The aim of the Reconciliation Programme is to facilitate and guide Christian Churches and Church leaders in Northern Ireland and the Border counties in their vocation of reconciliation and integration. All the work is educationally focused and thereby aims to ensure a legacy of people equipped and attentive to the need for addressing sectarianism/racism within themselves, their families, churches, communities and wider society.
Relationship building is at the heart of the Programme. The focus of all of its activities is on initiating, maintaining and/or building relationships. In many cases, for significant progress to be made in the process of reconciliation, fostering relationships needs to be the first priority. Focusing on reconciliation in the first instance can discourage people from engaging in the process, either because they fear what they may have to confront or they are unsure about what the process may entail. Encounters and relationships provide the framework and the context for mutual understanding and respect to emerge and for reconciliation to be considered and pursued.
It is important to remember that peace-building and reconciliation work are not simply what happens in the moment of specific activities or sessions, but it is extended through how those activities are planned, organised, reviewed and, critically, through who is involved. Wherever possible, the Programme works on a relational, inter-church basis and has been driven by an ethos of partnership and collaboration.
Programme activities centre around education and training, practical interactions and resource development. In general, activities have been designed to bring people together in order to highlight the humanity in each person while being engaged collectively in meaningful work and conversations within a safe environment.
The Reconciliation Programme seeks to educate and inspire Church leaders (clergy and laity) and those in training to respond to the challenges of difference and diversity by being furnished with the tools for reconciliation and integration through theological learning and reflection, personal engagement and practical experience. This work is complemented by practical outreach initiatives with marginalised groups (i.e. young offenders, ex-combatants, loyalists/republicans, minority ethnic communities). The Programme has found that by making use of creative approaches (such as those used in Theatre of the Oppressed drama workshops) participants are able to engage more readily with issues around identity which in turn lead to addressing attitudes of sectarianism and racism.
A key lesson learnt by the Programme is the importance of finding common interests and concerns that will bring people together from different communities, traditions and cultures. The focus of most of the work remains on generating opportunities for relationships amongst and between people and communities who would not otherwise ordinarily meet.
The Reconciliation Programme is distinctive in its Christian principles and ethos that guide and focus programme activities. All the activities undertaken and proposed by the Reconciliation Programme are done in accordance with the ethos of the Methodist Church being 'a friend to all and an enemy of none.’ We hope that this site will inspire and challenge you, offer new perspectives and insights, clearly present our principles, values and approaches and thereby contribute to building peace within people, their relationships and communities as well as between enemies, strangers and nations.
Please let us know your views – where we are misguided, what is helpful and what you are hoping to do.
