“This book is a must for the desk of every pastor, priest and teacher. It ought to be available to every serious student of religion and ethics. … [It is a] manual for those of us who wish to overcome violence and to pray for and work for a lasting peace on this island.” That’s [...]
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I’m ‘In Conversation’ at Fitzroy Presbyterian, Sunday 6 May, 7 pm
This Sunday evening I’ll be ‘In Conversation’ during the 7 pm service at Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in Belfast. I’m not entirely sure what Rev Steve Stockman will be asking me about, but I expect topics to include my latest book (co-authored with Claire Mitchell), Evangelical Journeys: Choice and Change in a Northern Irish Religious Subculture, [...]
Why am I a Catholic? Guest Post by Jon Hatch
Why am I (still) a Catholic? In the wake of the clerical child sex abuse scandals and the latest investigation of Irish priests by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), that’s a question that is being asked increasingly by people in Ireland. Jon Hatch, a doctoral candidate at my School, became Catholic [...]
Sharing Spirituality – Churches of the Shankill and Falls on ‘A Journey in Understanding’ during May
Pope John Paul II said that ecumenical dialogue can be thought of as ‘an exchange of gifts.’ Nowhere is this more obvious than when Christians from various traditions are able to learn from each other’s spiritualities, partaking in the insights of others to enrich their own spiritual journeys. A series of talks on five Tuesdays [...]
Who Fears to Speak of Easter Week? Jan Robert Schulz on the Easter Rising in Northern Irish History Textbooks
There’s a tired old joke about air passengers arriving in Northern Ireland. The pilot announces: ‘Welcome to Belfast, set your clocks back 400 years.’ The implication is of course that Northern Ireland is living in its past, trapped by its history. Indeed, the past is all around the streets of Northern Ireland, from the murals [...]
Building Peace through the Arts: Last Post on the ‘Picking up the Pieces’ Series
What do people need to help them process the trauma they have experienced during conflict? The answer to that question will not be the same for everyone. Over the last few weeks, I’ve highlighted the insights from the RTE Radio One ‘Picking up the Pieces’ series, which features the grassroots peacebuilding work of groups throughout [...]
Remembering Corrymeela’s Ray Davey
Ray Davey, one of the principal founders of the Corrymeela Community, passed away 16 April 2012 at the age of 96. One of the elders among Christian peacemakers on this island, Davey was a Presbyterian chaplain at Queen’s University Belfast when he and a group of students formed Corrymeela in 1965. He was its leader [...]
Picking up the Pieces in the Border Counties
The fifth programme in RTE Radio One’s ‘Picking up the Pieces’ series features peacebuilding in the border counties of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, focusing on the work done among republican ex-prisoners and the Protestant minority in the Republic. The border counties are often neglected in analyses of the peace process, which seem [...]
Talking about Reconciliation … New Post on Slugger O’Toole
I have a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog, titled ‘Talking about Reconciliation,’ which explores some of the implications of recent attempts by republicans to use the R-word in Northern Ireland’s public sphere.
Picking up the Pieces at Belfast’s Interfaces
The last episode of RTE Radio One’s six-part ‘Picking up the Pieces in Northern Ireland’ series is set to air at 8 pm on Easter Sunday. The series has thus far examined the often unnoticed and unsung peacebuilding work of people at the grassroots, which I’ve highlighted on previous posts on this blog (see end [...]
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.
