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MAKING its debut in Belfast tomorrow forGood Friday and also on Saturday is anintriguing sounding urban pilgrimagefor Easter.Called the Passion Walk, it is described asan invitation to walk the path of JesusEaster journey but in the streets ofBelfast.Walking a route across the centre of thecity with an audio guide, and pausing atcertain key locations, you are invited toenter into the events of Jesus nal hours,say the organisers.As was the case in Jesus day, the ongoinglife of a busy city becomes the backdropfor the events of the story.The Passion Walk is an invitation to

experience the story in a new way, andperhaps see the city in a new light.The walk starts at Grosvenor House inGlengall Street, with the pilgrimagewinding its way towards The Dock Cafe inthe Titanic Quarter, where refreshmentsand space for reection and prayer will beoffered.The Passion Walk idea started inEdinburgh, with the pilgrims describinghow relating the story of the rst Easterto their own city made the reality of thePassion come alive.Writer and journalist Susan Manseld,working with Duncan MacLaren and JaneMacLaren, were behind that rst walk in2012.They said that it grew from our interestin the role walking can play in ourspiritual lives, and our appreciation ofcontemplative spirituality, particularly theIgnatian tradition.Joy Gowdy, from Bangor, did the

Edinburgh walk in 2013 and thought itwas ideally suited to Belfast, and enlistedthe help of Susan Manseld to make it areality.Financial support has come from St Paulsand St Georges Church in Edinburgh,The Epiphany Group and ContemporaryChristianity, Belfast.There is more information at www.passionwalk.org and anyone wanting totake part is invited to register by emailinginfo@passionwalk.org or telephoning078 7901 4344. There is a charge of 5 tocover the cost of the materials used in thewalk chiey a booklet with pointers forreection along the way and it is a non-prot project.Walks leave Grosvenor House between10am and 1pm on Good Friday andSaturday April 4.

18 FAITHmattersReligious Affairs Correspondent William Scholes

THURSDAY APRIL 2 2

Why the Churches

need to talk aboutreconciliationI

N Northern Ireland the repub-lican movement is beginningto speak the language of recon-ciliation. Is it a real journey or

sophisticated game play? As withanything, time will tell.

There was a time when recon-ciliation was too stark a word forhere.

Not any more.It could even become fashion-

able quite the language to talk.But what is it?

Is it lighting public buildingswith more colours than you canshake a stick at? A diet of photoopportunities announcing theopening of this or funding of that?Is it just nice speaking?

We live in a country deluged bywords, photo opportunities andforeign delegations. We have hada large share of the worlds atten-tion and nance. Academics havestudied us to within an inch of ourlives and we can certainly speakfor ourselves. Yet we are stuck.

So much talk, so little progress.Why?

I once asked a monk from over-seas what he saw when he lookedat our country. His answer wasimmediate: What I see is a deeplywounded community.

The cost of violence and death

inicted by one human being onanother is truly shocking.

Recently I was taken by surpriselistening to a neutral foreign vis-itor address a gathering. Whenasked to reect on the state of ourpeace process his reply was moreblunt than the indulgent tone weare used to: One of the things youhave to come to terms with hereis guilt.

If reconciliation had been a mat-ter of money, position papers andforeign interventions all wouldhave been sorted out long ago.

We are masters at avoiding thedifcult conversations, of con-stantly kicking hard issues downthe road. But what happens whenother peoples money and pa-tience run out?

To be involved in reconciliationmeans to take a journey towards

ownership of pain. It is to be will-ing to own pain that we have suf-fered. It also is to own that whichwe havecaused. Behind thebrightlights is where the difcult andpainful conversation takes place.

So what is to be the responseto the language of reconciliationfrom the republican movement?

This is a moment when leader-ship is needed both politicallyand from the Church. Politicallythe issue of reconciliation will al-ways be a difcult one to lead in,but our future depends on it.

The Church is a body with rec-onciliation at its very core itdoesnt have another. It needsto start speaking it in a way thatmakes sense and that gets heard.

The response might begin byasking two questions. To the lead-ership of the republican move-ment it is to ask: What is it that

you mean when you use the wordreconciliation?

The second is to ourselves. It isprecisely the same question.

Rwanda knows that reconcilia-tion is the only way to end its con-

ict. These are no light words con-sidering that in the 1994 genocide,approximately one million peoplewere murdered in that country of

some eight million. It was literallya case of neighbour against neigh-bour, even family member againstfamily member.

Some years ago I attended ameeting addressed by the vice

president of the Rwandan Nal Commission for Unity anonciliation.

This mans father had beendered in ethnic violence. I him how Rwanda had madea remarkable journey to

reconciliation when compaour faltering steps in NoIreland.

His answer was simple.Rwanda is one of the p

countries in the world, he sIf we do not nd a way of

together we will not survivliterally cannot afford to dothan to be reconciled.

Neither can we.

n The Rev Earl Storey with Protestantism: A JourSelf-Belief, a project of thetre for Studies in Irish Proteism at Maynooth UniversityThis article appeared iChurch of Ireland Gaze

March 24 2015

n GESTURES:Above, Belfast C

Hall goes green for St PatricksDay. The Rev Earl Storey asks

reconciliation simply mean gessuch as lighting public building

symbolic colours?

the passion walkbelfast easter 2015

An individual pilgrimage through the Easter storyGood Friday and Easter Saturday in central Belfast

For information and booking: www.passionwalk.org, 07879 014344

Passion Walk Belfast @Passion_Walk

If reconciliation had been a matter ofmoney, position papers and foreigninterventions all would have beensorted out long ago. We are mastersat avoiding the difcult conversations.But what happens when other peoplesmoney and patience run out?

The Churches needto take a lead onreconciliation, argues theRev Earl Storey

BringingPassion to

the streetsof Belfast