Dublin Peace Committee – Report to Dublin Monthly Meeting
November 2007
During the previous twelve months, Dublin Peace Committee has been building a programme of seminars. The first three of these focused upon the question of the Other and how this idea affects and infects our ways of thinking about people different from us.
These seminars evolved to address particular peace-related concerns and also to offer Friends and others a forum to speak and think. Friends at the Special Interest Group on Peace at 2006 Yearly Meeting had expressed a sense of individual isolation, which compromised their ability to build peace witness.
The first seminar was Fear of the Other, 18th November 2006, at Churchtown Meeting House. 42 people attended this. We considered the question of fear and the other as engendered within ourselves, then projected onto others. We then moved to hearing from people who had to deal with this problem in themselves, as part of moving to public witness.
The second seminar was Power and the Other, 26th February 2007, at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Belfast. 32 people attended this. It is important to state that peace is an island-wide concern. Seminars connected with peace must happen island-wide. Three speakers, a member of the Islamic Community in N Ireland, a member of QCEA, Brussels and the Ambassador of Lesotho, spoke about small groups’ building presence in much larger structures.
The third seminar, Religion and the Other, 26th May 2007 at Quaker House, Dublin, was originated and facilitated by John Darcy May, of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Dublin. 36 people attended this. This was a day of reflection on the nature and presence of the word religion and its cultural impact. This was a day of quiet and considered discourse.
To this point, Peace Committee had been thinking through how it perceived its role in terms of providing access to discourse. It had originated the seminars and their themes. Particularly at Yearly Meeting 2007, Friends approached members of Peace Committee, seeking a seminar, which would move from discourse to public witness. This concern continued to be clear subsequently amongst Friends. This is important, because it marks a move for Peace Committee moving to becoming facilitator for peace-related concerns stated by Friends.
Peace Committee is a small group. It can organise and facilitate seminars in response to the broad needs of Friends, but it cannot engage in Friends’ individual concerns. There are too many of these and it is for Friends to move to public witness on them. Peace Committee has been very careful in considering what it can do well and also what it would do badly. It can organise seminars and similar events and bring these to succesful conclusion.
The fourth seminar, Conferring Together: From Discourse to Public Witness, was held on 20 October 2007 at Churchtown Meeting House. It was attended by 36 people, including one from Cambridge, five from N Ireland and two from elsewhere in Ireland.
In the morning, individuals were invited to bring written material, posters or write texts on the spot. These were all put up so that participants could read others’ concerns. Friends were then asked to speak to their concerns briefly, if they felt moved. Twenty-one did. After each concern, there was a short time for quiet reflection. Peace Committee at lunch break then placed these concerns into five groups. In the afternoon, participants then broke into groups to discuss these topics. These reported back to a concluding session involving all participants. The day discussed how Friends might move to public witness and also the problems at many levels which confront this intention.
Following this, Friends and Peace Committee are moving to a new phase of considering how they can move to peace-related witness. Peace Committee will consider its changing function. Friends need to reconsider how they see Peace Committee related to themselves. For Peace Committee, this marks a move to becoming integrated into facilitating Friends’ expressed concerns.
As part of this, Peace Committee’s website is now functioning and open to access and use as a means of discourse.
Peace Committee participated in:
Institute for European Affairs
National Forum for Europe
Pax Christi; meeting with Tony D’Costa, March 2007