An Interfaith Movement Grows in a Christian Land
BELFAST – The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum typically meets over lunch, but at a recent gathering, the secretary, Edwin Graham, wouldn’t even have a cup of coffee. It was during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, he noted, and a fasting day for the Baha’i.
“Apologies to our Muslim friends who are fasting at the moment, and our Baha’i friends who are also fasting,” he said. It’s rare that Ramadan and the Baha’i Nineteen-Day Fast coincide, said Graham, who is a practicing Baha’i. “The Baha’i fast finishes today; we start celebrating tomorrow.”
The lunchtime gatherings happen every third Wednesday of the month and never get cancelled. But flexibility is required when bringing together believers from different faith traditions. It seems that someone is always celebrating, commemorating, praying or fasting. A few other members, neither Baha’i nor Muslim, responded that out of solidarity, they also wouldn’t eat the lunch provided.
“Holi, the Hindu festival, was last week,” Graham added. “So you have Holi happening in the middle of Ramadan, which is unusual, and then Pesach, the Jewish festival, happening towards the end of Ramadan. And Lent, of course. So you've got all these major festivals happening around the same time, and that doesn't normally happen.”
Interfaith may not be the first thing people think of when they hear Northern Ireland. It is a Christian land soaked in a history of strife between Catholics and Protestants. But Northern Ireland is changing. It is a far more diverse society today than it was a generation ago. The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum was founded in 1993, five years prior to the Good Friday Agreement. The Forum’s goal is to promote mutual understanding and foster dialogue between the faith communities in Northern Ireland: Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Catholic, Protestant and other Christian denominations. They now regularly come together to learn from the past and look to the future of Northern Ireland.
Graham’s desire to form relationships with people from different backgrounds started at an early age — and during a time when those differences were becoming more polarized. “At the age of five, I was extremely upset because I couldn’t go to the same school as my best friend, because my best friend was Catholic, and I was Protestant,” Graham said.
Graham, 68, recognized that segregating groups of people based on religion was fundamentally wrong, and it was the catalyst for his commitment to bridge the Protestant-Catholic divide as he grew older. In the 1970s, he joined a peace movement, he said. In 1977, while in university and during the Troubles, he discovered the Baha’i faith and converted. “I adopted the faith because it teaches an acceptance of people of all religions. And that took me on an entirely different journey,” Graham said.
Shortly after he got married and started raising children, he founded The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum. It was also a response to the struggle Graham experienced as he watched the way his two children, the next generation growing up in the country, received a lack of education on religious diversity in school.
But while the inclusive messaging of the organization hasn’t changed, the religious composition of the members, and the country, has. In 1991, census data in Northern Ireland showed that Protestants and other Christian denominations made up about 58% of the population and Catholics 42%. But in 2021, the two groups were almost tied: Catholics were 46%, while the Protestant and other Christians were 44%. Those not Catholic or part of a Christian denomination, or who don’t identify as religious, are part of an increasing number of minority religious groups in Northern Ireland.
Muslims represent 0.6% of the population in Northern Ireland, according to 2021 census data. Many of them are immigrants who came to the country after the Troubles.
There are currently about 50 active members of The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum. Muslims, who are now the majority religious group reflected in the organization’s Board of Trustees, are also people with a distant connection – or none at all – to the troubled history of sectarian violence and political tensions in Northern Ireland. And while the organization itself identifies as non-partisan, members of the group are actively engaged in politics and meet regularly with the various political parties.
Of the more discussed political topics: The idea of a shared future between the jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
“It’s very actively an issue for us,” Graham said. He noted a human rights lawyer from Queens University spoke to the group on Human Rights Day in December. “He said that the discourse around a shared island is developing, and he challenged us by saying that faith forces are not present in that discourse — and that we need to be.”
While Graham says that The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum is comfortable facilitating meetings from opposing political perspectives, the group wouldn’t be comfortable to take any position or align themselves with a specific cause. Raied Al-Wazzan, who is not a member of The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum but is actively involved in the Belfast Islamic Centre, said that on Fridays, members from political parties such as Sinn Féin and Alliance stand outside their mosque to greet their community. He also said that if there is a shared island between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, it will be the ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland that will swing the vote.
“Sinn Féin is actively recruiting asylum seekers,” Graham said. Sinn Féin is the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army seeking a shared island.
Kais Aloui is an asylum seeker from Tunisia who traveled about two hours to be at the interfaith meeting in Belfast. He arrived in Northern Ireland a year ago and joined The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum because he was looking to find a community that brought together people from different faith backgrounds.
“I come from an Islamic country; the majority are Muslim. We don’t have the same interfaith like Europe,” Aloui said. Unlike his experience in Tunisia where he was part of the Muslim religious majority, he is now part of a religious minority in Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum promotes peace and reconciliation through frequent opportunities to come together. While the meetings have a more formal agenda, it’s the informal lunches and gatherings where trust and friendships are developed.
“A lot of the activities that we’ve done over the past year start off with a chance conversation or a chance remark,” Graham said.
Mutaraf Ahmed, an Imam and member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community from England, discovered the organization through a Facebook advertisement after he arrived in Northern Ireland in 2023. He was seeking organizations that carried out an interfaith dialogue and that worked to build a more peaceful society.
Ahmed noted that global events, especially in the Middle East, have led people to raise questions about Islam. He strived to inform people about how his religion can be misunderstood — that extremists acting in the name of Islam actually defy the religion’s teachings.
“There would be a lot of negativity around those conversations online,” said Ahmed. “In person, when you're meeting in such an informal environment, it's so much easier to have those conversations, especially when you build that friendship. Because when that is there, people are more open to ask those questions which they may have in the back of their minds and which they might not be able to ask if they've just met you the first time.”
Paul Fitzsimmons, a convert to the Soka Gakkai sect of Buddhism, said his religion’s motto is trust through friendship, peace through trust. “There’s such a lack of trust and that’s where a lot of conflict arises from when there's mistrust of the other,” Fitzsimmons said. “So the importance of having dialog can’t be over emphasized. Regardless of what our faith tradition is, it's our common humanity that's the important thing. And we all, I think, desire to have peace and happiness and coexist together.”
Graham does not want history to repeat itself. Regardless of a member’s religion or connection to the history of Northern Ireland, people in this organization can come together if there is a desire to develop an appreciation of each other’s beliefs and cultural diversity. In many ways, this organization is a mirror to the younger generations who have already learned this lesson.
“I have a virtual connection to the Troubles," Aloui said. "Because when I was in Tunisia, we watched a lot about the Troubles on TV. I came here and found another reality. I have big respect to younger generations. They live together without any problem.”
Today, Graham watches his grandchildren engage in interfaith relationships in school in a way he never could. “So my granddaughter is 10, and her best friend of school is a Muslim, and her friend’s parents came here as asylum seekers,” he said. These children are raised without the same connection to the past; yet, they are able to move forward from the conflict.
“For my grandchildren,” Graham said, “it's just a relationship.”
A Discussion on Parenting in the Anglican Church
NEW YORK — For Pastor Jim Salladin, connecting with congregants goes beyond leading worship services in the West Village every Sunday morning; it extends from the pulpit to Zoom, where nearly 20 members of Emmanuel Anglican Church gathered virtually on a recent Tuesday evening. Salladin organized a curiously intimate conversation for teachers and parents to discuss how they should talk to children about God and the teachings from the Bible when they are old enough to ask: "What does this mean?"
Salladin said this is the big question that hangs over the experience of every person who has grown up in the church. “As believers in Jesus Christ, as Christians, we point back to the story of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for us, and then what it means to repent and believe,” he said. “But you notice it doesn't say our ancestors were slaves in Egypt. It says we were. That there's a way in which we tell the Gospel story, not as something that happened long ago to someone else, but we tell it as our own story.”
The few members who have chosen to keep their camera on in the Zoom meeting lean into their computer screen to listen closely to Salladin’s words. They sit at a desk with a pen in hand or on a couch with their spouse, arms wrapped around one another. Emmanuel Anglican Church, a congregation part of the Anglican Church in North America, is a theologically conservative church with a special outreach to parents of young children. One woman, who occasionally holds her newborn within the frame of the camera, shares with the group that even though her baby is only 2 months old, she’s already grappling with how to explain the concept of sin to her child one day.
Salladin encourages parents to not hide the reality of their children’s sins, and their own, from them because Jesus has done everything necessary for their redemption. “Don't ever hide your own repentance,” he said. “Repent in front of them. They're going to see the wonderful bits of who you are. Let them also see you weeping at your own sin.”
When answering children’s questions about the scriptures, Salladin said, adults should help children understand this is the story that gives them an identity; an identity rooted in something that happened before they were born and is even bigger than the universe. “It's the story of a God who loves you and created you, and even in the midst of all the evil of this world, sought to redeem you, and has secured for you a hope that will never die,” he said.
The last 15 minutes of the hourlong conversation conclude with prayers. Salladin invites congregants to pray out loud, and one by one worshippers unmute themselves on Zoom to share their own prayers in this unconventional setting. They gently bow their heads; their hands frame their face; and their fingers press lightly against their forehead or eyes, which are closed to receive each blessing. Whether in person at church or together over Zoom, this position is universal.
Dear Lord,
Thank you so much that every opportunity that we have as parents when we fail, is also an opportunity to exalt you as the better Father. I pray that you would just meet us in those moments of anxiety that we have of, ‘Are we doing it right? Are we seeing the right thing?’ When we ourselves have doubts and questions that you would just fill in the gaps with the power of the Holy Spirit.
“The path of Christian parenting is that we, you and me, must be animated by the Gospel of who God is in Jesus. What God has done for us in Jesus, so that he becomes the love of our life,” said Salladin. “And then the teaching of the children grows out of that.”
Day Six: Returning, Reflections — and Finally, Rain
LONDONDERRY — We began our sixth and final day together by checking out of the Maldron Hotel, loading our suitcases onto the bus and settling into our seats for the three-hour trip back to Dublin Airport. Our drive through the sprawling outskirts of the city, past the never-ending lush green fields, was the perfect backdrop for Professor Ari Goldman to once again pull out his harmonica. A group of students reprised songs from the bus ride from Belfast to Londonderry and harmonized with Goldman’s accompaniment to music beloved by the class, including “Four Green Fields.”
The music shared also extended to songs in Hebrew and Spanish. Goldman taught the students “Shalom Aleichem,” a Jewish song inspired by the greeting of the same name, translated to mean “peace be upon you.” It’s traditionally sung to welcome the arrival of Shabbat, which would begin at sunset later that same day. Student Rosario del Valle serenaded the class with a Catholic melody by Chilean singer Romina González Romanini. The song, Encuéntrame, signifies looking to God when you’re feeling lost.
Music continued to fill the bus until we stopped for a quick lunch at a rest stop off the highway, where students also stocked up on Cadbury chocolate to bring home. Once we were back on the road, it wasn’t long before our bus finally arrived at the airport.
As we said goodbye to Goldman, who would be spending the remainder of the weekend in Dublin, we were also reunited with student Bella Bromberg, who left Londonderry on Thursday afternoon and traveled back to Belfast to continue her reporting on Buddhism.
At Dublin Airport, we were surprised to find the line for check-in and bag drop much longer than anticipated. Dean Melanie Huff was the only person from our class able to check-in ahead of time through the Aer Lingus app and avoid the line, but unfortunately for the rest of us, all we could do was wait anxiously and hope to make it through security and board our flight on time. And eventually, we did.
But right before our flight took off, a group of students noticed something out of the window of the plane that we hadn’t encountered all week: rain. It was a small, particularly funny moment, especially since our professors anticipated a rainy trip this year, similar to last year’s class reporting trip, and told us to plan and pack accordingly.
Our experience in Northern Ireland was the opposite. Every day showed us blue skies.
In seven hours, we were back in New York. Once we landed, we said our final goodbyes with hugs at baggage claim. After six days together, our journey was over. But the memories from this trip, both professional and personal, will stay with us forever.
Following our return from Northern Ireland, once we had settled back into our daily routines, I asked my classmates about how they have been processing our trip.
Del Valle reflected on the privilege to experience Northern Ireland, from the beautiful landscape to the rich history, with the Covering Religion class. “The group was very special. Everyone was warm, kind, and every moment was pretty full of joy,” del Valle said. She also shared that it was very meaningful to hear the powerful testimonies from sources and class speakers who lived through the Troubles. “Many people opened their hearts; they shared their personal stories, and that human connection that we had was really special. I am grateful to experience this at Columbia Journalism School.”
“It was an amazing opportunity to be able to go to a new place, not as a tourist, but as a reporter, because I was able to immerse myself into the culture and really get to know the people who lived there,” student Nichole Villegas said. “I was able to understand the way that they lived, which is much different than the way that I grew up. So that was a really important experience to not just swoop in and observe, but to actually come into this new place and be fully immersed in the community.” Villegas’ reporting about Bloody Sunday, specifically, was a lesson in being open to any story that comes her way. “I met an older couple while watching the sunset, and I just waved and said hi, and then they shared their whole story with me,” she said, adding that the couple had lost family members during the Troubles. “The fact that they had so much trust in me made me really want to do their story justice when I write it and really accurately represent what they went through and what they're currently going through,” Villegas said.
Bromberg wrote in a text message that her heart longs for Ireland. “I’m already plotting my return,” she said. “Traveling anywhere is such a gift, but to do so after intensively delving into the history of the place — and alongside classmates I’ve grown so fond of — made it a pretty unparalleled experience. Our trip will live on in my memory fondly for years to come. And “Four Green Fields” may go down as my favorite song of all time.”
Student Karen Lindell shared a notebook entry from the last day of the trip: “On the last day, I thought about all the walls we saw in Belfast and Londonderry, much less fortified than in the past, yet still standing. Walls are just stone and brick and wire, though. On our trip, we experienced the humanity that will perhaps someday knock down the symbolic walls: storytelling, listening, community-building, reconciling. As Professor Goldman said after a round of harmonica campfire songs on the bus, ‘Thanks for singing with me.’ Thanks for singing with us, Northern Ireland. Your song needs to be heard.”
I’ve reflected on some of the parallels between our class and the interfaith organization I reported on in Belfast. The Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum, which was formed a few years prior to the Good Friday Agreement, promotes peace and reconciliation between the faith communities in Northern Ireland through opportunities to come together and meet regularly. Historically, these were groups that would not have shared space for one another at the same table, but because they built trust and friendship over time, they are able to now engage in interfaith relationships and foster a productive dialogue about current events. Even when they disagree.
Our class has built a foundation of both trust and friendship through our weekly meetings together. When we cover difficult topics or discuss opposing viewpoints, we do so in a productive, meaningful way because the students and professors have cultivated an environment of respect since the start of the spring semester.
As many students in the class and I now look toward graduation in May and reflect on our time at Columbia Journalism School, I’m grateful to have experienced the opportunity to report and travel abroad alongside such a remarkable group of people.
Being a part of the legacy of the Covering Religion class — a 30-year legacy — is a true privilege.
Photo at top: View of the horizon outside the plane window heading back to New York (Photo by Liza Monasebian)
God Works Through Generations in the Anglican Church
NEW YORK — The wooden pews at Emmanuel Anglican Church in Manhattan’s West Village are filled with people of all ages on a recent Sunday morning. But once the worship service begins, some of the youngest congregants, too small to sit still, are carried to the aisles and the back of the sanctuary by their mothers and fathers.
They cradle their children tightly in their arms; some newborns are placed in baby carriers on their chests. Others use one hand to hold a program and another to hold the hand of a tiny toddler who wants to dance to the worship music.
Jesus, the Name above every other name
Jesus, the only One who could ever save
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe
We live for You, we live for You
As congregants sing "Build My Life" together in perfect harmony, cries from the babies echo in response. The music at Emmanuel Anglican ranges from the traditional to the contemporary. Parents sing and sway as morning light softly shines down through the colorful stained-glass windows illustrating scenes from the Bible.
Emmanuel Anglican, at 232 W. 11th St., puts a premium on young families. Parents know that their children, between 6 months old through the fifth grade, can foster a relationship with Jesus from an early age. The first 20 minutes of services, before the children are escorted out of the sanctuary and into classrooms for Sunday School, allow them the opportunity to experience the Word of God through prayers and songs, even if they don’t understand the meaning of it all just yet.
Amber Salladin, the church’s music director, explains that God works through generations. “We don’t ever want to segment people by age or race or gender,” she said. “At the same time, we really think that the kids should be able to learn in a way that works for them and is age-appropriate for them, so that's why they go downstairs for their own thing. But we wait 20 minutes, so that they get used to what it's like to be upstairs.”
Before the children are excused, they are invited to the front of the entire congregation. Children break free from the grasp of their parents, who eventually follow, and run onto the altar like it’s a playground; they laugh, dance and play together on the main stage directly below the massive organ, the centerpiece of the sanctuary.
Then those children, who continue to play innocently, are prayed for; they are blessed for choosing to gather together and worship the Lord this morning.
Help them to lay the firm foundation for you and your scripture this morning.
The behavior of these children is not seen as disruptive to this congregation, who warmly embrace the younger generations who are starting their journey to nurture a relationship with Jesus. Once the children are ushered out of the room and led downstairs to Sunday School, there’s a moment of calm and quiet; no more crying babies or screaming toddlers.
And the service continues.