Good Friday Agreement’s heavy-lifters still wait for Easter Sunday

sun rays inside cave

In Northern Ireland’s most challenged neighbourhoods and communities, where advocating for the Agreement carried the greatest risk, the 25 years since its signing have been a long harrowing of broken promises, stalled initiatives, and predatory practices. From the mid-nineties onwards, buoyed by the prospect of local power-sharing, a raft of social policies emerged with the potential of consolidating the decades of grassroots activism that maintained local communities (urban and rural) in the face of violence. Under New Labour, the first …

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Re-placing Christianity After Lockdown

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near.” – Mark 1:15

“ We will not save a place we do not love. We cannot love a place we do not know.” – Baba Dioum (Senegalese Environmentalist) Ched Myers’ writing on Watershed Discipleship advocates for a Christianity that recognises we are in a watershed moment of interlocking crises of climate, consumption and ecological degradation. He calls for a refocussing of radical Christian discipleship on a bioregional basis of environmental …

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From the Kingdom to the Compound. What happened to church-related community development?

On a Sunday afternoon in June last year nearly 2000 people gathered at CS Lewis Square in East Belfast for an evangelistic rally organised by a partnership of six of the largest churches in the city. CS Lewis Square is an impressive example of designing and implementing civic space. It’s a testament to the imagination, vision and perseverance of the community and voluntary sector and its commitment to inter-agency collaboration. Furthermore, naming the Square after one of Belfast’s most notable …

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The Stagnation of Urban Renewal

Late last year the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) released the updated Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measures. There were no surprises here: half of the most deprived Super Output Areas (SOAs) are in Belfast, a fifth are in the North West, and the rest are scattered in mostly rural communities. There is very little movement in and out of the top 100. The absence of a steady flow of continuous and dynamic data has contributed to stagnation and …

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What can Evangelicals learn from #repealthe8th

It was the closing celebration at New Wine in Sligo last summer, one of Ireland’s largest gatherings of Evangelical Christians. If you’re familiar with these events, the final evening is a vibrant celebration with bible teaching and vibrant praise and worship, with the aim of sending the masses out affirmed and emboldened in their faith. Arriving slightly late for the final event I walked past a table laden with hundreds of anti-abortion books. These were to be given free to …

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