Ballydugan Update Letterfinlay, 12 Lake Road, Ballydugan, , BT30 8HY email: [email protected]

To make an end is to make a beginning T.S. Eliot

Dear Friends & Prayer Supporters ~ Greetings from Ballydugan

The leaves are turning, the blackberries are well out and the swallows have assembled. Despite blue skies, sun shining and reasonably warm temperatures, autumn is here and we have marked our one year of living in Ireland.

Thank you for all who have continued to remember us and pray. Coming here has been a fulfilment of many years of prayer and commitment to this land and its people. Whilst we will for a number of reasons be returning home to Northumberland this autumn [earlier than we’d anticipated] we shall continue to pray, visit, support and work with people and issues that remain an integral part of our calling. Primarily for family and financial reasons we are returning this month We have, as I shared in a previous update, purchased a new home in Wooler on the High Street with all its potential challenges and opportunities.

High Street Wooler Back Garden

Ireland has for many years been a place of great inspiration, particularly for me. There are aspects of being here that continue to inspire and energise. However, having been a place of inspiration it is also a place of exasperation.

1 As I’ve cited before, it is a very paradoxical place and our experience of being here has seen both the best of times and the worst of times. I pay tribute to my amazing wife Shirley, whose support is unstinting and whose grace and patience is unswerving. For her the year has been one of hard work, physically looking after the laundry connected with the holiday cottages. Much more joyous but nevertheless demanding has been the regular looking after Isaac, our delightful grandson, for two days and latterly one day. His birth three days after we arrived and the opportunities to see him grow and develop has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of our time here and a source of constant pleasure. We shall miss him and his parents greatly and in many ways wish that we might have been around a bit longer for the arrival of their second child in February. We had a wonderful last full day together on Saturday walking up Silent Valley in the mountains; spectacularly beautiful and a boiling hot tee-shirt and shorts day. Also again for a variety of reasons, some unexpected, others economic, I have also had to spend more time travelling than I would have hoped.

1 day old 1st Birthday What We Will Miss? As well as members of our own family living here in Ireland, we shall greatly miss the friendships that have been established here. There are about a dozen friends in our local area that we have got to know, love and work with and we will miss them tremendously when we return to Wooler. We’ll miss godly friendships with believers from Protestant and Catholic circles. It’s been a privilege and joy to be part of the emergence of the Community of Prayer at Saul. This is the place where Patrick first landed on his return to Ireland as an apostle and we, in seeking to repair the broken altars, rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the foundations of many generations, have been privileged to be part of a small miracle of grace that has drawn a core group of men and women who come together each Monday night to pray, seek God and intercede for the Downpatrick area.

Newcastle Tollymore

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Celtic cross at Saul Lough

We shall miss County : I’ve loved cycling its country lanes in the last couple of months. We shall miss the spectacular view from the front of our house over the lake, beautiful in every season. We will miss Newcastle, a seaside town being rejuvenated with its rebuilt prom, commissioned artwork, ice cream parlour, attractive bay and glorious backdrop. We shall miss Downpatrick, a largely Nationalist town, for its down to earth catholicity, where our English accents have not dissuaded people in shops, libraries and leisure centres from being anything other than welcoming and helpful. I shall miss regularly preaching at Saul and the Cathedral. I now know the difference between an alb, chausable and stole!

habited Mourne Mountains Prayer Cell at Saul I will miss those privileged moments of listening and sharing with individuals on retreat, seeking spiritual direction or mentoring and the opportunity to work with a thriving church leadership team and its dynamic ministry among younger people in . I shall miss Belfast including its affordable cinemas together with times, all too rare of spending time with Ken and Claire and their delightful children

Creative Arts Group Ken, Claire, Danny, Sian & Erin Friends from De Spil, Holland

3 Also the opportunities to go down to Cranfield on the coast to our good friend Stephen’s, cottage. We were there the other night with him and two friends from Birmingham who were on holiday and the meal, the ‘craic’, the walk on the beach between courses, was very special as we watched the lamps of the lighthouse replace that of the setting sun.

Cham, Stephen & Kate

I shall greatly miss the opportunity of contributing and supporting individuals working to build community in different contexts in a changing Irish cultural context.

And What We Wont Miss As well as the laundry we won’t miss the ‘white blight’ ~ the white bungalows and ostentatious, out of character properties that blot the landscape of this beautiful country. I won’t miss terrible driving. Having driven in fifteen countries throughout Europe, I would have to award some drivers as the worst I’ve ever encountered. Never have so many cars pulled out in front of me from side roads. I now know why all our car insurances more than doubled when we came to live here. It is has nothing to do with the Troubles but is directly linked to the number of claims made and a terrible rampant litigation culture that is part of the fabric of Northern Ireland society. I won’t miss hearing about disputes between people, often over land and rights issues. I won’t miss people contending rather than communing, confronting rather than building community. I won’t miss the violence that is reported daily in the newspapers and on television. We certainly won’t miss the litter that is thrown out of cars with great regularity, scarring the roads and lanes of this lovely county. Nor will I be sorry to leave behind the scripture text graffiti that is nailed to telegraph poles throughout the countryside, all conveying an image of a nasty God who is out to get you, judge and condemn. If they spelt out the good news of the gospel maybe I wouldn’t feel like tearing them down. Not far from us, strategically placed before an approaching bend, Behold the judgement of the Lord is nigh followed by Prepare to meet thy God on the bend itself! Neither will we miss the flags denoting tribal affinities, staking claim to territories that far from diminishing, have actually multiplied. As economic prosperity has benefited many, giving rise to increased mobility that moves people to set up home in new areas or camps, there is more segregation in Northern Ireland today than during the Troubles.

4 The whole sectarian issue which permeates Northern Ireland’s culture with its roots deep in history is probably the thing that distresses me most, which many people are either blind to or choose not to confront. Sectarian attitudes spill out in conversations, actions and policies and the church which should be the very antidote to such evil, actually, in places, feeds and fuels the fires of this malevolence that separates people from one another. It is so alien to the nature of the Triune God and the ways of his kingdom here on earth. Closely related to sectarianism is racism that lurks and equally undermines the ability to cope with difference and sees diversity not as a gift of God but as a threat to be shunned. In two conversations recently following a service that I had preached at I was asked to explain why I would talk to a Muslim and to justify my actions in being part of a Community of Prayer where you actually prayed with Catholics. Cleary in their minds I was supping with the devil – even though I have never met the Pope! I hasten to say that this was not the view of the majority with whom I spoke after the service. It certainly makes for a more interesting ‘on the door’ chat than the usual patter.

Hopes My hopes are that people will have the courage in a changing Irish culture to seize the opportunity of a new dawn of peace and to cultivate new attitudes and new ways of living that will build community and dismantle all those systems, cultures and binding memories and traditions that have kept people insecure, fearful, parochial, suspicious and contending rather than creating. A new way that heals the undoubted wounds of the past and the strong feelings of betrayal and injustice felt by both sides of the community. I’d love to see some churches have the courage to think outside of the prescribed boxes, to take on the spirit of Jesus that broke down barriers, to be more concerned with relationships than their reputation, to not only allow but to positively affirm women in ministry, to create communities of grace where people are defined not by what they do or don’t do but by who they are. Where the commitment and enterprise of believers in churches may be directed to serving the Kingdom of God on earth and not to building an empire; to the serving in the world not to establishing a church that is just big and draws large crowds because of what it can offer people like some giant spiritual out of town supermarket responding to the demands of a consumerism. Where authentic Christian spirituality demonstrates the values of the gospel and society can be built up. As Rowan Williams said recently: The Church is ….. the trustee of a vision that is radical and universal, the vision of a social order that is without fear, oppression, the violence of exclusion and the search for scapegoats because it’s one where each recognizes their dependence on all and each is seen as having an irreplaceable gift for all. The Church cannot begin to claim that it consistently lives by this; its failure is all too visible, century by century. But its credibility does not hang on unbroken success; only on its continued willingness to be judged by what it announces and points to, the non-competitive, non violent order of God’s realm, centered upon Jesus and accessible through commitment to him.

My hopes are that the very real strides that have been taken by political leaders will mark a new way of administering government. It has been wonderful to witness the resumption of the Assembly at Stormont and the miraculous happenings that most people here never dreamed of. I am reminded of the need of constant prayer and intercession. I remember meeting an intercessor, a man of prayer, from Belfast in 1984, who began and has continued to pray for peace, the fruits of which 20 years on he is seeing realised. My hopes would be for Shalom to be realised in the hearts of people and in the land itself. 5 I don’t understand this but as I’ve cycled and driven around Northern Ireland I’ve felt on occasions just the need to pray for God’s healing upon the land. Places that have been scarred by the violence of the past, the memories of which seem to seep into the very soil and pervade the atmosphere.

Partners in Assembly Mountains of Mourne

Likewise for God’s healing to come to the bruised and broken hearted, the weary and the wounded. I’ve been working on a Peace and Reconciliation Committee for the Down & Dromore diocese. I had been talking to someone recently who had witnessed the atrocities of the town’s bombing back in 1998. He has dedicated his life and ministry to building peace and reconciliation. He told me how he had spoken at a meeting and had given an opportunity for people who had suffered some kind of trauma directly related to the Troubles to talk or be prayed with. Over half of the 80 people in the meeting responded to the invitation. Such chilling episodes are reminders of a land and people in need of much healing. The context, praise God has changed, but some of the issues remain.

The view from my study ~ Lake at Ballydugan Creative Celtic Lawn mowing in our garden!

Fears My fears are that the freedoms and economic prosperity will lead to people embracing consumerism rather than Christianity and that the faith that has shaped lives and communities, individuals and communities for many generations will disappear and leave a church that prays and works for revival but is in reality entering a difficult period of exile. I also fear that when the economic bubble bursts and the anaesthesia of materialism is unable to remove the unresolved pain and conflicts that exist that civil unrest will return. Also, as some of the minority groups feel their loss of power, that that they too will resort to violence and pose a threat to civil order. 6 ‘Never prophecy about anything, particularly the future!’ As to the future, whilst there is nothing clear, what is nevertheless certain is that our work and that of the Northumbria Community’s will continue here. I have deliberately kept a low profile but the influence, ministry and mission of the Community to this land will I believe develop in the coming years. I long that we might give more relational and practical support to people like Ken and Claire Humphrey. The future and importance of Ballydugan and the cottages is being reviewed and looked at by a group of people now who will come alongside our friends Jim and Jeannie and help realise its vision. Two people from our own Community, whose names I cannot share freely at this time, have been over to explore the possibilities of living and working here and giving support to what is now emerging and also giving a fresh and local expression of a new monastic community in the area.

Rainbow over Saul Hands Across the Divide I hope that there will be a re-imagining and implementing of new forms of ministry for Henry, our friend and Dean and those whom God brings alongside him in the Cathedral and in the surrounding parishes, including Saul. The ministry at The Retreat at Raffrey with our good friends Edwin and Anne and their greater involvement in the local area is a great encouragement and one to which we will continue to be supportive as it seeks to provide a still point in a changing turbulent world. The amazing potential of Finnebrogue, the house and estate north of Downpatrick owned by John & Linda Thompson is something that we need to be praying for. The partnership with the Community of Prayer at Saul of which Shirley and I have been part of the founding group will continue and the holding before God in prayer of individuals like Dominic and Kathleen, Janet and Chris, Ian and Ann, and others going about their ordinary lives carrying the light and grace of Christ in their homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods, are key factors in the out-working of the Kingdom of God. And last, but by no means least, our very good friend Stephen who was the gatekeeper for our own Community in the North of Ireland and from whose cottage at Cranfield most of our current ventures began. Fathom Cottage is to me a symbol of contemplation in a world of action, a place of being alone and at times together, a place of prayer and hospitality. Never has there been a greater need than that prayer and community, seeking God and building friendships across divides and building church without walls. And many are the lessons that have been learned that will serve my own life and the Community and its mission well over the coming years. One thing that I have gleaned so much about is the relationship between people and place, history and spirituality, culture and theological persuasions. There is also the great need of spiritual formation; a spirituality that transforms the heart and informs the mind and will that leads to depth and healing, reconciliation and relationship, holiness and authenticity which keeps lives focused on God and his ways. Love God, neighbour and self and you’ll have life says Jesus – simple, profound and life giving!

7 Support and Further Update

The next update will be written after our return home to Wooler. Whilst this chapter in our lives concludes, our calling and the work continues. We want to thank you from the depths of our heart for your standing with us in prayer and support during this period and we are indebted to the part you have played in making such a venture possible. As we were packing today I started to cry. A mixture of regret at some opportunities that have been missed and also because my heart is still so moved by this land and its people. We return to our home but we will continue to hold Ireland in our hearts and prayers and the commitment and work here will continue and we will play some small part in its future.

For those who’ve been able to support us financially by giving to the Trust this may be an appropriate time to review and end your giving. If however you wish to continue to support us, it would be much appreciated and your giving, if you wished, could go directly to support our ongoing work in Ireland. e.g. contribution towards my stipend, travel costs and ministry. Similarly if there are those who would like to support us financially who haven’t been able to do so in the past, again it would be much appreciated. One of the pressures we do experience is that of working with too few resources. With two members of the Community’s leadership team seriously ill (cancer and MS) and staff shortages at our Motherhouse, there has been a lot of pressure in coping with the many demands upon us, serving a growing and developing Community and its mission which reaches far and wide. So any help is appreciated. We value your partnership, your prayers and your support. There will be an update as indicated before Christmas and a final Ballydugan report which will be published before Easter. This will include an appropriate form which will make it all easier for everyone to indicate their responses to our changing situation.

In the meantime, thank you and take care,

Roy, Shirley and young Isaac

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Dates for the Diary:

• An Advent Retreat at Ballydugan, 14th to 16th December, 2007

• A Prayer and Work Week at Ballydugan, Sunday 24th to Friday, 29th February, 2008

Particular Pointers for Prayer:

• For God’s protection upon our health • For provision of finances • For the unresolved problem with our car and the garage where we purchased it to be settled without further finance or legal action • For wisdom and grace re. my parents situation • For the developing of the Community of Prayer at Saul • For discernment as to our ongoing relationship with Saul and Downpatrick • For good endings and new beginnings • For the completion of my book writing by Easter • For the writing and editing of the ‘Rough Guide to the Northumbria Community’ • For the implementation of new plans re. novitiate and Companionship • For a job or other means of income for Shirley on our return • For Jim and Jeannie, our friends and landlords concerning the immediate needs relating to Ballydugan and its future • For our children and grandchildren: ~ Joshua in Prague studying for his Masters. ~ Francesca at Birmingham for her second year at university ~ Jessica and Nick in Oxford, particularly Jess as she assumes her role as temporary Head of the English department. ~ Isaac and Ben and Judith as we leave and they source alternative care for him together with preparing for the birth of their second child in February. • For wisdom in how we live • For discernment for the future of the Cuddy Duck shop and our house in Wooler. • For the provision of people and resources at Nether Springs, our Community’s mother house, given the pressures and problems relating to staff illness and shortage. • For Ireland that it’s potential will be realised and its beauty and goodness will prevail against all that is ugly and destructive. Thank You for standing with us and supporting us in Prayer

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