Why are the Irish Catholic bishops complaining about the Civil Partnerships Bill, which is being debated this week in the Dáil? The bishops’ criticisms have not been welcomed by government ministers, who say they have taken great pains to make sure it does not undermine marriage or the Irish constitution. The knee jerk assumption is [...]
Archive | June, 2010
Poloma and Hood Book Review: Blood and Fire – Is this the Emerging Church?
Margaret Poloma and Ralph Hood’s recent book, Blood and Fire: Godly Love in a Pentecostal Emerging Church (NY University Press, 2008), left me feeling more than a little uncomfortable. Poloma and Hood offer a sociological account of a church that has ‘failed.’ By ‘failed’ I mean that Poloma and Hood’s research coincided with a time [...]
Fr Michael Bennett on Peter Rollins — Doubting Doubt?: Guest Post
Some time ago, Fr Michael Bennett, a missionary priest of the St Patrick’s Missionary Society (Kiltegan, Wicklow) now serving in South Africa, wrote a series of guest posts on this blog about the Irish Catholic Church. Now, Fr Bennett reflects on a post on this blog about a talk given by Dr Peter Rollins at [...]
Aidan Donaldson Book Review: Encountering God in the Margins
If you yearn for economic justice and human flourishing in the southern hemisphere, you may be plagued by the nagging suspicion that there is little that you can do to promote this. Sure, you can give to charity or even go on a short term volunteering mission, but still there’s a sense that these efforts [...]
The Clonard Novena: Steve Stockman on Ecumenical Day
Yesterday was Ecumenical Day at the novena in West Belfast’s Clonard Monastery. As I’m in a Northern Irish style ‘mixed’ marriage, and live close to Clonard, I appreciate the spirit behind ecumenical day and try and make a point of being there. So last night I dropped in on an evening session, where Rev. Steve [...]
From World Mission to Interreligious Witness: Why Dialogue?
In the latter sessions of a conference held last week at Trinity College Dublin, ‘From World Mission to Interreligious Witness: Visioning Ecumenics in the 21st Century,’ the theologians and others gathered there began to get around to some crucial questions not only about the importance of interreligious dialogue, but of moving beyond that to ‘witness.’ [...]
Putting Northern Ireland’s Past Back on the Agenda
For many, the welcome reception this week of the Saville Report and the British Prime Minister’s apology for the failings of the British Army and the British state in regard to Bloody Sunday have signalled that Northern Ireland may be beginning to move on from its troubled past. This morning on Sunday Sequence, the past [...]
Cardinal Brady and the Catholic Church: Can Opinion Polls Prompt Better Communication Between Clerics and Lay?
If we didn’t already know it, another Irish Times opinion poll has confirmed that people in Ireland are not impressed with the way the Catholic Church, and in particular Cardinal Sean Brady, has conducted itself of late. The front page of Monday’s Irish Times had a bold headline proclaiming that ‘Three quarters of Irish adults [...]
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.
