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HOPE in Uncertain Times
Life before lockdown wasn’t always a bed of roses. But it was normal and predictable, usually…now everything seems unknown. What does the future hold? Is there a door of hope? Hope in Uncertain Times is a giveaway booklet and a free video pointing to hope for now and for eternity. As churches…
Reflections on the way forward
Between the 1 and the 12 October we received responses from more than 1,000 individuals and in excess of 450 church leaders, giving us a fuller picture of how churches are navigating the continually changing landscape, evolving laws and guidance, and the challenge of local and regional…
Luther's Example is Still Driving our Faith
In April 2017 I participated in a communion service in the Castle Church, Wittenberg, sitting near to a very significant doorway. It was there that the young monk Martin Luther pinned his famous 95 theses. An initiative that historians may dispute but a story that has had an enormous impact on…
Us and Them?
“Fragmentation is the Reformation’s saddest legacy.” The 500th anniversary of the Reformation has raised the difference in perception between the two communities in Northern Ireland. The community in which one is raised will determine whether the Reformation was a tragedy or triumph. The “us…
The Reformation and Human Rights
The Reformation has had a foundational impact on much of our understanding of the individual, the Church and the state, and its relevance endures in its legacy – in changing the face of the Christian Church and in lending an ideological base to many of our modern institutions. Reformers held…
A Reformed Legal Culture?
Fittingly, Frank McKelvey’s painting of the opening ceremony for the Royal Courts of Justice in 1931 hangs in the Royal Courts of Justice. Among the platform dignitaries depicted as sitting with the then Lord Chief Justice are the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in…
Do We Still Need a Reformation Here?
The truth about the Reformation in Ireland is that it hasn’t happened (yet). The pattern of the main Christian denominations in Northern Ireland does not reflect divisions that occurred within the Church in this island, but the importation of divisions that originated elsewhere. The…
Are We Still Waiting for Reformation in Ireland?
The Reformation was a rediscovery of Bible truth. Centuries of spiritual darkness were dispelled by the light of God’s Word. However, the progress of the Reformation varied across the British Isles. In England and Wales, Henry VIII’s need to secure a male heir led to the Reformation being…
Heart Speaks to Heart- are theological disputes an unaffordable luxury as a generation is lost?
If justification was not the only issue that the theses nailed to the Wittenburg door addressed, it certainly transfixed the Fathers at the Council of Trent, who devoted 16 chapters and 33 canons to the subject. What if the definitions agreed between Philip Melancthon and Cardinal Contarini at…
What are the Five Solas of the Reformation?
Martin Luther had entered the monastic life out of fear for his life. On July 2nd 1505, on the way home from law school, he was caught in a thunderstorm and hurled to the ground by lightning. “Help me, St. Anne; I will become a monk!” He feared for his soul and did not know how to find safety…
The Reformation and Conscience
One of the great gifts of the Reformation to us today is its legacy of freedom of conscience. Luther did not directly address that issue in his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, but six years later he wrote, “For over the soul God can and will let no one rule but Himself. Therefore, where temporal…
How the Reformation Changed Society
If we believe that all human beings are created equal, that they are free to act according to conscience, to speak freely, to be treated fairly before the law; if we believe that rulers should obey the same laws as their subjects, that oppression should be resisted; that leaders should be held…
Four safe ways to bless older people this Christmas
This Christmas will be unlike any we have seen for generations. Many older people may be unable to spend time with family or friends due to the coronavirus pandemic, others will be mourning the loss of a loved one, and there will be people everywhere feeling lonely, fearful, forgotten, and…
Carl Knightly
Advent lament: “O come, O come, Emmanuel”
Frustration is building as we slowly contemplate a Christmas, perhaps without loved ones and well-worn traditions. We hear the science and the logic and tell ourselves that needs must; however, we can’t hide forever the emotions this crisis is bringing out in us. Frustration can build to anger and…
Guest writer
COVID-19, unemployment and our response
Redundancies are at their highest level in eight years, the rate of unemployment is the highest it has been in three years, and the Government's Job Retention Scheme is committed to last only until the end of March 2021. At the Evangelical Alliance we want to both face up to the realities of the…
Jo Evans
