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.
A CHRISTIAN FROM THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND WRITES…
So it looks like one of the world's most significant political and trade borders is going to be drawn across the leafy lanes and modern motorways that join the two parts of Ireland. At present you are able to move back and forth without noticing apart from being...
A CHRISTIAN WHO VOTED LEAVE WRITES…
We should be very cautious when someone tells us that they can interpret history’s direction. Nevertheless, events over the centuries suggest large multinational political units have not fared well. That intuition is reinforced by the warning that humanity’s quest to...
A CHRISTIAN WHO VOTED REMAIN WRITES…
On 23rd June 2016 I celebrated my 28th birthday. On the same day I also voted to Remain in the EU. My wife and I celebrated another year of life with a good old fashioned Northern Irish chippy, followed by French cheese, Spanish wine and Italian bread, and I...
PS: THE EU REFERENDUM – ONE YEAR LATER
Next week will see the first anniversary of the UK Referendum and our collective national decision to leave the EU. The vote was finely balanced with Leave edging Remain by a margin of just 52 to 48. Brexit remains a source of formidable passion on both sides of its...
Clouds – maligned and ignored!
I admit to not appreciating clouds – we simply have too many of them in this corner of the globe – although we had a welcome cloud-free few weeks in May this year. Sunlight is usually in short supply; plant and crop growth are hugely dependent on it. It’s a very...
The right to free speech
In 2012 a furore erupted across South Africa following the public exhibition of a painting by a ‘white’ South African artist, Brett Murray. Expressing a strand of public perception relating to the numerous scandals surrounding Jacob Zuma, the current President of...
Living as a minority.
Nepal’s new Constitution, adopted on 20th September 2015 established it as a secular state and provided freedom to profess and practice one’s own religion. The Constitution prohibited changing one’s religion and so any activities considered to be encouraging a person...
How to vote on Thursday
(Note: This PS was originally published on Steve Stockman's blog Soul Surmise and is used with permission.) I am a roving voter who takes serious consideration of a range of issues before deciding who to vote for and in what order. Well, actually I vote for...
Inviting the black dog into the room
In recent years there has been an explosion in ministry specifically to men. Breakfasts, outings and weekends away for men are now commonplace on the menu of many churches. Alongside this phenomenon statistics show a growing mental health crisis amongst men in this...
The Multi-sided Public Square
Truth and mercy have met together. Justice and peace have kissed. (Psalm 85:10) “Christians frequently differ on important issues, and it is a mark of spiritual maturity if they handle those differences creatively rather than engage in damaging verbal warfare.”1...
Peace on earth?
For many months, and especially in the last few weeks, we have been seeing the war in the Middle East and its horrible effects being reported almost daily on our TV screens and in our newspapers. I can barely watch the news now. I feel helpless, angry and even guilty...
Resisting without imposing
In the 1980s Lesslie Newbigin argued that the modern multicultural worldview simply did not have the resources to stand up against absolutist worldviews. Sadly the rise of radical Islam and the results of the EU referendum and US presidential election seem to be...