Preparing Youth for Peace (PY for P) is a movement which began in the church about 2½ years ago with the aim of challenging and equipping young people to recognise a "biblical vision" to be peacemakers in communities and nations.
"Reconciled relationships" is a paramount emphasis in the life and teachings of Jesus: the programme encourages youth to bring about reconciliation.
To date, 700 young people have gone through a programme of training, with the number increasing annually. Training is free and enables youth to be facilitators of reconciled relationships.
A consensus of those already facilitators is that "Young people live in a world charged with instability and confusion". The job of facilitators is "to equip them with the knowledge and skills they need to defuse the explosive pressures that they face".
A number are convinced that those engaging in the PY for P programme "come away with the knowledge that God has a lot to say about the problems in their communities, and that thinking and living biblically mean being a catalyst for change".
For fuller information about the PY for P programme including the facilitator training, contact the programme co-ordinator, David Smith, at 028-90322284 or at Youth Office, Church House, Belfast.
The Moderator of the General Assembly, the Right Rev Dr Ivan McKay, continues his visits throughout the church. He was received recently in the North Belfast Presbytery were he was licensed to preach and ordained. He visited the University of Ulster in Jordanstown, lunched with the Provost and heard from students their traumatic experiences during the Troubles. Dr McKay in this most busy time also visited the offices of the Laganside Development Commission and was shown the existing new projects which are changing the face of a large area of Belfast. The Moderator also addressed the Church's Society for Orphans of Ministers and Missionaries.
He launched the church's policy on asylum-seekers, visited Maghaberry Prison and talked with the leaders of the political parties in the North. Obviously a supporter of Cliftonville football club as a boy and even dreaming of playing for the team one day, it was of special interest to him to be invited to the clubhouse and stand on what he describes as "their sacred turf".
Dr McKay's tenure ends in the first week of June when he will resume his usual ministry in Christ Church, Dundonald.
He will be succeeded by the Rev Kenneth Newell, minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, off the Ormeau Road and in the heart of the Queen's University area. He has served the church overseas in Indonesia. His ministry in Belfast has been decidedly ecumenical.
The dedication of a memorial hall at Harmony Hill Church near Dunmurry, Co Antrim, has prompted recall of the service in the ministry of members of the Watson family. The late Rev David Watson was minister in St Johnstone, Donegal, early last century before a "call" to ministry in Donaghadee, Co Down.
His three sons went into the ministry, and his grandson, the late Rev Alex Watson, the eldest, was the first minister in the newly erected congregation of Harmony Hill. A memorial to him was recently dedicated by his son, the Rev David Watson, serving in the Church of Scotland.
The late David Watson's second son, the Rev W.J. Watson, was minister of Roseyards, Co Antrim, until his retirement in 1996. He received the MBE for his services to the Hackney Society of which he was president in succession to HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
He is also a consummate painter, particularly of horses. With his wife, Anne, for the delight of children he has prepared a young person's colouring book of horses which is used in several parts of the world.
The late David Watson's third son, the Rev J.K.F. Watson, has had no less illustrious a ministry in Tullylish and Ballygrainey.
Christian Aid Week is observed from May 9th to 15th. Last year 300,000 volunteers helped to raise £14 million (€21 million). Through this aid the people of the Third World are enabled to "stand on their own two feet". Volunteers are needed for various jobs. To get involved call 01-6110801 (Dublin).