What I Do
Writing
I love to write. I’ve authored a couple of books and contributed to some other projects. I’m drawn most to the stories that people rarely hear. Those are the ones that often help us most.
Speaking
I speak and teach on topics like storytelling, reconciliation and forgiveness, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, incarceration, and more
Tenx9 Nashville Storytelling
Tenx9 Nashville is a Belfast-originated monthly community storytelling night where 9 people have up to ten minutes each to tell a real story from their lives, based on a theme. I’ve been running this in Nashville since September 2013.
Narrative 4
I’m soon to be one of Narrative 4’s Master Practitioners. Narrative 4 is global network of authors, educators, students, and artists using the power of personal stories to build empathy and spark collaborative change.
Israel-Palestine Tours
In addition to speaking and teaching on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I also organize and co-lead political and religious tours to Israel and Palestine, taking pilgrims to the sites of ancient stories and introducing them to the people telling new stories.
A New Daily Advent Reader for Peacemakers
This is the Advent reader I’ve been waiting for: diverse, timely, and topical. Along with my friend Claire Brown, I’ve been working throughout the end of October and early November to assemble this remarkable list of contributors for a daily Advent reader focused on what the Advent season has to say about peacemaking. Subscribers will […]
Tenx9 Nashville Podcast: Interview
As you may know, I’m the founder and curator of Tenx9 Nashville, a Belfast-originated monthly community storytelling night where 9 people have up to ten minutes each to tell a real story from their lives. It’s been going on here in town since September 2013, and this summer, we finally got around to launching a […]
Where I’m From: A Poem
For four days at the end of June, I attended the annual summit of Narrative 4 in Limerick, Ireland. Before arriving, we were asked to craft a poem about where we’re from. Here’s is mine, in three parts, as I wrote it in June 2017.
Gospel Rewrite: Jesus and Violence
Jesus is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane and then appears before Pilate. But this version goes a little differently than the one you’re used to.
Gospel Rewrite: Jesus and the Death Penalty
Placing her in the center of the group, 4 they said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone women like this. What do you say?”
Gospel Rewrite: The Holy Family Becomes Refugees
Joseph and Mary flee with the young Jesus to Egypt. But it doesn’t go as planned–at least not in this rewrite.
“[Where the River Bends] is important … We cannot encounter these pages and remain unaffected. But what will happen to us if we listen to those we tend to ignore? This book is one way to find out. I encourage us all to listen.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, from the foreword
“We can theorize about what forgiveness really means, or we can talk and listen to those we have viewed as unforgivable. Where the River Bends … offers depth of insight and perspective that is rare yet essential if we are going to move to higher ground.”
Michelle Alexander, bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
“…Where the River Bends is a book pregnant with the hope that comes through the power of forgiveness. Don’t just read this book… let it move you to become an agent of mercy in a merciless world.”
Shane Claiborne, bestselling author of The Irresistible Revolution
Letters from “Apartheid Street” is “a valuable resource for all who are called to be peacemakers – which should mean all of us.”
Brian D. McLaren, bestselling author of A Kind of Christianity
“Our field needs passionate, on-the-ground, first hand descriptions of the challenges of constructively engaging settings of deep and painful conflict. [Letters from “Apartheid Street”] provides just such a window.”
John Paul Lederach, peacebuilder, author of The Moral Imagination
“Pay serious heed to Michael McRay.”
David Dark, author of Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious
“Surprisingly invitational… [Letters from “Apartheid Street”] is a book worth reading and rereading. As a guide for activism, I hope these reflections will have a profoundly rippling effect.”
Kathy Kelly, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee
“Most of us seem content to merely believe stereotypes we hear about prisoners from television, movies, etc. [Where the River Bends], however, shatters this view of the criminal offender.
…
Letters from “Apartheid Street” is “invaluable, necessary, and absolutely brilliant.”
Englewood Review of Books
“What is hopeful about [Letters from “Apartheid Street”] is the humanity the author shows through his interaction with Jews and Palestinians. In a down to earth yet profound way, this book shows Jews a way out of the injustice of occupying another people.”
Marc H. Ellis, author of Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation
Letters from “Apartheid Street” is “an important read for human rights workers who want to do this work with integrity, but more importantly, who want to learn how to be the change that they want to see in the world.”
Tarek Abuata, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel – North America
