Introduction: Evangelicalism
Derek Poole

Comment: Ourselves Alone
Alwyn Thomson

From the Director
David Porter

A World of Difference
Alwyn Thomson

What is an Evangelical Catholic?
Paddy Monaghan

Decommissioning the Heart
David Bruce

Evangelical Catholics
T. Gordon Hills

Sorting out the Family
David Montgomery

Do They Know Us by Our Love?
John Ortberg

Loyalist Speak
Robert Dunlop

Book Reviews
Alwyn Thomson

< Past Issues Archive

FROM THE DIRECTOR

It is not our theology or heritage that makes us Christian, but the love and grace of god.

In September 1988 following eighteen months of meeting for prayer, bible study and discussion a small group of twenty Evangelical Christians published a statement - For God and His Glory Alone. Some 200 other Evangelical leaders added their names as a commendation of the biblical principles it sought to promote among Evangelicals living in the divided community of Northern Ireland. The aim of the statement was to explore the implications of Christian conversion in the context of a community in conflict. It stressed allegiance to Christ and transformation of lifestyle as the primary meaning of conversion and questioned the effectiveness of the Evangelical community in applying this commitment and the biblical values it implied to their words and actions.

For want of a better description it was subtitled an Evangelical contribution on Northern Ireland and as the response grew and a movement emerged this became shortened to ECONI. Our aim was to apply biblical principles to the situation in Northern Ireland through a process of asking questions.

Questions that challenged the personalised pietism of Ulster Evangelicalism. Stressing the centrality of prayer and evangelism to Evangelical witness we asked whether the bible did not require that a concern for peace, justice and reconciliation should not also be central as a gospel imperative. Such concern should then be reflected in practical engagement with the search for peace and healing in our community.

Questions that challenged the politicised partisan nature of Ulster Evangelicalism. While endorsing the need for Evangelical Christians to be engaged with the world of politics we challenged the assumption that Evangelicalism and Unionism were synonymous. Biblical faith was not dependent on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. Further the real threat to gospel witness in this land was the absence of a Christlike spirit in many of those who loudly professed their commitment to God and Ulster.

In return we expected to be challenged and questioned. Our contribution was accompanied by an invitation to join with us in looking afresh at the biblical witness, which remains the authoritative test of Evangelical faith and practice. This was the debate and prayerful reflection we longed to see for the good of the gospel in our community.

Many outside the Evangelical community simply asked the question as to what was meant by the term Evangelical. For some, including a growing number within the Evangelical community, this raised the vexed question as to whether Catholics could be Evangelicals. The range of opinion within the ECONI Steering Group has always been reflected in our responses. Alwyn Thomson's article provides a masterly analysis of these issues in the context of world Evangelicalism.

Personally I am convinced that an Evangelical witness will always be historical, confessional and experiential. As I have stated in a previous issue of Lion and Lamb this implies that Evangelicalism is profoundly Protestant, both in terms of the historic community in which we are rooted and the confessional framework of our faith. However it is a grave mistake to assume that as such the Evangelical community is in total the Christian community. It is not our theology or heritage that makes us Christian, but the love and grace of God. And who are we to limit the work of God in the lives of those who acknowledge Jesus to be the Son of God and confess him as Saviour and Lord?

I have always been hesitant about the need for ECONI to respond to pressure to define Evangelicalism. Our primary task is to discern, on the basis of our best understanding of scripture, the prophetic challenge facing Evangelicals as they live in a community in conflict. It is for others within churches and congregations to debate the finer points of self-definition. However, it is significant that the response from those within the Evangelical family whose commitment to God requires a commitment to Ulster is primarily to attack our Evangelical credentials rather than to articulate an alternative biblical framework. The more we address the specifics of our situation, the more our integrity as Evangelicals is questioned.

Why is this so? Evangelicalism in Ulster has on many occasions succumbed to the potent mix of religion and national identity. It has at times expressed its political preferences in terms of a religious crusade or sought to preserve its religious liberties by endorsing political dominance. At a time when Catholicism provided the cohesive dynamic for Irish Nationalism, the Evangelical revival of the 19th century in Ulster facilitated a similar process for Protestantism and emerging Unionism. As Dr A T Q Stewart comments:

'When Catholic emancipation came about... the increased threat to the Ascendancy caused Irish Protestants of all denominations to close their ranks, a process made easier by the growth of Evangelical religion.' (The Ulster Crisis pg. 30)

The events of recent months have seen this dynamic lived out on our streets and around the tables of the talks' process. Yet the fear and insecurity on which it feeds is present in the hearts of many of our people. Why else are we so hesitant to accept responsibility and seize the initiative for building peace in this community?

As ECONI said in 1994 a cessation of paramilitary violence is not peace. It is an opportunity to work for peace. Over the last three years many in our society have worked hard for peace. Growing polarisation and the despair and disappointment of a return to IRA violence did not deter them. Following the renewed cease-fire there are many good reasons to be concerned about the commitment of some within the Republican movement to peaceful and democratic means of achieving change in this community. There are many hard questions to be addressed, not least on consent, decommissioning, prisoners and policing. Yet we cannot escape our responsibility to take this opportunity, however flawed, to make peace.

No one, least of all Jesus, ever said it would be easy to live up to our calling as children of God - to be peacemakers. Perhaps that is why he makes love the key to bridging the gulf of broken relationships - Love your enemies! Dare we remind ourselves that it was while we were still his enemies that he loved us, came into our flawed and sinful world, lived among us, talked to us and made peace with us through his death.

This is the core of the gospel that Evangelicals proclaim. It is not that others are the problem, be they the terrorists, the extremists, Loyalists or Republicans. We are all people who daily demonstrate the destruction of human sinfulness in our lives and remain the focus for divine redemption through the love and grace of God. It is Jesus who equates hate with murder, lust with adultery and breaks down the self-righteous distinction we make between attitudes and actions. As Steve Stockman has written - you may not have pulled the trigger, but did you point your heart?

It is here that our Evangelical faith and our responsibilities in this community at this crucial time intersect. Of course we will have our political preferences and for many Evangelicals it is to remain part of the United Kingdom. But we also live under a gospel imperative to be people of peace, justice and reconciliation. In a divided community it is this criteria that is a relevant measure of Evangelical credibility.

David Porter - ECONI's Director