Reflections on Corrymeela

Photo taken on a visit to Londonderry during the 2012 Eastern/Thames North Synods Spring School at Corrymeela I have just read Paul Hutchinson's little book Between The Bells which has taken me back to my two visits to Corrymeela in 2008 and 2012. The book is a selection of stories, almost diary pieces, from Hutchinson's time as Centre Director at the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland. It's a reminder of the importance and the challenge of the work of reconciliation. Hutchinson reminds us that, though it is difficult, we need to do things differently, commenting: The theologian David F Ford, speaking at an Anglican conference I attended in 2017, suggested that if society placed the rich, powerful, beautiful people at its centre, then at some point we would all be excluded. But, says Ford, if we placed at the centre of society those with learning disabilities, children, the elderly, then we could all find a place, a welcome, inclusion. A world upside down. Oh, for that upside down world!