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.
Back to the Future?
In Chapter 10 of St Matthew’s Gospel, we find the second of Jesus’ great sermons in that Gospel. He has picked his 12 apostles and he is sending them out with a set of instructions. What does he say to his missionaries then – and now? Firstly, Jesus says that they are...
PS: A Taboo Conversation??
Two statistics in the public domain are, each in their own way, startling. One, the mounting figure of Covid 19 deaths in the UK, now standing at over 45,000. The other, the number of abortions carried out in the UK in 2019 - over 209,000. The former gets daily media...
Desert Wisdom for the Lock-down
This PS is an adaptation of an article published by Belfast Bible College and is used with permission (https://www.facebook.com/BelfastBibleCollege/photos/a.250728314988600/2933919253336146/). In the late third century men and women chose the self-isolation of the...
THE CALL, THE HERO AND THE CHALLENGE
When Beethoven realised that he was going deaf and that there was little hope of a cure, despair called. He avoided this by casting himself as the hero who would not be deflected from fulfilling his true vocation. For Beethoven this was his art: his music. Although he...
PS…The Holy Discomfort of Being Church
May 2020 saw the release of Dr Gladys Ganiel’s report on a Survey of Church Leaders in Ireland During the Pandemic. It states that many churches have found their viewing figures for online services exceed the numbers of their ‘real-life’ congregations. Faith leaders...
Glenn Jordan (1964-2020): A short tribute
It is impossible to put into words the feelings of loss, shock, grief and sadness felt with news of Glenn’s sudden death last Thursday. Our hearts and prayers are with Adrienne his soul-mate and confidant; Philippa and Christopher whose maturity inspired him;...
And Now For Something Completely Different
The first four weeks of lockdown were revealing. Introverts were as happy as Larry having been given permission to withdraw, with no pressure to mix socially, and commended for their diligence in self-isolating. Extroverts suffered withdrawal symptoms like drug...
PS…And your lanyard says in God we trust
Larry Norman’s ‘Great American Novel’ is a classic Christian song, prophetically ahead of its time in its articulation of the United States’ claim that Christian values are at the centre of its national life, whilst a litany of truths about power structures and daily...
Another National Crisis
The UK’s criminal justice system has been in crisis for some years – a crisis which has become particularly acute in our over-crowded, over-stretched and under-staffed prisons and probation services. Against this background it was good to hear that the NI Justice...
The Handshake
The handshake is a Presbyterian ritual, as sacred as Psalm singing, sermon preaching and offering collecting. Each Sunday morning with the Benediction proclaimed, I make my way, accompanied by a grand organ voluntary, down one aisle to the vestibule. Then the quick...
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...