Presbyterian Notes

A Presbyterian minister in Maynooth is using the legacy of St Patrick and the celebrations around March 17th to encourage greater community development.

Rev Dr Keith McCrory is the chairman of the St Patrick Foundation, a reconciliation charity founded upon the life and legacy of Ireland’s patron saint. The aim of the St Patrick Foundation is to bring people together and inspire them to excellence in reconciliation, and this year various community events, including Saint Patrick breakfasts, are planned towards achieving that goal. The foundation also promotes a Spirit of St Patrick Award Scheme, a Leadership Training programme and a Conciliation Service, all centred upon Patrick’s message of faith in Christ.

This year’s events include a St Patrick’s breakfasts on March 17th (with an evening concert) in Maynooth, and for the first time, a St Patrick’s breakfast in the City Hotel, Queen’s Quay, Derry.

For more information on the St Patrick's Foundation, including Dr McCrory's Leading through Conflict seminar, and to order tickets for St Patrick's day events, visit saintpatrickfoundation.org .

In other news, martyrdom and sacrifice were the focus of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s exploration of the events of 1916 with a talk by Open University professor of religious history John Wolffe, at Belfast’s Union Theological College recently.

Entitled Remembering 1916 – Martyrdom and Sacrifice, the talk was the second in a series of events organised by the church to facilitate and encourage public conversation around the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme, which took place a century ago. "The importance of understanding the events of 1916 in their historical context of total war, in which exceptional risk-taking and violence became commonplace, has led people then and now to look for deeper meanings," said Prof Wolffe.

“With the probable exception of Patrick Pearse, the leaders of the Easter Rising did not set out to be martyrs; they have been constructed as such after the event. On the other hand, the sense that the dead of the Ulster Division were the victims not only of their German enemies, but of their false friends the British generals and politicians who sent them into battle and failed to support them helps to explain the powerful resonance of their legacy in loyalist areas who feel a similar sense of betrayal.”

Church role

In thanking Prof Wolffe for his presentation, the very Rev Dr Norman Hamilton said that the church has a unique role to play in today’s public square: “I hope our series of events around 1916 is contributing to the ongoing public discussion around the centenaries . . . [This] was a very constructive discussion from a wide variety of perspectives and opinions from across the island and the Presbyterian Church. If improved understanding of such complex and emotive histories can make a constructive contribution to thinking about present-day conflicts and post-conflict situations, then that is a good thing,” he said. A transcript of Prof Wolffe’s lecture is available from the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s website.