SEARCH Journal

Summer 2023

Returning to an in-person Colloquium after the zooming of the pandemic, it seemed appropriate to look to the future by inviting speakers in the earlier stages of their career to look specifically at the depressing outlook for the future of our planet, and beyond. Hence our title ‘A New Look at the End Times’ and a line-up of participants who, if not under 35 as originally hoped, were at least all under 45.

Spring 2023

Guest editor Robin Stockitt writes: I have recently been inspired through reading a book entitled ‘The Salt Path’, which tells the story of a couple who lost everything and chose to walk the South West Coastal Path through Devon and Cornwall. In the process of their journey they came to fascinating and powerful insights. It is not a Christian book but it resonated with me as so many paradigm shifts and spiritual encounters in the Bible seem to occur whilst travelling. Indeed there is a strong Christian tradition of pilgrimage which acknowledges the potentially transformative effects of going on a journey.

Autumn 2022

THE LATE summer was dominated for many church people, in and beyond the Anglican Communion, by the question, “Will this Lambeth Conference see the break-up of the Anglican Communion?” Breakaway threats from the traditionalist side of the Communion against the Churches which are more open to new insights had become increasingly intense since the foundation of Gafcon and the Anglican Church of North America.

Summer 2022

BOTH the wide and the narrow views concern us just now. On the wide angle, we ask what the Churches can do for peace-making and justice in Europe and beyond; Bryan Kelly of TCD guides us through the challenges and opportunities. With a narrower focus, we ponder our vision for our own Church of Ireland, for “without a vision the people perish,” as Proverbs 29 warned us long ago.

Spring 2022

MORE and more, it is our future that worries us - the future of our planet and its communities, the future of our children, and indeed the future of our Church and the life of faith. “Will our children have faith?” has been a key worry for some time. Now “Will our children have life?” is even more pertinent.

Autumn 2021

THE conflicting socio-political perceptions that are part of this island's make-up have been emphasised this major centenary year to the extent that we can't even agree on how to name it - witness the embarrassment of President Higgins declining to attend the Armagh service "marking the partition of Ireland and the formation of Northern Ireland”. Did this definition imply "politicisation"? It remains a matter of opinion, but given the debacle caused by Brexit and the protocol, socio-political discord lies very close to the surface.