A New Northern Irish Perspective

If you stand on top of Black Mountain on a clear day you see the city of Belfast spilling out before you to the east, north and south. Rows of red brick terraced houses. Old and new centres of leisure, business and academia rising at its heart. Slightly to the east of the centre stand the giant yellow Harland and Wolff cranes christened ‘Samson’ and ‘Goliath’. Old docklands nestle under their shadows. At one time the busiest docks in the world, to be discarded, becoming a wasteland, but now regenerated as the Titanic Quarter with brand new glittering glass and steel apartments, colleges, museums, film studios and car show rooms. If you zoom down into the narrow terraced house lined streets you would see flags and murals that mark conflicting identities, loyalties, versions of history and aspirations for the future. They are reminders of a violent past and fragile present peace. And so, so many church steeples. If you lift your eyes again you will see the lush green hills beyond the city. Farmhouses, villages, a patchwork of fields bordered by hand-built stone walls, dotted with sheep, decorated by wildflowers and shaded by ancient trees. Familiarity can cause you to forget what a stunningly beautiful land Northern Ireland is.

You are never far from the sea here. Belfast is built along the Lagan River which endlessly flows into Belfast Lough, the gateway to the Irish Sea and the world. Belfast Lough, beautifully reflecting the ever-changing sky, salty with the tears of its sons and daughters who for centuries have been carried across it on vessels headed to far off lands with dreams of finding a more prosperous, peaceful and hope-filled life for themselves and their children.

When I first visited Belfast in 2004 I was very conscious that I looked like an outsider. My Jamaican heritage meant that I did not see many others that shared my complexion. But to assume that this land was populated by a homogeneous people with a homogeneous culture would be to be deceived.

Northern Ireland was created in 1921 by the partitioning of the island of Ireland. The six most northeastern of the island’s 32 countries remaining part of the United Kingdom whilst the other 26 formed the Irish Free State, today the Republic of Ireland. For the majority in Northern Ireland this was celebrated as securing their desired future of remaining a part of the British union of nations, but for a significant minority it was a time to mourn a separation from rest of the island and its people who they felt had been liberated by Irish independence whilst leaving them in a land which continued to be occupied. Northern Ireland has long been a contested land. A theatre of conquest, colonialization and rebellion. But also, a place of welcome and refuge, with people of different cultures and worldviews accommodating and honouring each other and peacefully sharing resources and space.

Over the centuries it has experienced waves of immigrating people settling on the land including Celts from continental Europe, Vikings, Normans, Anglo Saxons and in the seventeenth century thousands of Scottish settlers under the protection of English rule. (Britannica, 2024) There are also many lesser-known instances of people immigrating to what is today Northern Ireland. In the late seventeenth century, a small community of Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in France settled in Lisburn, working in the linen industry. In the late nineteenth century, Jews facing persecution in the Russia Empire fled the present-day Baltic states, some making their homes in Belfast. When Northern Ireland came into being in 1921 there was already an Italian community from Frosinone province near Rome. They primarily worked in the catering trade, opening ice cream cafés and fish and chip shops. Their ice cream saloons proved particularly popular and in 1922 there were over 30 Italian ice cream saloons across Belfast, with dozens more across the region. (Creative Centenaries, 2021) There was further Jewish immigration from Germany during the 1930s and 40s, some refugees setting up businesses that provided work for local people. Chaim Herzog, President of Israel from 1983 to 1993, was born in Belfast and there is still a synagogue in the north of the city. Following the Soviet Union’s crushing of an anti-communist uprising in 1956 around 900 Hungarian refugees found refuge in Northern Ireland before later permanently settling in Canada. In the 1960s several thousand Chinese immigrants settled in Northern Ireland, many setting up and working in Chinese restaurants. Between 1979 and 1980 a number of Vietnamese ‘boat people’ were settled in the Craigavon area in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. (BBC, 2014).

However, Northern Ireland’s relative lack of economic opportunities and then the sectarian conflict spiralling out of control and into what is known as the Troubles meant that it was not seen by many as a desirable place to immigrate to. The Troubles were an eruption of tensions between the Pro-British, primarily Protestant majority (Unionist/Loyalist) and the Anti-British, primarily Catholic (Nationalist/Republican) communities. The former wanting Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom and the latter for it to become a part of a United Ireland. The British military, Northern Irish security forces and Loyalist and Irish Republic paramilitary groups engaged in armed conflict, though the majority of causalities civilian. The Troubles started in the late 1960s, continuing for 30 years. Between 1969 and 2003 there were over 36,900 shooting incidents and over 16,200 bombings or attempted bombings. 3,254 people were killed and there were 50,000 casualties. (Cain, 2024) With a population of around 1.5 million this meant everyone in Northern Ireland experienced the conflict, and likely personally knew someone injured or killed.

Any discussion about multicultural society, intercultural church and Northern Ireland has to involve an awareness of the legacy of the Troubles and the way it has shaped individuals and communities. This includes the trauma that people live with, the unresolved tensions that still exist between communities, the experience and normalisation of violence and the suspicion and fear of others who are different. It would be naïve to think that all this would not influence the way newcomers from outside Northern Ireland might be received.

During the Troubles a prominent theme of the Northern Irish story was one of emigration. The violence and resulting devastating effects on the economy meant many decided to seek a better life elsewhere. Between 1971 and 1981 the population of Northern Ireland shrunk by 300,000. This was not a new experience. During the Great Famine (1845 to 1849) over a million people starved to death across Ireland and tens of thousands emigrated from the part of the island which is today Northern Ireland. Over the decades England, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries received hundreds of thousands of Northern Irish people. (Statista, 2024)

The 2021 Oscar winning film Belfast, was set at the beginning of the Troubles and portrays this reality very powerfully through the experience of one family. In the final scene, we watch the family boarding a bus to the ferry to leave Belfast, making the agonising decision to leave the city for the sake of their small son’s future, no longer wanting him to witness the horrors taking place around them. ‘Granny’ (played Dame Judy Dench) watches her son, daughter-in-law and wee grandson leave her, and all that is familiar behind. They set off with just a couple of suitcases for somewhere they know no one and own nothing, hoping and praying that the people there would be kind to them and offer them the opportunity to build a better life. ‘Go, go now, don’t look back, I love you’ says Granny, and then turns and goes back into her now empty and silent house. (Belfast, 2021)

On 10 April 1998 the Good Friday agreement, approved by public votes in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, was signed. It was signed by all the major parties in Northern Ireland and the British and Irish governments. It also involved a commitment by the main paramilitary organisations to demilitaristion and the establishment of local power sharing through a devolved Northern Ireland government. (BBC, 2023) To many it seemed a miracle that after years of prayers for peace former sworn enemies had now agreed to work together for the common good of all of Northern Ireland’s people. Though there have been many setbacks, and the peace and power sharing institutions remain fragile, it has resulted in an era of stability and economic prosperity.

This has transformed Northern Ireland from a place many sought to leave, to one which is attracting people from other parts of the world. The result has been that since the Good Friday Agreement immigration has accelerated and Northern Ireland has become increasingly culturally and ethnically diverse. In 2001 8.06% of the population was born outside Northern Ireland, in 2021 it rose to 13.50%(NISRA, 2024). A variety of push and pull factors have brought people to Northern Ireland. The majority have come to Northern Ireland to either work or study. In the 2021-22 academic year out of almost 70,000 post-grad students in Northern Ireland about 15,000 were international, contributing about £1 billion to the economy (BBC, 2023). Significant numbers of people have also come from Eastern Europe, India, the Philippines, Nigeria and Brazil in particular, to support the health services and business sector. More recently there has been an increase in people seeking sanctuary in Northern Ireland from parts of the world where they have faced war and political instability such as Syria, Iran, Sudan, Ukraine and Hong Kong.

The New Northern Irish have come to Northern Ireland for a myriad of reasons, from a variety backgrounds and each person’s journey and experience is unique. My own, and the experience of many I have spoken to, has overwhelmingly been a reception which is characteristic of Northern Ireland’s culture of warmth and welcome. Many have struggled to get beyond a surface level welcome, longing to move from feeling like guests to members of the household, from being the recipients of friendliness to having true friends. Unfortunately, many have also experienced instances of outright racism in a variety of forms. In general, newcomers have found more affluent and nationalist areas more welcoming than Unionist areas, particularly those grappling with socio-economic challenges. But the message that has been sensed from the majority of the media, those in governance, those providing services and the general public is that all are welcome here, and a feeling that Northern Ireland is becoming a richer and more vibrant place through the increased cultural diversity.

The attitudes and responses to newcomers among established local communities has been mixed, and to an extent, has been reflected within in the church (at least, those who identify as evangelical) - this ranges from fear and prejudice to indifference, to an enthusiastic embrace of the New Northern Irish. Many have seen the arrival of people from different parts of the world as an exciting opportunity to show and share the good news of Jesus with the nations, and found different ways to welcome, serve and bless newcomers. Some churches have moved even beyond this - and grown to see the newcomers as gifts that enrich and enlarge their own faith, understanding and worship of the Lord.

Among those who have settled in Northern Ireland, particularly those who are Christians, there are also a variety of attitudes and postures. For some, the primary focus is on trying to rebuild devastated lives having fled livelihoods, homes, family, friends and all that gave them a sense of value and belonging. Others may not have fled warzones, but have been drawn here primarily by the very natural human aspiration for a more comfortable and secure life for themselves and their families. For others, there is a deep sense that whatever has led them to call Northern Ireland home, they are here for a God ordained purpose - to seek the peace and prosperity of the cities and towns to which the Lord has carried them (Jer. 29:7, NIV). They seek to live as witnesses to the goodness and grace of God, not just to others from their own cultural or national backgrounds, but people of all backgrounds, in their local communities.

They have gifts, experiences and perspectives which the Lord wishes to use to build up and expand his church here. When God’s people embrace brothers and sisters from the global church who are passionate about embodying and proclaiming the good news of Jesus wherever he leads them, the Lord works in beautiful ways to manifest blessings for his people and makes them an intriguing witness to the communities in which he has placed them. It is wonderful to report that this is happening here in Northern Ireland.

In 2021 I was tasked by MAP (Northern Ireland branch of Global Connections) and the Northern Ireland Evangelical Alliance to do research into, and engage with Christian leaders from the global church who are living and ministering in the Northern Ireland. Through this, I got to know, and started to gather a wonderful group of Christian men and women from Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Nepal, Ukraine, Hong Kong and China who the Lord has called here to serve him, and through who the Lord is building his church. Encouraged by MAP, Evangelical Alliance, OMF, Latin Link, ECM, Lausanne Europe and Intercultural Churches, and including local church leaders, we continued to gather and in 2023 Intercultural Ministries Ireland (IMI) was established (IMI, 2024).

IMI seeks to serve and enrich the church in Northern Ireland, and across the island of Ireland, through four areas of focus:

• Networking & Engagement: we seek to build meaningful connections between local, diaspora & intercultural churches.

• Research & Reflection: we seek to collect up-to-date data on the rapidly changing cultural/ethnic make-up of the church in Ireland and being committed to a biblical reflection on contextualized Christian worship and witness in this changing context.

• Resourcing & Equipping: we seek to develop and signpost to resources and training which will help churches to grow as intercultural communities in their localities.

• Empowering & Listening: we seek to join, create and facilitate broader conversations on issues relating to church and society, and to bring global and culturally diverse Christian voices into these conversations.

Data and statistics are important, but stories are more engaging and powerful. So, I want to take the next part of this chapter to tell the stories of three church leaders who are a part of IMI and how the Lord has called and used them here for his purposes. These are just three concise stories, that give us a glimpse of how the Lord is at work in new and exciting ways through our New Northern Irish brothers and sisters.

Johann Vizagie grew up in South Africa but put his faith in Jesus as a young man in London. The Lord then led him to Dublin where he was involved in establishing a multi-cultural church as part of the Every Nation church network, which today has churches in 82 countries (Every Nation, 2024). About 15 years ago Johann and his wife Andrea felt a call to ‘go north’. Still more specifically they felt led to establish a worshipping community in the heart of Belfast that would bring together people from all backgrounds, including Catholic and Protestant, Unionist and Nationalist. To be a place of reconciliation and healing in a divided city.

Every Nation Church Belfast was established in 2013 and today is a vibrant, diverse and missional community which meets in a school chapel in the centre of Belfast. Johann remembers seeking to share friendship and faith with local people and, as is common in Northern Ireland, people were trying to figure out which ‘side’ he was from. Johann would respond by explaining to them that he was not originally from here and therefore did not belong to any side. He was just serving and proclaiming Jesus, as found in the Bible. As a result, he found that while many evangelical churches struggled to engage with people from Catholic and Nationalist backgrounds, due to cultural and political baggage - their church was growing, from people from both sides of the community. Two members of the church are John from the Loyalist Shankhill Road and Andy from the Nationalist Falls Road. Both were involved in opposing paramilitary organisations in the past, but have found deep friendship as brothers in Christ and members for Every Nation Church. The barriers of worldly hostility between them destroyed by Jesus’ work on the cross, just as the New Testament said would happen where the gospel was preached and lived out. (Eph. 2:14)

In the year 2000 Neto Andrade came to faith in Jesus in his native Brazil. Neto, with his now wife Michelle, immediately became involved in local evangelism and started asking the Lord if he wished for them to go further afield in his service. The Lord began to speak to them about the UK and 10 years later they visited Northern Ireland. Through conversations with a Brazilian mission worker already here and a local pastor, they received confirmation that they were to leave sunny Brazil and move to Belfast. They joined City Church where Neto became involved in serving and sharing the gospel.

Fast forward to 2024, and having been welcomed warmly and his gifts appreciated, Neto is now the lead pastor of the church. On a Sunday morning about half the congregation consists of people born in Northern Ireland and other half people who have moved here from about 13 different countries. The New Northern Irish are involved in serving in all areas of church life, from the Nigerian lady on the Board of Trustees to the Thai Christian leading worship.

In the last six years, a bilingual, Portuguese/English, expression of church has also emerged through the church and Neto’s ministry which meets weekly on Saturday evenings. It is made up of Brazilians and other Portuguese speaking people, as well as a number of locals with Portuguese connections. Excitingly, it continues to grow through people coming to faith, as I spoke to Neto about his story he was preparing to baptize seven new members the following weekend.

Danni Quilario and her husband Benji arrived in Northern Ireland from the Philippines 20 years ago, Danni came to work as a nurse, and Benji as a machinic. Sharing the good news of Jesus was a way of life for them, wherever in the world the Lord took them. Before long, Danni was leading a Bible study for 30 Filipino nurses in the Ulster Hospital. Soon they were asking Danni and Benji to lead them in worship and Bible teaching on Sundays, and the Jesus Generation Church was born.

For the first few years they were a nomadic community using rooms in the hospital, hotels and other venues, as they prayed for a permanent space of their own. Then their paths crossed with members of a Brethren Assembly whose congregation was small and aging, but they wanted their building on the high street of a small town called Newtownards to continue to be used by God’s people. In 2014 Jesus Generation Church moved in.

Danni and Benji had tried local churches when they first arrived in Northern Ireland. They remember one church where, after the hour-long service, everyone raced out the door and home to be with their own friends and family. Danni and Benji were left feeling lonely and wondering what they would do the rest of this day, which they longed to spend with other brothers and sisters in Christ. They also increasingly felt that the Lord was calling them to shepherd the flock he was giving them, and together create their own community of welcome and worship.

This past summer I was invited the church’s 18th anniversary. On a chilly Sunday morning I passed loyalist estates, whose slogans and emblems on walls and flying from lamp posts, as reminders of the ongoing divisions which persist in Northern Ireland. I entered a simple building full of life, colour and joy. Intercultural and intergenerational. Filipino children making a joyful noise, an elderly local white woman leading us in a beautiful unscripted prayer thanking the Lord for establishing this vibrant community of believers in her town, a new Nigerian family invited on the stage to perform a Yoruba worship song, the youthful worship band leading us in joyful and passionate praise mainly in English but with Tagalog lines woven in. Afterwards everybody was invited to a feast in the back hall which included a whole roasted hog! And this was not just for that special Sunday, a freshly cooked lunch is always provided for all who come. Many of the families spend the whole day together at the church. Danni says the children cry in the evening when they are told they have to go home.

If I was writing this chapter before 5 August 2024 this would be an optimistic and hope-filled place to end. However, that Saturday the anti-immigration riots broke out in Belfast. The rioting carried on for days and indiscriminate attacks against foreign looking people for weeks. Muslim-owned shops burnt, refugees stabbed, a Filipino care worker’s home attacked, arson attacks on multi-cultural churches and even those seeking to support and serve newcomers to Northern Ireland threatened.

A couple of months after the riots had died down I was picked up from Belfast City Airport by a Sudanese taxi driver. With a big smile he struck up a conversation immediately. He said that he had been living here for 17 years. He asked me how I had found life in Northern Ireland. I replied that I had loved it until about 2 months ago, now I was not sure. He shared that this was exactly how he was feeling. It had been a place he had felt welcome and he and his family had loved living, but something had changed. He now had racist abuse, and even eggs hurled at him as he walked down his street. He did not know what to say to his teenage kids for whom this was the only home they had ever known.

It was heartbreaking to hear an Iranian brother, who had recently moved here, share how wonderful the months before the riots had been for him as he had felt safe, settled and hopeful for his future for the first time in years. However, now once again he was feeling afraid and that he might not be welcome or safe here.

Whether, like this brother we are new to this country, or like me have lived here for years, even speak with a Norn Irish accent, and share their warm and wicked sense of humour - because of the colour of skin we were born with, our sense of belonging has been seriously shaken. My white friends here are surprised to hear how I have been affected. Many respond by saying that they do not even think of me as not being from here, which, on one hand is nice to hear, but it also highlights their blind spot. Though I may sound like them, and to all purposes have the same rights as to call myself Northern Irish, simply because of my skin colour, I experience the world differently to them. That is not their fault, but if church life is to be truly family, where we seek to share each other’s joy and pain, we need to be very aware of how different people will be experiencing life very differently because of their appearances, backgrounds and identities.

Having had time to reflect on and process what happened in the summer of 2024, and though it has cast a shadow over some of my experiences of this beautiful land, it has made me even more sure of how much the Northern Ireland church needs to understand and embody Jesus’ intercultural kingdom. The deep darkness of night makes you crave the light of the coming dawn all the more. The good news of Jesus means we have both a message, and a way of life which can counter the way of fear, prejudice, exclusion, division and violence - which has so stained this land, past and present.

In a land where the evangelical church is relatively strong and continues to put great value on the proclamation and defense of the gospel, there is a need to reflect deeply on what is meant by this gospel. Is it a narrow gospel which gets us a ticket to heaven if we live a good life? Or is it the declaring and living out of the good news of Jesus in all its fullness? This is the gospel proclaimed and explained in Ephesians 2. How Jesus, through his blood, spilt in agony on the cross, has made a way for each of us to be individually reconciled to God, but more than this, reconciled to each other - as He has destroyed the dividing walls between all peoples. As Ephesians 2.19 says, ‘Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of the same household’. Through his death and resurrection Jesus gathered together, people of every tribe, tongue and nation with each other, establishing a new humanity, his church. It is our job to live this out, displaying the power and beauty of the gospel.

This good news is not just something to be shouted at people in the streets, shoved into someone’s hands in the form of a tract or even outsourced to celebrity or professional Christians who preach it at one off special events or courses, to which you invite your friends. It is a living good news, to be shown and shared by getting to know people who are very different to us. Being willing to have our lives disrupted (and greatly enriched) when we open up our lives and homes. Only this way do strangers become friends and family. It is through moving towards and taking an interest in others and offering and receiving hospitality that we fulfill our Christian calling to be involved in the making of disciples of all nations. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thess 2.8). It is also through our openness to receiving and learning from our Christian brothers and sisters from different backgrounds that the Lord continues to form and grow us as his disciples.

We realise and witness to the wonderful, good news of what God has done through Christ when we form intercultural Christ-centred communities. Communities where people do not just live alongside each other in silos where their suspicions, fears and prejudice go unchallenged, but rather in deep relationships of humility, vulnerability and mutual honouring. In these kinds of Christian communities everyone is transformed, individually and collectively, into who it is the Lord desires us to be. Communities which celebrate diversity and strive for unity in submission to our one shared Lord and King. This is the present and future hope we offer our warring and fragmenting world. This is the ministry of reconciliation we are to devote our lives to as Christians.

The bigotry and racism that has raised its head in Northern Ireland poses a challenge to the established church here. How they response will reveal a lot about them, and already has. Some Christians have shockingly shown sympathy for the racist events in the summer of 2024 which were in such blatant contradiction of everything the bible teachers about the way God’s people are to treat the strangers, the homeless, the weak and the marginalized around them. Others were disappointingly silent, perhaps unsure of what their response should be or not having fully appreciated the pain their brothers and sisters of different ethnic backgrounds are experiencing. Encouragingly many did courageously and clearly condemn it, and more importantly reached out to those feeling anxious and potential targets of abuse with practical help and assurance that in their eyes they are welcome and valued members of society.

We can see in Northern Ireland’s troubled history how much identity and allegiance has been an object of contention. Those of us who were not raised here are often surprised by how much worldly identities and allegiances seem to be interwoven with faith. For churches seeking to be Christ-centred, kingdom reflecting, intercultural communities where there are no non-gospel barriers put up to hinder people of all backgrounds finding Jesus and being embrace by his people, issues of identity, allegiance and loyalty are going to have to be radically challenged in light of the bible’s teachings. We all need to be continually asking ourselves, as disciples of King Jesus, where our ultimately value and identity lie and to which kingdom and people is our ultimate allegiance and loyalty.

The Christian message sanctifies and liberates every human culture. Cultures which contain good things because they are created by people created in God’s image, and unhealthy and harmful things because these same people are infused with sin. The all-sufficient Christian message shines a light and exposes the dark and harmful things in any given culture and illuminates the beautiful things which contribute to human flourishing. It also deals with the guilt, shame, fears and longings for community, purpose and meaning that every heart caries. Sections of Northern Ireland society feel deeply insecure because of the rapid changes in society which they feel are eroding a world they were familiar with and where they had greater power and influence. Having already been forged in an environment of the conflict against feared ‘others’ this plays out in suspicion, fear and aggressive attitudes and actions towards those who they perceive to represent threats. This holds hearts and minds in the bondage of hatred and fear and leads to endless struggle against perceived enemies that are from outside and this outlook ultimately locks their own communities in a state of mind and being which prevents its flourishing.

What good and liberating news is it to them when they really realise what it means to live as sons and daughters of the King of Kings and part of an eternal kingdom which is going to be victorious over and outlive every worldly kingdom. This means that they no longer need to live in constant anxiety of losing worldly control and power, which they will ultimately loose anyway, and instead live with the assurance, meaning and purpose of living for the eternal kingdom and King, who brings peace to every human heart, including their own. It frees the follower of the King of heaven and earth to fearlessly embrace those who are different and who they long to see giving Jesus the glory he alone deserves and to call brothers and sisters in him. Then their struggle will be for the glory of this king and the building of his kingdom, and in light of this all-secondary identities and allegiances will fall into their proper place.

However, even if all this is understood and accepted as part of the outworking of the good news of Jesus it does not mean that Christ-honouring intercultural communities will automatically emerge. For a church to develop an intercultural approach and posture the leadership has to a have an uncompromising commitment to it and be intentional in seeking to bring it about. Their congregations will need to be constantly reminded, in light of the gospel, who they are and what their calling is, and discipled to live it out, individually and in community.

Finally, for the New Northern Irish, the challenge is to remember to whom we belong and what our calling is. Whatever the circumstance around us we are not to have a spirit of fear but of power and love (2 Tim 1.7). We are here because God and has appointed and anointed the times and places we will spend our days in accordance with his good purposes (Acts 17.26). In season and out of season we are to give the reason for the hope we have in Jesus with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

We are told to bless even those who seek to harm us, for they too desperately need Jesus. This posture will mark us out as true disciples of Jesus. Even if we are looked down upon, mistreated and misunderstood, it only means that we are walking a Christ-like path, for Jesus experienced the same. May uncertain and unsettling circumstances only drive us closer to Jesus himself. May our experience of our earthly walk with the Lord be that of the Apostle Paul to who the Lord said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded saying, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Cor 12.19) Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrew 12.2), for if we do we know that our future on this earth and forever is with him.

Nathaniel Jennings

(Taken from the book Polyphonic God, edited by Israel Olofinjana, David Wise & Usha Reifsnider)