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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
STEADY PRESENCE
I FIRST ENCOUNTERED ECONI in 1995 in a discussion about theologies of salvation with David Porter at a party hosted by Lady Jean Mayhew. Being a British Catholic, who had virtually no contact with Evangelicals, I found his vocabulary and framework of thought foreign, rather too direct, and somewhat off-putting. Little did I know, at that moment, how important David and the ECONI team were to become in the work I was just beginning with Joe Liechty on the Moving Beyond Sectarianism Project. ECONI provided not only critical advice about how to shape our work so that it would be possible for Evangelicals to engage with it, but also practical help, professional support, and friendship in the days when sectarianism was not a popular topic, and life was tough.
My relationship with ECONI, however, was and is much more than just a professional necessity. In my early days in Northern Ireland I spent quite a lot of time trying to understand how Evangelicals view life, how they organise themselves ecclesiologically, and what they mean when they use certain phrases, like "being saved," and "Christian". For me, it was a journey into a new language and new mindset and my colleagues in ECONI helped me, directly and indirectly, to grasp some of the nuances. I find it by turns ironic and by turns sad that I recognise in their evangelical world the same passion for God, firmness of belief and clarity about doctrine that I associate with my own church – yet our religious worlds remain miles apart.
In the churches sector, ECONI has succeeded in bringing an evangelical voice into the wider churches dialogue and refusing to be sidelined. It seems to me that they (and the smaller evangelical churches) are still treated as peripheral in the sector, when in fact their influence is surprisingly wideranging. I sense that this marginalisation can be frustrating and yet ECONI lives it with grace and openness. Their steady presence in conversations with the larger churches has been a richness and has offered the opportunity for everyone to understand the "other" better and where appropriate to coordinate action in the pursuit of peace.
The persevering work that ECONI is doing in bringing an evangelical Christian perspective to political conversations, and in helping their constituency to think through the biblical rationale for socio-political engagement, has been and is, I believe, of inestimable value in moving forward the cause of peace in this society. Being a para-church organisation, and not bound by the same constraints as the more formal churches, they have found a significant role in convening and holding safe space for conversations between church people, and between church people and politicians/civil servants.
CECELIA CLEGG is a staff member of the Irish School of Ecumenics, Belfast. She is Co-Director of the "Partners in Transformation Project", which aims to enhance, nurture and support the capacities of churches and faith communities in their calling to be peacebuilders and agents of transformation.
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