Looking Back: Peace Must Grow From the Grass Roots

From June 1973

Ainslie Walton (left) with the Rev James McAllister of Megain Church visit 84-year-old William Hunter, a member of the Megain congregation.

‘Peace must Grow from the Grass Roots’ by Ainslie Walton

The Rev Ainslie Walton, minister of Buckie North Church, was the first of around 30 Church Of Scotland ministers to go to help in Northern Ireland as temporary assistants to ministers there. Here he gives his impression of what he found there.

At the end of his attachment he felt he had experienced ‘the most lonely and the most creative month in 20 years in Parish ministry.’

On March 13 I became first of about thirty Scottish ministers to arrive in Ireland. My task was to be assistant minister in Megain Memorial Church in the down town area of East Belfast and to make myself useful whenever I saw an opening. It was obvious from the start that Megain was similar to the tenement parish of Kent Road in Glasgow where I was minister for ten years. The area has far too many churches and there is a constant movement out of the parish to the ‘better’ areas of the city. The little houses are kept like palaces with glittering brass ornaments on the mantlepieces, and coal fires burning cheerfully in a non-smokeless zone. There are the universal problems of the young people and anxiety about unemployment.

The immediate difference from any church in Scotland is that there were nine violent deaths in the parish last year and at least 120 in Belfast. These include two soldiers killed fifty yards from the church when their car was stoned; two Protestant gunmen shot and killed by Army marksmen who were hiding behind the church railings; a deaf-mute killed during a riot; a child blown up by an IRA bomb; a youth burned to death by a petrol bomb; and several sectarian murders of both Protestants and Catholics whose hooded bodies were found in the river or in someone’s back-yard.

The Rev James McAllister is minister of Megain Church and he bears a tremendous responsibility to proclaim a fearless Gospel in a frightened community. Needless to say, a sense of humour is a vital part of his practical theology. I have taken a small share of the burden of this busy parish, preaching, visiting, and going to schools. Equally importantly, my presence shows that the church across the water cares abut our Irish cousins. Many people have expressed sincere appreciation of the Scottish visiting ministers, including Roman Catholic priests and laity.

Apart from my work in Megain Church, I found openings for other activities in Belfast. I spent a fascinating day teaching Religious Education at St Louise’s R.C. Girls School on the Lower Falls Road. I also spent a day with the Gordon Highlanders who are stationed in five small fortresses in the Roman Catholic housing estate of Anderstontown. Along with the padre, I took a service for each company, and tribute was paid to a comrade killed three days before. It was a deeply moving occasion and I was encouraged by the steadfastness of our lads in the face of danger.

The immense strain of sustaining an active Christian witness in the places where stones and bullets were flying has been carried by less than a quarter of the ministry. These men, along with their colleagues in other Churches, have had an experience which is totally out of character with 20th Century British history. Priests and ministers make contact with each other at the barricades which they could never make in their respective Churches.

I have no conclusions to offer about the troubles in Ireland, except to note that the present evil has grown from tens of thousands of little events, so the good we all pray for must come from a huge number of loving and caring actions throughout the country. The blessing of peace must grow from the grass roots.

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