Community Voices: “How do we foster civil dialogue in uncivil times?”

As a self-proclaimed ‘recovering bigot’ (his words, not mine), Rev Dr Gary Mason is well aware of the ‘toxic theology’ that comes out of many religions around the world that has the capacity to compound conflict and further division in divided societies.

In his life both as a Methodist minister and peace builder in the grassroots, he has dedicated himself to battling this toxicity which has plagued his city. Together with colleagues, he has fostered creative and constructive ways to address these ongoing issues across the globe.

Gary is one of the founders of the Skainos Centre, East Belfast’s most prominent community hub centred on reconciliation and bettering cultural understanding across the island of Ireland. He now runs Rethinking Conflict, a social enterprise based on conflict transformation which takes Gary to many of the world’s conflicted regions, bringing with him the expertise he has learned battling sectarianism in his native Belfast.

A global perspective

Gary’s work has taken him to places as far away South Africa, Israel/Palestine and all over the United States to help conflicted societies move forward. His work in Belfast has prepared him for this and, while he explains that the Good Friday Agreement is not a panacea for all conflicts, he believes there are lessons that can be learned from it and implemented into other peace processes.

His work in the community in Belfast has provided him with an authenticity, not to tell others how to behave or reconcile, but to discuss proactively with them more positive solutions for their societies moving into the future. The thought behind the Skainos Centre and, indeed, Gary’s own personal philosophy is built on giving ownership to the community to be able to better themselves.

Building on his philosophy, he identifies key tenets of a successful peace process: political leadership; the futility of violence; security for all; the involvement of civil society; and trust – the most important, and which can only evolve out of meaningful relationships.

Faith and peace building

Gary doesn’t speak like your ordinary member of the clergy. He stated that, while pastorally, churches have done a fine job in Northern Ireland in terms of providing baptisms, weddings, funerals and those types of services, over the span of ‘The Troubles’, they have been dreadful in their social outreach.

He said that many of the churches during ‘The Troubles’ were led by clergy who served as ‘chaplains to their own tribes’, often more concerned with maintaining their institutions and traditions than positively serving the community in transformative ways – and also that churches are some of the most dishonest places on the planet.

The idea behind the Skainos Centre was for it to be a building that has as many windows as possible so that it could keep an eye on the community outside its walls – something churches did not do enough of over the years. Gary explained that the holiness churches aspire to was not reaching people on the social level and that, while he often sees church members speaking out about injustices, they can fail to realise they’re speaking from and within institutions that often exacerbate injustice.

These sentiments have echoes of Cecil Kerr’s observation that Northern Ireland was plagued by a kind of ‘toxic theology’ that further fuelled the sectarian divide: “While many congregations didn’t have guns in their hands, they surely had them in their hearts.”

As a man of the cloth, Gary firmly believes that religion should never dominate society. This, again, was the philosophy behind Skainos. While some may see the centre as an institution dedicated to God, and that is part of the narrative, its work should also balance personal holiness with social holiness – the building’s purpose is to serve people, not just church members.

Rethinking Conflict

Rethinking Conflict tackles real, up-to-date issues on the ground. Gary has been undertaking cross-border engagements with participants from both major communities in Belfast to meet Republicans/Nationalists from Dublin in the wake of ‘Brexit’, helping to foster more understanding, dialogue and bettering relations on both sides of the Irish border. He has also been working with African Americans and white Americans in the southern US.

“Where we have one ‘S’ word– sectarianism – the US still needs to heal from the legacy of its own ‘S’ word, slavery,” he says. “A lot can be learned from each other in how we’ve attempted to address these two evils.”

You can tell that Gary is passionate about the work he is undertaking with Rethinking Conflict in Israel-Palestine. His approach there is to listen rather than speak and try to take in the greater picture. He’s brought a thousand Israelis and Palestinians over to visit Dublin, Belfast and Derry/Londonderry. While they’re here, they’re able to foster relationships they simply could not back home. This work has been transformative, but more needs to be done.

Whether he’s addressing issues in Jerusalem, Cape Town, Atlanta or Belfast, Gary sums up his approach to peace processes quite simply: “Most of our projects are centred on addressing this one question: ‘How do we foster civil dialogue in uncivil times?’ There is no issue with having disagreements – it is how we disagree that matters. The same choice exists abroad as it did here – we can continue to kill one another for another 50-100 years, but eventually people need to sit down, negotiate and painfully work out a way forward.”

No doubt there is a ton that we can learn from Gary and may his work continue to positively influence the world for the better. Northern Ireland, despite its ongoing issues, is a beacon of hope for many societies struggling and Gary is just one of many vessels used to export ‘what has worked here’ abroad.

As they say, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ – and I’d say Belfast is blessed to have Gary Mason.