Religion and worship in N.I. (part 1)

The lovely Zach McCauley sent me a letter asking about worship and religious practices in Northern Ireland...I promised a blog, and this is it. Well, the first part. It's SO long that I'm giving it to you in two installments and I'm also including pictures to provide a breather for the weak at heart :) There's still a lot I don't know and haven't experienced, but here are some of my observations:

TraaaadiTION!

A heavy emphasis on tradition and history influences why and how people "do" and think about religion here. An obvious reason for this is Ireland’s looooong history that has always been really affected by religion of one form or another. The Irish have had a lot of time to make mistakes and sometimes learn from them. American Christians lack this type of contextualization and background, which I think both helps and hinders us in life, politics and religion. As far as religion here goes, I find that an emphasis on tradition in churches can really frustrate the young people who attend them because they often feel disconnected from the ways older adults do things. Prayer meetings, worship songs and style, pastors and the style and content of their sermons are all affected by this. However, I have found some churches that have retained some of their tradition but thanks to the vision of a new and sometimes younger pastor, are slowly giving children and youth more attention. Churches eventually die if they decide not to bother with their young people.

I think tradition can also be useful in a few ways. The first is doctrinal. I feel like sometimes in America we are so free to innovate and focus so much on independence that we flippantly ignore or marginalize the wisdom of educated people who have studied the Bible and our faith throughout history and might have really useful things to teach. Certain traditions can also be really beautiful and meaningful, especially when accompanied by an explanation or understanding of their origins. Finally, more traditional services might attract those who grew up in that type of church but are coming back to the as adults. However, I really see “tradition” here as being stifling to new movements and works of the Holy Spirit, excluding to youth and those on the “fringe,” and held onto by people often for the sake of comfort and control. This is kind of a new opinion and I’m really open to hearing your thoughts.

Religion and Politics

If you’ve heard news from Northern Ireland, you might know that religion and politics are really closely intertwined. At least, the names of religions … none of it really has much to do with Jesus or faith at all, from my perspective. But someone could get shot for saying that, so I won’t. But here’s an example… I went on a jog through a highly-Protestant/Unionist/loyal to the Queen neighborhood this afternoon. There was a painted wall mural, the text of which read, “For God, For Ulster.” The word “Ulster,” used in this context, connotes loyalty to Britain. This is the motto of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF)… kind of like a militia. It’s a paramilitary group deemed terrorist by the government. What the motto means is that the UVF is implicating God in whatever acts of terrorism they might commit. In their heads, I’m sure that they believe most ardently they are involved in seeing God’s will done on earth.

Looking at American politics from overseas, I wonder if Bush is doing the same thing to gain support for involvement in Iraq? I don’t think American troops are over there completely without reason, because even a few weeks ago another terrorist threat was released, right? But what does God and good and evil have to do with this – and our – political decisions? Just a thought. I think we need to be much more careful about how we associate God or Jesus with politics. The God of the Old Testament is another story, but if Jesus wanted to be involved with politics, I’m sure he would have made a point to do so during his lifetime.

Events

This is a less weighty observation. A few weeks ago I went to First Magherafelt Presbyterian Church with Nicola. She was all excited because it was HARVEST. You don’t know what HARVEST is? Ohhhh, silly American. (this is what I have to put up with).. Anyway… Churches choose a Sunday in October to dress up the church building with autumn flowers and vegetables and leaves and all sorts of pretty things and give God thanks for everything He’s provided. They sang lots of songs about plowing fields and hoeing seeds and other farmy-type things. At first I thought, Oh that’s very interesting – the Northern Irish are very connected to the land (which is true to some extent – the amount of countryside and farms here is probably more comparable to the Midwest than our area)… but then I realized that this celebration SUSPICIOUSLY resembles Thanksgiving. So I wonder, were the pilgrims (who were Puritans, right?) who came over and landed on Plymouth Rock and had lunch with the Indians – were they actually celebrating the Protestant tradition of Harvest? And then over time it evolved into our Thanksgiving? Well, the bottom line is I THINK I just saw the roots of our modern-day Thanksgiving celebrated before my very eyes. Wow. I feel very special.