In January, MPhil students went on their first field trip of the year, accompanied by Dr Geraldine Smyth. They spent three days in Belfast, where they visited Stormont, escorted by an MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) and enjoyed lunch in the Stormont dining hall.

Other memorable experiences included tours of the Shankill and Falls Road and lectures on the history of the conflict, as well as a seminar with Healing Through Remembering, an organization seeking to help reconciliation between nationalist and unionist communities.

Some relaxation was offered by evening outings and afternoon tea in the Europa Hotel! Many students found it a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience that they will not forget.

The Irish School of Ecumenics has provided some resources for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity:

Order of Service

Homily Notes by Marcin Lisak OP

Alternative Hymns

The newsletter includes information on projects donations supported in 2010-2011, new ventures for 2011-12, and the launch of Evangelical Journeys: Choice and Change in a Northern Irish Religious Subculture, a new book by Claire Mitchell and Gladys Ganiel.

Click here to read The Sheaf.

NGOs and International Politics: Theory and Practice:

International Peace Studies is pleased to announce that a new service-learning internship module will commence in Semester 2, 2013, providing work practice to MPhil students. The overarching theme of this module is to examine the relevance of NGOs to key international politics areas and to evaluate the role of NGOs in the light of academic literature and work placement experience. NGOs currently providing internships to our students are Frontline Defenders, Brussels and Dublin, AIFRI, Dublin, Debt Coalition of Ireland, Dublin, Healing Through Remembering, Belfast, Geneva Forum, Geneva, UN Biological Weapons Convention Implementation Support Unit, Geneva, Churches Commission on Migration Issues, Brussels).

NB: Internships are un-paid and students must bear all associated costs (for example, travel, accommodation) of internships themselves.

Intake to this module will be limited in accordance with the number of internships offered.

If demand for internships exceeds supply, selection of students for internships will be decided by staff committee, on the basis of a cv and a statement of interest. Students will indicate their desired NGOs in in order of preference. If demand for a specific NGO exceeds supply selection of students for internship with that NGO will be decided by staff committee, on the basis of a cv and a statement of interest.

Dr Cavatorta gave a whirlwind history of Israel and Palestine, before examining UN resolutions and policies to the area. The lecture was followed by a lively class discussion.

Dr Cavatorta has published widely on the Middle East, including Civil Society and Democratisation in the Arab World, with Vincent Durac, London Routledge and The Failure of Democratisation in Algeria, 2008, Manchester University Press.

You can read about Gercama’s work at USC by clicking here.

Speakers included:

Peter de Mey, Professor of Roman Catholic eccelesiology and ecumenism at KU Leuven, on ‘The Nature and Mission of the Church:  A Global Perspective’

A Roundtable discussion on ‘The Irish Perspective’ with Adrian Cristea (Integration Officer with the Irish Council of Churches and Irish Inter-Church Meeting), Mark Patrick Hederman (Abbot of Glenstal Abbey), and Anne Thurston (author and doctoral candidate at the Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD)

Andrew Pierce, Assistant Professor of Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics, TCD, on ‘The Ecclesial Shape of Repentance’

The third and final seminar will be:

Embedded Memory and the Theological Contours of Division – 19 December

‘Unfinished History: Religion and Identity in Ireland,’ Marianne Elliot

‘The Theological Contours of Division,’ Alan Ford

‘The Churches and Embedded Memory,’ Oliver Rafferty

The seminar series is free and lunch will be provided. To register, please RSVP cgkenny@tcd.ie

You can download a poster about the series here.

Glenn is the author of the 2001 book, Not of this World? Evangelical Protestants in Northern Ireland.  You can listen to Glenn’s remarks in full here.

A selection of Glenn’s remarks is reproduced here:

The evangelical community which has helped shape me to a large extent … [has] … been picked over and studied by so many people, as the abundance of the studies referenced [in this book] … bear reference to. … Academics … have pinned [evangelicals] wriggling to the page and picked them apart. Many of those studies have done that analysis, fixed them to the formulated phrase, without much by way of sympathy or the understanding of an insider. …

[But] what’s obvious to me … once you reach … the stories of the people … the book really does take off. And what I learned from this … was here were two researchers who had a deep sympathetic understanding of that community … and also an ear for a good story. It’s made up of stories of people who spoke incredibly honestly about their experiences of faith, some of which have been very painful. …

You [Claire and Gladys] are to be commended for what is a first class contribution to the sociology of religion, yes, but also to the understanding of this often much maligned community in Northern Ireland.

You reminded me of the gentle goodness of so much of evangelicalism, but also of the fear that constrains it so often, and also the social awkwardness of the community that sometimes holds it back and expresses itself in anger and disaffection.

… You captured some of the complexity of the evangelical community, demonstrating for me that there is no single coherent narrative that captures the journey of people, of evangelicals. Evangelical expressions of faith are as varied and different as the people that tell those stories. … For people outside that community that is a message that desperately needs to be heard.

… I think above all what you have done in the book is that you have dignified the stories themselves. You have respected those stories. Whilst you have the objectivity of the academic you have not coldly pinned those stories … you have dignified the stories, reminding me as I read of the heroic nature of the ordinary stories of everyday people who have had to face extraordinary events that have been part and parcel of growing up in Northern Ireland through the history of the Troubles. Stories that don’t make the headlines, but nonetheless are extraordinary ones. Extraordinary stories of people who have sought to make sense of faith, through a conflict here, through the framework of their faith.

…[To those of you here who were interviewed for the book, Claire and Gladys] have respected your stories, which is a serious and deep contribution as well.

[You are to be commended for] respecting and dignifying the stories of ordinary people trying to hold on to faith in extraordinary circumstances.

Claire and Gladys are deeply grateful for Glenn’s complimentary remarks.

They thank him and everyone who participated in the production of the book, all those who attended the launch, and Prof Geraldine Smyth, Head of the Irish School of Ecumenics, who helped host the evening on our behalf.

The best way to purchase the book is via the UCD Press website, where you can get it at a reduced rate of €22.

You can read another review of the book, by Blogger Alan in Belfast, here.

Speakers included:

‘Public theology in an Irish Key,’ Enda McDonagh

‘Restoring the Fabric of Irish Economic and Social Life,’ Gerry O’Hanlon

‘Relations of Reciprocity: Contemporary Religiosity and Convictional Pluralism,’ Celia Kenny

‘Public Theology of Reconciliation,’ David Tombs

‘Broken Dialogue, Fractured Faith and Elusive Truth,’ Peter Admirand

The next seminars will be:

In Search of an Irish Church – 2 November

‘The Nature and Mission of the Church: A Global Perspective,’ Peter de Mey

Respondents: Adrian Cristea, Mark Patrick Hederman, Anne Thurston

‘The Ecclesial Shape of Repentance,’ Andrew Pierce

‘Addressing the Legacy of Abuse: Ecumenics as Resource and Method,’ Geraldine Smyth

Embedded Memory and the Theological Contours of Division – 19 December

‘Unfinished History: Religion and Identity in Ireland,’ Marianne Elliot

‘The Theological Contours of Division,’ Alan Ford

‘The Churches and Embedded Memory,’ Oliver Rafferty

The seminar series is free and lunch will be provided. To register, please RSVP cgkenny@tcd.ie

You can download a poster about the series here.

(Images: Linda Hogan, ISE; Enda McDonagh; Gerry O’Hanlon; David Tombs, ISE; Peter Admirand; Gladys Ganiel, ISE)