wfn.org | Reconciliation must precede church renewal in Northern Ireland

[Beth Hawn <BethAH@mbm.org>]

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August 9, 2000
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
Communications Coordinator
PO Box 370
Elkhart, IN 46515-0370
(219) 294-7523 phone
(219) 294-8669 fax
http://www.MBM.org

Reconciliation must precede church renewal in Northern Ireland

BELFAST (MBM) - As the politicians get closer to a solution that could 
bring a generation of sectarian violence to an end, Mennonite Board of 
Missions Joe Liechty wonders whether the church - Catholic and Protestant - 
will miss its calling.

Perhaps more than any other nation, Northern Ireland conjures up an image 
of religious hatred and conflict.  Since 1994, Liechty and his colleague, 
Cecelia Clegg, a Roman Catholic nun, have directed "Moving Beyond 
Sectarianism."  The effort seeks to examine the church's historic 
responsibility in the society's conflict, and find ways for a divided 
Christian community to move beyond its intolerance, hatred and 
violence.

"The churches are close to a crisis point.  People's temptation is to say, 
'Violence is over.  We'll just do our ordinary thing,'" Liechty said.  "If
they 
do not vigorously grasp the opportunity to make a big contribution to peace,

and to radically change how they relate to each other, then the churches in 
Ireland are on the path - not to extinction - but to marginalization."

The historian from Goshen, Ind., has become Ireland's leading expert on 
sectarianism - that society's functional equivalent of racism in the United 
States.  Sectarianism is represented in people's attitudes, actions, 
beliefs and structures, manifesting itself in destructive ways.  These 
expressions distort positive human needs for group identity and free 
expression of differences.  Based in Dublin, the capital of the Irish 
republic, Liechty crosses the border each week en route to Belfast 
as part of his assignment, which is under the auspices of the Irish 
School of Ecumenics. 

Although he received a doctorate in modern Irish history from St. Patrick's 
College in Maynooth, Ireland, Liechty's passion is for church renewal.  In 
Northern Ireland and Ireland, the only way the church can experience 
renewal, according to Liechty, is for Catholics and Protestants to begin 
with reconciliation.

"I have become convinced about the solemn nature of my work on peace 
and sectarianism.  I see it as church-renewal work.  Renewal has got to 
face up to what we've done wrong," Liechty said.  "Something I find really 
satisfying about my work is that it is, on the one hand, peace work and, on 
the other hand, church-renewal work.  These aren't two hats I wear; they're 
the same work."

As he gives seminars within churches, Liechty often encounters a Protestant 
community that seems caught in a time warp of 1950s British Protestantism, 
and a Catholic Church that seems to want to return to the previous two 
centuries before the Second Vatican Council.  "It will probably take 
significant leadership in putting forward the need for reconciliation 
consistently and clearly.  Beyond that, it also will probably require a 
collective openness of spirit," he said.  "We're talking revival here.  
We're talking outpouring of the Holy Spirit."

This summer, Liechty begins to prepare studies in reconciliation for the 
Irish School of Ecumenics, and to examine for the World Council of 
Churches a case study of Northern Ireland's ethnic and national conflict.  
Despite the challenges ahead for Northern Ireland, Liechty is at peace.

"Part of the ease of my work is the absolute complete confidence that the 
gospel is the most powerful antidote to this situation that could be 
developed.  You don't always know how to implement that," Liechty said.  
"This feels less and less like an Irish problem that I, as an outsider, have
a 
solution to.  This is a human condition that I am implicated in with my
Irish 
brothers and sisters." 

* * *
Tom Price
PHOTO AVAILABLE 

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