Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear friend,

There is a Christian Community gathered in Northern Ireland called Corrymeela, that has a few things to say about fear, as we hear of it in Psalm 31, "Fear is all around." Pádraig Ó Tuama has written a book with insight from his years of work as the community's resident poet, prayer, group facilitator, and leader. In it he shares some of the depth of the experience in that "lumpy crossing place," or Corrymeela. The Corrymeela Community has been developing since 1965 as a place of reconciliation in the history of the conflict. They began their mission in anticipation of the subsequent conflict and violence, and have continued their work to this day, hosting pilgrims, groups and residents who pray together. Reconciliation is the goal of their rule of life, and people come to learn from those who are engaged in its practice on the hyper-local level and across their communities. They come to Corrymeela to encounter a community that believes that "the complications of civic, religious and political life is best explored in community: in the gathering space of cups of tea; shared meals; fireplaces; discussions; debates; disagreements; arguments where we hope we can find new ways to name old pains" (xvii). A community gathered over time like this, with brief weekends of intensive work along with the daily work, needs to have great courage-to look in the mirror, to recognize how fraught the conflict is, to look forward out of such difficult conversations.

"Courage is a mixture between fear and resolution" Tuama writes. The prayers he shares from his community have implicitly within them the hope that those gathered "do not only fear" but move into action and thus courage (xxii). Guided by Christian prayer practices and reconciliation work, the community has a life of its own and serves those who seek it. In their context they share how being together, wading into the "here" together, teaches them to love one another.

In your local or the more broad context, I wonder, where have you seen reconciliation? How have you experienced courage? What does peace look like?

In Christ,
Taylor

Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community, by Padraig O Tuama, Canterbury Press, 2017.