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Editorial:
"Know Thyself"
Alwyn Thomson
Comment:
Illiberal Democracy
Alwyn Thomson
From
the Director: Good News People?
David W Porter
Balancing
on the Edge
Tony Davidson
Grateful
to God
David McMillan
Space
& Freedom
David Hewitt
Imaginative
Engagement
Keith Getty
No
longer at ease with this dispensation?
Mike Wardlow
Living
with our deepest differences
Os Guinness
Deep
Questions
Johnston
McMaster
Steady
presence
Cecelia Clegg
No
longer lonely
Joseph Liechty
Something
to give
Ingri Sakaria
Bible
study series: Faith in the future
David
W Porter
Review:
The Elusive Quest, Reconciliation in N I by Norman Porter
Bill
Brown
Review:
Journeying Towards Reconciliation, A Song for Ireland by Ruth Patterson
Lynda
Gould
Review:
Islam in Conflict:Past Present and Future by Peter G Riddell &
Peter Cotterell
Alwyn
Thomson
Review:
The R Option - Building Relationships as a Better Way of Life by
Michael Schluter & David John Lee
Anna
Rankin
Review:
Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
Glenn
Jordan
Summer
School Poetry
Various
For
God and His Glory Alone:
Study 6: Truth
BALANCING ON THE EDGE
AS A TEENAGER, growing up in the midst of the Troubles in Dungannon in the early 1970s, I longed to know how a Christian should respond to the inter-community strife threatening to engulf my community. During my time as a student in Queen's Christian Union in the late 70s I began to hear some hints at how Christians should think and behave. In the 1980s, as a young Minister in Limerick I was delighted to see those hints become a reality with the publishing of For God And His Glory Alone and the birth of ECONI. Then, as a Minister in Armagh in the 1990s as the troubles merged into the peace process ECONI kept me theologically sane. In my early years in Armagh as the political context lurched from one crisis to another I found myself devouring every sentence published by ECONI, because I knew I needed help and support to apply God's Word to the changing context around me. While at times I have felt disillusioned by sectarianism, even within the church, this has not led automatically to disillusionment with evangelical theology and practice. ECONI has created a space to apply theological principles radically to the realities of ministry in Northern Ireland.
This space has been created not just by the principles ECONI has embraced but also by its methodology. Truth has not been deposited from on high but forged in the heat of growing relationships. ECONI has listened with the ears of God as well as spoken the word of God. It has sought by its engagement in the political and cultural arena to incarnate the truths contained in For God And His Glory Alone. It has chosen to open itself to people from other traditions who can question, probe and sometimes even share our convictions.
As convener of the Inter-Church Relations Board of the Presbyterian Church I find myself in the ecclesiastical marketplace sometimes described disparagingly as ecumenism. I have discovered how many people outside of evangelicalism want to know what ECONI is thinking at any given time. When we as evangelicals are prepared to rigorously challenge our own presuppositions then we find ourselves respected, even when we challenge others' presuppositions.
ECONI has been at its best when it has drawn upon an older dissenting tradition within Ulster Protestantism and stood at the margins of its tradition and asked awkward questions. The challenge for all dissenters is maintaining roots within the tradition they want to dissent from. The challenge for ECONI then is to work on its skills on balancing near the edge of evangelicalism. The danger is to fall into the abyss of cynicism or detachment where we become yet one more voice amongst many outside of evangelicalism being critical of churches' faith and practice.
Sectarianism has proved to be a stubbornly persistent virus able to mutate itself to a new context. The challenge for ECONI in its next 15 years will be to find new ways to address a yet more subtle enemy.
TONY DAVIDSON is the Minister of First Presbyterian Church Armagh, a former Chair of the ECONI Board and Convener of the Inter-Church Relations Board of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.
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