A Story of Faith and FriendshipIt was at a retreat in the University of Maynooth, Co Dublin, Ireland given by Jean Vanier in 1992 that he said he would like to come to Northern Ireland in an ecumenical context and he suggested 1995 as a possible year.
I had met Jean Vanier first in Corrymeela in 1989. I was a member of a *Faith and Light community in Lisnaskea and so I was already imbued with his vision of poverty of spirit, brokenness, humility and I had begun to discover in a real sense that difference was not something that one should be afraid of or feel the need to be protected from, but that difference could be enriching.
Our Faith and Light community was Roman Catholic in membership and so in the ensuing years we had a number of ecumenical Faith and Light gatherings when we invited families, friends and ministers from the Protestant tradition to join us. Our friends with learning disability showed us how to really welcome each other.
However, because Faith and Light had begun as a totally Catholic movement with a pilgrimage to Lourdes, its origins and story made some people feel unhappy. This feeling was respected by us all and Faith and Light just did not seem to be an ecumenical option at that time in the rural area of South East Fermanagh, Northern Ireland in the ‘90’s amid the tensions of the ‘troubles’.
When it came to organising Jean’s visit to Northern Ireland and because of the earlier experience the need for balance and equal representation on the planning team was a high priority.
Three things were felt to be especially important:
And so, in September 1994 at the beginning of 18 months of ceasefire in Northern Ireland and amid a dawning atmosphere of great hope, a team of eight people from four Christian denominations came together to organise a visit of Jean Vanier to Northern Ireland. At their October meeting, the aims of the group were discerned as follows:
*Faith and Light is a Christian association which brings together people with learning disability, their family and those who would like to be their friends. It was founded in 1964 by Jean Vanier and Marie-Helene Matthieu.
The name of the group was discerned as Faith and Friendship.
Over the next months the team grew together, each meeting couched in prayer, they felt bonded together in faith and they developed together in friendship with a common aim – the events planned for the following June.
And, in June 1995, nine months after that October meeting, the events happened. Faith and Friendship was truly born. The first event was a 4-day Faith and Friendship Festival of Peace in the University of Ulster at Coleraine where 150 residents and 50 day visitors came together to listen and to share. The second event was in the Carmelite Centre, Tarmonbecca, L’ Derry with 50 people forming community during a 3-day retreat.
People from all ages, backgrounds, denominations, people with learning disability, people who had experienced all kinds of suffering, under the sensitive and spiritual guidance of Jean Vanier, all found a safe place to tell their story, to discover new friends and to express their faith.
Both events had times of prayer, times of silence, times of listening, times of sharing, times to meet over meals, times to sing and dance and rejoice in being together.
Evaluations after these events included:
At the Festival we celebrated the Eucharist according to 3 different traditions and we experienced the pain of division. The ‘getting to know’ experience of the small sharing groups could not be acknowledged around the same table of what was most precious within each one’s individual prayer life but many experienced this unity in a simple washing of the feet ceremony on Tuesday evening.
There were different highlights for different people. For me it was the Washing of the Feet on the Thursday night in L’Derry. Taking up a suggestion which had originated from Jean, we worked on a liturgy of the Washing of the Feet and on the Thursday evening we celebrated and prayed that Liturgy.
We followed the normal liturgical sequence. One minister from each of the four denominations present led us in prayers, penitential rite, profession of faith, readings, homily, Eucharistic prayer and finally in place of the breaking of the bread, we had the washing of feet in our small groups. It was powerful, joy-filled, uniting. We sang our hearts out in joy and praise, all of us, together.
In September following the Faith and Friendship events, the team met again for an evaluation. It was felt that the spirit of Faith and Friendship should continue in some way. At that time in N.I. there were many opportunities in urban situations for people from different church denominations to come together in a meaningful context of prayer and friendship but in rural situations these opportunities were very few. After discussion and prayer it was decided that Rev Ruth Patterson and Mrs Anne Gibson, both members of the team, should work together to try to encourage small Faith and Friendship groups to come together regularly in the spirit of the original aims of the team.
The first Faith and Friendship groups met in September 1997 in Belfast and Lisnaskea. Over the following ten years other groups formed in Ballymena, Omagh, and Enniskillen. Later Portadown and Limavady joined the fold. During those ten years there have been many times of challenge for those who hoped for true peace in Northern Ireland. There were times of real hope followed by times when peace seemed so distant and almost impossible. The Faith and Friendship gatherings have lived out those times by coming together monthly in faith to share, to pray and to better understand the other. Annual guidelines are prepared by Rev Ruth Patterson and each month her scriptural reflections inspire questions, prayer and sharing, leading to deepening of friendships.
In the Spring of 2007, when Faith and Friendship was celebrating its tenth year of existence, it was felt that it was time to take a fresh look at the way the movement could be nurtured in order that it could step with confidence into the next decade. After much prayer and discernment it was proposed that Faith and Friendship be officially adopted by the Board of Directors of Restoration Ministries so that it would come under the umbrella organisation and protection of Restoration Ministries. Up until that point Faith and Friendship had been an independent movement emerging from the friendship between Ruth and Anne and their experience in 1995 at the Festival of Peace in Coleraine and L’Derry.
Restoration Ministries founded by Ruth and others, has been in existence since 1988 and has at its heart the desire for reconciliation and healing. It has always seemed like a giant Faith and Friendship group! It was felt that being under the auspices of Restoration Ministries would help promote and publicise Faith and Friendship on a much wider level. It was also felt, even more importantly perhaps, that this change would ensure that Faith and Friendship would continue to exist without depending solely on two persons, however committed. Jean Vanier and The Board of Directors of Restoration Ministries responded positively to this proposal.
Each year since June 2001 the Faith and Friendship groups came together to share on their year, to evaluate and to pray together. In June 2007 this gathering was held in Restoration House, Dunmurry, Belfast, the headquarters for Restoration Ministries. At that meeting the general gathering unanimously adopted the proposal that Faith and Friendship become an out reach branch of Restoration Ministries.
And so, in the summer of 2007, Faith and Friendship is thankful of the opportunity to mature and journey on in the spirit in which it was born and under the patronage of Restoration Ministries.
Faith and Friendship believes that it is a little sign of hope in a still troubled part of God’s vast world. That hope lies in building relationships in an atmosphere grounded in faith, expressed in friendship and nurtured by the Spirit.
“If we disarm ourselves, if we dispossess ourselves, if we open ourselves to the God-Man who makes all things new, then He will wipe out the evil past and give us a new time where everything is possible.” Patriarch Athenagoras.
Anne S Gibson
July 2007