Finding Faith 2022 Day Eight
Monday 23 May
For VOX magazine’s 10th annual Finding Faith Tour editor Ruth Garvey-Williams travels across Ireland hunting down stories of faith, life and reality. You can follow the journey each day here on the blog and through our social media pages with stories, videos and photos.
Coffee and Chat
Awake by 6am, I realised it might be possible to drop in on friends in Banbridge en route to Belfast so I left the hotel at 7.30 after sending off a quick message and was with Mike and Lena by 8.30 in time for a coffee, a croissant and a chat. This lovely couple attends the nearby Presbyterian Church but they have a love for the whole of Ireland and a real ministry of encouragement.
They share about a few exciting projects in Banbridge like the Christian Charity J29 that is tackling isolation, poverty and addiction in the area through a whole range of positive projects including a food bank, parent and toddler groups, coffee hub and many more initiatives.
Thriving local church - Grace Generation - has recently found a new premises: in a nightclub! Closed down during the pandemic, the nightclub has not been able to re-open but has now become home to this flourishing congregation.
After a lovely visit, I get back on the road and head into the centre of Belfast for my final appointment of Finding Faith 2022
Every Day Church
Jill and David Hines with John Alderdice
At Ballynafeigh Methodist Church on the Ormeau Road, I’m delighted to meet Rev John Alderdice (John kindly endorsed my book when it was released in 2020 but we have never met in person!) as well as Jill and David Hines who are pioneer mission workers with the Methodist Church.
Showing me around this impressive Victorian building, they explain how congregations in this and the other nearby Methodist churches have shrunk over the years. But now there is a vision to re-vitalise the mission of the church by making the church building available to the local community - every day of the week.
Prayer, hospitality and generosity are the foundation stones of this work that has led to a weekly Community Meal, the development of a Community Choir, a community garden and use of the facilities by wide range of local groups including a Cinema Club and a women’s crafting group that welcomes and includes refugees.
“There is a John Wesley principal of giving it all away. What do we have in our hands? We have a building. [There is so much potential] if we are willing to open it up and serve our community with this building.” David shared.
And the projects are already making a huge difference. Connecting people with a sense of community and belonging and engaging with a very different way of “being” church. There are many challenges as this congregation wrestles with the old and the new but there is a sense of hope and energy. We could have chatted for ages but I eventually tear myself away for the final leg of the journey.
Amazing Grace Country
It has been an epic journey and I’m relieved to arrive home to Buncrana in County Donegal - Amazing Grace country because of our connection with the story of John Newton (see amazing grace.ie for more). It will be a special year for us next year as we mark the 250th anniversary of the world’s most famous hymn on 1 January 2023. Watch this space!
For now I sit down for a lovely cup of tea, a familiar song running through my head.
My feet may wander to a thousand places
But my heart will lead me back home to my Donegal