Those who live in a situation of conflict, be it domestic, community or national, are always in danger of believing their conflict is unique, and in certain respects every conflict is. However, that does not mean people cannot learn from those who are involved in conflicts elsewhere. Listening to the experiences of others helps to put our own in perspective, and may even suggest solutions.
The Rev Dr Norman Taggart has ministered at various times in two places where the communities have been divided, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka. In each place the divisions have led to great bitterness and violence, and in each there is a need for greater understanding and reconciliation.
In the latter half of this month Dr Taggart is returning to Sri Lanka as one of a small party of "Friends for Peace" which will spend two weeks there. The visit has been organised by the Churches' Commission on Mission, which is based in London, and the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka.
The places they will visit must to some extent be determined by day-to-day security considerations. The team's purpose will be to listen to people at all points of the political, religious and ethnic spectrum. Out of the visit it is hoped they will be able to broaden the understanding of conflict in either country.
Dr Taggart has the additional hope of arranging for a small group of Irish Methodists to visit the Methodist Church in Sri Lanka for a short period in the summer of 2000. This will not be on the same scale as the visit to Uganda in August of this year, but it is hoped it will be a way of further promoting understanding and friendship between the two countries. Several Irish Methodist ministers have served in Sri Lanka in former years.
Another area which has known conflict in recent years is South Africa. Dr Alex Boraine is a former president of the Methodist Church in South Africa, and a deputy chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Over the years he has played a quiet but significant role in the struggle for justice in that country. He recently visited Belfast at the invitation of Victim Support and the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Settlement of Offenders.
The chairman of the latter is the Rev Harold Good, who is currently superintendent minister of the Belfast South Circuit, which has churches at University Road and Lisburn Road.
Children from the churches in the Midlands and Southern District will be travelling to Wicklow at the end of this month. The District Youth Committee has organised an event for 9/13-year-olds at Clara Lara Fun Park on May 29th. Activity starts at 10 a.m. and goes on until the participants are exhausted!
The president of the church, the Rev David Kerr, visits the Lisburn Circuit tomorrow and will preach there in the morning and again in the evening. During next week he will lead the Methodist observers at the Church of Ireland Synod in Dublin. On May 23rd he will preach at Donaghadee in Co Down in the morning and at Hydepark, Co Antrim, in the evening.