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St Nicholas’ Parish takes part in 4 Corners Festival

Friday January 23rd 2015

The Rev Elizabeth Hanna, rector of St Nicholas, Lisburn Road, talks to artist Colin McGooking at the launch of the 4 Corners Festival.

St Nicholas Parish Church in Lisburn Road, Belfast, will host one of the events in this year’s 4 Corners Festival programme.

The launch of the festival, which gets underway on January 29 with a Prayer Breakfast, was hosted by Belfast Lord Mayor Nichola Mallon on Friday January 23.

Now in its third year, the events of this year’s festival focus on the themes of generosity and imagination. The programme is wide-ranging, including art exhibitions and an art tour, music, discussions, storytelling, talks, a prayer breakfast, and a dinner for refugees.

The Rev Steve Stockman, co-founder of the festival, speaks at the launch.

The festival was conceived by the Rev Steve Stockman of Fitzroy Presbyterian and Fr Martin Magill of Sacred Heart Parish. It has been organised by a small group of Christians from all four corners of the city. Festival events are deliberately located in the corners of the city so people are enticed to travel outside of their normal comfort zones, seeing new places and meeting new people.

Most of the events are free of charge or ask only for a donation.

The Lord Mayor said: “I am delighted to host the launch of this year’s festival. In its previous two years, it has helped people to cross boundaries all across the city of Belfast. I look forward to attending events and being inspired to use generosity and imagination to make our city a better place.”

Belfast’s Lord Mayor Nichola Mallon hosted the launch of the Festival in the Mayor’s Parlour at Belfast City Hall.

Fr Magill and Rev Stockman got the idea for a festival after reflecting on occasions they had to travel to parts of Belfast with which they were unfamiliar. Astonished by what they saw in these unfamiliar areas, and deeply aware of how segregation continues to divide Belfast’s citizens, they hoped to prompt others to experience new areas of the city through a festival of events.

Steve said: “To move from our political peace, which at times can be very fragile, to a robust social peace we need to find a generosity of soul that lives out Christian ideas like forgiveness, love of enemy and shalom. For those words to become a reality on our streets we will need to imagine new ways of acting towards one another. For that to happen we need to be exercising the muscle of our imaginations. Please God that this year’s 4 Corners Festival might contribute to that.”

Linda Ervine reads from Psalms, in Irish and English, at the launch of the 4 Corners Festival.

Last year the ‘Listening to Your Enemies’ event organised as part of the festival provoked a riot outside the Skainos building in East Belfast when a crowd gathered to protest against one of the guest speakers, ex-IRA bomber Pat Magee, who was sharing the stage with Jo Berry, whose father was killed in the Brighton bomb.

The festival will return to Skainos this year with an event called ‘SligheNa Beatha’ or ‘The Path of Life,’ a journey through the Psalms with reflections and music provided by Scottish Gaelic Psalm singers (Saturday February 7 at 7pm).

Singer Chris Wilson performed at the festival launch in the Mayor’s Parlour.

Linda Ervine of Skainos, who spoke at the launch, said: “We hope this year’s event will help us examine where we are in Northern Ireland in terms of healing, using the backdrop of the Psalms, which have brought such comfort to people down through the ages.”

As part of the festival, St Nicholas, Lisburn Road, is one of four churches from the four corners of Belfast hosting a piece of art by Bronagh Lawson. The other three churches to host Bronagh’s work are the Church of the Nativity in Poleglass, Jennymount Methodist and Belmont Presbyterian.

The work will be on display during the week of the festival, and remain in place for the rest of the month.

The rector of St Nicholas, the Rev Elizabeth Hanna. “We got involved because the parishioners of St Nicholas welcome opportunities to open up to the community, which is in keeping with the Bishop of Connor’s Vision Strategy.”

The Rev Elizabeth Hanna at the launch with Bronagh Lawson, whose artwork will be on display in St Nicholas during February.

Bronagh said people from all faiths and none will enjoy visiting the churches to see the art work. “Art knows no barriers,” she said. “We need excuses to move outside of our own communities and see what is going on.”

St Nicholas is normally open over lunchtime for anyone wanting to view the artwork, which can also be seen during services.

A full programme of 4 Corners Festival events is below and is also available at 4cornersfestival.com

20 ARTISTS: RELIGION and SPIRITUALITY

January 29th to February 8th, at Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts (launch evening Thursday January 29th at 7.30pm)

How does the contemporary visual artistic community living or exhibiting in Belfast depict spirituality? Artists historically important to the spiritual community have been depicting religion and spirituality for eons.  Always sensitive to the emerging shifts in society they have been leading the way in visual representation. For the Four Corners festival Bronagh Lawson

(www.creativechangeni.com) has curated an exhibition bringing a selection of works which tackle contemporary spirituality. All pieces have emerged from the Belfast artistic community living and working in all parts of the city over the last few years but have never previously been shown together. Exhibition includes print, painting, sculpture and digital.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.

4 CORNERS PRAYER BREAKFAST

Friday January 30th at 8am

Our annual prayer breakfast will gather Church and community leaders and focus on a theme that needs our prayers if we are going to follow Jeremiah’s call to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

This is an invitation only event.

A NIGHT WITH MESSY WOMEN

Friday January 30th at 7.30 in Canada Room, Lanyon Building, QUB

A Biblical Storytelling Event with Wendy Johnston. The sometimes shocking stories of the women five women named by Matthew in the genealogy of Jesus – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary, told by master storyteller Wendy Johnston. This will be followed by a discussion panel of contemporary women, exploring the importance of these stories and women’s stories in general in a world that often overlooks them. All against the background of the Canada Room’s stirring mural “Women Emerging from the Shadows”, by award winning Newry artist Michelle Rogers.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.  

CORNERS OF THE CIRCLE:  ART EXHIBITION IN 4 CHURCHES IN 4 CORNERS

Saturday 31st January from 1pm – 4pm.  There will be an opportunity to visit the art pieces with the artist.   Bus leaving from PS²  Gallery, 18 Donegall St, Belfast, BT12 2GP at 1pm.  

After spending 13 years in cross border, cross community development work Bronagh Lawson returned to her artistic practice. Not a church goer at the time  she attended a service in Dublin with a friend which led her to observe just how many different churches there were in East Belfast where she lived. With so many of Northern Ireland’s issues supposed to be about religion she decided to explore contemporary Belfast church going and look again at what was really going on now. The result has been an odyssey of attending over 340 different church services over four years in all areas of greater Belfast, documenting the experience as she goes.

Corners of the circle, is the first ART piece to come out of this experience. Installed in four different churches around the city, Bronagh invites you to visit each.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.  

IMAGINATION TOWARDS GENEROSITY: A THEOLOGY

Sunday February 1st at 7.00, in St Malachy’s Church, 24 Alfred Street, Belfast

The key words in the planning of this year’s 4 Corners Festival are generosity and imagination. In order to do generous acts we need to imagine alternatives to the way things are. At a political, religious, social or personal level we need the muscles of our imaginations exercised so that we can love our enemies and live for the peace and prosperity of the city. Michelle Marken and Steve Stockman explore the Biblical mandate and the pragmatic outworking of imagining generosity in Belfast.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event. 

IMAGINING A BELFAST WITHOUT WALLS 

Monday February 2nd at 7.30pm in Townsend Street Presbyterian Church

Belfast:  Towards a City Without Walls by Vicky Cosstick with photographs by Frankie Quinn, will be published in 2015 by Northern Ireland publisher Colourpoint.  The book tells the story of the walls and of some of the people who are directly engaged with the walls, including community workers, politicians, civil servants, residents, artists and architects, church ministers and black taxi drivers.  In May 2013, the First and Deputy First Ministers made a commitment to bring the walls down by 2023 – is this likely to happen?  Is it desirable?  How might it happen?  

Vicky Cosstick will share some of her experience of writing the book, and some of the questions and issues that have emerged from her research.  Vicky has a background as a writer, journalist, pastoral theologian and church worker, and change facilitator.  Vicky was living in New York when she published her first article about Belfast in 1978 for the New York Daily News. She now lives in London and Donegal.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.

BELFAST’S GENEROSITY TO THE 4 CORNERS OF THE WORLD

Tuesday February 3rd at 11am, Belfast City Hall

This event, hosted by the Lord Mayor, Councillor Nichola Mallon will facilitate the gathering of Relief Agencies to share their stories and campaigns in a way that can remind Belfast what a generous city it is to the rest of the world. In doing so, we hope that we might inspire, on an individual and community-based level, similar energy, generosity and imagination in our working for a Belfast at peace with itself. Belfast has historically been imaginative and generous to the wider world. Philip Orr will speak about the time when Belfast stood up to slavery and refused to allow slave ships to dock in our port. The Lord Mayor will present Unsung Hero Awards to those who have contributed to our generosity abroad.

3 MAYORS FOR ALL 4 CORNERS

Tuesday February 3rd at 8.00pm | ULSTER MUSEUM

In recent years Belfast city has been blessed with some imaginative and generous Lord Mayors. What were their experiences as Lord Mayor? Where did they see imagination and generosity? What surprised them? What encouraged them? How were they changed by their year working across the 4 Corners of our city. Come along and hear the last two Mayors, Gavin Robinson and Máirtín Ó Muilleoir along with the current one, Nichola Mallon, as they share their stories of their year as Belfast’s first citizen!

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.

IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT HUMAN TRAFFICKING

Wednesday February 4th at 7:30 PM, Fortwilliam & Macrory Presbyterian Church on the Antrim Road (top of Fortwilliam Park)

On 17th March 2014 an historic agreement was signed by the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches, with the full backing of Archbishop Justin Welby and Pope Francis, to combat slavery and human trafficking. This is the first time since the Reformation that the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches have united together on a project of world-wide import. Human trafficking is a scourge which affects approximately29 million people worldwide, not only far away but also here in Northern Ireland.  As a topic of interest and concern to Christians of all denominations this evening will have input from representatives of Tearfund, Trócaire and Stop the Traffik, all of which are involved in different ways, at home and abroad, in the fight against human trafficking.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.  

4 CORNERS REFUGEE FEAST (by invitation only)

Thursday February 5th at 6:30 PM, Belfast City Hall

In conjunction with Embrace and others.  Belfast Lord Mayor, Councillor Nichola Mallon, in partnership with the 4 Corners Festival, will host this year’s meal for refugees recently arrived in Belfast. Young people from various parts of the city will assist in serving the meal to people who have come here to begin new lives.

This is a closed event but sponsorship of a meal will be gladly accepted. Buy a meal for a refugee for £20

“Greater Love”.   Stories, Images and Music from World War One

Friday 6th February at 8pm,

Clonard Monastery, TICKETS £10 Buy tickets now…

“Greater Love” was launched in Parliament Buildings, Stormont in May 2014 and New Irish is delighted to be bringing it to Clonard on Friday 6th February as part of “Four Corners Festival”. The script tells the stories of several local individuals who were involved in the Great War – and draws hope from the selfless acts of people who put others before themselves. The music is largely from the period of the war, and includes popular war time songs such as “Tipperary” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” but also includes some reflective items which are more recent compositions – “The Mansions of the Lord” and “There is a Hope”. The presentation lasts 90 minutes.

This event has been produced by New Irish Arts – an organisation working in partnership with the Irish Church to present Christianity through the Arts. New Irish produces large events in the major Irish concert halls every year, but also enjoys collaborating with other musicians and working on smaller community projects. Through all of our events, we aim to present Christianity, resource the church, and support Christians working in the Arts.

FILM: A STEP TOO FAR? A CONTEMPLATION ON FORGIVENESS

Saturday February 7th at 3pm, in Strand Arts Centre

Most of us at some time in our lives feel that we have been wronged by others in some way. It may be as a result of malicious gossip or maybe a violent act or even worse. How do we react in such situations? Do we lash out at the offender, are we eaten up with the desire for revenge? ‘A Step Too Far?’ investigates an alternative to revenge; the idea of forgiveness. From Northern Ireland to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, ordinary people share their real life stories and how they have come to view forgiveness. Leading academics also make a significant contribution to the film. The showing will be followed with a conversation with the Director of the Film and some others.

This event has been sponsored by Irish Churches Peace Project.

To book, please email: info@fourcornersfestival.com .

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.  

‘SLIGHE NA BEATHA’ ‘THE PATH OF LIFE’

‘You make known to me the path of life’. Psalm 16 v11.

A journey through the Psalms – an evening of reflection and music with Scottish Gaelic Psalm singers.

Saturday 7th February at 7pm in Skainos, 239 Newtownards Road.  

In many ways a journey through the Psalms reflects the various stages of grief including anger and despair before moving towards healing, forgiveness, acceptance and hope.  This event will journey through these various emotions using the words of the Psalms to explore where we are in Northern Ireland 16 years after the Good Friday Agreement.  Each person will have an opportunity to lament aspects of the past as we connect with ourselves as a people still recovering from the pain of ‘The Troubles’ accompanied by the beautiful and haunting sounds of the Gaelic Psalm Singers.

Last year the ‘Listening to Your Enemies’ event organised by the Four Corners Festival attracted unexpected publicity when a riot took place outside the Skainos building on the Newtownards Road in East Belfast.  An angry crowd had gathered to protest against guest speaker, ex IRA bomber Patrick Magee.  This year’s event will use the backdrop of the Psalms from the Old Testament to examine where we are in Northern Ireland in terms of healing.  Experience the ancient tradition of Gaelic Psalm-singing, a unique music form practised within the Presbyterian tradition which still survives in churches in the Western Islands of Scotland.  Join us on our journey through the many different areas of human experience and our relationship with God.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.  

A NEW GENERATION OF PEACEMAKERS

Sunday February 8th at 7pm, in Sacred Heart Parish Centre, 1 Glenview Street.  

An evening of worship and thinking about a new generation of peacemakers. What is our young people’s vision for a city of peace and prosperity? Where do they think we need imagination and generosity? We will be hearing from the city’s youth and celebrating the end of the Festival led by the worship of Fitzroy’s Source group and North Belfast’s Search group. Jasper Rutherford, who works for Summer Madness and the Church Army and has a passion for energising our youth towards peacemaking, will be speaking.

Event Free BUT donations welcome towards the cost of the event.   

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