October 1998. Two young women meet by chance in Krishna-Balarama Temple temple in Vrindavana. Veronica Sexton, a professional woodcarver from Ireland, is seeking a way to use her talents in God's service. Standing beside her, before the sumptuous altar, is Gopi Manjari, ISKCON Belfast’s head priest.

Veronica: Gopi and I stood side by side at the altar in front of the Deities. I was looking up at the wonderful carved altar and then I thought “that’s what I can do. I’ll carve an altar for the Belfast temple.” I turned to Gopi and said “Would you like me to carve you an altar for Belfast?”

“What! Can you really do that, you can carve like that?”

“Yeah sure.” She could hardly believe this, the look on her face was great. Why? Because as we were looking at the altar she was praying for an new beautiful altar to be made for Belfast some day. As it turned out, both our prayers were answered. It was arranged there and then that on my return from India I would go to Belfast and begin my service for God.

Gopi: Veronica took on the design and carving of the altar and began a study of Indian carving traditions. I set about raising the necessary funds to complete the project. Members of different communities in Northern Ireland lent their generous support. We also received funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

The central idea for the altar involves a mingling of Indian and Celtic symbolism. This makes the altar unique. By drawing attention to the underlying similarities and correspondences between these two ancient traditions the message is the basic oneness of spiritual endeavour in all traditions and also the diversity of forms in which our spiritual endeavour may be expressed.

Veronica has created a masterpiece of the woodcarver's craft. She continued work through a busy schedule, including her wedding and giving birth to a son. We’ve been working on a suitable setting for Veronica’s work — marble crafted by experts to create the base and steps for the altar.

After two years in the planning and construction the altar is nearly ready.

It becomes apparent that the altar is about more than just ISKCON Belfast. People of all religious and ethnic backgrounds are welcome to visit the altar and appreciate its spiritual symbolism and its message of unity in diversity. Vaishnavas welcome dialogue with different spiritual traditions and hope that the new altar will serve as a symbol of peace and co-operation among all the spiritual groups throughout Northern Ireland.

The altar was installed on 10 February 2001 in the presence of representatives from government bodies, arts groups, and other religious traditions. Media interest has been good, with articles already appearing in some newspapers.

A detail of the carving

Gopi Manjari Devi Dasi, head pujari at ISKCON Belfast, comes form a Vaisnava family and has been serving the Deities in Belfast for six years.

Veronica Sexton is an award-winning master-carver. She has worked on restoration of Windsor Castle and carved an altar for a Greek Orthodox church in Minneapolis, USA.