EAST BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND. We have created a new prayer canvas for the congregation and leadership at the East Belfast Mission. Their prayers for the new facility, mission and ministry have already begun to fill the canvas. The prayer canvas when completed will find its home in Skainos and the East Belfast Mission.
The Skainos Project is a flagship redevelopment scheme on a brownfield site in the Ballymacarrett area of East Belfast. When completed, the Skainos Project will be inclusive of the whole community, where people can gather, eat meals together, worship, and find help for health, employment, education, childcare, housing, and spiritual concerns.
Derived from a biblical Greek word and rooted firmly in Christian tradition and history, the name Skainos speaks of the importance of practical engagement with a community by figuratively pitching a tent in its midst, and it hints at the notion of hospitality and the extended family. An alternative meaning for the word is as a description of the frailty of human beings. It stands therefore as a useful counterbalance to the temptation to focus solely on new buildings to the detriment of serving people.
The Skainos Project is about the future. It’s about meeting the present and prospective needs of this community. It’s about building a partnership of public agencies, private bodies, community groups and church and harnessing that partnership for the benefit of East Belfast. It’s about integrating care and developmental support for children, families, young people, people who are homeless or unemployed, and the elderly. And it’s about providing shared space for people from all backgrounds and communities in East Belfast.
Images © Genesis+Art Studio
