For almost forty days now his feet have stood on ‘divided’ ground, his eyes have peered upon the comings and goings of two separate communities, and yet it seems that the longer he watches the more those divides seem to melt away.

Gripping a stark wooden cross Pastor Jack McKee, of New Life City Church has been carrying out a 40 day vigil, at dividing gates between the Falls and Shankill. It’s been an eye-opening experience for him: “I didn’t realise there were so many people who crossed the divide every day, so many who shop in the ‘other’ community.  It seems that there’s a greater openness than we realise here.”

Seven years ago Jack McKee carried out a 40 day cross walk around the same area: “I thought I’d never do anything like that again but recently I felt that we just weren’t getting the support we need or deserve to do cross-community work here.  I wanted to highlight that.”

And so he took up his cross, and his position, on the peace line at Northumberland Street.  He may have cut a somewhat lonely figures at times, but he has had the most amazing encounters, including an opportunity to forgive an enemy, who before now had remained faceless: “This motorcyclist stopped with me and said ‘Pastor Jack there’s something I want to say to you: I’ve driven past you before, I’ve honked my horn at you, you waved back but I’ve been wanting to talk to you…

“That night four years ago when your house was attacked with paint and your car petrol bombed… I led that attack - and I want to say that I’m sorry.’  To look that man in the eye, while holding the cross, and to genuinely forgive him was an amazing experience, it was definitely a God thing.”

Even while I chat to him, people wave across the street, cross the road to say hello or simply bring him a cup of coffee.  There is the sense that the community is behind him and the idea is that this solidarity will be illustrated on Saturday 17th, when young people from the Falls and Shankill link arms across the divide, in order to symbolically link their communities.  It will be a powerful moment.

“Our human wall shows that people have had enough of hatred and division,” Jack McKee says, “This is to show all the good work that is taking place to counter divides here.”  And it’s these connections which have been forged across the divide that he now wants to enhance, through the setting of a new community facility on the peace line.  New Life City Church have purchased a warehouse there, but they have so far been denied any government funding support for its refurbishment.

And so Jack McKee keeps on dreaming and he’s already witnessed plenty of miracles.  The piece of ground where the vigil has been taking place has been purchased by the Church, after the asking price dropped from £30, 000 to £800.  It’s a grey space which he wants to see colourfully transformed into a ‘peace site’, complete with landscape gardening, children’s play facilities and a seating area.

As Pastor McKee puts it: “It’s time to sit down and have conversations with each other, instead of throwing stones at each other.”