Bishops of the Irish Catholic Church are in Rome, and will meet the Pope on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the state of the Irish Catholic Church and its response to clerical sexual abuse. So What? Will what happens in Rome really matter to Catholics on this island? The Irish Times reports that Bishop Joseph [...]
Archive | February, 2010
Peter Rollins & Impossible Tales for Lent: A Review of Seven More Parables from The Orthodox Heretic
Back at Christmas time, I reviewed Peter Rollins’ latest book, The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. With the traditional Christian season of Lent nearly upon us, Rollins’ publisher Paraclete Press has released seven additional parables, available to all those who have purchased the book. Rollins’ tales are short and sometimes cryptic. In the book, [...]
Choosing My Religion: A Conversation about our Book, Meet the Evangelicals
Dr Claire Mitchell and I will have a conversational workshop about a book we are writing together, provisionally titled Meet the Evangelicals: Journeys in a Northern Irish Evangelical Subculture, from 9.30-12.30 on Friday February 26, 2010, at East Belfast Mission on the Newtownards Road. The book is the product of more than a decade of [...]
Marianne Elliott Book Review: When God Took Sides
Marianne Elliott’s latest book, provocatively titled When God Took Sides: Religion and Identity in Ireland – Unfinished History, (Oxford University Press, 2009) describes how Catholics and Protestants in Ireland perceive each other – and explains why this matters so much today. Elliott’s title conveys the idea that both Catholics and Protestants assumed that God was [...]
Sex Abuse & the Irish Catholic Church: A Resounding Critique of Clerical Culture
Writing in today’s Irish Times, Dr Derek Smyth, a psychotherapist and a priest in Foxrock parish, Co. Dublin, offers a stinging critique of Irish Catholic clerical culture and asks, ‘Why were we so silent on child abuse? Why didn’t we speak up?’ Smyth draws on research that attests that [clerical culture] does contribute to the [...]
The Suspension of Bishop Paul Verryn & the Zimbabwean Refugees: Problems with being a Prophet?
Last month Bishop Paul Verryn was suspended from the Methodist Church of Southern Africa. Bishop Verryn was a prominent anti-apartheid campaigner and has in recent years become well-known for opening the doors of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg to Zimbabwean refugees. About 2,000 displaced Zimbabweans sleep in the church every night. Everyone seems to [...]
Evangelicals & Gay Rights in Ireland: Evangelical Alliance’s Surprise Support for Civil Partnerships Bill
One issue that is sure to bring Christian voices out in the public sphere is gay rights. The overwhelming impression that one gets is that Christians are opposed to extending gay rights, particularly when it comes to marriage or civil partnerships. A surprising exception to this has been the Evangelical Alliance in the Republic of [...]
Peter Rollins & The Rapture – St Anne & ‘Evandelism’ Tracts
There’s a new sculpture in St Anne’s Square in Belfast. Crafted by Lucy Glendinning, it is the figure of a woman being lifted up to the heavens. She faces out towards St Anne’s Cathedral, and it appears she is being ‘raptured’, taken up to meet the Lord in the air. I think the sculpture looks [...]
Shared Eucharist – Should it be a Priority for the Irish Churches?
When I attend a Catholic Church, one of the saddest parts of the service for me is the Eucharist. I’m a Christian – but not a Catholic – so that means that I’m prohibited from taking part in that meaningful and central ritual. Sometimes I feel angry, because in other Christian churches everyone is invited [...]
What can the Churches Learn from Zimbabwe’s Masowe Apostles?: Isabel Mukonyora Book Review, Wandering a Gendered Wilderness
I’m intrigued by the astronomical growth of Christianity in the majority world, and I think it’s important that Christians in the West ask themselves what the churches in all the far-flung corners of the globe can teach us. That’s a part of what motivates my research on charismatic Christianity in Zimbabwe. During my fieldwork in [...]
About me
Welcome to Building a Church Without Walls, a website for people who are excited about how Christianity is developing in the 21st Century. I am a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Studies Programme at Trinity College Dublin at Belfast (the Irish School of Ecumenics).
Please note this is my personal site. All views are my own and are not representative of TCD.
