Introduction:Forgiveness
Derek Poole

Let the church be church
Brian Moore

From the Director - Statement in response to IRA and IICD Announcements
David Porter

Decommissioning - How do I feel?
David Clements

Embodying Forgiveness
Patrick Mitchel

Forgiveness in the New Testament
Bill Addley

Better than Bitterness
David Clements

Necessary Miracles - Thoughts on Forgiveness and Politics
Duncan Morrow

Faith and Practice - Moyna Bill
Ruth Hutchinson

Embodying Forgiveness Project
Stephen Graham

Tutu Book Review
Stephen Graham

Jones Book Review
Alice Swann

Transformation 2002

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LET THE CHURCH BE THE CHURCH
There is a widespread assumption today that the church’s role in society has become that of a political commentator, a community relations adviser or a Gallup Poll assessor, rather than a prophet sounding forth the Word of God ‘for such a time as this’. Therefore, greatly daring, I would like to urge the church to re-assume its prophetic role and spell out its message in society, not just in passing references, but again and again, loud and clear.

• God is Lord of history and politics and life. There is therefore no reason for despair on our part. We are not at the mercy of the British or Irish governments, loyalist or republican paramilitaries or political terrorists. This does not mean we sit all serene-like, twiddling our thumbs and imagining that things are really other than they are. Rather it will encourage us to continue striving for a more stable, just and peaceable society, trusting in God and staking our life on the fact that Christ’s death and resurrection underline for all time that he is Lord, no matter what appearances may lead us to conclude. Out of all the dreadful convulsions of these dark days he will fulfil his purposes and usher in a new day.

• What we are witnessing in the world today and in Ireland in particular is the judgement of God. As an American commentator has vividly put it, “We turn to God for help when the foundations of our life are shaking, only to find that it is he who is shaking them!” This judgement has two sides. It is retributive, a punishment for our we-can-manage-without-God way of life and our utter disregard for his Word and laws. It is also corrective until ‘in our despair, against our will comes wisdom through the awful grace of God’ moving us as a people to turn back to him.

• The Christian, as a citizen, has a divine obligation to submit to lawfully constituted authority. This does not mean that we must necessarily endorse the civil administration of the day, either the manner of its setting up or its policies. Indeed we may feel compelled to register opposition. But our opposition must be within the law of the land. Civil disobedience, in its several expressions, only becomes justifiable when our ‘rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s’ involves an overriding of conscience, a compromise of faith or a rejection of our duty to God. For the Christian the end never justifies the means. However legitimate our end may be we must always subject to close and careful examination the methods we adopt to attain it.

• In our present tragic situation the supreme need is for prayer, corporate prayer, not just once a year on a special day, or on Sundays at our services, but during the week as well.

  ‘Today we have lost too much the spirit of prayer. We do not believe in it as Christ believed in it. By prayer Jesus routed the demons of the desert. By prayer the apostles shook down the throne of Nero. By prayer Francis, Luther, Wesley and many another brought from the four winds the breath of God to breathe upon the dry bones of an effete ecclesiastical institution, and the dead bones sprang to life, an exceeding great army. By real, concentrated, believing prayer the church today could change the present dangerous situation out of recognition. The real malady of the church is not theological stagnation nor social difference; it is prayer paralysis.’ (J S Stewart)

Are not these some of the prophetic notes the church should be sounding forth today? Let the church, then, be the church, and be heard to be the church. That is my plea. Let her stick to her own job, for in this there is hope, not just of peace but of change and renewal, change of heart in people on both sides of the religious divide, and renewal of moral fibre and spiritual stature as the Word proclaimed by the church and released by prayer makes its impact on life and society.

Brian Moore is a member of the ECONI Steering Group.