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Comment: What is Reconciliation?
Michael Whitley

From the Director: Ireland is changing and so are we!
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The Whole Gospel for the Whole World (and beyond...)
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Rwanda Ten Years On
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Anglo-Irish Relations
Russell & Katherine Norton

The Hard Gospel
David Chillingworth

Interview with Robin Eames: RECONCILIATION - A View from Armagh
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Interview with Sean Brady: RECONCILIATION - A View from Armagh
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Church-based Peacebuilding
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Evangelism & Reconciliation - are they irreconcilable?
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Dogville and the Drama of Redemption
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Blessed are the Peacemakers?
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Review: Bitter Fruit
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Review: The Colour of Darkness
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Review: The Lost Message of Jesus
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Review: The Futures of Evangelicalism
David J Montgomery

Review: Evangelicals in Ireland: An Introduction
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THE HARD GOSPEL

‘I want to see a return to the hard gospel. That is the solution to the problem of sectarianism. The hard gospel is… that you love God and love your neighbour as yourself. End of story.’

That comment from a retired Church of Ireland Rector, quoted in the preface to the Hard Gospel Report, provided the ‘brand name’ for the Hard Gospel movement which is about to become a three year programme for the Church of Ireland. Touching the lives of dioceses and parishes and engaging with the central structures of the church, the Hard Gospel has the potential to reshape significantly the life of the Church of Ireland in the future. Its roots, of course, lie much further back.

In the recent book on Archbishop Robin Eames, Alf McCreary quotes him as saying that Drumcree was ‘My Calvary’. It was no less painful for the Church of Ireland as a whole. If you live in Portadown, you tend to see everything through the lens of Drumcree. But I believe that Drumcree was the key event which exposed a number of historical ambiguities with which the Church of Ireland and other churches have lived for too long. Internally divided and externally criticised, the Church of Ireland found itself year after year unable to detach itself from a tragedy not of its making but with which it was inextricably linked.

Historic, institutional churches are broad coalitions. People belong by faith conviction – but also by birth and family tradition. Faith is deeply held but sometimes may not be consciously ‘thought out.’ Where faith is held as but one element of personal identity alongside strands of cultural and political belonging, there is room for the growth of sectarianism. In such an environment, ‘our people’ may be the visible community of faith – or it may be a much broader community of cultural or political identity and interest. The Church of Ireland and other churches have begun to recognise that it is in those ambiguities of language and practice that sectarianism has room to grow. Churches can be ‘part of the problem’.

The churches, of course, have long recognised this and have attempted to respond. Clergy have called for restraint and forgiveness at the funeral of victims of the violence. There has been a transformation in inter-church relationships. The leaders of the four main churches have given a valuable witness to the shared concern of the churches for our whole society. At local level, there is growing evidence of a desire to co-operate and share. The churches have been setting out the new patterns of relating. The problem is that they have not also dismantled or decommissioned the old. To put it at its simplest, most congregations contain people who believe that it is a primary task of the church to be an agent of reconciliation. Those same congregations contain people who believe that the Church of Ireland is there to sustain the religious, political and cultural identity of the broader protestant community. And many people believe both at the same time.

And we don’t talk about it. ‘Whatever you say, say nothing,’ is the order of the day. For the fear is that to open up such emotive issues will make the coalition unsustainable. So when the Orange Order at Drumcree insisted on worshipping in a Church of Ireland church while refusing to respond to the concerns of its neighbours, the Church of Ireland was helpless.

But gradually the Church of Ireland began to respond. In 1997, the General Synod asked the Standing Committee ‘to identify ways in which the Church may be deemed to be accommodating to sectarianism …’ In response to this request, the Report of the Sub-Committee on Sectarianism was presented to General Synod in 1999.

Writing about the Report, Joe Leichty of the Moving Beyond Sectarianism Project said: ‘No denomination has ever addressed sectarianism as an internal problem so directly and publicly, consequently helping to take discussion of sectarianism out of the realm of angry accusation and furtive gossip and to make thinking and talking about sectarianism an ordinary part of what it means to reflect on being Christian today.’

‘The Hard Gospel’ Report followed and was presented to General Synod in 2003. The Report attempted to ‘map the landscape’ of the Church of Ireland in regard to sectarianism and drew an extraordinarily strong response from clergy and people throughout the church. A set of studies and discussion material linking the main themes of the Report with biblical passages was prepared for Lent 2004 and was used throughout the Church.

The Hard Gospel Report recognised that sectarianism is only the most obvious of a wide range of ‘living with difference’ issues with which we are confronted today. Sectarianism, a failure to deal positively with religious and political difference, becomes a sign of a failure to deal with other areas of difference. In every part of Ireland today, people are challenged by differences of culture, colour, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, age. This ensures that the people of the Church of Ireland in every part of Ireland can recognise in the issues of their daily lives echoes of the sectarianism which they might otherwise dismiss as purely a ‘northern problem.’

The Church of Ireland is well placed to meet this challenge. The diversity and geographical spread of its membership means that the Church of Ireland already carries ‘living with difference’ issues within its own life. Patsy McGarry, writing in the Winter 2000 issue of Search, said, ‘No other church or religious grouping, no political party or public institution in Ireland commands within its ranks the loyalty of such a proportion of both major political traditions.’

The Church of Ireland is now ready to embark on the Hard Gospel Programme. Major external funding is in place and is being matched by the Church of Ireland’s own resources. The programme will focus on two aspects of the life of the church. It will work with people and clergy in parishes and dioceses, helping them to think about the tangles of faith and identity with which we have grown up – encouraging people to make faith the element which shapes the whole of our lives. The Hard Gospel will also work within the central structures and decision-making processes of the Church of Ireland and will help the church to become more aware of how it deals with difference in its own life and of its role in the wider society of Ireland, north and south.

The Church of Ireland is embarking on this project, knowing that other major churches in Ireland are beginning to move in the same direction. For this is ultimately about the spiritual renewal which all churches seek individually and together. Only churches which are spiritually strong will be able to overcome sectarianism. Only churches which have overcome sectarianism will become free to respond to the leading of God’s spirit.

DAVID CHILLINGWORTH is now Bishop of St Andrews in the Scottish Episcopal Church. He was until recently Rector of Seagoe Parish Church, Portadown and Chair of the Hard Gospel Committee.

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