On 16 October 2012, Philip McDonagh facilitated a lively discussion on this book by Michael Sandel, who is political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University.

In What Money Can’t Buy, Sandel examines one of the biggest ethical questions of our time and provokes a debate that’s been missing in our market-driven age: What is the proper role of markets in a democratic society, and how can we protect the moral and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy?

Philip McDonagh is an economist. He formerly worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers; he has over 30 years experience in dealing with local economic matters. He is a Charity Commissioner with the new Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. He is also a member of the Society of Friends.

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Esmond Birnie and Allen Sleith both seek to apply their faith to all areas of life, including economics. However, on this issue they come to different conclusions.

This evening was not a debate, to see ‘who wins’, but a conversation to explore and learn. Allen and Esmond talked about how their faith, and their reading of scripture, influenced how they approached this question. The audience then joined in what proved to be a lively discussion!

Esmond Birnie is Chief Economist for PWC in Northern Ireland.
Allen Sleith is minister of Regent Street Presbyterian Church.

Unfortunately, due to technical problems, we were not able to record the first few minutes of the discussion, so a small part of Allen’s introduction is missing.

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Faith, Community and Creativity

Tony Macaulay is a writer, broadcaster and consultant. He has worked in community development, youth work and peacebuilding for the past 30 years. He carries out research and evaluation to inform and shape government and agency policy and programmes, most recently scoping faith based community work in Northern Ireland. His first book, ‘Paperboy’, a memoir of growing up in the Upper Shankill in the 1970s, has just been published by HarperCollins in the UK, Australia and Canada and the film rights have been picked up by Titian Red Pictures. He is currently working on a range of creative writing, community and peacebuilding projects.

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This season our ‘In Conversation With …’ events are on the theme of faith and politics in Northern Ireland.

Imagining a United Ireland: The Novelist’s Opportunity

21 February 2012

Turas is Colin Neill’s first novel.

It is 2020 and Ireland has been united. During this year of striking change, a group of men meet together in a church cell group to wrestle with uncertainty through the filters of their faith and God’s word. Mingled with profound transition all around them are tales of friendship, tales of love, and tales of coming to terms with what the past has meant. (more…)

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This season our ‘In Conversation With …’ events are on the theme of faith and politics in Northern Ireland. In the first of the series John Kyle spoke on the theme:

Where Faith and Loyalism Collide

17 January 2012

A recording of John’s talk can be heard using the player below.

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The series of Contemporary Christianity events looking at economic issues continued with a chance to hear about a creative outreach initiative in response to the economic situation in Dublin.

Sean Mullan talked about Faith and the Social Economy: A Dublin Perspective. He’s the initiator of Third Space, a new social business initiative to create social hubs in the redeveloping parts of Dublin city. In November Third Space will be opening its first meeting and eating place in the Smithfield area of Dublin City Centre.

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Sean previously worked as a navigation officer in the merchant navy and as a church planter and pastor in Cork and Dublin. He continues to work with church planters and others on mission in the city. He was active in establishing Evangelical Alliance Ireland, was until recently the General Director, and still serves on the board. He is also on the boards of a number of community projects and faith-based initiatives. Married to Ana for 27 years, they have three adult children.

Maurice Kinkead has spent the last 25 or so years developing and managing not-for-profit organisations, initially in faith based organisations and more recently with an inter-sectoral partnership. He is Chief Executive of East Belfast Partnership and has responsibility for two subsidiary companies, both leading social enterprises in Belfast.

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During his talk titled ‘The Social Economy: voluntary sector operating with private sector values?’ he spoke about his experience as a practitioner, learning at least as much from mistakes as from success, the positive aspects of initiatives like ‘Making Belfast Work’ that were subsequently lost in red tape, “people have values and ethics, not sectors”, described the social economy sector as “businesses that happen to be owned by charitable organisations, are (hopefully) profitable but non-profit distributing, and often employ and train people”.

Describing some of the issues that face the social economy sector, he suggested that “sometimes private sector values are good values” and went on to explain that the gap between who is paying and who is receiving a service sometimes leads to a drop in service quality in the social economy sector. He also advised that if a business wouldn’t be prepared to take its clients to court, then it shouldn’t be in a client-focussed industry – after all “running a social economy or charitable organisation doesn’t make you soft in the heart or soft in the head”. He suggested that bonus schemes could still be applicable in the social economy sector to improve motivation.

Faith- sufficient for each day!

Matt Baggot CBE, Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland was the guest at our ‘In Conversation With …” on Tuesday 19 April 2011. Unfortunately it was not possible to record this event, but the following are some notes from the evening. (more…)

It’s the 400th anniversary of the publication of the Authorised (King James) Version of the Bible. Twenty years as a Baptist pastor, a foundation member of ECONI and now a doctorate student, David McMillan talked about and discussed

What authority does the Bible have in 21st century pluralist society?

After sharing his opinion, there was a time of questions.

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As part of the Human Trafficking Conference organised by the Irish Baptist Network, Lauran Bethell addressed a joint IBN/Contemporary Christianity audience on the evening of 22 March.

Lauran is an international consultant on the issue of Human Trafficking. Over twenty years ago she went to Thailand with an American Baptist mission agency to teach in a mission school but quickly became involved in the rescue and care of young women who have been exploited and abused. She pioneered projects in Thailand and directed a centre for ‘at risk’ girls. The New Life Centre has received international recognition and awards for its work. Lauran’s main concern is to initiate and encourage new grass-roots projects, particularly among churches and Christian groups, addressing the exploitation and abuse of women and children.

You can hear more from the conference over on the IBN’s website.