Letter: Politicians must speak up in defence of the right to freedom of worship

Fr Tim Bartlett is quite right to highlight his deep concern about the adverse impact of last Sunday’s Belfast half marathon on his parishioners as they sought to attend worship.

What he has had to say about the incident at St Mary’s ought to alarm all who value civil and religious liberty.

As an evangelical lobby group, the Caleb Foundation has repeatedly raised the issue of the Sunday marathon and its effect on churches with marathon organisers and others who have been supportive of such Sunday events. I have also had opportunity to debate it on the radio.

While we recognise that most marathons are held on Sunday, Belfast is still a church-going city and since the change from May Day Monday to Sunday for the main marathon, there has been considerable disruption to church life across the city.

Our representations on behalf of churches are received with apparent understanding and sympathy by event organisers, but then seem to be ignored.

As Fr Bartlett has said, the right to worship is a human right. Those in political life who repeatedly promote a rights-based agenda in the public square are very quick to emphasise the rights of a selective range of interest groups. Will they now speak up in defence of the right to freedom of worship?

We would also be interested in the thoughts of the organisers of last Sunday’s half marathon event.

Wallace Thompson, Chair, The Caleb Foundation