The new Scottish Religious Cultures Network (SRCN) has launched a website. SRCN is based at the University of Glasgow, but includes collaborators from across the UK and Ireland. It is funded by the Royals Society of Edinburgh’s research networking … Read more...
Category: Churches & Immigration
4 Corners Networking–Weekly Feature on Faith Activism: Embrace Northern Ireland
This week’s featured organisation from the 4 Corners Festival Networking events is Embrace Northern Ireland (NI). Embrace NI has an excellent reputation for its work with minorities, and has produced a number of useful resources to help others be more … Read more...
4 Corners Festival Begins–Listening to Stories Across Belfast’s Boundaries
I have a new post on the Slugger O’Toole blog, detailing the beginning of the 4 Corners Festival (13 January-1 February).Returning to the Hard Gospel?
Church of Ireland Archbishop Michael Jackson’s recent comments about sectarianism and his unveiling (and critique) of the derogatory language of ‘Polyester Protestants’Archbishop Michael Jackson on Sectarianism in the Church of Ireland – Do We Need a Sequel to the Hard Gospel?
On this island, the conventional wisdom south of the border has been that ‘sectarianism’ is a problem in Northern Ireland, but not in the Republic. I encountered this perspective during the five years that I lived in Dublin, where it … Read more...
Alicia Turner: What’s the Point of Studying Religions? – Keynote at ISASR Conference
What’s the point of studying religions? This is an apt question to be asking on the island of Ireland. Here, the academic study of religions is at an early stage in its development, particularly from social science or humanities perspectives, … Read more...
East Central Ministries in Albuquerque – Following Jesus in the Real World
Back when I was conducting research for my Ph.D., which resulted in my book Evangelicalism and Conflict in Northern Ireland (Palgrave, 2008), I interviewed people who were involved with the now-defunct organization Zero28.
Zero28 was a socio-political action group, … Read more...
Culture: Source of Unity or a Barrier?–Remarks at Uganda Cultural Day
Last night I had the pleasure of providing the keynote address at the celebrations for Uganda Cultural Day, held at St Mary’s College in Belfast. Fr Charles Lwanga Kaweesi, who is based in Portglenone, had invited me to speak on … Read more...
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Speaking on Friday at the ‘Religious Conflict and Difference’ conference at Stranmillis College in Belfast, Rev. Norman Hamilton, minister of Ballysillan Presbyterian in North Belfast and a former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, urged the academics at the … Read more...
The End of Secularisation in Europe?
There has been much hand-wringing among Western Christians about the so-called process of secularisation. Many seem to feel threatened by the various measurements of religious decline that are provided as evidence of secularisation, such as declines in:
- attendance at church
Introducing the ‘Church Without Walls’ Calendar for Events and Initiatives in Ireland
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 … Read more...