02.03.2015
First Q Commons Dublin Encourages Participants to Examine Faith and Society
The first Q Commons Dublin took place in Christ Church Cathedral on Friday evening, February 27. Dublin was more than 60 cities around the world to host Q Commons this year and the event was facilitated by, Greg Fromholz of Dublin and Glendalough’s Young Adults’ Ministry.
Hosted by a partnership of Dublin and Glendalough Young Adults Ministry, Rubicon, the Young Adults Leadership Programme and Innovista, Q Commons involved people in cities all over the world gathering to consider how to advance good in their local communities.
During the evening three video interviews were played in venues around the world. But there were also panels of local speakers and opportunities for participants to discuss what they had heard.
The first international speaker was New York Times best selling author Malcolm Gladwell, Addressing the subject of legitimacy, he talked about what it meant to be an effective leader of society. “True leadership begins not with leaders imposing their will but through them understanding that people join and obey because of legitimacy… the core notion of legitimacy is that how you carry out those ideas are more important that the ideas themselves,” he said.
The first of the local panel discussions featured the Very Revd Dermot Dunne, Dean, Christ Church Cathedral, Dr Ali Alsaleh: Imam, Ahlul–Bait Islamic Center, Nick Park, Executive Director, Evangelical Alliance Ireland; and the Very Reverend Kieran McDermott: Episcopal Vicar for Evangelisation & Ecumenism for Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin. The discussion was based on a quote from Archbishop Richard Clarke and asked ‘Have we as faith communities lost our legitimacy in the public square and how can we regain our voice? It was chaired by Greg Fromholz.
Fr McDermott suggested that the Christian voice clamoured among other voices and would only really be heard if it was legitimate. He added that the word ‘church’ was difficult for young people today but the message was still fresh and valid. Nick Park said the Church had lost its privileged voice which was a good thing meaning that it had become more authentic. Dean Dunne felt that the Church had a club mentality and suggested the Church must constantly express the Gospel in different ways to avoid becoming stagnant. Dr Alsaleh said that the needs of people were the same and that mankind needed religion but he added that if that religion did not respond to mankind’s need that he would leave.
In the next video presentation award winning journalist Soledad O’Brien spoke about race in America. She said conversations about race were difficult but stated “You cannot advance good if you do not confront bad. What will bring about renewal is digging into those tougher moments in our own story”.
The final video instalment was from television producter Mark Burnett (The Voice, Survivor, Shark Tank, Dragons Den). He spoke about how his Christian faith influenced the programmes he produced. He said that Christians tended to hold back but he stated that it was important that the Christian community work together in unity, as one Church and one set of brothers and sisters in Christ speaking with one voice against Christian persecution.
The final local panel discussion was on faith in the media and featured Roger Childs of RTE Religious Programming (Director and Producer of the “Meaning of Life”) and Michael Kelly, Editor of The Irish Catholic. Asked by Greg how much people of faith should engage with the media Roger Childs said religion had a place in the national conversation but broadcasters should aspire to be guided by morality but not be a source of morality. In answer to a question from the audience about the source of morality in the media, Michael Kelly suggested that society had been cut from its moorings and a lot of the things that bound Irish people together were no longer present. He said as a society we were struggling to find a relationship with faith.
Bringing the evening to a close Greg thanked all involved in the Dublin event. He encouraged people to keep in touch with each other and to continue the conversation.
Photo captions:
Top – The Q Commons Dublin team – The Revd Rob Jones, Sam Moore, Paul Keegan, Orla Reynolds, Greg Fromholz (city leader) and Gerard Gallagher.
Middle –Greg Fromholz with the faith panel: the Very Reverend Kieran
McDermott, Nick Park, Dr Ali Alsaleh and the Very Revd Dermot Dunne.
Bottom – Greg Fromholz with the media panel: Michael Kelly and Roger Childs.