President on the streets of Belfast City Centre
The President, the Rev David Turtle joined the Rev Andrew Irvine and his team on Thursday morning learning more of the work of the Belfast City Centre Chaplaincy and joining them on the street.
Belfast City Centre Chaplaincy is an innovative Pastoral Care service operating within Belfast City Centre. Initiated by The Methodist Church in Ireland, it is staffed by trained volunteer Chaplains drawn inter-denominationally from across Belfast’s churches.
The Chaplaincy provides Pastoral Care to people working or living in Belfast City Centre. Many people have found that, at times of stress, being able to share in absolute confidence with a trained listener is a huge help.
The Rev Andrew Irvine (part-time non-stipendiary Methodist Minister) is Lead Chaplain of Belfast City Centre Chaplaincy. Commenting on the President’s visit Andrew said,
“It was an absolute pleasure to host the President yesterday - and the Team were highly impressed by David's very genuine support and pastoral skills on the street.”
The Chaplaincy also provides trained mediators. Disagreement is a natural part of our relationships, including those in work, sometimes disagreeing parties can be greatly helped by an outside neutral facilitator to help them reach agreement.
The Chaplaincy also works with those who are sleeping on the City Centre Streets, seeking to work with them and the Statutory Agencies to find long term solutions to the problems that have led to homelessness. All the Chaplaincy’s services are provided free of charge.
The work of the Belfast City Chaplaincy has been supported by Methodist Home Mission. In 2022, the work of Belfast City Centre Chaplaincy was featured in one of the videos produced. You can watch in full below.
