Archbishop of Armagh Speaks of Mercy And Truth At MU General Meeting In Belfast
The Mothers’ Union held its General Meeting in Belfast this year – from Friday 20 to Saturday 21 June 2014. The main purpose of the General Meeting – which is held in a different province each year – is to inform members of the work and activities undertaken in the previous year and to inspire them for the year to come, and it gives members the opportunity to meet together and celebrate the work of the Mothers’ Union.
London MU delegateThe 2014 meeting was held at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast with guest speakers the Revd Chris Bennett, Chaplain of the Titanic Quarter, and Andy Kind, Comedian and Author. The event began with a reception on Friday afternoon at Belfast City Hall followed by a service of celebration in St Anne’s Cathedral in the evening.
The preacher at the St Anne’s Cathedral service was the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke. In his address, Archbishop Clarke said: ‘You have come to Belfast for this General Meeting and we are truly honoured and delighted to welcome you here. And, as you may already have discovered, Belfast is a very attractive city. You have come, however, to a place that has known the terrible tensions and fears of civil violence over many years, and dangerous tensions and fears are still apparent, a full decade and a half after the Good Friday agreement. We have still to find ways of working fully through a bitter legacy of past violence and the near disintegration of society. Part of that task will ultimately be to enable mercy and truth to meet together. The problem is that, as we survey the past, it is far too easy for us to want mercy to be manifest for “our side”, but for truth to surface about “the others”. And what is true for us in this Province is true in every place and every situation.’
The Archbishop continued, ‘The work that the Mothers’ Union does on these islands in prisons and with the families of those in prison, in giving hope where many have lost hope for themselves and for their families is emblematic of the task of going beyond a precise justice to a place beyond, where God’s mercy prevails.’
Download the full transcript of the sermon here.
Pictured above right L–R: Houston and Roberta McKelvey, Lady Eames and Helen Mann