Pastor shares insights from latest sabbatical
By KURT NESBITT — Journal Staff WriterArticle Photos
NEW ULM - Like many people who travel, Pastor Hank Campbell brought back pictures, brochures and newspapers from his most recent trip.
He is sharing them in his sermon this Sunday.
Campbell, pastor of United Church of Christ in New Ulm, spent two weeks as a volunteer for the Corrymeela Community for Reconciliation in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland.
This year, 2008, marks the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the peace accord that effectively marked the beginning of the end of over 30 years of struggle in that part of the world.
Campbell said he decided to visit Northern Ireland because he is interested in peace and justice issues. Campbell said he wanted to learn methods of reconciliation. He thought going to a place that has had conflict and peace would be a good place to learn about reconciliation. He mentions that his wife, Eileen, is Catholic while he is Protestant.
The resolution of the conflict in Northern Ireland, according to Campbell, "has been somewhat fragile. There is still a peace wall three miles long in Belfast and its gates still close at sundown, reopening at 6 a.m.," he said.
Corrymeela Center for Reconciliation is two hours from Belfast in the town of Ballycastle. It served as a key sabbatical outpost for Campbell and is a key place in bringing together individuals and groups from the two sides of the conflict.
"On this 10-year milestone of the Good Friday Agreement, it was special to be a part of the journey - past, present and future - of those faithful folk in the struggle for peace, healing and reconciliation in Northern Ireland," said Campbell.
The Unitarian pastor also saw some of Belfast's many different gable wall murals and heard what he called "profound" stories from people on both sides of the conflict.
He said studying the conflict caused him to see commonalities with many other well-known conflicts, including the present conflict in Iraq and the U.S.-Dakota Conflict of 1862, and to see in the news how insights from Northern Ireland and South Africa are being sought to help resolve the present situation in Iraq.
"There is obviously unfinished business in terms of wounds and scars. Truth-seeking is still needed, and yet too often avoided. Walls and gates still open and close daily in some fragile locations between the two reconciling communities in Belfast. An economic resurgence born of new-found peace has not reached all segments of the population on an equal basis, thus kindling new resentments," wrote Campbell.
Campbell also said "appreciating the great Christian theological themes - forgiveness and redemption, truth and justice - and how they continue to take on new and critical meaning for our lives" was one of his "wee" highlights of the trip.
Campbell was in Northern Ireland from May 1 to June 16. He mentioned he also traveled to the Republic of Ireland during the same trip, where he saw ancient monasteries, cathedrals, churches and archives as well as the historical biblical manuscripts known as The Book of Kells, which are preserved at Trinity College in Dublin.
In this era, a person can travel from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland without anyone stopping them but during the conflict, major stoppages took place along the border. Campbell says there lots of people who are still angry about it.
"It's going to take a few generations to really put it behind them," he said.
Campbell was a short-term volunteer at Corrymeela and worked on its buildings and grounds and led a worship service during the time that it hosted two groups Facing History and Ourselves, a group of Americans, and the National School for Peace Studies.
Corrymeela aims to help develop programs for people from many different walks of life to take back to their sphere of influence. People from all over the world go to Corrymeela. A group of Arabs and Jews had recently visited the center before Campbell arrived there.
Campbell met John Hume, leader of the Social Democratic and Labor Party, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 with David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party for their joint efforts to bring many factions together,which ultimately resulted in the Good Friday Agreement.
Campbell said Hume told the Facing History group that people need to learn to live together with others who are different from themselves.
Hume also became emotional while singing the ballad 'Danny Boy' for the group.
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RUapatriot
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10-12-08 6:35 PM
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If you take the PROTEST out of PROTESTANT all you have left is an ant! Easily squashed by ROME and false teaching.
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