After decades of conflict and over 3,500 deaths, the Troubles, the name given to the conflict in Northern Ireland between Protestant Loyalist and Catholic Nationalist groups, made a major move toward peace in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement. Weapons from both sides were turned in and destroyed, and the two sides started trying to live together peacefully.

The East Belfast Mission was established as a registered charity in 1985 and ever since has been on the front line, or, more literally, the dividing line between communities, working to facilitate reconciliation between the two sides of the conflict and support marginalized neighbors. That work continues today through a state-of-the-art facility known as Skainos, a Greek word for tent in the community, completed in October 2012.

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This episode originally appeared in the January/February 2020 issue of response, the award winning magazine from United Methodist Women.

Visit www.UnitedMethodistWomen.org to find out more.