To book your place please RSVP to the Mitchell Institute at Mitchell.institute@qub.ac.uk by noon on Monday 20 January.

Speakers:

Dr Gladys Ganiel (Lecturer in Sociology, QUB and Fellow, Mitchell Institute) 

Dr Nicola Brady (General Secretary, Irish Council of Churches)

Series Convenor: Dr Zaheer Kazmi

Does religion have a role to play in dealing with Northern Ireland’s contentious past? How might Northern Ireland’s churches be equipped to contribute to healing in their communities and wider public conversations and policies on apologies, forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation and grace?

Dr Gladys Ganiel has been involved in an ‘action research’ project with the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI), designed to facilitate PCI’s contributions to dealing with the past in Northern Ireland. A trade paperback based on the research, Considering Grace: Presbyterians and the Troubles, co-authored with Jamie Yohanis, was published in October 2019. Gladys will outline the rationale and main findings of the research, raising questions about what can be learned from this Presbyterian response to the Troubles.

Find out more about Considering Grace here (https://gladysganiel.com/my-books/considering-grace-presbyterians-and-the-troubles/)

Dr Nicola Brady is General Secretary of the Irish Council of Churches, and has worked with the Irish Churches Peace Project and the Council for Justice and Peace of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference. She will reflect on the significance of the research to the wider faith-based sector and its potential to influence how other churches respond. She will suggest possible avenues of new thinking on religion and dealing with the past among all the churches.