Here's brief details of some things which are happening in Ireland during the course of this year... watch this space, it's changing often...

If you want fuller details about any of this stuff, then contact Jean Watson, whose ability to keep so many plates spinning is just amazing...

Click here if you would like to know a bit more about why Ireland is so significant in the life of the Community.

Address at St. Patrick’s Day Service, Down Cathedral,
Friday March 17th 2006
by Revd Roy Searle,
Leader of the Northumbria Community & President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.

In the words of St. Patrick as he greeted a Celtic chief on the Kings Highway in the Mountains of Mourne, ‘Hi, how’s it going?!’

Greetings from Northumbria and thank you for the privilege and honour of sharing in today’s service.

As a Northumbrian I thank God for Ireland and give thanks for the Irish who came with their love of God and their desire to share his good news with the people of Northumbria in the 5th century.

Fifth century culture was bleak with instability, tribalism and the clash of civilisations permeating society. There were major changes in society, undermining and threatening previously established patterns of life which brought about unrest, insecurity, and violence.

It was in this cultural context that Patrick lived and through his dramatic encounter with the living God he came to be one of the most significant figures in Irish history, a man sent by God with a message that was good news to the people of Ireland.

Through Patrick and others God affected the transformation of Western civilisation as Irish monks and missionaries wandered across the European continent leaving a lasting legacy of faith, learning and indeed civilisation. “Whilst darkness enveloped Western Europe, in Ireland a torch flickered and grew and brought light and life to civilisation”. Tens of thousands of Irish people came to faith in Christ, monasteries were founded all across the country, monastic communities that nurtured a devotion to God. Hundreds of churches were planted and schools of education founded and we know that over a 150 tribes became Christians during Patrick’s mission.

The power to transform lay however not in the messenger but in the message.
For example when you receive in the post good news of exams passed, a successful job application, the ‘all clear’ following medical tests, you are grateful for the postman or woman, the messenger, but it’s the good news he brings that makes the difference to your life. Likewise, Patrick as God’s messenger brought good news from God. The good news message of a God who could transform lives.

Patrick knew this from his own experience, having encountered God as a slave in Ireland. Patrick knew what it was to be in relationship with the living God, to be at peace with God. The love of God which had transformed his life, he knew, had to the power to change others. With God’s grace and power even slave traders could become liberators, and murderers become peace makers.
As the Apostle Paul four hundred years before, so to Patrick declared that he was “unashamed of the gospel of Christ for it was the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believed”.

Patrick’s message and his methodology didn’t see him coming to denounce or remove Irish culture but to redeem it, to breathe the life of God into its way of life. As most of the Roman Empire was plunging from peace into chaos, Ireland under Patrick and others was being transformed from a society ridden with violence into a place of peace. The gospel he and others declared changed and transformed Irish culture: from fear to faith, from superstition to salvation, from dark paganism to the kingdom of light, from violence yet bloody bravery to heroic generosity, from hostility to hospitality, from taboos and dark rituals to freedom in Christ, from magic that was rooted in darkness and fear to mystery that flowed from the heart and hands of a good God who loves people and whose desire is to bless not curse.
The gospel that changed people hearts and minds from hatred to love, harmony to healing, mistrust and suspicion to kindred communities, where fate and helplessness gave way to a future and a hope, where anger that destroyed and killed gave way to a passion that burned for God and brought life.

The gospel spoke of a God of love and compassion, a God who reached out beyond the boundaries of any prescribed religious, church or civic boundary and protocol to touch the hearts of all. A God of benediction and blessing. A God who welcomed the stranger, the exile and the refugee. The God whose very nature is community – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – unity in diversity. A God who creates and celebrates diversity and who challenges any notion that something different is deviant and therefore needing to be excluded.

A message that transformed and informed Patrick’s mission and which led him to crusade against injustice and the exploitation of the poor and marginalised.
And as all good apostles – bishops, priests, pastors and presidents, so Patrick reminds us that the call of God upon such ministries demands a heart for those beyond the church. In fact some of the criticisms that Patrick faced from British Bishops was because he did not conform to their model of Bishops being administrators. Rather he reflected the nature of the God whose love extends beyond the walls or boundaries of the church.

So does this man, this Saint whom we remember today and his message have anything for Ireland in the 21st century?

Is it not good to be reminded of the God whom Patrick worshipped and served is the same God who is calling us today to live for Christ and in serving his kingdom bring the good news of God to a changing Irish and European culture?
Is not our task, as Christians to tell The Story amidst the endearing and enticing myths, to proclaim and to live out the enduring truth of God’s good news? To be men and women who like Patrick live what we teach: loving God, our neighbours and building communities that His heart and values, that his will be done here on earth, in Northern Ireland, as it is in heaven. To share the story not with pride, arrogance or prejudice but with humility and servanthood that will contribute significantly to a culture in transition. The same message that would cause us to question and challenge the injustices and evil within our own hearts and society. It may not be widespread myth and superstition that threatens the soul of Ireland and the rest of Europe but rampant consumerism, materialism and an excessive emphasis on the rights of the individual and a burgeoning litigation culture will undermine communities and lead to a malignance that will kill or seriously wound the spiritual life of its peoples.

In the midst of many changes facing Ireland there is the emergence of people coming from different nations. In the last 48 hours I’ve waited in a queue behind a young lady from Poland in a book shop, been served in a supermarket by a young Slovakian woman and sat next to a Nigerian on the bus up Saintfield Road. In the words of that famous philosopher of the 20th century, Bob Dylan, ‘the times they are a changing’. And with the changes come challenges and opportunities. May the God of welcomes be expressed through the people of God to the strangers and exiles in our midst, for in so doing we reflect the mission of Patrick.
And as we do so, we remind ourselves that Patrick, who is celebrated by Irish folk the world over, was in fact a foreigner, a Roman Briton. You see the ways that God breaks any racism or prejudice by calling a foreigner to be his apostle, who would win the hearts of the Irish and become its patron saint. In the same way he called an Irish monk, Aidan, to be the apostle of my people, the Northumbrians.

I thank God for St. Patrick, his message, this land and its people and I pray that the same God who transformed and inspired him, may touch our hearts that we might, alone and together, be servants of God’s transforming and renewing of Ireland that it may again be a light to the nations and a beacon of hope in a changing European culture in the 21st century.

The Lord bless you and encourage you and the people of this land. Amen.

Take an opportunity to take time out on in Ballydugan, County Down. In beautiful cottages set in peaceful surroundings – visit the website to see the accommodation.

visit Saul, Downpatrick, including the St. Patrick Centre, Strangford Lough

If you have a heart for Ireland, you might want to check out these two websites which are seeking to carry the heart of the gospel in that land:
Pray on St Patrick's Day
Transformations Ireland