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.
Prisons … again
Stuart Horner is a lifer serving a minimum sentence of 27 years for murdering his uncle. He recently spent about 60 hours protesting on the roof of HM Prison, Manchester, in a T-shirt bearing the message: “It’s not 1990, tell the government we’ve all had enough, sort...
An Open Letter to Northern Ireland’s Political Leaders
(This open letter first appeared in Steve Stockman's blog and is reproduced by permission) Dear Political Leaders As you go into intensive talks this week to save the political institutions and our unraveling peace process I want to assure you of my prayers. I will...
Reflecting on reflecting on the 1916 Easter Rising
At a recent talk on the 1916 Easter Rising by Philip Orr in one of Contemporary Christianity’s ‘In conversation with…’ series I learned much about its historical context. We had a sweep over the previous three centuries or so and the century since! What tends to be...
A plea for ‘talks about talks’
The phrase ‘talks about talks’ has come to encapsulate our frustration at the inability of politicians to actually address and deal with real issues. Yet, sometimes it is right to spend time agreeing how a conversation is going to be held, before actually having the...
It’s Summer …
It’s summer so it must be the season of parades, bands, counter demonstrations, and rubbish left in the streets afterwards. Politicians, community workers and Orangemen continue the age-old but ever-new battle that has become an expression of our co-dependency and is...
Don’t Talk
Over the past few months I have been trying to understand why there are so many things that, for the most part, evangelicals do not or will not talk about. We claim to be Biblical in our outlook and worldview, but seem all too willing to set aside so much of the...
On Art and Healing
"The artist is not a special type of human being, but every human being is a special type of artist." (Art Scholar Ananda Coomaraswamy) Jonny Watson's PS article ( Sept 2014) nails the problem with regard to 'education' in general. The affirmation of the individual is...
Who Owns Marriage? Why gender agnosticism and same-sex marriage is not the solution
(This post is an abbreviated version of the last of 6 posts on the book “Who owns marriage?”on Patrick Mitchel's blog www.faithinireland.wordpress.com and is posted with permission. ) Nick Park, Evangelical Alliance Ireland Executive Director, has written a short...
Sacrificial Voting
"Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy." -Proverbs 31:9 "Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." (Plato) My polling card dropped through the letterbox this week, but that's...
Sticks and Stones
Whether politics is an art or a science may intrigue the academics, but for many of us in Northern Ireland it is a deeply dispiriting and often quite ugly spectacle. Let me balance that by saying unequivocally that our leaders deserve a great deal of respect and...
Does Reconciliation Require Joint Worship?
In her chapter in Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims: Irish “Religious” Conflict in Comparative Perspective Gladys Ganiel asks if churches in Northern Ireland can contribute to post-violence reconciliation and reconstruction. She cites the role of ECONI and, more...
Why Ireland Needs Answers
Notoriously, some generals have prepared to win the battles fought by the previous generation. British armies from 1939 to 1941 used the tactics of 1918. As a result, UK forces were routed by the Wermacht in the Battle of France. Two years later, General Percival...