Edgehill Reconciliation Programme

The Edgehill Reconciliation Programme is supported by the European Regional Development Fund under the Peace III Programme.

The programme has been operating in Edgehill for 9 years and has been supported fully since its inception by European grants. The programme was initiated through the vision of the former principal of the college, Rev Dr Denis Cooke. It was delivered and developed for 6 years by Olive Bell who served as Project Officer. In 2001, the Exploring Theology Together degree and certificate programme was established in partnership with Mater Dei Institute of Education, Dublin. Edgehill was the first College in Ireland to offer a theological course where both the student community and teaching staff come from both Protestant and Catholic traditions. 

The Edgehill Reconciliation Programme collaborates with the Institute of Theology in Queen’s University Belfast, the Mater Dei Institute, the Society of Missions to Africa, Hydebank Young Offenders’ and Maghaberry Prisons, the All-Ireland Churches’ Consultative Meeting on Racism (AICCMR) and EmbraceNI.

The aim of the Programme is to facilitate and guide Christian Churches and church leaders in Northern Ireland and the Border counties in their vocation of reconciliation and integration through education/training, practice and research. This aim is complemented by practical outreach initiatives with marginalised groups (i.e. young offenders, loyalists/republicans, minority ethnic communities).

Under the auspices of the Methodist Church in Ireland the Programme seeks to educate and inspire church leaders (clergy and laity) and those in training to respond to the challenges of difference and diversity by being furnished with the tools for reconciliation and integration through theological learning and reflection, personal engagement and practical experience.

We aim to bring education and training programmes to the Border areas (complementing College-based activities) to foster inter-church and cross-community work and thereby to equip individuals, groups and churches to mainstream and extend the work of reconciliation and integration.