How might the civil rights campaign in Northern Ireland have developed, had there been no ‘armed struggle?’ That was the theme of the first session of the McCluskey Civil Rights Summer School, held on Saturday 28 August at the Heritage Centre in Carlingford, Co. Louth. The Summer School honours the legacy of civil rights leaders [...]
Archive | August, 2010
In Search of the Ulster Scot: Has an Identity Been Manufactured?
Is there any such thing as an Ulster Scot? The emergence of ‘Ulster Scots’ as a language, and as an ethnic group, has been controversial to say the least. Critics have alleged that Ulster Scots is a made-up language, manufactured so that Northern Ireland’s Protestants would have a language and an identity that could compete [...]
Mass Boycott Going Global? Sojourners Editor Promoting ‘Sunday Without Women’
Jennifer Sleeman’s call for the women of Ireland to boycott mass on September 26th has captured the imagination of women beyond these shores. Rose Marie Berger, an associate editor with Sojourners magazine in Washington DC, has picked up on the idea and is encouraging women worldwide to participate. On her blog, Berger provides a google [...]
Do Mass Boycotters Know What They are Doing?
Cork woman Jennifer Sleeman’s call for women to boycott mass on September 26th is continuing to generate impassioned discussion throughout Ireland. As a writer to the letters page in Tuesday’s Irish Times remarked, ‘the debate goes on ad nauseam.’ An indication of the power of Sleeman’s proposed action was that last week it prompted a [...]
Gay Rights and the Growth of Conservative Evangelical Christianity
It has become a familiar debate in the media, not least on BBC Radio Ulster. Last week, when filling in on the Stephen Nolan show, William Crawley moderated a conversation about civil partnerships for people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) community. The guests were some of the usual suspects: Non-Subscribing Presbyterian minister [...]
Walking Out on Church?
Is there a time when it’s right to walk out of church? While I think that’s a matter of individual conscience and discernment, I’m intrigued by the differences in where and when people choose to leave church. In some cases it’s a church building people choose to leave. For example, I recently came across a [...]
Marie Collins on Change in the Catholic Church: “These Men Just Don’t Get It”
Today on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence, Marie Collins, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, shared her thoughts on the Pope’s refusal to accept the resignations of Bishops Eamon Walsh and Raymond Field. Collins, who has gained considerable respect for her willingness to speak publicly for victims, and for her attempts to be reconciled with [...]
When Bishops Can’t Resign: Why has the Pope Refused to Let Bishops Walsh and Field Stand Down?
Ireland’s Saturday papers are teeming with commentary and opinion about the latest development in the Irish Catholic Church: The Pope’s refusal to allow the resignations of two bishops named in the Murphy Report, Eamon Walsh and Raymond Field. The immediate reaction from most victims has been that this is yet another injustice, just one more [...]
Boycotting Mass: Can Monk’s Mother’s Action Make a Difference?
The ‘Most Read’ story in the online version of today’s Irish Times is ‘Monk’s Mother Calls on Women to Join One Day Boycott of Mass.’ It reports that 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman from Clonakilty, Co. Cork, is calling on women throughout Ireland to skip church on Sunday, September 26, in protest at the Vatican’s treatment of [...]
Kester Brewin Book Review: Other
What does it mean to be a Christian? That’s a question that is at once too simple and too broad. One answer that could be given is in the subtitle of Kester Brewin’s latest book, Other. That subtitle is: Loving Self, God and Neighbour in a World of Fractures. To me, that subtitle sums up [...]
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.
