David Stevens, Leader of the Corrymeela Community, died from cancer on Sunday at the age of 62. A founding member of the Community Relations Council, Stevens also worked for 25 years in the Inter Church Centre in Belfast, serving for 12 years as General Secretary of the Irish Council of Churches and Executive Secretary of [...]
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Communion with One Another? Questions from the Symposium on ‘The Eucharist in Ecumenical Perspective’
What does it mean that Christians all over Ireland have begun to quietly defy the official teachings of their churches, choosing to receive Eucharist/ communion in churches that are not their own? No one really knows how widespread this practice is in Ireland. Unlike the Catholic Church, not all denominations officially forbid the sharing of [...]
What’s Faith Got to do with Human Rights? Publication of Rights and Righteousness
What’s faith got to do with human rights? That’s one of the questions explored in a new publication, edited by Dr David Tombs of Trinity College Dublin at Belfast (the Irish School of Ecumenics), Rights and Righteousness: Perspectives on Religious Pluralism and Human Rights. The publication was featured this morning on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday [...]
Beyond Ecu-Maniacs: Is there an Ecumenical Culture?
My School’s recent surveys of faith leaders and lay people on the island of Ireland asked a series of questions about ecumenism. While most people claim to have positive conceptions of ecumenism, others say it is elitist, irrelevant, or boring, or that they simply don’t know what it is. One survey respondent referred rather disparagingly [...]
Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism: More Research Results Now Available
Reflections on and results from my School’s major research project, ‘Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism: Diversity, Dialogue and Reconciliation,’ have become available in a variety of outlets over the last few weeks. The research team is hoping that the publication of these results will stimulate new conversations about faith and religion on the island of Ireland. [...]
Symposium on the Eucharist in Ecumenical Perspective in Dublin May 13-14, 2010
As part of my School’s research project, ‘Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism,’ we will be teaming up with the Glenstal Ecumenical Symposium to host a two-day workshop on ‘The Eucharist in Ecumenical Perspective: A Conversation with John Gibaut and Aikaterini Pekridou,’ May 13-14, 2010 at Trinity College Dublin. The event will be held at the Irish [...]
Faith and Community Relations Seminar – What now for the Churches?
Yesterday Trinity College Dublin at Belfast (the Irish School of Ecumenics) hosted a seminar on ‘Faith and Community Relations: Perspectives on Diversity, Dialogue and Reconciliation.’ I presented an update on the progress on my School’s research project, ‘Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism.’ The event was part of Community Relations Week. I opened the seminar with a [...]
Evangelicalism in Ireland: Slow Motion Revival or Faction Fighting?
Patrick Mitchel, a lecturer in theology at the Irish Bible Institute in Dublin, has posted a blog about ‘Irish evangelicals: unity in diversity or just disunity?’ In the post, Mitchel engages with a chapel message delivered by Crawford Gribben last month at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Gribben is Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Print [...]
Seminar on Faith & Community Relations April 28, 2010
I’ll be conducting a seminar based on the findings of my School’s IRCHSS-funded research project, ‘Visioning 21st Century Ecumenism,’ on Wednesday April 28, 2010 from 12 noon- 1p.m. at The Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin at Belfast, 683 Antrim Road. The title of the seminar is ‘Faith and Community Relations: Perspectives on Diversity, [...]
Crisis in the Irish Catholic Church – Restoring the Community to the Centre by Fr Michael Bennett
Today this blog continues with another guest post by Fr Michael Bennett, a priest with the St Patrick’s Missionary Society (Kiltegan Fathers). Today’s topic is restoring the community to the centre of the church. Fr Michael provides a historical perspective on relationships between clerics and the Christian community, argues against mandatory celibacy, urges a greater [...]
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.
