Home

Church of Ireland Home

Diocesan News

Newtownards leaders unite against hate crime

Far left, the Revd Alan Peek, rector of Movilla, pictured with other local religious leaders, the Mayor of Ards and North Down, Cllr Richard Smart, and Mike Nesbitt MLA. Ards Churches Together is a collective of leaders from Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, non–denominational and other backgrounds.
Far left, the Revd Alan Peek, rector of Movilla, pictured with other local religious leaders, the Mayor of Ards and North Down, Cllr Richard Smart, and Mike Nesbitt MLA. Ards Churches Together is a collective of leaders from Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, non–denominational and other backgrounds.

Church, civic and Muslim leaders from Newtownards have met together in a show of unity against hate crime in the borough.

The group was photographed outside the Islamic Prayer House in Greenwell Street, Newtownards, after a group of men posing as Ku Klux Klan members posed in the same spot last weekend. Police are treating the weekend’s incident as a hate crime.

Local church leaders have condemned the group and Ards Churches Together, which includes the Church of Ireland parishes of St Mark’s and Movilla Abbey, issued the following statement:

“Newtownards is known as a kind, friendly and helpful community, so we were appalled to see symbols of hate appear on our streets this past weekend. The choices of those individuals to wear KKK robes have hurt the whole community and made people feel unsafe in their own homes.

“To those who feel intimidated or unwelcome as a result of these actions we say: You have our support. We stand with you.

“We encourage those involved to take responsibility for their actions and to come forward to the police. We also encourage them to talk to their local churches confidentially, if they would like to find a way to leave hate and hurt behind. As Ards Churches Together we say that hate has no place in our town.”

Our use of cookies

Some cookies are necessary for us to manage how our website behaves while other optional, or non-necessary, cookies help us to analyse website usage. You can Accept All or Reject All optional cookies or control individual cookie types below.

You can read more in our Cookie Notice

Functional

These cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics cookies

Analytical cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage.