Today my School awarded our James Haire Memorial Prizes for the best dissertation and best essays produced by students on our Master’s in Reconciliation Studies programme. Andrew McMahon, a priest based in Lurgan, wrote the best dissertation among the … Read more...
Category: Churches & Reconciliation
Gene Stolzfus: In Memory of a Christian Peacemaker
Gene Stoltzfus, the founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams, died Wednesday March 10, 2010, of a heart attack while cycling near his home in Fort Frances, Ontario. Christian Peacemaker Teams aim to ‘get in the way’ of war and violence. … Read more...
Abuse Scandals in the Irish Catholic Church: What do Young Catholics Think?
What do young Irish Catholics think about their church? There was a fleeting insight into this in today’s Education Supplement in the Irish Times. Brief interviews with four teenage students from Coláiste Cillian in Clondalkin, Dublin, covered a range … Read more...
Lessons from the Benedictine Monks on the Life of St Frances of Rome
Yesterday, March 9, was the feast day of St Frances of Rome. Hailing as I do from a Protestant background, my knowledge of saints’ days is pretty thin on the ground. But yesterday I was visiting the Holy Cross … Read more...
Norman Hamilton, New Presbyterian Moderator: Relationships Matter
This morning’s BBC Radio Ulster edition of Sunday Sequence featured an interview with the newly elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Norman Hamilton. Hamilton had a fairly wide-ranging conversation with presenter William Crawley in the ten minute … Read more...
Ecumenism for Lent: Giving Out, not Giving Up
The Fermanagh Churches Forum started its series of Lenten lunches yesterday. Over four weeks, participants in the forum will meet in the Presbyterian, Catholic, Methodist and Church of Ireland churches for a lunch and reflection. It’s the quiet sort of … Read more...
Barbara Walshe in the West Bank: Witness at Checkpoint 300
It’s a long way from Clare to Checkpoint 300. Barbara Walshe, a native of Co. Clare and a student on the Master’s in Reconciliation Studies programme at our Belfast campus, has recently returned from a stint with the World Council … Read more...
Marianne Elliott Book Review: When God Took Sides
Marianne Elliott’s latest book, provocatively titled When God Took Sides: Religion and Identity in Ireland – Unfinished History, (Oxford University Press, 2009) describes how Catholics and Protestants in Ireland perceive each other – and explains why this matters so … Read more...
Shared Eucharist – Should it be a Priority for the Irish Churches?
When I attend a Catholic Church, one of the saddest parts of the service for me is the Eucharist. I’m a Christian – but not a Catholic – so that means that I’m prohibited from taking part in that meaningful … Read more...
From World Mission to Interreligious Witness – Visioning Ecumenics in the 21st Century: Conference in Dublin June 16-18, 2010
After a century of ecumenism, where are we? Most scholars date the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement to the 1910 Edinburgh Conference, where church leaders gathered to forge a way forward for greater cooperation in missionary endeavours. But 100 … Read more...
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010: Can Ecumenism Be Born Again?
‘Born Again,’ is a term that is used derisively in Ireland to denote conservative evangelical Christians. Outsiders sometimes refer to them collectively as ‘the born agains,’ with either a smirk or a sigh, signalling their disagreement with their religion and … Read more...