Steve Stockman on crossing divides, friends in high places, United to City and that decade of atheism – Belfast Telegraph

Rev Steve Stockman has friends in high places. Theres rocker Gary Lightbody, world-famous Catholic priest Fr Martin Magill... and, of course, The Man Above.

ut it wasnt always like that, and youd probably never guess that this highly respected man of the cloth was once an atheist.

Then again, the Co Antrim native has never been one for fitting societal stereotypes.

Going back a few years, I was even scruffier than I am now, and I had an earring; no one believed what I did for a living, he told the Belfast Telegraph.

One customs officer just wouldnt accept that I was a minister. He was about to ask me what the four Gospels were

After yet another disbelieving customs officer handed back the long-haired clerics passport, he said to her: You dont think Jesus had short back and sides, do you?

Such unshakeable faith wasnt a staple of the younger Stockmans psyche.

When I was in lower sixth and looking at jobs, I wanted to be a sports or music journalist, he said.

I wanted to be the one asking the questions. I remember making up radio shows for English class and writing a youth club magazine.

Believe it or not, he also went through a decade of atheism from age seven to 17 starting the year he crossed another divide by switching from supporting Manchester United to Manchester City.

I was waiting for the football to start one Sunday afternoon when I was seven and during the programme before it, an interviewer asked his guest if they believed in God, he recalled.

I thought that was an interesting question and decided quickly that I didnt.

I dont know what my reasons were for not believing but they were very strong. I wasnt a passive atheist; I used to argue with Christians that there was no God.

But Steve, who has been based at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church for the last 12 years, now believes that might have been the moment that God started nudging me to the question.

Ultimately, it was the rock music fans friends who helped change his mind about Gods existence when he was 17.

I was hanging around with Christians and asking the question, If God doesnt exist, then why are these guys so committed and so at peace with their world? he said.

So I started to pray and study the Bible... and then I sensed that God was very much in my life.

There were signs too.

I was sitting in front of my album collection and the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd were at the front of it, he revealed.

One of their albums Street Survivors has them standing in flames and I remember saying, Well, if youre so great and almighty, you can take the flames off that album cover.

Nothing happened. But three months later and Id come to faith at this stage I was in a record shop in Canada looking through albums and I found the Lynyrd Skynyrd one this time with a cover minus the flames.

That was the only album in my 100-strong collection where the cover was different in Canada than it was here... things like that were adding up at the time.

Steve, who was chaplain at Queens University, Belfast for 15 years, doesnt believe happiness is a deal that God gives us.

Happiness is a kind of Hollywood 20th century idea that Im not sure many people who follow Jesus down through centuries experienced in the way we describe it, he said.

The happiness we seek is almost an entitlement of having things the right address, the right car etc.

I dont think thats what God was about. The God of the manger, the donkey and the cross is a humble God, out to make other peoples lives not necessarily happy but better.

Steve is probably best known for the 4 Corners Festival and for his peace process collaboration with Clonard Monastery.

Theres also his friendship with Falls Road priest Fr Magill, who made global headlines two years ago for his angry homily towards Northern Irelands politicians at the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee.

Both men turn 60 this year and both asked for charitable donations in lieu of presents. Their modest target 1,000 for Embrace NI, an interdenominational organisation that helps refugees, was reached within a couple of days and quickly readjusted.

Although Steve lives in Belfast, its a house he has owned in Ballycastle for 24 years that he calls home.

Despite growing up in a deeply divided Ballymena, the Gracehill Primary School past pupil wasnt affected by sectarianism.

I was aware of its existence but never involved in it nor did it touch me in my own psyche, he said.

I became what I would call a member of the Venn diagram where I think theres a part of me thats British and a part thats Irish. Im still very comfortable being both.

Although famed for peace process collaboration, he admits that growing up in Presbyterianism, ecumenism was almost a bad word.

You might have talked to Catholics but you certainly didnt worship with them or think about doing things with the Catholic Church, he said.

My drive, which includes a bit of ecumenism, is peace making... Fr Martin and I can be who we are in our own identities but we can come together for the common good. We can be good friends without agreeing on every theological issue.

He added: I came to faith because I thought Jesus was really cool and wise and sensible and you should love your enemies.

So, were Catholics the enemy?

I wouldnt call it enemy, I would call it the other... where theyre different, you have to reach beyond, you have to cross the boundary to be friends. I think thats what Jesus was about.

But Steve, who will be 60 on October 10, then added that he stayed away from it on a practical level for 30 years until I met Martin. Prior to that, I was still talking about it but not really doing it.

That defining friendship came about in 2011 a year before they founded the festival.

Martin wanted to do Irish lessons and had a zany idea of doing it with Catholics and Protestants, he said.

He knew that Protestants werent likely to go to Lenadoon, where he was at the time, but Fitzroy had an Irish service once a month. He rang me and asked if he could borrow Fitzroy.

I told him he could and offered to lend him my wifes cousin, an Irish teacher.

We met for a coffee and I went away thinking that it wasnt the end of the friendship, just the beginning.

The 4 Corners Festival has hit the headlines more than once.

There was Steves interview with Snow Patrols Gary Lightbody; before that, an event featuring Brighton bomber Patrick Magee and Jo Berry (whose father, Sir Anthony Berry,was killed in the atrocity) caused a riot outside the Skainos Centre in east Belfast in 2014.

Some people didnt like a Brighton bomber on the Newtownards Road... that got us front page news... so that was bigger than Gary Lightbody, he said.

Wed already done Ricky Ross from Deacon Blue, Ian Archer (who wrote Hold Back the River for James Bay and Lightning Bolt for Jake Bugg) but Gary was the best known.

He was amazing. He had my back. Hes a wonderful human being. That was great fun.

So where did the idea for his blog Soul Surmise (initially Rhythms of Redemption because Ihad a BBC radio show from 1996 to 2006) come from?

Radiohead played a gig in the Mandela Hall at Queens in 1998; it was low key at the time, he said.

When the BBC did a 20th anniversary special on that gig, the only review they could find in the world was on my website.

I was one of the first to have a web page because a friend had shown me how to do it. When we got 100 hits after three months we thought we were the biggest thing in the world!

He advised me to change that to a blog in 2009, which is what we have now.

Steve has written two books including one on U2 which got to number 99 on the Amazon chart and helped a charity founder write his memoir.

Hes also written poetry compilationsfor different charities, as well as songs.

But since he moved from QUB to Fitzroy, he doesnt have as much time as he used to.

He cites his wife Janice (54) as the biggest influence on his life.

The pair have been married for 25 years and have two daughters Caitlin (23), a recent graduate from Stranmillis, and Jasmine (20), a student at the University of Reading.

We met in her church when I was doing a mission in 1984 but we didnt start going out until 1989 and then we were married in 1996, he said.

Janice has been there in every turn, she encouraged me to be me and thats all I ever wanted.

She allowed me to be myself and even likes my long hair...

That may have something to do with the outer-worldly nature of their first encounter.

Were convinced that the first time we spoke, she was standing on the spot where her father asked her mother to marry him a kitchen in a church hall at Old Park Presbyterian.

Given the importance of his relationship with Janice, I asked him how he feels about clerics from the Catholic faith not being able to marry.

Janice is trying to get that sorted shes going to write to the Pope, he replied.

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Steve Stockman on crossing divides, friends in high places, United to City and that decade of atheism - Belfast Telegraph