Introduction: God, Land and Nation
Alywn Thomson

Comment: Re-routing and Redemption
David McMillan

Protestantism - Negotiating the Future
David Porter

A Discerning Hope
Derek Poole

The Promised Land?
Elizabeth Porter

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FOR GOD AND ULSTER: GOD, LAND AND NATION
Fans of Calvin and Hobbes will know that Calvin possesses a Transmogrifier - a device looking remarkably like a cardboard box that can change anything into anything else. With the help of this advanced piece of technology Calvin can turn himself into a terrifying dinosaur.

The God, Land and Nation project started life as the For God and Ulster project. Reflection on the issues arising from a focus on the theme of God and Ulster helped us to see that this was simply one expression of a very common phenomenon - the linking of the name of God with a particular territory or nation. Thus it was transmogrified into the God, Land and Nation project.

This linkage are common all over our world, and not only among those who are 'Christian - Hindus in India, Moslems in Kashmir, Jews on the West Bank.

Sometimes the association can seem benign or even wholesome -established churches can sometimes have a positive role in the life of the state, but, even so, the fundamental premises behind these are the same.

Yet from a biblical perspective there can never be a justification for associating God with a particular piece of territory. The concept of a church that relies upon or gives total support to the state has no biblical legitimacy.

Despite this, many Christians, for whatever reason, easily make the leap to the identification of faithfulness to God with the maintenance and defence of a particular state. God's blessing can too easily be seen as divine sanction for the political status quo. The Christian community can become so comfortable that it abandons its prophetic role in relation to state and nation, dilutes its witness to the temporality and transience of these things and neglects to proclaim the world embracing Kingdom of God where my national enemy may be my fellow believer and my fellow national may be a citizen of the Kingdom of Darkness.

While God, Land and Nation has its specific focus on the expression of these beliefs and values in Northern Ireland it also reminds us that, in this respect, we are not unique.

However, it is the manifestation of these things in our own community that God has called us to deal with - a community in which this association of ideas is common to both sides and which has often taken on particularly malign and destructive forms. As evangelicals our project is designed to examine these ideas from a biblical and evangelical perspective.

In November both the Conference and ECONI Sunday will deal with this issue. A series of booklets will also be published examining biblical themes that bear on the matter. Finally, we are also working on a book of personal reflections on the theme For God and Ulster asking a range of people what it means to them as an expression of their identity.

ECONI WELCOMES the submission of unsolicited articles, but does not guarantee publication, and manuscripts cannot be returned. Opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECONI. Permission to reprint any original article in Lion & Lamb should be sought from the Editor.

Editor   Derek Poole
Asst Editor   Ruth Hutchinson