“The churches in Northern Ireland are too posh-looking, their hedges are too high.”
This was the assessment offered by Margaret Blair, a volunteer at The Gap Christian outreach project in Coleraine, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence. Blair’s interview was part of a piece by reporter Mark McCleary on a new Northern Ireland branch of Church Action Poverty (CAP).
Organised initially last year, CAP Northern Ireland was launched on Sunday January 31, 2010 at the Moravian Church on University Road in Belfast with an information session and worship service. CAP-NI is an ecumenical organisation concerned with raising awareness about the high levels of poverty in Northern Ireland, and encouraging both politicians and people at the grassroots to act to alleviate it.
Continue reading ‘Church Action Poverty: Northern Ireland Launch and Call to Action’
Northern Ireland is dealing with its past every day – but usually not in a way that is helpful or constructive. That was the message from a panel discussion, ‘Can we Handle the Truth?’ that I attended on Saturday 30 January 2010 in Derry.
The panel featured Denis Bradley, who along with Lord Robin Eames was co-chair of the Consultative Group on the Past. A year ago, only a few days after the Consultative Group had released its Report on dealing with the past, I attended a similar panel discussion.
Continue reading ‘Northern Ireland Reconciliation – Those who [try to] forget their past are doomed to repeat it…’
Dave Tomlinson is one of the keynote speakers at the Belfast Re-Emergence Conference, ‘The Church is Dead, Long Live the Church,’ scheduled for March 16-18, 2010, at the Irish School of Ecumenics (Trinity College Dublin at Belfast). In his most recent book, Re-Enchanting Christianity: Faith in an Emerging Culture, (Canterbury Press, 2008) Tomlinson dissects all that is unattractive and downright revolting about contemporary Christianity in the West. From there, he offers some insights on how Christians can engage more wholesomely (I deliberately do not say ‘effectively’) with the challenges of post-modernity.
As I read the book I couldn’t help thinking of the American Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas, who once said something to the effect:
Continue reading ‘Dave Tomlinson Book Review – Re-Enchanting Christianity, & The Re-Emergence Conference (Belfast)’
After a century of ecumenism, where are we? Most scholars date the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement to the 1910 Edinburgh Conference, where church leaders gathered to forge a way forward for greater cooperation in missionary endeavours. But 100 years on ‘mission’ – with its overtones of proselytization – means something quite different to ecumenists.
Along with the journal Concilium, my School is hosting a conference, ‘From World Mission to Interreligious Witness – Visioning Ecumenics in the 21st Century,’ June 16-18, 2010 at Trinity College Dublin. The conference will explore this and other significant shifts in global ecumenism. More information is available at the conference website.
Continue reading ‘From World Mission to Interreligious Witness – Visioning Ecumenics in the 21st Century: Conference in Dublin June 16-18, 2010′
Northern Ireland’s two largest parties are locked in yet another round of negotiations on policing and justice, the spectre of the Orange Order and its marches casting its usual shadow over proceedings. But the new ‘Platform for Change Northern Ireland’ – which will be launched in Belfast next month – dares to ask if we can indeed have normal politics here.
Chaired by Robin Wilson (the former chair of the think tank Democratic Dialogue), Platform for Change seeks to empower citizens who feel apathetic or politically disempowered. This is, most likely, a common feeling throughout Northern Ireland, where the parties we elect seem unable to get much done.
Continue reading ‘The Platform for Change Northern Ireland: Dare We Dream of Normal Politics?’
‘Born Again,’ is a term that is used derisively in Ireland to denote conservative evangelical Christians. Outsiders sometimes refer to them collectively as ‘the born agains,’ with either a smirk or a sigh, signalling their disagreement with their religion and most likely their politics.
It saddens me that ‘born again’ has become such a by-word. After all, at a metaphorical level the idea of being born again is compellingly powerful. The phrase captures the great transformative potential available to human beings who are willing to open their minds to new ideas and experiences and set off on a path that can change them so completely that their lives seem entirely new.
Continue reading ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010: Can Ecumenism Be Born Again?’
The ancient Celtic world and its larger-than-life inhabitants have too often been manipulated for political and religious ends. A glance at some of the gable walls of Northern Ireland’s cities make that all too clear.
But the Celtic tradition need not be divisive, or the preserve of one ‘side’ in the longstanding conflict on this island. The latest book by Rev. Dr Johnston McMaster, A Passion for Justice: Social Ethics in the Celtic Tradition, (Dunedin, 2008) reinterprets Celtic Christianity with a view to utilising its greatest insights to promote peace, justice and all-around ethical practice.
Continue reading ‘Johnston McMaster Book Review: A Passion for Justice – Social Ethics in the Celtic Tradition’
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has a whiff of the ‘worthy cause’ about it, for those who are not opposed to the idea of ecumenism altogether. Perhaps ‘Christian Unity’ sounds like something that would be a good idea, but it seems a very long way off. Indeed, one respondent to the survey my School conducted last year, when asked about ecumenism and Christian unity, wrote rather earnestly: ‘Don’t give up!’
In these surveys, we asked people to provide examples of ecumenical activities or events that they had participated in. Services for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity figured prominently in the responses.
Continue reading ‘Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010: ‘Don’t Give Up!’’
Published on
January 21, 2010 in
Morality.
Pardon the pun, but a US gun manufacturer has just given more ammunition to those who think that religion is an inherently violent force for evil in the world.
The manufacturer, Trijicon, has inscribed “2COR4:6″ and “JN8:12″ on its gun sights. The BBC reports that Trijicon was ‘founded by a devout Christian’ who runs the company to ‘Biblical standards.’
Continue reading ‘God & Guns, Dodging a Bullet On Thou shall not kill?’
The Irish bishops are to travel to Rome to face the man in charge, Pope Benedict, and discuss possibilities for the church in the aftermath of the clerical sex scandals.
The talks are scheduled for the 15th and 16th of February. The Irish Times reports that: Continue reading ‘Pope Summons Irish Bishops To Rome’
This was the assessment offered by Margaret Blair, a volunteer at The Gap Christian outreach project in Coleraine, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence. Blair’s interview was part of a piece by reporter Mark McCleary on a new Northern Ireland branch of Church Action Poverty (CAP).
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