BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

DUNWOODY--Families involved with Ulster Project Atlanta gathered Aug. 25 to pray for peace and for the teens they have hosted from Omagh, Northern Ireland, after the market town was devastated by a car bomb in the ongoing conflict between Protestants and Catholics.

Ulster Project Atlanta sponsored the ecumenical memorial service at All Saints Church, remembering the 28 people who were killed in the region’s deadliest blast in 30 years and also past Ulster Project participants and their loved ones. A 29th victim died in early September and more than 330 were wounded.

Ulster Project is a peace project which matches Protestant and Catholic teens from Northern Ireland with American families with teens each summer to promote religious tolerance and good will among them. Twelve teens came to Atlanta this July, none of whom are believed to have been injured in the bombing.

Following a procession to the sounds of bagpipes, Msgr. R. Donald Kiernan, pastor of All Saints, asked those of all denominations to pray for peace and healing in the Northern Ireland conflict and for those killed in the bombing.

Jim Flannery, professor of Irish studies at Emory University and a member of the campus Catholic Center, sang “Be Thou My Vision” and read the ancient Irish poem “Evening-Song of St. Patrick.” Scripture readings were given by a Jewish rabbi and by Methodist and Presbyterian ministers. Dr. John Westerhoff, pastor of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta, gave the homily.

“Tonight we gather to memorialize the victims of the most recent tragic, insane bombing in Northern Ireland; we gather to share feelings of disbelief, dismay, grief, anger, pain, revulsion and helplessness; we gather to pray for the continuation of the peace accord; and we gather to hear God’s word of hope for peace and God’s personal call to live faithfully as peacemakers in a violent world,” he said.

The pastor reminded Christians of their obligation to imitate Jesus by showing non-violent love and seeking the highest good for their enemies and all others through God’s grace.

“When facing circumstances where it seems like nothing we can do will be productive, there is a way of doing nothing that is spiritually significant,” he said. “As a people who have experienced the peace of God, we are to offer the world a witness to an alternative way of life, a way of life made possible only through our life of prayer.”

He asked the congregation to accept God’s grace “to be a sign and witness to God’s presence and action in human life and history through the simple, faithful gestures of a peaceable people.”

“Let us tonight accept the call and the gift and leave more committed than ever to the Ulster Project and to being peacemakers in every aspect of our lives.”

Names of Omagh bombing victims were read by Craig Miller, a parishioner of All Saints and a 1997 Ulster Project teen. Maria Walker, a host teen from St. John Neumann Church, Lilburn, laid a white rose on the altar.

Her mother, Ellie Walker, said that the teen the family hosted witnessed the Omagh bombing.

“She was quite upset, understandably, and felt that the images of things she had seen that day were unerasable. When you see bodies blown up in front of you, these are very difficult things to see. She said she saw someone with their head off.”

Walker said the memorial service “reminds me of my duty and obligation to pray for peace. Sometimes we can look at all these things and feel helpless. Sometimes we can think we’re born in this violent world and there’s nothing we can do about it. If we can just take a moment each day and pray for peace on earth...”

Greg Dunn, 15, a parishioner of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta, who hosted a teen this summer, communicated with the Omagh youth after the bombing.

“As soon as I got a letter from one of the girls, nobody knew what happened to her the next day. It was just like a really scary reality,” Dunn said. The memorial enabled him “to realize the sadness of this great disaster.”

Constance Callahan, president of Ulster Project Atlanta, said attendees signed a condolence book which would be sent to Omagh.

“Ulster Project wants to continue to help the people in Omagh and the best way they can do that is bringing more teens here,” Callahan said. “What we’d like is more help from people interested in volunteering and helping them build friendships on both sides, Protestant and Catholic.”

Amanda Nichols, a St. Pius X High School student whose family hosted a teen, has written letters to all Ulster Project teens in Omagh without e-mail to offer them support.

Nichols said the teens told her in July that the tension between Catholics and Protestants “wasn’t that bad in Omagh. They tended to get along very well. There wasn’t that much separation between them. There wasn’t that much animosity between them.”

Irish Republican Army dissidents, who refused to accept the IRA’s July 1997 cease-fire, have taken responsibility for the bomb, the worst terrorist atrocity in Northern Ireland. A political agreement was reached in May and ratified by referendums in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic that could lead to a new era in the region.