Revisiting Reconciliation

This is a special edition of our PS blog to bring you up to date on an exciting, and demanding, piece of research being led by our Contemporary Christianity Board, and which is about to get under way.

Following a conversation last Autumn with some wise supporters, we have been awarded a small grant from the Community Relations Council to do a research piece on how the conversations on reconciliation and good relations might be improved. Here is an extract from one of our key documents:

Although Northern Ireland has made significant progress towards a peaceful society since the Good Friday Agreement, entrenched divisions remain across social, economic, and psychological lines. The diminishing interest from faith communities and the waning focus on reconciliation and good relations / social cohesion in policy and policy discussions (as well as wider society) highlight a worrying lack of momentum.

This context underscores the urgent need to reignite conversation and discussion, and to help ensure that emerging leaders and communities are equipped and motivated to address persistent and evolving divisions.

Whilst Contemporary Christianity is the lead partner in the project, we are carrying it out in active partnership with Clonard Monastery and YouthLink, (which has a vision of churches working together to empower and equip leaders in Youth Work and Ministry, and to help build a peaceful and just world in which young people can flourish).

It seems all too clear that despite progress since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland continues to face sectarianism, racism, political apathy, and segregation.

Recent events – including racist violence in Ballymena and rioting in Northern Ireland in 2024 and 2025 – highlight the fragility of peace and social cohesion and the need for new approaches. Alongside this, the faith sector’s voice in reconciliation / good relations has diminished, and yet there remains strong appetite for re-engagement and collaboration. This clearly needs to go beyond the Christian community and reach out to other faiths.

There are several stages to the project.

In the first stage, running over the next few months, we are planning 8 Community Workshops to engage with (around) 100 participants across faiths, ages, and backgrounds.

Following these workshops, we expect to publish a report early in 2026 with photos and stories, and which will offer a number of practical proposals for strengthening reconciliation.

The final stage – in March 2026 – will be a public launch event centered around an exhibition and discussion, and at which we hope to bring together around one hundred individuals committed to advancing reconciliation in our land.

Apart from letting you know exactly what we are planning through this blog, we have made spaces available in two of our workshops for some of our PS readers to be involved and contribute. So, if you would like to be part of an evening workshop in central Belfast on either 20 November or 27 November, please do get in touch with us as soon as possible at info@contemporarychristianity.net

We will do our very best to accommodate you if possible!

And finally, but just as importantly, please do pray for the guidance and blessing of the Lord in this project – all the people involved; all the arrangements to be made; all the wisdom we need so that it really does become a blessing to us all and to our land.

Thank you so much!