Excalibur Press

This “Welcome To The Table” event will bring together people from a range of backgrounds and perspectives to explore the idea of Belfast as a shared home for all who live here. Facilitated by Carole Kane of the Jethro Centre and David Smyth from Evangelical Alliance, participants will be invited to sit around a table to engage in conversation around both the benefits and challenges of building an integrated and shared community. This will be an opportunity to share ideas, listen to new perspectives and create connections that can contribute to the growth of Belfast as a safe and positive home for all its residents. This is primarily an event for invited guests but there will be a limited number of public tickets available on a first come, first served basis.

Belfast, all four corners, fights way above its weight when it comes to the arts in general and literature in particular. Tonight, acclaimed novelist Glenn Patterson, the Director of the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queens University, will read extracts from his books and share with us how home has impacted his writing. There will be poets too, doing the same, opening up different corners of the city and different corners of our hearts.

Whether professional or amateur, sportspeople often represent more than themselves in their chosen field, becoming ambassadors for and developing accountability to both their team and their home. How do we play sport in a way that brings honour to our home and how do we build a shared home that encompasses the values we want to reflect? Young people aged 11-14 are invited to an exciting evening of sports and team activities delivered in partnership with PeacePlayers NI. Participants will try their hand at playing games including basketball, Gaelic football, rugby and soccer in integrated teams from across Belfast. They will be mentored by local sportsmen and women to develop new skills and consider together the influence of home on the way sport is played. Pre-registration is required for this event which is open to individuals and youth groups from across Belfast. ‘Join the guestlist’ on our website to reserve a place for your child. You will then be sent an online form to complete your booking.

Queen’s and Ulster University students will gather for a lunchtime discussion focussed on the previous evening’s event, ‘Home In A Time Of Homelessness’, unpacking theological perspectives on homelessness and how they can inform our practical approaches to this issue.

Homelessness abounds today in various forms of displacement and as a pervasive condition of unbelonging. It ruins health, lives, communities, habitats, creativity, and hope. Siobhán Garrigan, Loyola Professor of Theology at Trinity College Dublin, will look at theological perspectives on homelessness, arguing that for theology to play its part in ending homelessness, it must better understand its own idea of ‘home’. To this end, she will challenge the tacit, mistaken theology of home that undergirds the various forms that modern homelessness takes, and propose an alternative. Weaving biblical and ritual sources, she will suggest new theological responses to the twin forces of consumerism and nationalism which cause so much of the homelessness experienced in today’s world. Asking people to imagine home as ‘participating instead of possessing’, in every sphere of life, Siobhán will encourage us to engage with a theology of home capable of preventing homelessness and not merely ministering to people experiencing it. Music from Festival regulars Caroline Orr, Norman McKinley and Peter Greer.

This is an invitation only event. Invited representatives of local peacebuilding organisations will gather in the iconic setting of Belfast City Hall to celebrate the progress that has been made in the building of a shared home for the people of Belfast. While the journey to this goal is ongoing, we want to acknowledge and encourage those who are working in the sector, bringing hope of a brighter shared future. Attendees will have an opportunity to network with others working in the same field and share ideas around the concept of home in community relations work. This is a closed event for invited representatives of local peacebuilding organisations. We thank Belfast City Council for their kind generosity for the use of City Hall.

Belfast has a deep history and legacy that spans many centuries. Some of our ancient names survive but many have been buried under layers of conquest, empire, and the influence of external events. On Monday February 3rd Dr Paul Tempan, Fr Martin Magill, Linda Ervine along with singer songwriter Brian Houston will take a journey down the years to explore the rich tapestry woven throughout the city by our streets, their stories and their names.

Starting as a lock-down project on a desolate piece of abandoned ground, Knockbreda Community Wildlife Garden has developed into an oasis for the local community, where remarkable things can happen in a beautiful space. Come and hear stories of how it has become our Home Ground, with music, poems and reflections as we tour the garden. Note re accessibility: This tour is mostly across level wood-chip paths but also includes some slopes and uneven ground.

The Bible has much to say about God’s love for Creation and our shared responsibility to care for the earth, our home. Yet our common home is in danger. The crisis we face is due principally to our failure to see the connections that bind us to each other as family, and to our planet as home. Unpacking this simple yet revolutionary idea, and drawing out the implications for action, will be Dr Lorna Gold, Chair of the Laudato Si’ Movement. In her book, Climate Generation – Awakening To Our Children’s Future, Lorna takes an unflinching look at the threats posed by climate change for future generations and how we can respond. Her work with the Laudato Si’ Movement equips both the Catholic Church and those who share their concerns about climate change to deepen their understanding of environmental issues and take positive action. Expect to be challenged, encouraged and inspired. There will also be music from Cork songwriter Clare Sands who is adding something creative and imaginative to the trad song. Her envelope pushing eponymous debut album blends and blurs musical genres, subject matter and the very languages themselves.

Join us in person or via the radio for our annual broadcast service on BBC Radio Ulster. This year’s service will explore the theme of Home. Speaker Lorna Gold will share thoughts on our responsibilities within our shared home – Earth. Music will be provided by Canticle Sacred Music Society, the choir of the Catholic Chaplaincy at Queen’s University Belfast.