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Ken Newell on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – What Does Communion Mean?

By on January 23, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Evangelicalism, Irish Catholic Church, NI Politics

To mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Clonard Monastery in West Belfast invited Rev Ken Newell, the retired minister of Fitzroy Presbyterian in Belfast, to speak at all its services yesterday. The invitation reflects Newell’s, and Fitzroy’s, long association with Clonard in the form of the Clonard-Fitzroy fellowship group. Newell joked that he [...]

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Debating the Churches’ Role in the Peace in Northern Ireland

By on December 18, 2011 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Evangelicalism, Irish Catholic Church, Morality, NI Politics, Peace Studies

I have a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog, featuring my thoughts on the Sunday Sequence debate on a new book by John Brewer, Gareth Higgins and Francis Teeney, Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2011).

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What’s Liberating About Peter Rollins? Towards an Assessment Part II

By on November 29, 2011 in Churches & Reconciliation, Ecumenism, Emerging Church, Evangelicalism, Irish Catholic Church

Yesterday I started a series of posts around a set of questions posed to me by Ben Aldous, a master’s student at Redcliffe College and the Reverend in charge of the Mission Portfolio at St Martin’s Church in Durban, South Africa. Aldous is writing his master’s dissertation about the work of Peter Rollins and asked [...]

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Fr Gerry Reynolds on ‘Living Bells’ and A New Step in Eucharistic Fellowship

By on November 21, 2011 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church

The Belfast-area initiative ‘In Joyful Hope: A New Step in Eucharistic Fellowship,’ continues this week with a celebration on Wednesday 23 November at 8 pm at St Malachy’s Catholic Church on Alfred Street in Belfast. The initiative, which began last year, is an opportunity for Christians from different traditions to celebrate communion/Eucharist together. Those who [...]

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Living Church Report: New Post on Slugger O’Toole

By on November 15, 2011 in Churches & Reconciliation, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, Morality, Victims

I’ve written a post on the Diocese of Down and Connor’s Living Church Report on the Slugger O’Toole blog. Further discussion is encouraged on the Living Church Facebook page. Each day this week, one of the five themes is to be discussed. Yesterday took up the theme of lay participation, while today the topic is [...]

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Michael Hurley Book Review: Christian Unity – An Ecumenical Second Spring?

By on November 11, 2011 in Book Reviews, Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, Morality, NI Politics, Social Justice

Over the last several weeks, I’ve reflected on some insights from Fr Michael Hurley SJ’s 1998 book, Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Second Spring? (Dublin: Veritas). Hurley, a founder of the Irish School of Ecumenics, passed away earlier in the year and this inspired me to delve into this book. This is my final post on [...]

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Fr Michael Hurley on Ecumenical Tithing

By on November 5, 2011 in Book Reviews, Churches & Reconciliation, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church

In recent weeks I’ve been examining the late Fr Michael Hurley SJ’s ideas about ecumenism. One idea that I have been most intrigued by is ‘ecumenical tithing.’ His ideas were put forward in his 1998 book, Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Second Spring? (Dublin: Veritas). I was prompted to take this book off the shelf in [...]

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Art, Culture and Conflict at the Hugh Lane Thursday 3 November

By on November 1, 2011 in Churches & Immigration, Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Evangelicalism, Irish Catholic Church, NI Politics

I will be presenting at a seminar on ‘Art, Culture and Conflict’ at the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin on Thursday 3 November at 6.30 pm. My talk is titled ‘Surveying Religion’s Public Role: Perspectives on Diversity, Reconciliation and Ecumenism.’ It will draw on some of the research conducted for my School’s Visioning 21st Century [...]

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Reflections on The End of Irish Catholicism

By on October 28, 2011 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, Irish politics, Social Justice, Victims

I’ve had several people ask me if I would be blogging about the talk I gave last week for the Queen’s University Religious Studies Research Forum, titled ‘The End of Irish Catholicism?: Exploring Extra-Institutional Spaces for Faith.’ The material I presented at the talk is still very much ‘work in progress,’ but I’m posting the [...]

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Fr Charlie Burrows on Christian Witness

By on October 26, 2011 in Charismatic/Pentecostal Christianity, Churches & Reconciliation, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, Muslim Christian Relations, Social Justice

Several months ago I blogged about Fr Charlie Burrows, an Irish priest working in Indonesia. Burrows was the subject of an RTE documentary, which told the story of how his work in Indonesia has been a spur to local economic development and better inter-religious (Christian-Muslim) relationships. In line with the theme of my blog, I [...]