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Harold Good on Johnston McMaster’s Overcoming Violence

By on May 13, 2012 in Book Reviews, Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Evangelicalism, Irish Catholic Church, NI Politics, Peace Studies, Post Modern Theology, Postmodern Theology, Social Justice, Terrorism, Victims

“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

By on May 4, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Emerging Church, Evangelicalism, NI Politics, Peace Studies, Post Modern Theology, Postmodern Theology, Social Justice

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, [...]

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Cardinal Sean Brady & the movement for an Assembly in the Irish Catholic Church: Reforming the Un-Reformable?

By on May 3, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, Social Justice, Victims

There’s not really much commentary to add on the increasingly sad-saga about Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in the Catholic Church’s private inquiry into the activities of Fr Brendan Smyth. The by now usual horrific details of abuse and cover-up, followed by the inadequate responses of church leaders with power, all contribute to a picture of [...]

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Introducing the ‘Church Without Walls’ Calendar for Events and Initiatives in Ireland

By on May 1, 2012 in Churches & Immigration, Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Emerging Church, Evangelicalism, Irish Catholic Church, Morality, Post Modern Theology, Postmodern Theology, Social Justice

Last week I had the pleasure of a conversation with Rev Steve Stockman of Fitzroy Presbyterian; Ed Peterson, a Reconciliation worker at Clonard Monastery; and Fr Martin Magill of St Oliver Plunkett in Lenadoon. It was suggested that there was a lot going on among the churches, but that often people didn’t know about events [...]

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Why am I a Catholic? Guest Post by Jon Hatch

By on April 30, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, Morality, NI Politics, Social Justice, Victims

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 [...]

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Fr Brian D’Arcy: Vatican Now Monitoring Outspoken Voice for the Faithful in Ireland

By on April 27, 2012 in Dealing with the Past, Irish Catholic Church, Morality, Social Justice, Victims

If any grace can come out of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) investigation of Fr Brian D’Arcy, it’s that someone in the Vatican has at least read what he has to say. Sadly, the Vatican’s failure to engage with the Vatican II-inspired movement within the Catholic Church – in which [...]

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Remembering Corrymeela’s Ray Davey

By on April 17, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Evangelicalism, Morality, NI Politics, Peace Studies, Post Modern Theology, Postmodern Theology, Social Justice

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 [...]

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Talking about Reconciliation … New Post on Slugger O’Toole

By on April 9, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, DUP, NI Politics, Peace Studies, Sinn Fein, Social Justice, Unionism, Victims

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.

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Picking up the Pieces at Belfast’s Interfaces

By on April 7, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, NI Politics, Peace Studies, Social Justice

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 [...]

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Clonard’s Unity Pilgrims: Picking up the Pieces in Northern Ireland

By on March 23, 2012 in Churches & Reconciliation, Dealing with the Past, Ecumenism, Irish Catholic Church, NI Politics, Peace Studies, Social Justice, Victims

‘If only they had known him, they would never have killed him.’ Not long after he had been posted to Clonard Monastery in West Belfast in the 1980s, that’s what a Protestant woman from the Shankill Road said to Redemptorist priest Fr Gerry Reynolds. In the third of RTE Radio One’s ‘Picking up the Pieces’ [...]