the Green & the Orange

Hard to know where to start, really. I’ll sort of stick to chronology, with thoughts interjected. Well, after we rolled off the all-night ferry from Liverpool to Belfast, it was Sunday morning so we wasted a few hours in Bangor harbor, waiting for church to start, breathing in the sea air, and generally taking in our first impressions of Northern Ireland. We attended church at Martyr’s Memorial Free Presbyterian under the Rev. Dr. Ian Paisley, who if you know anything about politics is the leader of the Northern Ireland loyalist protestant who-have-yous, very well know for his strong presence and charisma. Obviously my explanation does him no justice, but we couldn’t pass up a Sunday morning in his congregation, knowing the big man’s reputation. He was, indeed, an impressive figure, although his congregation was shockingly small and Sam’s mother and I were the only un-hatted ladies in the church, oops. A great experience, though. By the time we had some food, a pint (or half) of Guiness, and found our Bed & Breakfast, it was time to find an evening church service. We ended up at Wellington Street Presbyterian Church in Ballymena. It was so lovely. It was like finding CTK, in Ireland, where everyone had Irish accents. Well, maybe if CTK had a slightly more laid back evening service with extended worship, i.e. one song after another with a bit more feeling. But, really fantastic, and such a blessing, been missing my good church, dontchaknow. There was just so much warmth, and solid community and real love for Jesus married with good doctrine. Refreshing. Incidentally, after the service and Sam’s mother’s subsequent comment of “I like the Presbyterians except for one thing- the fount isn’t deep enough” Sam and I had a large discussion over beers about said subject. But that’s another topic for another day, I’m afraid. It was encouraging, though, and the discussion brought us back to Christ and the gospel and our need for such, which is always good, as opposed to bringing us to icy outs whilst sticking to our principles for the sake of principles, and I’m sure we will work it out. Christ is sufficient for even that, it seems.

But, basically the rest of our trip, timewise, was just driving around, looking at the coastline which is all more beautiful than the bit before. Did a little bit of wading in the very cold water. Generally just enjoyed breathing in the fresh air, sleeping in, thanking the good Lord that he allowed me to visit this beautiful place, and enjoying the fine company of Sam and his parents.

One interesting place we happened upon is the Corrymeela community. It is this peaceful little beautiful center dedicated, as you can see from the picture, to peace and unification among Christians, obviously spurred on by Irelands Catholic/ Protestant troubles. It was so wonderful. Kelly B would absolutely love it, I must tell her about it. But, we had been told about it, and decided to stop in as we passed by. They brought us in, showed us around, fed us, talked with us about their own experiences with Corrymeela, and basically just truly showed hospitality in the Christian sense. Though their theology is loose, to put it very generously, it was very impacting to see the place that this community has in a place like Northern Ireland where religion is known much less for its loving actions and much more for its hateful words and bloodshed. I can hardly do it justice, really, but it was a cool place. And it had a parabolically built chapel which had fantastic acoustics. We sang a chorus of a hymn and it sounded awesome. The person across the room sounds like they are speaking right in your ear!

The other thing interesting/creepy/ impacting about Northern Ireland, segue-ing from Corrymeela, was the marked and open sectarianism. Peoples’ alliances are clear, and they’ll differ just from tiny village to tiny village. One village will have the Irish tricolor blazing from every telephone pole, IRA murals on the buildings, Sinn Fein office, the very next village will have the red hand of Ulster, the union jacks, the orange halls. There is very little neutrality. And its creepy because it really is just little villages. I mean, there are some bigger towns, but its no cosmopolitan country. The police stations in every town are heavily barricaded with barbed wire and the like. Imagine seeing the Noble, OK Police Station all decked out in giant walls & barbed wire. Creeeeeepy. But, hopefully the troubles are well and truly on the way out. It sounds a bit cliché, but I kept thinking of Sunday Bloody Sunday and I earned a new respect for U2, which is saying a lot because I already thought that they totally rock.

But, yes… there is more that I could say, but I guess it’ll either come out later or we’ll chat or something. It was so nice to get away for a while, drink some tasty beer with Sam, eat delicious food, sleep in, look at breathtaking sight after breathtaking sight, think about big and small things and talk them over with Sam, get lost on the backroads between Ballysomething and Ballysomethingelse at night, and then puke my dinner after we made it back finally, in the dark because all the electricity was out. Wait, that last part wasn’t all that great, actually. And you can just sort out the participles on your own, chumps. Enjoy the pics.