P.S.
PS is an email and web-based blog format issued regularly by Contemporary Christianity. The format provides an online space for writers toexplore issues relating to church, culture and life in Northern Ireland, seeking to understand the times through insights from Scripture, theology, reason and the observations that flow from lived experience.
PS will never claim to have all the answers, but we hope to prompt questions that leave our readers a little closer to the answer at the end of the piece than they were at the beginning.
Our writers range from well-known names in academia and full-time ministry, to professionals with particular subject matter expertise, to lay people with passion for a subject and a gift for writing.
You can get involved in conversations by posting comments in the threads below the blogs, and if you’re interested in writing for us, you can get in touch by emailing info@contemporarychristianity.net.
These unprecedented times…
…I feel sure that phrase is overused. The world has known physical and economic distress on a grand scale before. Many people have suffered and died from disease, war, natural disaster; governments have been unprepared and healthcare providers have been...
Valuing our Workers
Over the past few weeks, in amongst all the pain and suffering there have been many very uplifting stories of what people have been doing. Perhaps the most striking one has been that of Capt Tom Moore, the 100 yr old former army officer who raised £32 million for...
When trouble strikes and fears take root
On Wednesday 15th April John Dunlop was the Thought for the Day contributor on BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme. John has kindly given us permission to publish his reflection from that day as a PS blog. This ‘Thought for the Day ” has been recorded...
Rhythm and Blues
Who would have thought that walking is almost as good for depression as taking an antidepressant? As we all now know from the Government’s Coronavirus advice, exercise is not just good for our physical health but also for our mental health. And not just any old...
A TIME TO BE INSTRUCTED BY OUR HEARTS
A few weeks ago I went to church on Sunday evening. The format of the service was different from the usual pattern insofar as instead of a conventional sermon, there would be an open time of sharing. Anyone could get up and speak about what God was doing in their...
Grace in the cracks
The last time I contributed a PS blog was in June 2016. Back then, I wrote about how the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland had appointed a Task Group to look at how the denomination had responded to the troubles. One thing led soon to another. The...
Finding Brexit Hope
EIGHTY YEARS ON On the evening of Monday 2nd September I met a group of Christian friends for a teatime meeting. On our way there we’d been listening to drive time news as we inched through Belfast traffic, with the breaking story being that the Prime Minister was to...
Seventy Times Seven
Do you remember learning your times tables at school? ‘Two times two is four, three times two is six, four times two is eight…’ In the days before electronic calculators took the strain, the combination of daily classroom sing songs and homework repetition rooted the...
NEW DAYS COMING OR MORE FALSE DAWNS?
There have been at least three very significant events in the past month that, taken together, may - repeat may - prove to be a watershed in the current quagmire that is politics in Northern Ireland. The first was the brutal murder of Lyra McKee in Derry on 29 April...
PS Extra: Lord have mercy on us; Lord hear our prayers…
On Sunday a couple of hundred people walked the hill to Stormont and then spent a short time in prayer. Alain Emerson from 24/7 Prayer Ireland and Peter Lynas from Evangelical Alliance (NI) led the short act of worship with a reading of PSALM 85 and then...
HOW LONG, LORD?
In mid-September 2019 Northern Ireland will reach a significant milestone in its history. It’s one that seems highly unlikely to attract any of the attention of our decade of centenaries, the 100th anniversaries of the Home Rule crisis and Ulster Covenant, the Easter...
Rivers of Living Water
SECOND OF TWO...PS…blogs from the Board of Contemporary Christianity on a way forward in 2019…with an opportunity for you to respond. “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:38) The months...