Moderator, Dr David Bruce, offers a hope-filled Easter reflection.
I
would like to tell you part of the story of my father’s family. It’s a familiar Ulster Presbyterian tale, which begins in the townland of Mullaghboy, outside Bellaghy. The small farm of 18 acres had been home to the Bruce family for as long as records can show. James Bruce was born and grew up there, and farmed the land as a tenant. His son William continued the family tradition, taking over the small-holding in the 1870s. William took advantage of the Land Acts of the 1880s to buy out his tenancy, and the farm prospered under his ownership as the land was improved. They had three children. One son left Ireland in 1904 to start a new life in America. Their daughter, Minnie, got married and moved away. So it was
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Herald Spring 2021
Howard, my grandfather, who inherited the farm. In those years he would read in the newspaper of the sinking of the Titanic, the devastation of the ‘war to end all wars’, the Easter Rising in 1916 and the partition of Ireland in 1921, followed by a brutal civil conflict. These were turbulent times to marry and start a family, but Howard and my grandmother Isobel were determined people, who had learned
The Christian way is a journey of hope no matter how gloomy, bruised and unpromising the past may have been.
how to adapt in a crisis. For them, there was always hope that the future would be brighter. Come what may, they would find a way forward, no matter how deep the problems they faced. This would lead them to sell the farm, start a small business and push their two young sons, one of whom was my father, to make the most of their opportunities – first in Castledawson, later in Portrush, and finally in Belfast. They had their own challenges to face, living and working through the Great Depression and the Second World War, but they were driven by hope, not crushed by despair. The Christian faith offers us a profoundly optimistic view of life. The Good Friday cross may seem to be the ultimate moment of defeat as Jesus, our teacher and friend, was executed. But
