A St Patrick’s Day Message from Bishop Harold
This year’s St Patrick’s Day Pilgrimage from Saul to Down Cathedral will be a very important occasion. We will be welcoming The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury to the place which is the cradle of Irish Christianity. This is the first time a serving Archbishop of Canterbury has been to the pilgrimage in over 50 years. His theme will be reconciliation – an area in which he has a great deal of experience, not least from his time in Nigeria, and also from his involvement in the reconciliation work based at Coventry Cathedral.
‘Reconciliation’ can be a difficult concept after what we have suffered here in Northern Ireland. It really means that former enemies become friends, and it can be a very long process. The issues that we constantly face in politics and human relationships remind us powerfully that the journey of reconciliation is far from complete. There can still be mistrust, fear and even hatred in our hearts. There is no better time than the day of celebration of our common patron saint to remind ourselves of these things, and to remember that it was a man who came from Britain to Ireland more than 1500 years ago who has become our shared example of how a damaged culture can be changed.
+HaroldDown & Dromore