired by the 60th anniversary of his "I have a Dream" speech. As King continued his work he increasingly got involved in issues other than purely black civil rights and race relations, including protests against the war in Vietnam.
A few years ago we ran an event looking at building a sustainable city, and again, someone asked what this had to do with peace and reconciliation. But peace also requires hope, and currently that has economic and environmental implications, hence we return to the issue of the environment in another event at the festival, a showing of the film "The Letter" on Monday evening at the Ulster Museum. This explores an initiative that flowed from Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si" calling us to take better care of our common home, a theme he returns to repeatedly in his short book "Let us Dream" that is another inspiration for our festival following a short message from the Pope at last year's festival before his biographer and the co-writer of "Let Us Dreram", Austen Ivereigh spoke to us.
What dreams do you have for our city? Come along and let's explore them together...

Shalom

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

LentArt: Washing the Disciples' Feet

Today's #LentArt post is "The washing of the disciples' feet" by Ghislaine Howard, another piece from the wonderful Methodist Modern Art Collection. It has clearly struck a chord with a number of people, and I am delighted that tonight's guest blog is by my friend and fellow 4 Corners Director, Father Martin Magill, who, he will be embarrassed to have me say, is for me the epitome of a servant leader. Indeed it was interesting to have a friend and artist respond to my earlier post saying that this time last year she remembers having her feet washed by Martin... How much has changed in a year: This painting (completed in 2004) was inspired by these words from the gospel of John in today's lectionary:  Jesus knew that the Father had delivered all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. So He got up from the supper, laid aside His outer garments, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, He poured water ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
2 comments
Read more

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 ...
3 comments
Read more