Expecting the Unexpected - Christmas Story and Carols
Join us in St Patrick’s Church on Tuesday 10th December at 1.00pm for the UU Chaplaincy’s Christmas carol concert, with drama from PLAY IT BY EAR drama company and music led by soprano, Marcella Walsh, and organist, Mark Laverty. Mince pies and mulled wine will be served by UU students in the church foyer afterwards. Everyone welcome!
Daring to Hope - Prayer on the Sundays of Advent
December darkness closes in with fears of deepening crises in Europe and the Middle East.
At home, there are worries for family and work wellbeing and health.
But four Sundays in Advent promise something new, like candles flames in the gloom.
Light a candle of hope each Sunday in Advent: December 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd, at the Belfast Jesuit Centre,
193-195 Donegall Street, BELFAST BT1 2FL
3.30pm – Coffee/Tea at Jesuit Centre
4.00pm – Inspiration for Advent
4.30pm – Prayer Exercise
5.00pm – Sharing our hopes
5.30pm – Adoration at St Patrick’s
6.00pm – Advent Sunday Mass at St Patrick’s
Voluntary offering
To register for any or all of the sessions, click the link below,
It's A Wonderful Life at the BJC
As part of our Faith and Film series, we will be screening everyone’s favourite Christmas film, It’s a Wonderful Life, here in the BJC on Thursday 19th December at 7.00pm.
Join us to watch and discuss this timeless classic. Refreshments provided.
Cost: Voluntary Offering
To register, complete the form below.
Faith & Film
As part of our programme, A Year of Ignatian Prayer, the Belfast Jesuit Centre will be screening a carefully curated series of films that inspire, challenge and provoke thought in people of faith. You are invited to join with our programme participants, as we watch these movies here in the Belfast Jesuit Centre.
The sessions will run one Thursday a month from 7.00pm-9.30pm and will commence with a screening of the 2016 movie, Ignatius of Loyola on Thursday 17th October.
The remaining dates are:
Nov 14th
Dec 19th
Jan 16th
Feb 13th
Mar 13th
Apr 10th
May 8th
Film titles will be announced each month. As there are a limited number of spaces available in the BJC you will need to register before each film and links to the forms will appear on our website each month.
After each film, there will be an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussion, through the lens of faith. Explore more deeply the themes and motifs from each film that resonate with you. Whether it’s a story of redemption, a tale of courage, a struggle with doubt, or a narrative which explores the human condition, our films are specially chosen to spark conversation and connection.
Please note, a donation of between £3-£5 is suggested for those who can afford it. This can be made on the night.
Tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided.
Click the button below to register:
A Year of Ignatian Prayer
To coincide with the celebration of Jubilee 2025: Pilgrims of Hope announced by Pope Francis and beginning on Christmas Eve, the Belfast Jesuit Centre is pleased to announce an exciting new programme: A Year of Ignatian Prayer.
The aim of the programme is to give participants an immersive Ignatian experience of prayer and reflective living, so that whether you are already familiar with Ignatian spirituality, or are coming to it for the first time, you can deepen your relationship with God, find clarity in your life’s purpose, and cultivate a more mindful, spiritually-enriched way of living.
Topics covered will include:
- Introduction to St Ignatius: a man for our times
- Images of God
- Approaches to prayer – praying with scripture – imaginative contemplation – praying the Examen – journalling
- Finding God in all things – paying attention to feelings
- Consolation – Desolation – Discernment
- Communal Discernment and Synodality
- God calls me
- What next?
This list is intended to give a broad flavour of the programme but it is by no means exhaustive.
The emphasis throughout the programme will be on the practice, experience, application and integration of Ignatian spirituality into everyday life, rather than theoretical learning.
It will also offer us the opportunity to journey prayerfully and synodally as members of the Universal Church: Pilgrims of Hope!
The programme will draw on a wide range of Ignatian resources, and sessions will have a mixture of input from the BJC team, experience and practice of prayer, small group sharing, and experience of guided prayer, as well as optional movie screenings each month.
Costs: A donation of between £150 to £200 is suggested to defray costs and a number of bursaries are available.
The dates of the programme are as follows:
Places are strictly limited to ensure our team can offer a quality experience to all attendees so sign up early to avoid disappointment.
To book your place click here
‘Faiths Together - Climate Justice for Peace’ on International Day of Peace, September 21st 2024. Be inspired by Martin Palmer and a host of invited Speakers on Saturday 21st September at the AGAPE Centre
‘Faiths Together – Climate Justice for Peace’
on International Day of Peace, September 21st 2024.
Proposed Briefing to send to speakers. N.B. Order of speakers as yet undecided
Keynote address: Martin Palmer : “The Quiet Revolution – faiths, the environment and the creation of new stories of hope.”
A recognised leader in the field of faith and ecology and an inspiring speaker, Martin Palmer will explore his own journey of bringing the faith perspective to bear on the challenges of Climate Justice. He will share his latest inspirations and learning in the field.
Martin Palmer is the Founding President of FaithInvest, having established the organisation in 2019 and been its inaugural Chief Executive. Previously, he was the Secretary General of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), founded with HRH Prince Philip in 1995 to help faiths develop environmental and conservation projects based on their own beliefs and practices.
Martin is an international specialist on all major faiths and religious traditions and cultures. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books on religious and environmental topics.
He has translated many ancient Chinese texts, is a regular contributor to the BBC, and is a lay preacher in the Church of England. He has been working with the faiths on their investment programmes since 2001. Prof. Palmer featured in Pope Francis’s documentary video entitled “The Letter”.
https://www.faithinvest.org/who-we-are
Speaker 1: Dr. Raja Harun MBE : “Al Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth”
Speaking from a Muslim perspective, Dr Harun will explore “Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth”, a restatement of the principles governing the protection of nature. The Covenant presents an Islamic outlook on the environment with the goal of strengthening local, regional, and international actions to combat the planetary crisis we face today.
Dr Raja Harun MBE is a retired scientist who has devoted his life to plant science. In 2011 he was awarded the MBE for services to commercial horticulture and services to community. He has also developed Aquaponics in industrial plants production. Originally from Malaysia he studied at QUB and settled in Northern Ireland. He is currently listed as a trustee of the Belfast Islamic Centre.
Belfast Islamic Centre was established in 1978 by a group of Muslims from the local community to provide a focus for all Muslims living in Northern Ireland. The centre operates for the benefit of all Muslims irrespective of their ethnic background, gender, country of origin or age. At present those who use the centre represent 42 nationalities. No-one is absolutely certain about the number of Muslims in Northern Ireland, The total population of the Muslim community in Northern Ireland (from the 2011 census) is around 4000 individuals. We believe this figure only reflects the settled community in Northern Ireland and does not take into account other social demographics such as students. There may be up to 10,000 Muslims currently resident in the province. There have been Muslims in Northern Ireland for well over a hundred years, the first reported purpose-built place of prayer being the ‘Cockle House’ (facing Makkah) in Crumlin, reportedly built for a Muslim servant of the local landlord at the time.
https://www.facebook.com/belfastislamiccentre/photos/a.164637106932416/800867093309411/?type=3
Speaker 2: Xavier de Bénazé SJ : “Living Laudato Si: setting up a spiritual ecocentre”
Speaking as a Catholic priest and member of the Jesuit Community in France, Father Xavier will explore the ups and downs of leading a Jesuit Retreat Centre in Lyons, France to make an option for caring for our common home, as described in Laudato Si. He describes it as a work of discernment rather than management and will explore the ups and downs of this process of communal conversion.
Xavier de BÉNAZÉ SJ was born in 1985 and joined the Society of Jesus in 2011. The eldest of a Christian family with four brothers and sisters, he grew up in Marseille and spent summer holidays in the family home in a village near Nantes, Brittany. After studying agricultural engineering where he made the link between social justice and the climate crisis, he began his professional life as a sustainable development consultant.
In 2010, the call from the Lord that he had felt deep in his heart from childhood became more pressing and, with the encouragement of a Jesuit he met at the Sainte-Geneviève high school in Versailles, he finally decided to respond by becoming a novice of the Society of Jesus in Lyons. His Jesuit training was marked by three things: (1) the release of Pope Francis’s encyclical letter Laudato si’, (2) the increasingly obvious materialization of the ecological and social catastrophe in our daily lives and (3) the hopeful experience of the launch of the Transition Campus in Forges (campus-transition.org ). After specializing in ecotheology during studies in London and Paris, he was ordained a priest in 2022.
Now he splits his time between advising French speaking Jesuits in Europe on “Laudato si’ and part-time project-managing for the discernment of an Ignatian spiritual Ecocenter in Châtelard Jesuit Retreat Centre in Lyons, France.
https://www.chatelard-sj.org/projet-decocentre-spirituel-ignatien/
Speaker 3: Dr. Louise Taylor : “Mobilizing for Lough Neagh”
As a researcher and an activist Louise has been at the forefront of efforts to save Lough Neagh, a freshwater lake and vital ecological treasure in Northern Ireland, and is both the largest lake on the island of Ireland and in the United Kingdom. It has a surface area of 151 square miles (392 square kilometres) and is about 19 miles (31 km) long and 9 miles (14 km) wide. According to Northern Ireland Water, it supplies 40.7% of Northern Ireland’s drinking water. Dr. Taylor will inspire us with her campaign learnings and her passion for mental health.
Dr. Louise Taylor is an Early Career Researcher at the Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action at Queen’s University Belfast and therapist committed to working with activists and academics to highlight the importance of mental health, wellness, and equity in the struggle for climate justice. She is passionate about supporting activists on the frontline of environmental struggles, whether in the Sperrin Mountains or in Uganda. Her research uses an Ecofeminist perspective to explore the link between health and wellness in a time of climate chaos. Louise is an activist academic, a mother and a neurodivergent consultant who believes we must embody our work and live in such a way that we make our lives art.
The Centre for Sustainability, Equality and Climate Action encourages collaborative links across Schools, Faculties and Directorates in Queen’s University Belfast to investigate the interconnections between socio-economic (in)equality and the interlinked climate and ecological crisis as determined by natural and social sciences. There are three pillars to the Centre across which the challenge of the planetary emergency is investigated from an interdisciplinary and engaged perspective.
Founder of the group Love Our Lough, Dr. Taylor described Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland as “undervalued and overlooked for many reasons.” She says “it is the dirtiest secret of Northern Ireland, a lot of people have known for years and years and years that it is being polluted to incredibly dangerous levels. “It is not being respected; it is not being cared for.”
