Perspectives on religion & politics
Two weeks ago at the Re-Emergence conference in Belfast, Phyllis Tickle said that in the past 18 months, she had detected ‘emergence’ Christians beginning to distance themselves ever farther from the evangelical roots from which so many of them had come.
The controversy brewing in the US over Brian McLaren’s new book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith, seems to confirm that observation.
Continue reading ‘Brian McLaren: A New Kind of Christianity?’
Will we ever know the truth about Gerry Adams and the roles he played during the Troubles? Perhaps the more important question is whether we want to know.
The publication in the Sunday Times of the first part in a serialisation of journalist Ed Moloney’s new book, Voices from the Grave, contains quotations from a sensational interview with Brendan Hughes, a former commander of the IRA in Belfast.
‘There’s probably more theology in that film clip than in the book of Romans.’
Rev. Steve Stockman, the minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in Belfast, said words to that effect to those who had gathered there yesterday evening for what was billed as ‘The Man in Black – a Service Built around the worship songs, life and testimony of Johnny Cash.’
Continue reading ‘Johnny Cash for Holy Week: An Evening at Fitzroy Presbyterian’
Unlike the Vatican, Irish Times columnist John Waters doesn’t accuse the media of a deliberate smear campaign against the Pope or the Catholic Church. But in an article headlined ‘Has Christ no role in resolving this crisis?’ in yesterday’s paper, Waters claims that,
Yesterday the New York Times made the case that Pope Benedict knew more, and did more to cover-up the actions of paedophile priests, than has previously been supposed. This has prompted another offensive from the Vatican, accusing the media of smear campaign against the Pope.
As reported in today’s Irish Times,
Continue reading ‘Smearing the Pope? Vatican’s Defence is not Endearing’
Last week as the conference, ‘Re-emergence: Christianity and the Event of God,’ was coming to a close, we were shaken out of our conversations as the fire alarms in the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin at Belfast, reverberated throughout the building.
It wasn’t a fire. The alarms had been set off by the dismantling of a Light Installation by Beyond Church from Brighton. The installation had involved the use of a smoke machine, which our alarms took every bit as seriously as real smoke.
Continue reading ‘Re-Emergence in Belfast: De-Institutionalising Christianity’
Today my School awarded our James Haire Memorial Prizes for the best dissertation and best essays produced by students on our Master’s in Reconciliation Studies programme. Andrew McMahon, a priest based in Lurgan, wrote the best dissertation among the class of 2009, while Ruth Sastre Sanchez of Spain was recognised for producing the best essays over the course of the year.
There’s always stiff competition for the best dissertation, as our students routinely produce high quality, original research. McMahon’s dissertation, ‘A Force for Good’: The contribution of the South Down Ecumenical Study Group to Reconciliation, 1968-1978, provides a new perspective on how Ireland’s fledgling ecumenical movement got off the ground in the grassroots of South Down.
Continue reading ‘Andrew McMahon: Research on the South Down Ecumenical Clerical Study Group’
Xoliswa Sithole – an accomplished film maker who was once proud to call Zimbabwe her home – has produced a wrenching documentary chronicling the economic and political melt-down of her country, and the devastating impact this is having on children.
The BBC aired the documentary, ‘Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children,’ earlier this month. When I watched the film, I was struck by the grim resignation and stoicism with which the children she worked with seemed to accept their fate. They knew their childhoods had been stolen.
Continue reading ‘Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children: Review of the Documentary by Xoliswa Sithole’
By now most Irish Catholics and others living on this island have some idea of the content of the Pope’s pastoral letter to the Catholic Church in Ireland. They know that the Pope has said that he is sorry (sort of), that most victims of abuse are disappointed and angry by the content of the letter, and that it has done little to abate public outcry after a week in which a new scandal or cover-up seemed to emerge every day.
A family member who attended mass today said that their parish priest didn’t even read the full text of the letter, dismissing it as a lot of ‘waffle’ and concluding that the Pope ‘has let us down badly.’ He directed parishioners to the website where the full text of the letter can be found, and then got on with the business of the mass.
Continue reading ‘Pope’s Letter to Irish Catholics: He has let us Down Badly’
It wasn’t tongues of fire descending on the disciples in an upper room. Rather, images of burning churches flickered across the back wall of a basement room in McHugh’s Bar in Belfast. And on Tuesday of this past week, that’s where the Insurrection began.
The event was the launch for both the Re-Emergence Conference in Belfast, and the Insurrection tour featuring Peter Rollins, Padraig O’Tuama and Johnny McKeown. The Insurrection will continue with ten dates in US cities over the coming weeks.
Continue reading ‘Notes from the Insurrection … Peter Rollins Pub Tour’
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