The appalling assault on Stephen Ogilvie on Monday evening has shocked people across Belfast and beyond. Our thoughts and prayers are with Stephen, his family and loved ones, and we pray for his healing and recovery. We are also deeply concerned by the scenes of violence, disorder and intimidation that have followed. In recent days, […]

By Steve Stockman 2026’s 4 Corners Festival that is historically Belfast-centric is having a 6 day section in Rome… Visiting the British and Irish Ambassadors to the Holy See and attending lots of ecumenical events. The 4 Corners Festival is getting ready for its 14th edition in the first week of February. It is a

By Steve Stockman Sam Goodwin was taken hostage in Syria… at the 4 Corners Festival he will tell us his story… in Syria and getting out… uncertainty, faith and safely home… Sam Goodwin is telling his story at the 4 Corners Festival 2026. It is quite the story. Sam was just a young man from

  By Steve Stockman From poverty in Montego Bay, Jamaica to being Chaplain for Queen Elizabeth II, the first black Bishop in the Church of England, Rose Hudson-Wilkin is perfect for a 4 Corners Festival called Journey… Perhaps in a year when the 4 Corners Festival’s theme is Journey, no one on the programme has

By Steve Stockman I review a double live album of Andy White just a guitar and awesome songs of literary lyrics in Abbey Road. Career stretching, brilliantly executed. I’ll be chatting to him at 4 Corners Festival. Andy White has done what I’d love ALL my favourite artists to do. He has taken the very

The 4 Corners Festival is glad to share news of an important opportunity for Belfast’s Christian community to shape a new cultural landmark for our city. Belfast Stories is a major project set to open in 2030 at the junction of North Street and Royal Avenue. It will bring together: A public space – a

These times worry me Somewhere deep down a voice tells me Be not afraid And I know It will all be well in the end But I am worried Because I grew up in the in-between time When all was not well It was not the end, granted But it lasted half my life And

I sat in Clonard Monastery this morning and listened to a sermon that I’m still turning over in my heart hours later. The message was blunt: “It’s dark out there.” And it is. Gaza. Ukraine. Political chaos. Closer to home; racism, violence, deepening poverty. Scrolling endlessly through headlines can leave us feeling helpless, even hopeless.

When we booked Dr. Lorna Gold as our opening keynote speaker for this year’s festival, with its theme of “Home?”, it was because 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Laudato Si’, the challenging encyclical by Pope Francis, where he invites us all to take better care of our shared home, the earth…  Given that Lorna writes

About six weeks ago, reflecting on the 30th anniversary of the IRA ceasefire I wrote a poem that embodied my feelings at the time and over the following three decades, and I subsequently read it at a service in Clonard Monastery organised to mark both the IRA and later Loyalist ceasefires…  On this day which marks the 30th anniversary

God above, as we gather in the wake of the International Day of Peace, we acknowledge it is difficult at times to feel that our pleas for peace are heard. We have looked on in horror at Gaza for months with no end of conflict and devastation in sight. We think of Ukraine, of the

The theme for this year’s International Day of Peace is Cultivating a Culture of Peace.  People in various countries will be marking the day in a variety of ways.  It will gain a certain amount of traction in social media, here in Northern Ireland it barely makes the news at all.  When I’ve asked about