4 Corners Festival seeks to breathe hope into the city and foster resilience
FOrsomeof uswhoare members of the organising committee of the 4 Corners Festival (4cornersfestival. com) this time of the year gets very busy as we prepare for our annual festival, which this year begins on Sunday, January 31. The festival takes as its motto (as it were) “Bringing Belfast Together.”
Recently, we launched our programme with the theme of “Breathe”, which was chosen as the pandemic was beginning to gather momentum.
In those early months, it soon became clear how the disease was impacting on people’s breathing. In the introduction to the programme, we talk about “breathing in the need for grace and breathing out imagination”.
The organisers hope and pray that the events in our short festival (January 31-February 7) will provide an opportunity for people to take time to stop and to catch their breath, recognising how we all need to take a deep breath for some calming relief.
In the course of those days, there will be a day devoted to resilience and, in other events, there will be opportunities to listen to a renowned expert in peace-making and to consider the ongoing issues of paramilitary-style attacks, domestic abuse and racism.
Asanartsfestival,the week will, of course, include music, poetry and drama, with the final event sending us out into our communities to breathe creativity to our suffering world.
One of the lines of scripture which informs this year’s festival is: “Now the Earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2).
As Christians from various denominations, we believe that God is still hovering. In 2021, the depths happen to be coronavirus.
So, the 2021 4 Corners Festival will seek to tap into that spirit and breathe hope into our city, fostering creativity and resilience as we respond to the challenges of the pandemic and the grace and imagination that will help us travel through it to a better world beyond.
In one of the events, Contemplative Prayer to Save Your Sanity, former BBC Northern Ireland journalist Seamus Mckee will be in conversation with three people: Anglican priest and author Rev Richard Carter, from St Martin in the Fields, London; Rev Kiran Young Wimberley, an American-born Presbyterian minister and folk singer based in the Corrymeela Community; and Br Thierry Marteaux OSB, of the Holy Cross Abbey, Rostrevor.
I am presently reading Richard Carter’s book The City is my Monastery: a contemporary rule of life. Carter is an Anglican priest and a member of a religious community. In his book, describing one of the community rules, he writes about “a
creative encounter” which is: “... a visit to see a painting or exhibition, or a church you have not yet visited. Or maybe it will be sitting down and listening to a piece of music that needs time to hear. Or perhaps reading a book that has been recommended and is waiting to be read.
“You will know what is life-giving for you. Perhaps music or theatre or dance or birdsong or painting or knitting, or running or walking or cooking or libraries or buildings or art. Take time to look carefully at what you see. Take time to focus on what you love doing. These encounters feed us. They can replenish our spirit and help us discover and deepen the relationship between ourselves and our world. They awaken our wonder. Put these times into your diary.theyareasessentialas recharging your mobile. More so, they can recharge your soul.”