Keeping the faith: 'Churches working together can bring harmony to communities'

 As an organisation, it is reflective of how the country has changed since the drab days of economic hardship in the 1980s and early nineties. Wealth has now come to Ireland and with it new people, new ideas and, of course, new churches, new religions and new versions of what we once took as…gospel.

“We were founded initially by a group of Protestant churches,” says Dr Damian Jackson, Secretary General of the ICC. 

“The Catholic Church joined in 1973 and that was really about finding a path to peace and reconciliation during The Troubles. Since 1997, seven more churches have joined and they all have their origins abroad. So the diversity of our organisation has changed dramatically in the last 25 years. The landscape of Christianity has broadened massively in that time and we have had to expand the conversation beyond our own history to cater to that.” 

Among those newer Christian churches is the Indian Orthodox Church. Officially established in Ireland in 2004, when the first Qurbana (Mass) was celebrated in Dublin, members of this church have been living in Ireland since the early 2000s. Many work in healthcare while latterly, IT workers have swelled the numbers. The church now has 10 parishes across the island with over 3,000 members.

“In India, we are a minority within a minority,” says Fr Anish John. “There are only about 2.4 million of us, largely based around Kerala in the south of the country. Most of us are born into it and we are largely a migrant church. There are not so many native Irish members.” 

Anish, who moved to Ireland in 2017 to do his PhD at St. Patrick’s College in Maynooth, serves his community in the Dublin parish. He believes that religion is embedded in Ireland and sees religious values reflected in everyday life.

“You have all of the values we talk of - love, care and charity,” says Anish. “These are all basic tenets of Christianity and all religions. And they are even embraced by the secular world.” 

At the core of the Religious Society of Friends’ beliefs is the concept that God (some friends refer to it as Light or Spirit) resides in everyone and for that reason everyone is, as Quaker Denise Gabudza describes it, “inherently equal”. 

It might not seem so profound now but this idea of the divine in everyone, and not just themselves, goes right back to the start of Quakerism in the 17th century.

“We don't have a creed, but we do have various literature we use, to try to help our contemplation and reflection,” says Denise. 

“These are called advices and queries. One of them says: ‘Take time to learn about other people's experience’.” 

Quakers have been in Ireland a little longer than their fellow Christians from the Indian Orthodox Church. The first Quaker meeting took place in Lurgan in 1654. Today, the church has around 1,600 members but there are many more who attend their weekly Meetings on a casual basis; something the Religious Society of Friends has always encouraged.

“Sunday meetings are rooted in silence and everyone is welcome,” says Denise. “We don’t have a minister or a priest leading a program and giving a sermon.” 

Originally from Ohio, Denise was born a Catholic but became interested in the Quakers while studying Astrophysics at university in Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until she came to Ireland to take up a lecturing post at University College Cork twenty-two years ago that she joined formally.

“I really liked that the form of worship was freer and allowed individuals to be there, maybe each seeking different thoughts or feeling different things, but still united in what was happening,” she says. 

“It's a very curious experience because each person is there individually, yet they're united in stillness together.” 

Meetings usually last for one hour and though they are largely silent, people who feel the need to, can stand up and say something.

“Quite often what somebody says touches your thoughts. It's almost a bit mystical. One name we have for this is ministry. So there's a sense in which everybody present is a minister.” 

This idea of egalitarianism also exists in the Baha’í religion.

Nano Culliton was studying Art in Waterford when she first came across members of the religion. She was just nineteen at the time and admits to initially tiptoeing towards the faith.

“One of the core things in the faith is independent investigation of truth,” says the artist.

 “You have to seek it out, which is possibly why people don't hear about Baha’í because we don't proselytise. If you come across us, nobody is going to say, we do this now and you'll be saved, or this is the way or this is the one. There's no language like that in the faith. So you have to work at it yourself.” 

The Baha’i faith is quite new. Founded in the 19th century by a religious teacher from Iran named Baháʼu'lláh, it teaches the oneness of God, the unity of humanity, and the essential harmony of religion.

Baha’is believe in each person’s capacity to find the truth for themselves, and there is no clergy. Every nineteen days they will meet in each other’s houses for a three-part feast that involves organised devotion and prayer, community business and the feasting itself.

Faith interharmony is the very essence of their religion.

“We believe that all of the major religions have come from God,” says Nano. 

“They've just come to us at different stages in our development. So we can take on more as humanity matures if you like. We don't need a parable to explain something because we can understand it now. You don't necessarily need someone who is ordained by God to explain the holy book because you read yourself. We sit in a circle and say what we think and between us, we come to an understanding.” 

Nano says her faith has given her a better understanding of other faiths.

“If you take that fundamental belief that all religions come from the same source, then there's a commonality between religions,” she says. “Religious wars will never resolve anything because it’s based on the belief that I’m right and you’re wrong and we can’t survive in a world like that. There has to be unity.” 

For Damian Jackson, Ireland’s religious future is about dialogue and embracing the new.

“We’ve got to be prepared to change and adapt and look at it as an enriching process where everybody has gifts that they can bring,” he says. 

“If we have this narrow view of how we do church, we’re not going to be able to experience that and benefit from it.”