Introduction: Peace, Justice & Reconciliation
Derek Poole

Comment
Lesley Macaulay

From the Director
David Porter

Now and Not Yet
Stephen Williams

Grace: An Attribute of Reconciliation
Graham Cheesman

Reflections on ECONI
Ken Wilson & Brian Moore

Stanley Who?
Alwyn Thomson

Justice
Billy Mitchell

Peace
Ethel White

Reconciliation
Brian Cruise

< Past Issues Archive

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS ON ECONI
Ten years ago ECONI became a life-line for me. I was living in a relatively peaceful area of Belfast, and I was enjoying pastoring a church largely unaffected by any community strife. And yet I was becoming more and more troubled by 'the troubles'. When would it all end? Were there steps which God wanted me to take?

During the first years the troubles I was serving as a pastor and evangelist in the West Indies. I learned that in the last century slavery was a scar on society there. Although it has been abolished many years ago, I met some people who had spoken to former slaves. The painful memories are still alive. One West Indian leader told me that the Church's greatest sin during slavery had been her silence!

As time went on, I found that the ground I was standing on was being whittled away. I often felt embarrassed, ashamed and confused as I tried to explain what was going on in Northern Ireland. What right had I to preach a gospel of love and forgiveness in the West Indies when my own countrymen were at each other's throats? That was one of the things which led me to return home. If the Gospel is relevant at all, then it must be relevant in Northern Ireland. But what is the gospel for Northern Ireland?

The big temptation on returning home was to fit back into the warm supportive evangelical community in which I had first heard the call to Christian service. Don't rock the boat! Keep your head down! Preach the gospel and save souls! However, as the troubles went on and on, I knew in my bones that God was calling again. When I looked around I saw that some of those "saved souls" seemed to remain as prejudiced and bigoted as the rest! Much of what went under the name of evangelical Christianity was in fact a clear denial of the teaching of Jesus. Where were the prophetic leaders in the evangelical community? Was the cost of speaking out too dear? Christian leaders in South Africa were in prison. How were people to learn to read their culture through the eyes of scripture, rather than reading through the eyes of culture? And why were people so angry and upset when I suggested the cry "For God and Ulster was a very dangerous slogan? Where were the people who had a sufficiently high view of scripture that all aspects of their lives were influenced by it? Could it still be said that the church's greatest sin was her silence?

Eventually I was led by God to the painful conviction that He wanted me to meet 'the enemy'. This meant I became 'persona non grata' among some sections of the Church. My few years away from Ireland had made me forget just what a terrible sin it is to break ranks and meet 'the enemy'. Underneath the calm surface of religion there seemed to be a vast restless sea of bitterness. A lot of that was now dumped on my unsuspecting head. I spent a very lonely few months. Where was I to turn? Perhaps those who were phoning me up at all hours were right. What if I had misread the Bible? "But, Lord, surely naked hatred can't be right?"

It was at this point that David Hewitt phoned to invite me to meet with a few concerned evangelical Christians. This was the beginning of ECONI. Many of the people were strangers to me, but they had been wrestling with the same fundamental Issue - how are we to apply Biblical standards to the present situation in Northern Ireland? Here were like-minded senvants of God, many of whom bore the scars of past battles against intolerance and bigotry. It has been a high privilege to associate with such men and women of integrity and compassion. What a joy to be involved in the publication of the booklet For God and His Glory Alone. None of us could have guessed the impact this would have on the hearts and minds of hundreds of people.

ECONI, despite what some may think, has never sought to push a hidden political agenda. In ECONI I meet people who vote for different parties, worship in different churches, and have differing views on the ecumenical movement, the charismatic movement etc.etc. However, over and above all these differences there is a passionate commitment to Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The introduction to For God and His Glory Alone states : "We affirm that the Bible, which is the Word of God, reveals God's plan of salvation, that it has been breathed into existence by the Holy Spirit and that through it the Holy Spirit continues to speak. We therefore hold the Bible to be truthful, authoritative and, in both Old and New Testaments, the only written Word of God". The statement continues: "We want our thinking and behaviour to be governed by these scriptures, as our only infallible rule of faith and practice. In the complexities of Northern Ireland it is of paramount importance that we subject all our ideologies to the test of the Bible, and order our lives according to its teachings".

Over the past ten years I'm convinced that one of the most valuable functions fulfilled by ECONI is that it has enabled many Christian leaders to read the Bible with greater clarity, and be more prophetic than they could ever have been on their own. The fact that its members are drawn from such a wide denominational grouping is surely a confirmation that what we were hearing ten years ago as a call from God was in fact correct.

There is still a long road ahead. Evangelicals have rightly stressed the need for personal faith in Christ, but we have often ignored the social applications of the faith. The other day I listened to a fellow Christian being interviewed on the radio, and was saddened to hear him argue that even Jesus did not always love His neighbour. He reasoned that if Jesus could become angry with those who were desecrating the Temple, then we have every right to hurl insults at those who worship and vote differently from us. I wish the interviewer had asked what that man made of the teaching of Jesus:

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy'. But I tell you, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven'. (Matt.5: 43-45)

The long road ahead will lead us to see that this type of strong love is the only permanent answer to our present difficulties. It is a reflection of Calvary love, active in showing concern for the welfare and good of others, friend and foe alike. Where else can our community find forgiveness and reconciliation?

Ken Wilson - Superintendent of the Dun Laoghaire, Bray and Blackrock Methodist Circuit. He is the current President Designate of the Methodist Church in Ireland. Ken is also a member of the ECONI Steering Group.

WHY ECONI? ... PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
I've spent the last 30 years as a parish minister in the lower Falls and the Shankill, so I've lived and ministered through 'the troubles'. Not that the troubles only began 30 years age. They have been going on a long time, some would say centuries. But things were triggered in our days by the civil rights marches. The ensuing unrest and violence spread to Belfast with ugly, vicious and sectarian riots on the streets. This brought the army in.

The situation declined further with the rise of the Provisional IRA and the loyalist paramilitaries. A bombing campaign started with its devastation of property and lives. Killings, random and selective, stained our life and left our homes and families desolate.

Political initiatives were introduced, Sunningdale, the power sharing executive, the Downing Street declaration … things trip off the tongue easily … but they did not lead to peace. And now we have the Belfast Agreement, which seeks to chart a new way forward recognising our ethnic identities and aspirations, and establish a just peace by compromise and agreement.

Clearly these last 30 years raised serious, urgent political questions, but for men and women of faith they raised other questions also. How is it God can allow such evil, or stand aside seemingly indifferent? Is he Lord at all? Or is he judging us?

As one whose calling is to expound the bible's teaching and relate it to contemporary life, I wrestled agonisingly with these questions like the biblical writers did (Hab 1:1-6,12; Psa 10; Jer 14:7-10) that I might speak a word or message from God that would relate to what the people had lived through or were living through the previous week. But this was largely a personal agony, shared by others I have no doubt, but mainly personal. To be sure several of us did take an 'ad' in the Belfast Telegraph to spell out a Christian perspective on the Northern Ireland problem, but its impact was soon dissipated.

Then I met David Hewitt after a UCCF meeting and he mentioned that it was long past time for evangelicals to make their distinctive voice heard. He called together a number of people, representing a wide spectrum of evangelical opinion, to draw up a statement presenting a christian, specifically evangelical, alternative.

After a number of meetings, long hours of discussion and debate, and much prayer, a booklet was produced spelling out ten biblical principles which should guide church and society in 'such a time as this', and including a biblical commentary. It was entitled 'For God and his glory alone'.

The concern that gave our work impetus and momentum was the knowledge that Northern Ireland evangelicals are very good at expounding the truth of the christian faith but woefully inept at applying that faith to life. We tend to live in several worlds, of politics, faith, culture, work, leisure … but the different worlds never meet. They don't interact, whereas in reality the world of faith is the predominant world, and all the other worlds are but areas of life where we express our faith.

This is the lesson that the new testament letters hammer home eg Rom 1:8, 12; Eph 1:3; 4:6; Col 1:2; 3:4 and James. They stress that the faith we profess has implications for life as we know and experience it. For God and his glory alone seeks to address this tragic dichotomy especially in realms where our faith impinges on our life and politics.

A large number of people signed the appended commendation and ECONI was born. That was ten years ago, and like Topsy in the Harriet Beecher Stowe novel it has 'growed and growed' with a full time staff, many more booklets and papers, several ambitious and daring projects and regular ongoing discussions with church and political leaders. There has, of course, been criticism of ECONI's stance, not always constructive, indeed sometimes unfair and damaging. But there has also been an openness to listen to an evangelical viewpoint that is rational, informed, honest and prophetic in the old testament sense.

Sometimes I wonder whether we can hold it all together and maintain our evangelical distinctiveness given our differences on some issues, notably our relationship to the Roman Catholic Church, and a certain lack of definitiveness on the bible's authority and supremacy. I pray we can, because ECONI is an initiative I have been glad to be associated with, and one that I believe points the way forward to a new day in Ireland.

Brian Moore - minister of West Kirk Presbyterian Church on the Shankill Road, Belfast, where he has served for 27 years. Brian is also a member of the ECONI Steering Group.