Editorial: Doing what it says on the tin
Anna Rankin

Comment: Stat crux dum volvitur orbis
Ben Walker

p.s. Seeing red and feeling blue

The elusiveness of trust on the ethnic frontier
David Stevens

Beliefs, values and spirituality
David Livingstone

Citizenship
Brighde Vallely

Creating Community
Ben Walker

Interview with Jose & Marizete Lara: Laboratory for mission
Anna Rankin

Transforming Culture
Derek Keefe

That's not fair!
Drew Gibson

Review: A Heart to Listen
Lynne Livingstone

Review: How to Detox your Spiritual Life in 40 Days
Claire Martin

Review: Praying in Exile
Karen Campbell

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Citizenship

DID YOU KNOW that education for citizenship is being taught in many of the schools in Northern Ireland? Are you aware that from 2007 statutory requirement will oblige all schools to include citizenship as an explicit part of the school curriculum? The function of citizenship education is to assist young people in developing an understanding of democratic processes and their practical application in political, civil and social life. The theory is that young people will discover that the outcome of democratic processes should be a political commitment to equality and justice for all members of society; to respect for diversity; and to the principles of human rights.

Whence this interest in citizenship education? The process of devolution, the establishment of Local Assemblies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the current debate in the UK on issues of nationality, identity and citizenship have all played their part. Its specific development in Northern Ireland has emerged in the context of the rocky history of the peace process and attempts to establish new structures of governance.

The pilot programme focuses on three core areas: diversity and social exclusion, equality and justice, democracy and active participation in civil society. Given that questions of nationality are divisive, schools will have to tread a fine line in separating the concept of citizenship from issues of identity and nationality. There is a danger that citizenship education, like so much else ‘across the divide’, will travel along traditional parallel lines. It is possible that a strong and inclusive Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland to which all give consent might help prevent this development.

The re-emergence of the ancient concept of citizenship raises many questions: What is citizenship? Is it a legal status which can be defined objectively or could it be seen as referring to an identity, a sense of belonging, a loyalty given? What are the implications for membership? How does this relate to rights and obligations? What are its possibilities/limitations in the 21st century? Who is included/excluded from without or within the boundaries of the nation state? Can it accommodate national and ethnic difference? How do the expansion of the EU and the development of global awareness impinge on a concept commonly associated with the nation state? How will the tensions between ideals of equality and universality, difference and diversity be dealt with? Are there ways in which citizenship may help to conceal or perpetuate disadvantage and unequal participation? Is there any basis for special rights for women, for persons with physical and mental disability, for the elderly, for minority ethnic groups, for children? Will it give a privileged position to the wage-earner over the carer-citizen?

The changing nature of democracy and the difficulties surrounding the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement have raised many questions for policy makers and others concerned about the issue citizenship participation. Voter apathy suggests that many people have little confidence in the political process. Real participation by all is essential if society is to develop and maintain principles guaranteeing satisfaction of basic needs, respect for others as equals, economic equality and religious, social, sexual and ethnic equality. It is possible to operate out of a two-tier or multi-tier society while deriding it in principle. Dualism of values will allow the continuation of a status quo which means that it is acceptable to exclude large sections of the population from the mainstream life of the society, while substantial resources and opportunities are channelled toward other groups in society. Such dualism may operate at the level of individual people, communities, sectors or ethnic groupings.

How will Church theology and praxis relate and respond to the contested concept of citizenship? It would be easy for the Church to opt out, to claim that ‘here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come’ (Heb.13:14). It might be argued that discipleship precludes preoccupation with secular citizenship; that the role of the Church is to call its members to discipleship. However, Scripture points to a relationship between the ‘now’ and ‘not yet’ of God’s heavenly city and participation in the life of the earthly city. This challenges the Church to find ways of making a theological and relevant contribution to the debate on citizenship.

As citizens and members of society, as Christians and as Church, we need to explore ways of living out the Gospel call to love the neighbour in a rapidly developing multi-cultural society, where the ‘two main communities’ are struggling to agree on a common understanding of citizenship. This cannot be left to individual morality or personal response. Behind the structures and practices that ordain how we live in society there lie deepseated, often unexamined, values – good and bad – that are reflected in legislation, policy, procedures and accepted priorities. Personal reflection and initiative are insufficient: together the Christian community must engage with civil society in new conversations about policy, about attitudes, about the kind of civic living that we want. The context for such conversations will be the hammering out of some common understanding of citizenship.

Undertaken in faith, such discourse may well reveal one of those moments when some partial manifestation of the kingdom of God is made manifest. As someone pointed out recently the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Mt. 25) calls the nations, not individuals, to judgment for their failure to feed and clothe the poor, to visit the sick and prisoners etc. Are the nations today asking with the Ethiopian, ‘How can I understand, unless someone guides me?’ (Acts 8:31) Is there a way in which to engage with secular society so that the Church is heard when it recommends to the public important ideals and foundational values which will have implications for behaviour, for policy making and for community building. In this process may not the Churches be enriched by secular wisdom?

Within Protestantism the prevalent form of church democracy tends to be representative rather than collective or participatory. This, together with an individualism in doctrine, suggests that the concept of citizenship, as the relationship between individuals mediated by an agreed allocation of rights and obligations to each, could find a home here. The Catholic parish, on the other hand, has a well-developed grass-roots social and cultural community life. Social and economic rights and active, collective politics are seen as the essence of citizenship. This view stresses the participative aspect of citizenship with citizens involved in determining the affairs of the community. Traditional church teaching on the common good and the principle of subsidiarity offer insight here.

There is an urgency for some Christian dialogue and critique of these two approaches, their strengths and weakness, and their implications for local communities – particularly in interface and other vulnerable areas. Issues such as selfish, sectional interest, the needs of disadvantages/oppressed groups, the possible emergence of new inequalities that permit some sector/interest to dominate, need to be addressed. There is a wealth of Biblical and theological understanding to assist this endeavour. Only the good will and the interest need to be harnessed.

The whole Christian tradition subscribes to the values of both human dignity and the centrality of the community. The human person is seen as growing and developing in a context that includes other people and the environment. Scripture speaks of justice in terms of a relationship – as a harmony that comes from fidelity to right relationships with God, people and the environment. The just society is one that is structured in such a way as to promote these right relationships so that human rights are respected, human dignity is protected, human development is facilitated and the environment is cared for and respected. This is an unavoidable implication of discipleship.

Walter Brueggemann writes that ‘our lives are lodged between the risky intervention that God has wrought and the end of the world’s disproportion that God has promised’. Is the Church ‘that we are’ ready, in this in-between place and time, for the risk-taking and the long haul that participation in the transformation that God is working in the world will demand?

BRIGHDE VALLELY is a Dominican Sister and is Co-director of the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI). CORI tries to articulate policies with regard to the future of society, which come from deep personal experience of God and of our world.

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