and even failed to support the individuals who were doing the hard work on the ground.
During the Troubles, church leaders from the four largest denominations often appeared together or issued joint statements condemning violence. Some denominations released statements advocating peace. The Vision for Society statement is the latest in a line of such statements from PCI. The most significant of these was its 1990 Coleraine Declaration, issued after a special meeting of the General Assembly.9 It was followed by a 1994 Peace Vocation statement. Only a handful of people told us they had been inspired by these statements. Throughout the Troubles, PCI’s Church and Government Committee, the precursor to the CPA, produced a series of documents on peace-related issues. But Brewer dismissed these and similar efforts from other denominations as ‘speechifying’. Statements were an elaborate form of preaching to the choir, because only a minority of Christians who were already committed to peacemaking heard them. The message barely registered at all with people outside the churches.
When we asked people to evaluate how PCI as a denomination had responded to the Troubles, we were usually greeted with silence. People mentioned individuals like Dunlop or Newell, or talked about what their local ministers and congregations had done. But most could not name any initiatives from PCI itself. Only a few ministers and three laypeople mentioned the Coleraine Declaration, Peace Vocation or Vision for Society. Nor did they talk about PCI’s Peacemaking Programme, which ran from 2006–9. Their silence revealed a staggering failure of communication between denominational headquarters, ministers and congregations.
Lynda Gould is clerk of session at Knock Presbyterian in East Belfast. A kirk session is the elected board of elders which governs each Presbyterian congregation; the clerk sees to the functioning of the session, conducts correspondence on the session’s behalf and is responsible for all official records and documents. Lynda has many years’ experience in faith-based peacebuilding in organisations like Evangelical Contribution on Northern Ireland (ECONI) and YouthLink. One of her frustrations is that peacemaking has been compartmentalised to denominational overseeing bodies such as the CPA or to dedicated peace groups within local congregations, making it the priority of a few people rather than mainstreaming it throughout the denomination. Lynda longs for peacebuilding to be at the heart of PCI. But in effect, she said, the establishment of peace groups has marginalised peacebuilding rather than made it a priority.
On the other hand, many Presbyterians do not agree with PCI’s peace statements – especially the idea that PCI should confess for failing to be peacemakers. Some Presbyterians also believe PCI has not done enough to help victims. They think it is wrong that some Moderators and groups like the CPA have advocated reconciliation with Catholics without focusing enough on victims.
It is within this complex and complicated religious context that we carried out our research. Neither Gladys nor Jamie are members of PCI, although Gladys attends Fitzroy Presbyterian in South Belfast and Jamie is a committed member of the Belfast Collective, an independent, evangelical congregation in Belfast. We conducted the research according to rigorous academic standards. We were committed to uncovering as full a story as we could, rather than simply telling PCI what we thought it wanted to hear. That meant including people with a range of experiences and perspectives, people from all parts of Northern Ireland and the border counties, and at least fifty women. Most studies of religion in Northern Ireland have focused on clergy and leaders. Although there are ordained female ministers in PCI, their numbers are few and women’s experiences of religion have been neglected.
The research was designed in partnership with the task group, which helped identify the categories of interviewees: ministers, victims, security forces, those affected by loyalist paramilitarism (including ex-combatants), emergency responders and health care workers, quiet peacemakers, politicians, people who left Presbyterianism, and critical friends from outside the denomination. The selection of interviewees was also facilitated through the task group. Tony and Norman wrote to every serving minister in Northern Ireland and the border counties, inviting them to nominate members of their congregation to be interviewed. The task group used their own knowledge to nominate others. All of the interviewees who had left Presbyterianism and the critical friends were nominated by the task group as well as most of the ministers, who were retired or could not be expected to nominate themselves. Participants were offered anonymity and confidentiality, except for public figures like politicians or others whose experiences would make them easily identifiable in their communities. Interviews were conducted between June and December 2017. Participants were aware that while we were researchers from Queen’s, we were also speaking with them on behalf of PCI. In effect, they were invited to speak to the church – and the wider society – through us.
But we are also aware that not everyone responded to the invitation. We interviewed Rev. Rodney Beacom, who ministers to four rural congregations in Co. Fermanagh. Beacom served in the RUC during the Troubles, and was injured in an IRA ambush in 1994. He did not become a minister until nearly two decades later. He said:
When I look at the families in my congregations who are still suffering because of the Troubles, the reality is they feel forgotten and ignored. When [I got the letter] from Tony Davidson, it was a dilemma for me as to what to do. The first question I asked myself was: What are the victims going to benefit from this? Are they going to be listened to? I did talk to a few victims and told them what I had got and what you were looking to do with this. They didn’t want to get involved, so I didn’t put any names forward, even though I could have because I know that those people feel as if they’ve been abandoned by the state, and abandoned to a lesser extent by the church. It’s the price they feel they are paying for peace.
In addition to listening to those within its own fold who have felt forgotten and neglected, the project reflects PCI’s desire to be heard by those outside the denomination. In 1995, Rev. John Dunlop, a former Moderator and minister at Rosemary Presbyterian in North Belfast, wrote: ‘Perhaps what has been hardest to bear is a widespread sense that outside these grieving families, communities and Churches, few people seemed to care. The deep-seated feeling within the Presbyterian community is that the outside world, even that outside world no further away than Britain, never cared, for they mostly never knew or didn’t want to know.’10
The people we interviewed had diverse experiences and responses to them. But each person was, in their own way, considering grace. We have structured their stories in chapters based on the categories that shaped the research: ministers, victims, security forces, those affected by loyalist paramilitarism, first responders and health care workers, quiet peacemakers, politicians, those who left Presbyterianism and critical friends. People who waived their rights to anonymity and confidentiality are identified throughout by their full names. Those who did not are identified throughout only by a first name, which is a pseudonym. We did not interview equal numbers of people in each category, so the chapters vary in length.11 The book concludes with a chapter reflecting on the significance of these stories for the present and the future. It introduces ‘gracious remembering’ as a way forward. Gracious remembering recognises the need to acknowledge suffering, to be self-critical about the past, and to create space for lament and for remembering for the future.
As Presbyterians strive to come to terms with their experiences of the Troubles, the Vision for Society statement reminds them that they are ‘called by God to grace-filled relationships’. By reflecting on the experiences of its own people, PCI is asking itself what grace-filled relationships could look like today. It is asking itself if it is up to the challenge of considering grace. And it is inviting everyone on this island to join them on this most painful and difficult journey.
CHAPTER 2
Ministers
Presbyterian ministers served in tense border communities dogged by tit-for-tat violence, in estates controlled by loyalist paramilitaries, in urban interface areas, and in predominantly Protestant towns and villages. Their influence was not limited to church members. Their pastoral care extended beyond their own congregations, and people who otherwise never came to church attended
