Eighteen teenagers from the village of Zebabdeh in Palestine last week visited ancient Christian sites in County Down as part of a two-week visit to Ireland, North and South.
The visitors joined with young people from the Belfast-based Northern Ireland Memorial Fund and Ballinteer Community School in Dublin to learn about the legacy of St Patrick and the possibilities for reconciliation and peace-building at Down Cathedral and Saul Church, where they were welcomed by Church of Ireland Dean of Down, the Very Rev Henry Hull.
The Palestinian young people's visit has been organised through Youth Connections for Peace. They come from the Zebabdeh Youth Group for Peace and Reconciliation, established to explore a sense of identity and confidence for young people in the context of a shrinking Christian community in the Holy Land, which now stands at just 2 per cent of the population.
Indigenous Palestinian Christians are descended from some of the earliest strands of Christianity. The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev Alan Harper, met some of the group while on a recent visit to the Holy Land, when he commented that Palestinian Christians needed to "begin to believe that they are not a forgotten people".
In welcoming the group, Dean Hull said, "This visit is an opportunity for the Palestinian young people to have their own faith enriched while here and to take hope.
"In the Irish context, St Patrick, so associated with the ancient sites here, is a unifying symbol and one of reconciliation. Patrick came to Ireland as a hostage from another country yet here his faith became real to him."
The group travelled on to Saul Church and Downpatrick Cathedral from Rostrevor, where they were given a music session as part of the Healing through Music festival, and also visited the St Patrick's Centre in Downpatrick.
