Doug Baker will focus on lessons learned from years of conflict

July 17, 2017

Doug Baker. (Photo provided)

Anyone who has dealt with conflict that has lasted for years knows how difficult it can be to re-establish a bond with the other side, even if that conflict ended long ago. That is a challenge faced by the Rev. Doug Baker, one of the 2017 International Peacemakers visiting the U.S. this fall.

For nearly four decades, Baker served as a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker in Northern Ireland, a country with a history of conflict and turmoil. Although he is retired now, Baker still lives there.

“The focus of my ministry has been reconciliation across religious, political and social divisions in this divided society,” he said. “Successively I worked on the staff and/or management groups of the Corrymeela Community, Mediation Northern Ireland, the Irish School of Ecumenics and the Irish Churches Peace Project.”

For 37 years, Baker organized events that brought together people of diverse backgrounds to explore areas of commonality and difference. He facilitated dialogue and produced resources for reconciliation and trained others around ministry for it.

Baker first came to Northern Ireland as part of a summer assignment in 1970 and returned two years later as a young adult in a longer-term capacity.

“From 1994 to 2016, I was the Northern Ireland site coordinator for the PC(USA) Young Adult Volunteer program,” he said. “During that time, I placed and mentored 133 YAVs, a significant part of whose work was assisting local congregations and community ministries seeking to address the legacy of 40 years of civil strife.”

Baker says there have been challenges, referring to a level of separation between ethnic, religious and political groups. That separation, he says, has resulted in a lack of personal contact, stereotyping and a fear of each other.

“There is also a fairly widespread and deep-seated theology focused on individual salvation, rather than social and political implications of the gospel,” Baker said. “Hence, many church leaders and members simply do not see peacebuilding or reconciliation as their business.”

Centuries of division and nearly 40 years of open, violent conflict have created a deep legacy of hurt in Northern Ireland, and Baker says residents have a hard time acknowledging their own share of responsibility.

“One of the most helpful ways I have been able to address these issues is providing times when people can hear one another’s stories in ways that lead to building personal relationships, trust and understanding,” he said. “We have used those occasions to help others reflect on the resources of our faith that provide a vision for and insight into what is required to move beyond the past and toward the reconciliation that God intends.”

This fall, Baker says, his message to U.S. audiences will not be the Northern Ireland conflict as much as looking at the lessons learned and applying those to conflicts facing the world.

“In the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Jesus tasks us with teaching others to observe all that he commanded,” Baker said. “When asked, ‘What is the greatest commandment in the law?’ Jesus replied, ‘To love God and your neighbor as yourself.’ We need to get to know our neighbors — nearby and far away — and explore what some of the specifics of loving them requires of us today.”

Baker and 15 scheduled peacemakers will visit the U.S. between Sept. 22 and Oct. 16.

Since 1984, more than 300 International Peacemakers from 57 countries have been hosted by mid councils, universities and theological institutions.

Rick Jones, Mission Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Today’s Focus:  2017 International Peacemakers

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Mission Co-Workers

Dennis Smith, Argentina
Maribel Smith, Argentina

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Rhashell Hunter, PMA                                                                                   
Sherri Hunter, OGA   

Let us pray:

O Lord, you call to us throughout the ages. We give thanks for the generations of faithful witnesses on whose shoulders we stand. May your Holy Spirit inspire and equip us to share our faith with others. Amen.

Daily Readings

Morning Psalms 5; 145
First Reading 1 Samuel 18:5-16 (17-27a) 27b-30
Second Reading Acts 11:19-30
Gospel Reading Mark 1:29-45
Evening Psalms 82; 29