91Èȱ¬

If you've an hour free between now and Wednesday, you might like to visit an art exhibition called The Pilgrim's Trail: Over the Road. I was very pleased to be asked to open the exhibition this week. It's currently running at the gallery in the Common Grounds Cafe (12-24 University Avenue, Belfast), and features art works that emerged from an impressive community encounter project in east Belfast.

Members of St Matthew's Roman Catholic Church on the Short Strand and their neighbours from St Martin's Church of Ireland parish 'journeyed together through the landscape of memories' and the exhibition documents part of that journey. We could do with more projects like that across Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately, I learned at the opening that the funding has run out for this initiative of the It's a shame that projects of this kind -- moments of encounter between real people, sharing their stories, discovering each others' stories -- are struggling to continue because the money has run out.

In any case, it's well worth a visit; and you can take to opportunity to sample the very decent (and fairly traded) coffee at the cafe into the bargain. I love the opportunity to feel morally virtuous while drinking coffee, don't you?