Transformation Thurrock : The Ministry of Reconciliation

The Ministry of Reconciliation

Queen Elizabeth II's symbolic visit to the Republic of Ireland, the UK's closest neighbour

Adapted from an email from Prayer Alert, the BBC wesbite and other sources
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The Queen is sowing seeds of reconciliation that no amount of government negotiation could achieve.

The Queen, who arrived on Irish soil wearing emerald green, laid a wreath at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance which commemorates those who died resisting the British rule in the 1916 revolution.

King George V was the last reigning monarch to visit the country, in 1911, when what is now the Republic was then part of the UK.

The Queen was invited to visit by President McAleese, who formally welcomed the monarch at Aras an Uachtarain, her home in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

The President told the Irish state broadcaster RTE it was "an extraordinary moment in Irish history - a phenomenal sign and signal of the success of the peace process and absolutely the right moment for us to welcome onto Irish soil Her Majesty the Queen".

Mrs McAleese said th PICT1848

e two countries were "forging a new future - a future very, very different from the past, on very different terms from the past - and I think the visit will send the message that we are, both jurisdictions, determined to make the future a much, much better place."

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "One hundred years on from the last time a British monarch visited Ireland, I think there is a great sense of history and occasion."

He added: "I think the real effect... will be a marker that just as we are solving some of the problems there have been between us in the past, just as we are helping each other through these difficult economic times, now is a great moment for people in Britain and people in Ireland to remember what it is we share."
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Acts of Reconciliation

The wreath-laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance has been viewed as a symbolic act of reconciliation between the two countries. The British national anthem was played, which is something that would have been unthinkable ten years ago.

A motorcade then took the 85-year-old Queen to sign a visitors' book dating back to 1802 and plant an Irish oak sapling. Her actions mirror Queen Victoria’s planting a redwood there in 1861.

Her Majesty visited Trinity College Dublin where she viewed the Book of Kells, a ninth century gospel manuscript kept in the Old Library with the college's royal charter signed in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I.

On the second day of her visit, the Queen visited Croke Park, the home of Gaelic games where on 21 November 1920, duri PICT1859

ng the Irish War of Independence, British forces fired into the crowd at a football match, killing 13 spectators and one player, shot in the back. Earlier that day, IRA assassination squads had shot dead 14 suspected British intelligence agents in Dublin.

She also laid a wreath at a memorial for Irish soldiers killed in World War One, when Ireland was still a part of the United Kingdom.

Historic speech

Her Majesty, wearing a dress adorned with 2,091 hand-sewn embroidered shamrocks, arrived at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule, with the Duke of Edinburgh by her side.

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The monarch opened her speech - made in the same room where Queen Victoria once dined - in Irish.

"A huachtarain agus a chairde (President and friends)," she said.

Mark Simpson, BBC Ireland correspondent, said that "by opening her speech in Irish, the Queen delivered one of the most powerful soundbites of the peace process."

He further reported: "'Wow' was how Ireland's President Mary McAleese responded as the British monarch spoke in the native Irish tongue. Open-mouthed, she said it again - 'wow'. It was only a couple of words, but by using Irish, the Queen demonstrated a respect for independent Ireland that helped to exorcise some of the ghosts of the past."

In her speech, the Queen said: "No-one here this evening could doubt that heartfelt desire of our two nations. It is a sad and regrettable reality that through history our islands have experienced more than their fair share of heartache, turbulence and loss. These events have touched us all, many of us personally, and are a painful legacy. We can never forget those who have died or been injured, and their families. To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy."

She added: "With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all."

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The Queen offered her "sincere thoughts and deep sympathy" to the victims of Ireland and the UK's troubled past. "We can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all", she said. She went on to praise the "lasting rapport" now between the countries although the two countries' relationship over the centuries had "not always been straightforward" nor "entirely benign".

BBC Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell said there was an "underlying sentiment of sorrow and regret" in the language of the speech, which was "a powerful expression, a personal expression by the Queen" and "a wish, finally to turn a page".

Pray:
for seeds of reconciliation sown by HM Head of State and Church to produce abundant fruit of God's purposes for our nations. (John.4:35-37)

John 4:35-37 (New International Version)
Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

John 4:35-37 (The Message)
As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!
The Harvester isn't waiting. He's taking his pay, gathering in this grain that's ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That's the truth of the saying, 'This one sows, that one harvests.'

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 (New International Version)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

The Rock Thurrock events at Thurrock Civic Hall take place in four month's time, 24/25 September, when Will Graham will present the message of Christ's reconciliation to hundreds of young people - can you see the ripening harvest?

Tim Harrold, 19/05/2011