Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Press Releases

09 February 2001

Churches Working Together

The Community Relations Council (CRC) is publishing a new resource pack for church-based groups involved in community relations work. The publication, entitled 'Churches Working Together- A Practical Resource", has been commissioned by CRC's Churches Advisory Group and written by Johnston McMaster and Cathy Higgins, who are both teaching staff at the Irish School of Ecumenics.

Church involvement in community relations work has made major advances in recent years, reflected in the growth of inter-church fora meetings at local level. This has led to the demand for greater guidance and practical learning resources, including models of good practice .

The Community Relations Council's new publication is a loose leaf binder with information on Group Formation, Group Work Skills, The Role of the Facilitator, Models of Good Practice, a list of other useful publications and a guide to funding. It will be updated on the CRC web-site address and in occasional publications of new pages.

Among the models of good practice published in Churches Working Together are Gilnahirk Presbyterian and St.Colmcille's Catholic Churches in Ballyhacamore, Newtownabbey and Rathcoole Inter-Church Group, the Larne Millenium Initiative, Coleraine Borough Churches Forum and Cookstown and District Clergy Forum.

Churches Working Together will be launched at 10.00 am on Monday 12 February at the Spires Conference Centre in Belfast city centre. It will be available for sale at the Community Relations Resource Centre, 21 College Square East, and can be read or down loaded from the CRC website More…

For further information contact:
Ray Mullan, CRC Communications Director tel 028 90 227500
Derick Matthews, CRC Churches Officer tel 028 90 227500
Johnston McMaster, Irish School of Ecumenics tel 028 90 382750