Welcome to the Dignity Restored website!

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For more than 25 years God has taken me on a prayer and reconciliation journey in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States of America. As I was to find out, they are interconnected by the influences of what has been described as an “empire spirit” which emanated from the Roman Emperor Constantine in 330 AD.

The dictionary gives these powerful meanings to the words “dignity” and “restored” -

Dignity: The fact of being given honour and respect by people; a sense of one's own importance and value.

Restoration: a returning to a former position or condition; reinstatement; restitution; a restoring to an unimpaired or improved condition, e.g. the restoration of a painting.

These two words are primarily what this website is all about – ultimately, the restoration of the dignity of God’s name and the dignity and destiny of His body, the Church in these Nations.

As you read further under the headings of “Our Mission” and “Our History”, you will see that God led me (Harry) to research and finally write about specific issues in our history. The first of these was connected to 1912 and the Home Rule crisis in Ireland, which led to the Spiritual and Political leadership within the Protestant community drawing up and endorsing the Ulster Covenant.  This further led me to understand the role of covenants in this period of our history – both in the Protestant/Unionist and the Catholic/Nationalist communities (1912 & 1916) – and how these are still shaping the political and spiritual landscape of Ireland today. Out of this a book eventually emerged – “Heal Not Lightly.”

A few years later, God put another issue on my heart, which in some incredible way was connected – the migration to America in the mid-1600s of the Puritans and in the early 1700s the Ulster-Scots (Scots Irish).  With their westward expansion, they caused the displacement and deaths of many thousands of Native American Nations.  

As I prayed, researched, and travelled in the USA, the title of another book emerged - “A Destiny Denied, A Dignity Restored.”  A significant finding in that research was the term “The Doctrine of Discovery.”  It was an evolving doctrine within the papacy which established the legal, political, and legal framework for empire expansion. As I explain in my newest book, “A Tree has Roots”, this Doctrine – introduced into Ireland in the 12th Century - continues to be played out in Ireland today. In it lies the ultimate question – are we as a Church in Ireland truly “seeking first the kingdom of God”, or are we bowing the knee to the idols of either Irish Catholic or Ulster Protestant Unionist Nationalism? Sadly, through my research, I conclude it is the latter! A root is being exposed.

All three of these books are about “roots”. Without understanding and owning the negative aspects of our histories, we cannot know God’s healing, nor can we become His agents of reconciliation. 

“... from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”  2 Corinthians 5:15-18 (NIV)

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