VOX January 2017

ISSUE 33 / JANUARY - MARCH 2017

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“My simple faith has so often brought light to a dark path, warmth to a cold mountain and strength to a failing body. I remember crawling onto the summit of Everest and clearing the snow from my mask to see the curvature of the earth at the edges. But finding a simple faith that empowers my life? To me that’s been my greatest adventure.”

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VOX JAN - MAR 2017

EDITORIAL

Right thinking ’ve been pondering the Incarnation that incredible, mind-shattering truth that the Lord of all creation stepped into the mess and the mayhem of our broken world and became one of us!

By rights, He was entitled to the highest position in all of heaven. By rights, He had almighty power at His fingertips. By rights, He not only owned the cattle on a thousand hills (anyone old enough to remember that ancient hymn?) but also had unlimited resources at His disposal. By rights, His home was a place where there is no mourning or crying or pain.

But the miracle of the Incarnation is that He laid down His rights - exchanging position and power for humility and weakness, experiencing poverty, exhaustion, suffering and pain, even fleeing from a massacre as a refugee. Echoes of Aleppo…

The Judge of all the earth suffered injustice. The King of Love was despised and rejected. The Holy

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THE MIRACLE OF THE INCARNATION IS THAT HE LAID DOWN HIS RIGHTS. One of Israel was condemned as a criminal. The Gracious and Compassionate God was subject to brutal torture. The Healer was bleeding. The Source of all Life was executed.

And He did it for us!

So as we ponder “Rights and Wrongs” considering issues of human rights (“Thinking Theologically about Rights”, page 12, and “A Broad and Generous Interpretation of Human Rights”, page 14) it is only right that our starting place is a Christ-like attitude (Philippians 2: 4).

In 2017, let us be those who are willing to lay down our rights… who are willing to sacrifice our privilege and comfort for the sake of others. Let us speak up for those who have been denied their rights but hold our own with an open hand.

Ruth Garvey-Williams Editor (editor@vox.ie)

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CONTENTS

JAN - MAR 2017 ISSUE 33 ISSN: 2009-2253

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COVER STORIES A Broad and Generous Interpretation of Human Rights responding to the abortion debate in the light of human rights

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Alpha special feature - “I was thinking, there has to be more to life than this…”

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FEATURES AND INTERVIEWS Thinking Theologically about Rights - “Modern Europe seems to have a problem with religious rights”

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Engaging with Young Adults in our Churches - Highlights from the EAI National Forum

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Growing Up - Helping Christians in Ireland to dig deep into the Bible

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My Story: “Going to prison was one thing; re-entering ‘real life’ was much harder!”

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The Limitations of Human Rights - avoiding an impoverished narrative that favours privilege and power

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Christmas Connections - 10 ways churches were engaging with their communities during December 2016

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The Right to Education - How do Christians respond to the debate over religious patronage of schools? VOX brings you three different perspectives.

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Uncover Cork - partnering together for the sake of the Gospel

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I have seen God - the miraculous story of the Diospi Suyana Hospital in Peru

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Encounter - summer internships in Ireland

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Confession or Cover Up? - How do Churches and Christian organisations respond when wrongdoing comes to light?

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Celebrating the re-launch of YFC Ireland

VOX VIEWS Rich Christians in an age of Climate Change - Why is the Church ignoring the environment?

E DITOR Ruth Garvey-Williams editor@vox.ie

VOX magazine is a quarterly publication, brought to you by a passionate team of volunteers.

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REGULAR FEATURES VOX: Shorts VOX: World News Your VOX: Letters

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The Soapboxer Confessions of a Feint Saint Music Reviews

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Event Listing Book Reviews VOX: PS with Seán Mullan

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VOX SHORTS

Dr Helen Roseveare: 1925 - 2016

There have been tributes from around the world following the death of Dr. Helen Roseveare, who served as a missionary in the Congo. She made her home in Northern Ireland when she returned from Africa in 1973 and was a well-known speaker and author in her later years.

In 1953, at the age of 28, Dr. Roseveare arrived in the northeastern region of the Congo. She founded a training school for nurses and later transformed a medical centre into a thriving hospital with 100 beds as well as training paramedics for 48 mobile clinics.

The Congo became independent in 1960, and civil war broke out in 1964. All of the medical facilities were destroyed, and Helen was among ten missionaries put under house arrest and then imprisoned by the rebel forces. Trying to escape, Helen was violently assaulted.

She later pointed to God’s goodness despite this great evil: “Through the brutal heartbreaking experience of rape, God met with me—with outstretched arms of love. It was an unbelievable experience: He was so utterly there, so totally understanding, His comfort was so complete—and suddenly I knew—I really knew that His love was

According to a groundbreaking new study commissioned by the Josh McDowell THE PORN CRISIS IS NOT COMING...

IT IS HERE Ministry and carried out by the Barna Group in America, pornography is a growing problem within our churches as well as in wider society.

According to the research, which surveyed 3,000 people, 1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 pastors use porn on a regular basis. Note: 70% of those who identified as Christians for the purpose of the survey said a pastor should leave ministry if he/she is found to be using porn.

While 23% of males over 25 who describe themselves as practising Christians admit to using porn regularly, for males aged 13 - 24, this percentage is almost double (41%). The study showed that women are less likely to use porn but a growing number of women are viewing and sharing porn.

Fifty-one percent of teen and young adult women porn users have sent a nude image by text, email or app.

Changing attitudes mean that most teens and young adults surveyed consider environmental issues (e.g. failing to recycle) as more immoral than viewing pornography.

Youth pastors seem to be more aware of the urgency of this issue than church pastors and ministers. More than nine out of ten youth pastors say that porn is a major (55%) or significant (40%) problem for teens overall, and two-thirds say it is a major (14%) or significant (53%) problem specifically for the youth in their own church.

The full research document is available for purchase from www.barna.org.

Pornography is pervasive, permeating our culture from shop windows to web ads, premium cable shows to smartphone apps. Where once it was kept literally under wraps, used furtively in secret and shame, porn is now a standard feature of everyday life, seen by most teens and young adults as less morally offensive than failing to recycle.

The Porn Phenomenon is an assessment of the cultural place of pornography today, based on a survey of existing social science research and nearly 3,000 new interviews with U.S. teens, adults and Protestant church leaders. In this research monograph, produced in partnership with Josh McDowell Ministry, you’ll find: • Statistics on porn use and views about porn among key age and faith segments

• An overview of scholarly research on porn’s effects on individuals, relationships and communities • Insights from experts and ministry leaders on what the data means for culture and the Church • Barna analysis of the cultural factors at play, including technology and the country’s shifting moral center • Engaging charts, graphs and infographics to help you understand the story behind the numbers

The Porn Phenomenon study exposes the breadth and depth of porn’s impact and shows that the Christian community can no longer ignore pornography’s effects on the minds and hearts of the next generation.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9965843-6-4

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THE PORN PHENOMENON

The Porn Phenomenon

THE PORN PHENOMENON

unutterably sufficient. He did understand!”

Speaking after her death, Bishop Harold Miller said, “I had the privilege of knowing Helen since coming to the diocese 20 years ago. But Helen was the kind of person everyone felt they knew, because of her writings and inspirational stories of missionary work in the Congo. Helen was in every way the archetypal missionary. She was warm, relational, resilient and utterly focused on serving the Lord.

“In the Diocese of Down and Dromore, we honoured her with a Spirit of Patrick award at a most memorable event in Down Cathedral in 2009.

In truth, no honour or award was more important to her than serving her Master, Jesus Christ. His glory was what mattered above all else.

“Helen was a member of St Elizabeth’s Church in Dundonald, which she dearly loved. She was (and I don’t exaggerate here) one of the most honest people I have ever met. She would tell of her doubts and challenges and didn’t much like woozy sentimentality! Helen will be greatly missed. The world is a better place because of her. She was unique and will be an inspiration to generations after her to live fully for the Lord to the very end.”

New Horizon Speakers Confirmed

The main speakers for this year’s New Horizon Christian conference have been confirmed as Heather Morris (Methodist Church in Ireland), Dave Richards from Edinburgh and Jago Wynne from Holy Trinity in Clapham.

The popular conference runs from 5 11 August at the Ulster University in Coleraine, Northern Ireland. To find out more visit, www.newhorizon.org.uk.

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Vox Ad Training Dublin 2017.pdf

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Practical Training for Youth Leaders

Organised by The Big House from Northern Ireland, this training event will take place on Saturday 6 May (10am - 4pm) at the Irish Bible Institute, Ulysses House, Foley St, Dublin 1 to answer key questions that youth leaders have. “What do I do if a young person says they have thoughts about taking their own life? How can I help someone in my youth group who is addicted to pornography? What is anxiety and how can I support someone who struggles with it? How do I respond when a teenager tells me their parents are separating?”

Youth leaders may not have all the answers, but they want to respond caringly, with practical help and with the hope, love and power of Jesus. This training event is an opportunity for youth leaders, volunteers (over 18), parents or church leaders to become better equipped to respond when these issues arise in the lives of their young people.

Contributors for the day combine professional expertise, personal experience and a Biblical perspective to help us understand the issues and respond to them practically and in the way of Jesus. Seminar topics will include Pornography, Suicide, Anxiety and Family Change.

The ticket price is to be confirmed but will include tea/coffee and lunch - full details available soon on the VOX magazine Events Listing (www.vox.ie). Find out more at www.thebighouse.org.uk.

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Studying Applied Theology Online Watch out for great online courses from the Irish Bible Institute this year, including Old Testament Survey, selected Irish Church History, Pastoral Caring and Discipleship. Check out full details of these four-week courses at www.ibi.ie.

Irish Campaigner Honoured

Miriam Beattie, coordinator of the Lydia Fellowship International Ireland, has been awarded the Prolife Campaign’s Person of the Year Award for 2016. Accepting the award in recognition for her work encouraging local churches to get involved in the campaign, Miriam wrote, “The Prolife Campaign is a non-denominational organisation that has been manning the frontline for many years. My involvement goes back to the 1980s.

“Through the years, I have seen how tirelessly they work and how professional they are in their ability to hold their ground when challenged by the media, TV debates and discussions.

PLC are the ones who fought for the introduction of the Eighth Amendment into our Constitution, achieved through a referendum held in 1983.

The 8th Amendment is the last remaining legal protection for children in the womb. Can I suggest that each one of us take a stand against abortion being established in our land?”

Find out more about the Prolife Campaign at www.loveboth.ie.

Team Hope Shoebox Appeal

As we go to print, the total number of gift-filled shoeboxes collected for this year’s annual appeal is unknown but Team Hope executive director Niall Barry confirmed, “The response this year has been fantastic! We have many more boxes than last year, and the online shoeboxes are still coming in. Thanks to all the VOX readers who supported the Team Hope Christmas Shoebox Appeal!”

JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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WORLD NEWS

SEEING RED ABOUT PERSECUTION

The tower of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin was floodlit in red on November 20 - the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This was an act of solidarity with the millions of Christians around the world who face severe persecution and was arranged by Church in Chains (an Irish charity that advocates for persecuted Christians worldwide) with the support of the Church of Ireland’s Council for Mission.

Church in Chains director David Turner said, “We hope this gesture will raise greater public awareness in Ireland of the continuing and growing persecution of Christians in many countries, and that this awareness will lead to greater support for them.

“The slaughter of Christians in Iraq and Syria by Islamic State militants and others has gained some prominence, but it should also be remembered that in recent years, thousands of Christians have been killed in Nigeria by Boko Haram militants and Fulani cattle herders, while hundreds have died in bomb attacks on churches in Pakistan.”

Earlier last year, Rome’s Trevi Fountain was dyed red to highlight the persecution of Christians, and in November, London’s Westminster Abbey and Westminster Cathedral were also floodlit in red for the same reason. Find out more about Church in Chains at www.churchinchains.ie.

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MAKING THE MESSAGE MOBILE

We are bombarded daily with images of the desperate plight of refugees and immigrants fleeing war-torn, deprived or persecuted areas seeking a better life. God seems to be stirring up the nations, and this is giving the Christian church many opportunities to respond in practical ways to show the love of Jesus to hurting people.

Amazingly, around 80% of refugees have a mobile phone. This has prompted an organisation, 100fold.org, to provide thousands of “Mustard Seeds” - micro SD cards full of Gospel resources - through its partners on the ground who can distribute them. With little to occupy them and relieve the burdens of each day’s struggle for survival, these chips are being received eagerly.

Each one is able to contain resources including the Bible in their native languages and in audio format, and other Gospel material. This is just one way that 100fold.org, a ministry of UFM Worldwide, is seeking to redeem technology for the Gospel.

SETTING CAPTIVES FREE

International Justice Mission works to fight injustice on behalf of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. At the end of November, in South Asia, ten boys were rescued from slavery at a shoe factory. They were trafficked from a state several days’ travel away and then faced gruelling conditions while they were watched and threatened constantly. The factory owners hid the younger boys indoors so that no one would know what horrors were going on. Thanks to the work of IJM, the boys are now free and will be reunited with their families.

In the Philippines, a survivor called Cassie* was trafficked into cybersex slavery at 12 years of age and rescued five years later. The trial against the man who exploited her and several other children is currently ongoing, and Cassie has bravely testified against him. Pray for the IJM lawyer working on this case to have wisdom as he seeks justice for Cassie. Find out more at www.ijmuk.org. *Name changed

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YOUR VOX

Letters to the editor

Star Letter

of VOX we In each issue all of a €25 One4 ize pr a d ar aw r. tte le ite ur r favo voucher for ou u!

It could be yo

Christian Radio Interesting article on Christian radio (“On the Airways” - VOX Oct - Dec 2016). It would be interesting if there was a list of stations with Christian content available. In that vein, could I recommend NEAR FM in North East Dublin, which has a music programme on Sunday

FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE

I have begun a Gospel radio programme on the local community radio station in Roscommon. Please tune in to the programme “Faith, Hope and Love” on Ros FM 94.6, or, for those further afield, through the internet on www.rosfm.ie. All you have to do is click the red “listen live” button at the top right of the homepage. The show is broadcast on Wednesday at 5-6pm.

REV. ALASTAIR DONALDSON ROSCOMMON

DISAPPOINTED!

I was utterly disappointed by an article you ran in the reviews section of VOX called “Peterson: In between the man and the message.” First, I must make it clear that I have no issues with Eugene Peterson’s work or him as a person… …The crux of my disappointment in

from 9am to 10am (“Sacred Music”) and a talk programme (“God Talk”) at 4pm, as a start for the list.

MICHAEL LENNON DUBLIN

reading this article has everything to do with the culture of man-centred ministry, which the article promotes. I must say that some of the comments made my stomach turn with the blatant worship of Peterson. Peterson is referred to as a “hero” and a “voice of urgent beauty.” For a Christian to use the term “hero” describing another person is either a sign of Christian infancy or a complete ignorance of both Scripture and the selfevident sin nature of people.

I have no problems, nor is there anywhere in Scripture that restricts us from appreciating one another or showing honour and love towards one another. Praising God for the work He has accomplished through someone is an amazing thing and to be encouraged, but praising a man for the work God has done is another matter entirely, and this article does the latter… blatantly. …By all means let us appreciate a man like Peterson, but for his obedience and faithfulness to the one living God and what

God has achieved through him, and for no other reason. …I can appreciate with the variety of articles that you publish that the messages can vary in degree, but this article does not drive one toward God, it does not create intrigue in or promote worship of Jesus at all; the article promotes worship of man… I pray that you see this error and understand my need for writing to you…*

RICHARD DUBLIN (* Full name not supplied. Letter has been edited for length.)

Ed Note: While we respect the writer’s opinion, have seriously considered the full text of his letter and have published his views here, we are satisfied that the review of Greg Fromholz’s film was not intended as hero worship but rather a positive review of a beautiful film.

SEND YOUR LETTERS TO EDITOR@VOX.IE OR YOUR VOX, ULYSSES HOUSE, 22-24 FOLEY STREET, DUBLIN 1 10

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JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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FAITH

t is commonly argued that the church played a central role in the emergence of the language of “human rights.” This may well be true, but when we turn to the Scriptures, we find no straightforward reference to such an idea, either in the Old or New Testament.

For evangelicals interested in rights, then, the theological argument usually begins from some argument about the imago Dei, the image of God that we encounter in Genesis 1:27.

That seems like a strong starting point for any theological argument, and when we consider the Hebrew Scriptures, we find that justice for the widow and the poor, for the alien and the orphan is simply assumed.

It would be hard to argue from Scripture anything less than that every person can expect justice to be done. We would search in vain for exceptions. Over and over again, Israel is reminded that they were once

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WHETHER THE FIGHT IS ABOUT BAKING GAY CAKES IN BELFAST OR BURKINIS IN NICE, MODERN EUROPE SEEMS TO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH RELIGIOUS RIGHTS.

oppressed, treated as commodities to be owned by the Egyptian empire. The God of the Covenant will not let them forget their history, and that history shapes how they treat the afflicted in their midst.

When the Messiah arrives and stands up to preach in His hometown synagogue, He draws on exactly this tradition in the Bible to proclaim good news to the poor.

The magnificent scene in Luke 4 must be read as Jesus’ declaration that even the most unvalued have worth from God. The path to the modern theory of human rights begins there.

RIGHTS’ FIGHTS TODAY

Whether the fight is about baking gay cakes in Belfast or burkinis in Nice, modern Europe seems to have a problem with religious rights. Some of the most important political questions in Ireland today – I think especially of school patronage and abortion – draw together human rights and religion. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights clearly protects the right to religion (Articles 2 and 18), but how that is to be interpreted is a live question.

Many fear that a secularist agenda will make public proclamation of their faith illegal.

The secularists, for their part, fear that religious communities would infringe on people’s right not to believe if they were left

unchallenged. Much seems to be at stake in this debate.

That’s why it is so tempting to try to prove that human rights have their origin in God. If human rights can be traced back to the Bible, some Christians might hope that these arguments will get simpler. How can a society accept the gift that the Scriptures give in one hand (the universal value of all human beings) and then reject those who love the Scriptures with the other?

GOING BEYOND RIGHTS

My teacher is a theologian named Stanley Hauerwas. He has spent decades thinking about how the church can be faithful in today’s western cultures. He recognises the strength of human rights language for achieving political justice. If you want to achieve a political transformation in modern, liberal democracies, the simplest path is to have your agenda described as a human right. Concrete policies will always change to catch up with that language because everyone agrees that human rights matter. The theory of rights sets the agenda for real-world politics.

Hauerwas worries at exactly this point.

Of course he wants to see justice done, and human rights legislation often contributes to that. But when the theory takes over, Christians find themselves in a dangerous

THINKING THEOLOGICALLY ABOUT RIGHTS

BY KEVIN HARGADEN

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place. If we turn back to our Scriptures, the one thing we do not find there is a theory of justice. There is no conceptual framework laid out for rights. God did not inspire Moses to write a philosophy of due process. Instead, what we discover in the Scriptures is much more interesting. The call to justice takes the form of ritual laws deeply enmeshed in Israel’s worship, it is embedded in the poetry of the Psalms and unfolds in the narratives of the histories, and it is the sharp end of the prophetic sermons.

Everywhere you look, you find people being (or failing to be) just, but you never quite get a political theory of justice.

This matters, because it shows us that whatever else we are called to be about as Christians, we are called to go beyond rights.

Let me put it pointedly: For Christians to be overly concerned with their own rights is wrong. Jesus tells us to love God and love others. That might involve protecting their rights, but it always involves so much more than that.

A RIGHT-ER WAY TO THINK ABOUT RIGHTS

Human rights are a mere tool for justice, a sort of foundation from which we can build. We do not rely on them for

our faithfulness. Many governments ban the public expression of faith, and many of those societies (think of Iran and China) are seeing massive revival. The way to protect our rights is to be concerned with the wellbeing of our neighbour, not ourselves. The tragedy of being defensive about our rights is that we do not need the permission of

FOR CHRISTIANS TO BE OVERLY CONCERNED WITH THEIR OWN RIGHTS IS WRONG. the nation state to follow through on Jesus’ call to proclaim His good news. We do not need political influence to serve those who are in the margins. Christians in Ireland, in the North and in the Republic, have had all the religious rights they could desire for generations, and it has not made their mission any more compelling. It would be a bad thing for those rights to shrink, but let us not mourn the dwindling of a legal concept, especially when we are surrounded by the increasing suffering of those all around us.

Hauerwas and I, along with my other teacher, Brian Brock, have written a book about theology and Christian ethics. It takes the form of eight long interviews between those two men. It is an attempt to enact how we think theology should be done: emerging out of prayer, engaged in friendship, directed towards the church. In one of the last interviews, Hauerwas suggests that the richest Christian action always springs “… from the joy that they discovered through the work of the Holy Spirit … Confidence is a form of joy.”

There is a joylessness apparent in much of the recent Christian attempts to protect their own rights. How can it be any other way, since it is born out of fear? But the Holy Spirit has not abandoned us; neither were the tiny number of Christians in Iran abandoned.

Rights can be good things and they should not be discounted. But they are not the force that gives our words and actions power. They are not the force that gives us permission to live out our faith. The joy that comes from discovering that the Holy Spirit is at work through us is the source of our confidence. Let us continue our mission in that joy.

Kevin Hargaden is a PhD student in Theological Ethics at the University of Aberdeen. He is studying the theology of wealth and the Irish economy. The book, Beginnings: Interrogating Stanley Hauerwas, is to be published in February by T&T Clark.

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REALITY

A BROAD AND GENEROUS INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

BY NICK PARK

Evangelical Alliance Ireland Executive Director Nick Park sees the current abortion debate as a key issue of human rights and believes it is on this basis that Christians should argue the case. Here, he discusses the role Christians can have in advocating for the rights of others. reland is in the midst of a contentious debate about abortion and the Eighth Amendment. Many in the media are attempting to paint a false narrative of this controversy as a young progressive Ireland throwing off the shackles of a backward religious dogmatism. But abortion is not a culture war – it is a human rights issue.

Human rights are rights to which everyone is entitled on account of being human. If we deny these rights to anyone, then we are treating them as if they were less than human – as if they were animals.

This idea of an inherent dignity possessed by every human being is a biblical concept. It assumes that human beings are in some way quite distinct from all species of animals. We are more than just a slightly more evolved species with a slightly different genetic code.

For Christians, of course, this distinction from the animals goes back to Creation itself. It is wrong to treat human beings as if they were animals because we are more than animals – we bear the image of God. Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over

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all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

(Genesis 1:26-27) Obviously this image of God does not refer to our physical appearance. It is referring to some inherent quality that brings us closer to God and distinguishes us from every species of fish, bird or animal in the universe.

Later in the Old Testament, we see human beings portrayed as ranking above

WHEN PEOPLE WANT TO TAKE AWAY SOMEONE ELSE’S HUMAN RIGHTS, THE FIRST STEP IS TO STOP TREATING THEM AS HUMAN. the material creation but slightly lower (at least for now) than wholly spiritual beings such as angels: What is mankind that You are mindful of them, human beings that You care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. (Psalm 8:4-5) Early Enlightenment thinkers waxed

lyrical about the ‘natural rights’ of man, and they are often, wrongly, credited with being the originators of the concept of human rights. Yet they frequently supported slavery and spoke of Africans in the most racist terms. It took Bible-believing Christians like William Wilberforce to see slavery abolished. For Wilberforce and his colleagues, it was quite clear why an African slave should not be treated like an animal.

An African, as a human being, was made in the image of God. Therefore he or she possessed a dignity and a worth that must be respected and protected.

In the 19th century, Bramwell Booth and the Salvation Army fought, and won, a battle against people trafficking and child prostitution. At that time, the age of consent in Britain was 13, and it was even lower in other Western countries such as the United States.

Following a sensational public campaign, the age of consent was raised to 16 – and hundreds of thousands of children were freed from sexual slavery. Human rights were now extended to children in a meaningful way.

In the 20th century, Martin Luther King’s biblical beliefs led him to conduct the

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historic campaign against racial segregation Leading up to the Rwandan genocide in and discrimination in the United States. He 1994, a Hutu radio station, Radio Télévision lost his life in this struggle, but through his Libre des Mille Collines, broadcast a nonefforts, laws were changed and a subsequent stop stream of propaganda that repeatedly major international human rights treaty referred to the Tutsi tribe as ‘cockroaches.’ expanded the world’s understanding of After all, once you begin to view people as how racial discrimination violates our very being insects, it becomes easier to stamp on humanity. them. Lest we pride ourselves on being too There is a clear historical pattern at civilised in the West to fall into such a trap, work here. Those who wield power and consider how those opposing immigration authority often try to restrict and limit the have also used dehumanising language to extent to which we recognise human rights but biblically faithful Christians have repeatedly been at the forefront in THIS IDEA OF AN INHERENT DIGNITY pushing the boundaries and interpreting human rights in a broader and POSSESSED BY EVERY HUMAN BEING IS more generous way.

A BIBLICAL CONCEPT. When people want to take away someone else’s human rights, the first step is to stop treating them as human. compare migrants to a swarm of insects.

This is why advocates of slavery, rejecting We see a similar process in action when the Christian abolitionists’ portrayal of the abortion advocates refuse to speak about African as a man and a brother, tried to an ‘unborn child,’ preferring to refer to ‘the portray blacks as less than human. foetus,’ or even to ‘a clump of cells.’

Regimes that practice torture know Many countries still try to restrict that it is important to make their victims the application of human rights, denying seem less than human. This removes the even the most basic right of life to unborn inhibitions that might otherwise stop the children. Ireland, however, is one of the torturers from being sufficiently brutal. few countries to interpret human rights in a

broader and more generous way, providing constitutional protection for unborn children. History would suggest that this is the mark of a progressive and compassionate society, and that is something we should be celebrating.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Ireland, by affirming the clause in our constitution that protects the unborn child, set a human rights example for other nations to follow?

What a testimony it would be to future generations if Christians played their part in such a process. That would be a Christian legacy worthy to follow in the footsteps of William Wilberforce, Bramwell Booth and Martin Luther King.

Nick Park is Executive Director of Evangelical Alliance Ireland.

His new book, ‘The Gospel and Human Rights,’ is available as a paperback from Footprints and Unbound bookshops, or online at www. evangelical.ie. It is also available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon.

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R E X O B P A THE SO

VOX MAGAZINE

BY DR KEN BAKER

AM I A REVOLUTIONARY? hat’s what Jesus asked those who came to arrest Him that nothing else matters beyond our faith in Christ, that all these cultural dividers are now redundant.

(Luke 22:52). The Greek word lestes (thief) was the But these things do matter to God, because right here contemporary term for those engaged in guerrilla in the verse, God is recognising that there are various warfare against the Romans (according to Josephus, Jewish War, 2.13.3). So Jesus was asking, in effect, “Am I your laws, expectations, practices, and opinions regarding each distinction mentioned. typical revolutionary?”

Paul validates all the cultural issues associated with The answer, of course, was “No.” He was a different kind Jews, Gentiles, slaves, the free, men, and women rather of revolutionary, and so are we. than disregarding them. He states that Jesus is relevant to Many would seek to portray Jesus as a sort of political these differences and is working throughout their lives by activist, standing up for the dispossessed against the understanding the unique pros and cons they’re dealing with rich landowners and imperialist oppressors, and His — the privileges, disadvantages, stereotypes, assumptions, “endorsement” has been widely assumed of a whole range treatment, rights, social values and expectations they face. of political causes. Every election seems to evoke heated Mark Battson concludes: “Participating in social justice debate about which side He would support, if any. is a Christian tradition inspired by Jesus, not liberal causes, At the same time, others would fiercely deny any populist agendas, media platforms, lawmakers or mainstream revolutionary intent at all, affirming that His “kingdom” was fads. It’s a deeply spiritual practice.” “spiritual” and “not of this world” so “you shouldn’t get So if, then, we are revolutionaries, what does the involved.” revolution look like?

But Jesus was a revolutionary, and so are we. This N.T.Wright, in Simply Jesus, reflects: “When God wants to revolution is quieter, deeper and more pervasive. Salt and change the world, He doesn’t send in the tanks. He sends in light, remember. It is the tidal rise of a huge counter-culture. the meek, the mourners, those who are hungry and thirsty for Jesus did not herald the overthrow of a particular political God’s justice, the peacemakers, and so on. system, but the overthrow of the kingdom of Evil in all its “…It is because of this that the forms. So, though we have no world has been changed by people political agenda or party badge, that like … Desmond Tutu, working and is the revolution of which followers JESUS CARED DEEPLY AND ACTED DECISIVELY. HE praying not just to end apartheid, of Jesus are a part. We are to revolt against the cultural values of a WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO HELP THE ALIENATED, but to end it in such a way as to produce a reconciled, forgiving fallen and broken world, choosing MISTREATED, AND THOSE FACING INJUSTICE. South Africa; by Cicely Saunders, instead to live by the standards of starting a hospice for terminally ill God’s kingdom. Rather than seeking patients ignored by the medical revenge, we are to forgive. Rather profession and launching a movement that has, within a than seeking to dominate, we are to serve. Rather than being generation, spread right around the globe…. consumed with hatred, we are to be people who love.

“Jesus rules the world today not just through His people But, to be quite candid about it, many of us are a ‘behaving themselves,’ keeping a code of ethics, and little wary of participating in social justice, not wishing engaging in certain spiritual practices, important though to be associated with “secular” movements, and feeling uncomfortable delving into issues outside our comfort zones. those are. . . Jesus rules the world through those who launch new initiatives that radically challenge the accepted ways Jesus cared deeply and acted decisively. He went out of doing things; jubilee projects to remit ridiculous and of His way to help the alienated, mistreated, and those unpayable debt, housing trusts that provide accommodation facing injustice. We do a disservice to the gospel message for low-income families or homeless people, local and by removing the cultural context from Jesus’s ministry and sustainable agricultural projects that care for creation instead watering down His message to one of religious platitudes. of destroying it in the hope of quick profit, and so on.”

By contrast, He intentionally, purposefully, and passionately It’s not a matter of pitting social causes against the gospel tackled specific causes. He radically addressed the diverse message of Christ; it’s a matter of realising that these causes and complicated conflicts of the time and constantly are actually an intrinsic part of what the Gospel is all about. challenged the status quo. He seemed, in fact, to target the marginalised, telling stories about Samaritans as heroes, making friends of tax collectors and treating prostitutes as honoured guests.

Ken Baker is a writer and We get uncomfortable facing the complex and pastor living in Bandon, controversial issues surrounding, say, ethnicity, class and County Cork. gender. So we take verses such as “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28) to mean

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FAITH

VOX MAGAZINE

ENGAGING WITH YOUNG ADULTS IN OUR CHURCHES HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE EAI NATIONAL FORUM he Evangelical Alliance Ireland’s National Forum in November explored the question of how to inspire and equip young adults within the church.

The theme was inspired by VOX magazine’s research (published in October 2015), which demonstrated a significant generational divide among Christians in Ireland. Bridging the gap and addressing the challenges highlighted in the research were high on the agenda in a day of inspiring short talks and practical workshops. Here, VOX magazine editor Ruth Garvey-Williams brings you a roundup of the day’s headlines and sound bites.

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IT’S TIME TO CRITIQUE ‘ELDER BROTHER’ ATTITUDES

Exploring the story of the prodigal son, Steve Vaughan from Christ City Church in Dublin compared “elder brother” attitudes within the church with “younger brother” attitudes. So often, older Christians are focused on moral conformity while younger ones are seeking freedom.

“In the story of the prodigal son, why does the younger brother leave home?

Perhaps it was because living with the older brother was insufferable,” Steve said. “We must critique elder-brother Christianity in front of our younger brothers before we critique the younger brother.” Going to the pub, getting “online” and releasing young adults into leadership are all key ways that Steve’s church is seeking to engage with the ‘younger brothers.’

WHO ARE YOU OPENING DOORS FOR?

Tash Creaney from 24/7 Prayer Ireland addressed the significant concern among young adults about the lack of women in leadership in Irish churches. “Out of the whole realm of creation, Jesus chose to appear first to a woman after His resurrection. It was the biggest moment in history. Here is the first evangelist. Here is the first person to tell the good news that Jesus is alive, and she is a woman! That is a massive statement of intent. I want to ask you as church leaders: who are you opening the doors for? Men in the church: Stand with us and call out those voices who seek to silence and undermine those who are called to lead.”

WHAT SHAPES DO WE PUT ON GOD?

“Whether we want to or not, we shape other people’s understanding of God,” shared Sean Mullan from Third Space. Sean outlined three types of “god” we communicate to people.

• The “religious god” is only interested in “holy” activity.

We communicate this when we pray for Sunday School teachers and not for Monday school teachers.

• The “external god” - focuses on external behaviour and not the internal reasons for behaviour.

• The “tribal god” - when we make people believe that God will only be interested in them if they become part of “our” tribe.

“Rather than inviting people to church, it is time to invite them to your table!”

ENGAGING WITH YOUNG ADULTS MEANS UNDERSTANDING MODERN IRELAND

“Most people in the media are saying that Ireland is in a post-Christian age,” shared Rev. Rob Jones from Holy Trinity Church in Rathmines. “People describe themselves as ‘spiritual’ but not religious. Secularism is the new normal.

“In order to move forward, we’ve been looking back to the first Christians. The growth of the early church is arguably one of the most remarkable movements ever to hit humanity.”

Rob shared five ways his church is helping young adults find their place: • Moving people from experimentation to devotion • Moving people from transience to longevity • Moving people from individualism to community • Moving people from belief to practice - serve in the local community • Moving people from chaos to contemplation - because we live in a world of constant distraction To find out more, keep in touch with Evangelical Alliance Ireland and watch out for future publications on this topic - www. evangelical.ie.

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GROWING UP

HELPING CHRISTIANS IN IRELAND TO DIG DEEP INTO THE BIBLE

BY CIARÁN LOUGHRAN

new initiative has been in the locations across the midlands and West of class, which will be marked and returned planning and, Lord willing, will Ireland. The goal is not to compete with but with feedback. be launched in 2017. Called to accompany other quality courses of study God has increased the number of His “Roots,” the vision is to see a already available. Other advantages of this people around the country over the last 30 mature body of Christ across Ireland. learning opportunity are: years. There are many churches in Ireland Why Roots? Roots became the name Time commitment is minimal. You attend today that did not exist back then. We have because of Psalm 1, which pictures a person for one day, three times a year, as opposed seen numerical growth on the island, and growing in God. He is like a tree planted to weekly for a whole semester. This can VOX magazine’s Finding Faith tours over by streams of water that yields its fruit in its make it an attractive option for those unable the last few years show us this encouraging season, and its leaf does not wither. growth. Praise God for this - Psalm 1:3. The tree is placed growth in His church in Ireland. beside the water source, which is This is His work! Now, as the God’s Word. As the water comes NOW, AS THE CHURCH GROWS NUMERICALLY, OUR CHALLENGE IS church grows numerically, into contact with the roots, our challenge is to grow in TO GROW IN UNDERSTANDING OF HIS WORD AND ON TO MATURITY. understanding of His Word and nourishment gets into the tree, keeping it healthy and bearing on to maturity. fruit.

Our prayer for Roots is that The purpose of “Roots” is for the life-giving word of God Christians in Ireland to gain a greater overall or unsure about making a commitment to a will enrich you, nourish your soul, bear fruit understanding of the Bible, particularly how longer course of study. in you, and whet your appetite for more of the whole story of the Bible fits together.

Meet people from across the God’s activity in your life, your local church, “Roots” is a series of day conferences denominational spectrum. This is not a and around the nation. spread over two and a half years. These programme tailored to fit any particular Stay tuned to VOX magazine for further conferences are not on different unrelated denomination. It is for Christians who want updates on Roots. For further information topics but build on each other to show the to know God and His Word better, who please email ciaran@livinghope.ie. big picture of Scripture from Genesis to want to have strong and healthy spiritual Revelation. Having completed the course roots. Our prayer is that it will strengthen Ciarán Loughran the pastor of study, you will be encouraged in seeing relationships in the church across the of Living Hope Church, Trim, the completeness of Scripture. You will also country.

Co. Meath. He is also an gain confidence in the reliability, authority, It is for every level of interest and ability. adjunct teacher at the Irish and sufficiency of the Bible, and hopefully You can attend classes simply for the Bible Institute. He is married have your appetite whetted to continue in enjoyment of the day with no additional to June, and together they have 5 kids, a dog personal study. work. Or, you can choose to read additional and a rabbit, which makes life fun.

The course will take place in three material and complete one assignment per

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CONFESSIONS OF A FEINT SAINT

VOX MAGAZINE

Thanksgiving Thanks...doing Thanks...being

By Annmarie Miles

was brought up in a ‘please and thank you’ household. Requests for sweets, pocket money, permission to stay out after curfew and to borrow the car were never acknowledged as heard until the ‘please’ was added to the question.

Gratitude was most important. My mother would lock eyes with me, in a firm but affectionate way, until I had expressed my appreciation for whatever I’d been given. I see my nieces and nephews do the same with their kids, passed to them from my siblings, and I think, ‘Good job, Mam; you taught us well.”

I spent Thanksgiving in America last November. The trip was to visit the family of my cornea donor. I had the cornea transplant in 2010, and it changed my life.

My eyesight had been deteriorating, and eventually, surgery was the only option to improve my vision.

Sitting at Thanksgiving dinner with my donor’s family, my sense of gratitude was immense. ‘Thank you’ suddenly seemed too small. I wracked my brain to remember any other words my mother had taught me. What comes after ‘thanks’?

Thanks a lot...?

Thanks very much...?

Thanks a million...?

It just didn’t sound... enough.

Being taught to say the words ‘thank you’ as a child is one thing, but it’s just the start. For our little ones, we teach them the words in the hope that the accompanying heart attitude will follow.

I believe I can actively show my appreciation by taking care of my eyesight, remembering that I benefitted from a life that was cut short, cherishing the memory of a man I never met and loving his family.

I know I don’t need to explain how this has caused me to reflect on the level of gratitude in my spiritual life.

There are many words I can say and sing that express gratitude to God for who He is and what He has done.

But I want more than that. I want to live a thankful life. I want to be a ‘count your blessings’ person. I am challenged and thrilled to see how I can put gratitude into action in 2017.

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Sitting at Thanksgiving dinner with my donor’s family, my sense of gratitude was immense. ‘ Thank you’ suddenly seemed too small.

Annmarie Miles is originally from Tallaght, now living in her husband Richard’s homeland, Wales.

If you’d like to read more between VOX Magazines, her blog is called Just Another Christian Woman Talking Through Her Hat. The Long & the Short of it, her first collection of short stories, can be found at www. annmariemiles.com/books, or you can pick it up in Footprints bookshops in Dublin.

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LIFE

Taking a closer look at Alpha Since 2004 (and not including 2016 figures), over 20,000 people have participated in Alpha courses in Ireland. This includes 6,000 young people and there was a 40% increase in students attending Alpha Youth courses in 2016, so the figures will be considerably higher.

The Alpha course is a series of interactive sessions that explore the basics of the Christian faith. It provides a safe space for people to ask questions and wrestle with doubts without being criticised or condemned. Alpha is now being run in 169 countries worldwide. At the start of 2017, Alpha Ireland is hoping to encourage many more people to take the course.

Bear Grylls is the face of a global campaign to promote Alpha, and he describes his faith as his ‘greatest adventure.’ “The truth is, the first step is always the hardest. That’s the one that takes the most courage, but I’ve learnt not to run from that fear and just do it,” he said. “My Christian faith can be a little up and down like any relationship. It has struggles and it has doubts. I remember crawling onto the summit of Everest... But finding a simple faith that empowers my life? To me that’s been my greatest adventure.”

For more information about Alpha, visit www.alphaireland.org.

Recently, VOX magazine editor Ruth Garvey-Williams spoke to people whose lives have been changed after taking part in an Alpha course. Here are their stories:

Theresa’s Story

heresa Cronin, from Blarney, Co. Cork, is a former schoolteacher and mother of five who is now working as an Alpha youth worker in Cork. This is her story: My story begins when I did my first Alpha course almost 13 years ago. I come from a traditional Catholic background. I was looking for a bit more understanding because I was teaching religion in schools and couldn’t answer the questions the students were asking.

I joined an Alpha course, and it blew me away. My life changed from being someone who believed because it was the right thing to do, out of a sense of duty and fear, to

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being totally committed Group. I didn’t want to lose the sense of and wanting others to know fellowship and community we had built up. about Jesus too. It wasn’t that I love the ecumenical nature of the group I was coming from a point of - it is all about Jesus, and the differences being a total non-believer but between churches doesn’t come into play.

I was still very much in the We are one family. dark and didn’t realise it.

Over the years, my husband was affected For me, as a history by the change in me. He did Alpha and teacher, the evidence and began to seek Jesus himself. Now, I wouldn’t arguments that support be as anxious as I used to be. I definitely have Christian belief were a lot more patience and courage to step out presented in a way that meant and do things. That is what I see personally I could defend my faith. It that has changed in my life. gave me security. The best I was due back at work last September, part was the Holy Spirit Day. after a career break of nine years having my When I prayed to be filled children. I had been praying for about two with the Holy Spirit, I had years, “Lord, where do you want me; what an immediate sense of love do you want me to do?” This job, as an Alpha and joy. From that youth worker, day, I can pinpoint kind of fell out of my desire to tell the sky. I decided others.

IT WASN’T THAT I WAS COMING FROM A POINT OF to give it a try During Alpha, and I love it!

BEING A TOTAL NON-BELIEVER BUT I WAS STILL I encountered Young people Jesus for the first VERY MUCH IN THE DARK AND DIDN’T REALISE IT. are often angry time. I might have at the church known about but the idea of Him before, but having a personal after Alpha, I developed a real, personal relationship with God has opened their relationship with Him. He became my best minds and for some of them, their hearts. It friend. Jesus is a person I speak with, who I is what they are searching for. can depend on and who I can turn to. I’ve It is my heart’s desire to get the message come to know Him and recognise His voice. across. As one of my young people said, After the course, I stayed in a Growth “Alpha speaks my language.”

VOX MAGAZINE

Aidan’s Story osing his wife to cancer, bringing you for moments like that. Conor was born I was diagnosed with a brain tumour at up his two children as a single dad six weeks early to allow Marion to receive the end of August 2016. It was a huge shock. and then facing his own cancer cancer treatment and so started the fight.

I went into hospital on my birthday and had diagnosis, Aidan Duggan’s world Even during the worst of moments, Marion an operation soon afterwards to remove the has been shaken to the core over recent years. In would ask God to help her cope and get tumour. Having been through the experience the midst of pain and confusion, the dramatic visible comfort from her prayers. I’d regularly with Marion, in some ways it made it easier change in the life of friends led him to join have a conversation with God, pleading with but it was also more shocking. I thought, an Alpha course, a choice that was to have a Him to heal her and take away this dreadful “Am I going to face the same thing?” That profound impact on his life. Here, he shares his illness. Eventually, after six months of had been six months of hell. Could I face journey: constant chemotherapy, she passed away. that extreme pain and mental anguish she I was born and bred in the sticks of I was so devastated. Right up to the end, had gone through? After a couple of weeks of Grenagh, County Cork, from a normal I firmly believed there would be a happy depression and thinking I was going to die, family, with a pretty strong Catholic faith. ending. I couldn’t even pray or anything. I my wound healed and I began to get my head We grew up with an image of the sacred heart was furious with God and I questioned His around it. Slowly things began to change. on the wall, we regularly prayed together very existence.

I had a massive wave of support from the before bedtime, and we went to mass every Things began to change when the kids Alpha group. People came out and prayed Sunday. It wasn’t really a choice or decision; were getting to a certain age and I realised with me. If ever there was a eureka moment, it was just what everyone did. it was then. I went from being low God was to be feared a little, to thinking, “I’m going to make the as you kinda had the feeling if most of it.” I can’t explain it except you stepped out of line you’d be I’D REGULARLY HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH GOD, PLEADING that I’m handing it over to God. struck down or something crazy Okay, in theory you should WITH HIM TO HEAL HER AND TAKE AWAY THIS DREADFUL ILLNESS. be living like this irrespective of a like that.

After leaving college, I got life-threatening illness. I’ve no idea a job in Waterford Crystal, what the future holds; now I just and the world was officially have to look at the here and now. my oyster. After two years, I headed off I wanted to bring them up with some faith My counsellor thought I was on steroids to Australia with my friends Marion and because Marion would have wanted that. I because I was so positive!

Noel. Marion and I had shared a house honestly hadn’t a clue where to start. That’s I’ve had six weeks of radiotherapy and in Waterford, and for me, it was love at when I thought about the Alpha course. now I’m about to start chemo. In all this, first sight, although it did take me some What got me into Alpha was seeing the Jesus is my best friend. He is there 24/7. considerable time to convince her. We effect it had on the lives of my friend Theresa There are times when I feel carried along in literally had the time of our lives in Australia, and her husband. They seemed so content His arms, sitting on His shoulders. It is an and eventually Marion agreed to go out with and happy. I thought, “I wouldn’t mind a amazing feeling. I wish I could share it with me. piece of that.” everyone. At every turn, He is there. Even After a few more years, we decided to get It was very awkward at first. I went thinking of the negative I find solace - even if married and moved to Newry in Northern through that door and I expected to see it all goes pear-shaped, He will be there.

Ireland, where Marion was working. Marion a group of old people - after all, the vast had a very strong faith, much stronger than majority of people at mass are either very mine, and I witnessed what an important old or very young. I thought it would be role it can play in someone’s life. Not sitting very religious with lots of praying but Alpha around praying all the time, just small things. wasn’t like that at all. The people were all like When we found out Marion was myself and none of them would have been pregnant, it was an amazing feeling. trying the “holier-than-thou” sort of thing.

Unfortunately, the joy turned into tragedy None of them made me feel inferior. The after six months as we lost Stephen in a food was amazing too. stillbirth. This was horrific, and we both It was a great experience right from really struggled to deal with it. It was like our day one. Worship music was a part of it. perfect little world was shattered. However, I remember standing up and thinking, if when you share a difficult experience like anyone saw me now! It was so alien but the that together, it can bring you closer, and music was so uplifting and positive. It is that was certainly true for us. When we later funny how things change. I’m just finishing went on to have our daughter Aoife, we my second Alpha and standing singing along were a tight unit, and it was hard to top our is totally natural now. happiness. Getting pregnant with our son Nothing jumps out particularly about Conor was just the icing on the cake. the course, but things started to make sense.

Unfortunately, almost eight months I love talking and discussing things. I’m a bit into the pregnancy Marion was diagnosed of a devil’s advocate and I like to argue things with ovarian cancer. Our world literally out. We had a real sense of camaraderie collapsed around us. Nothing can prepare between us.

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Annette’s Story nnette Evans is the Alpha Youth Coordinator for the Midlands and is based in Tullamore, County Offaly. This is her story: About six years ago, I did Alpha myself.

The priest announced at mass that we would be running a course. I didn’t have a clue what it was. Alpha’s slogan says, “There is more to life than this.” I was at a point in my faith when I was thinking just that - there has to be more to life than just going to mass.

I decided to do Alpha and I didn’t even look it up to find out more. I brought my mother, father and brother, and we all did the course together. There was a whole sense of community, which I was really looking for sitting in a small group, watching the videos, getting to know people and talking through things. There’s usually food involved too!

You build up a relationship with each other. It gives you that sense of belonging somewhere and feeling safe to talk in a nonjudgemental environment. You get to talk about God and the journey that you are on.

The course taught me that I didn’t have a relationship with Jesus, even though I had always believed in God. My life going

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forward changed completely. For a lot of people, they think they are giving up something to become a Christian. I don’t feel like that at all. You don’t have to give up anything to become a Christian - your life becomes more fulfilled.

I think that I depend more on God through different situations. I don’t mean that my life became easy. Everything was still there - all the pressures of family life and work life - but you see things from a different perspective. Now, I talk to God and talk through things with other Christians rather than trying to get through it on my own.

For the last three years, I’ve been the Alpha Youth Coordinator for the Midlands.

I’m running an Alpha course at the moment in my living room, with a group of 18-yearolds. They have dinner first and then we watch the film series and chat. We were waiting until after Christmas to finish the talks, but they did not want to miss out on meeting together, so THE COURSE TAUGHT ME THAT I DIDN’T HAVE A RELATIONSHIP they are still coming to my house every WITH JESUS, EVEN THOUGH I HAD ALWAYS BELIEVED IN GOD. Friday night!

Dominic’s Story ominic Perrem from Shankill, County Dublin, is married with four children.

He was introduced to Alpha when it started in the late 1990s.

I’ve been involved for most of my life in a committed Christian community. I was raised as a Catholic in a charismatic group and gave my life to the Lord. In the 1990s, I saw Alpha as a way to reach out to others.

I was dating a girl in university and she wasn’t a Christian. I was trying to evangelise this lady by bringing her along to an Alpha course. That didn’t work out so well. I thought the course was brilliant but it’s probably not wise to combine a romantic interest with evangelisation!

When I went to London a year and a half later, I started to run the course with students there. Alpha, I think, is one of the simplest and most effective tools for introducing someone to the person of Christ - a great combination of apologetics and evangelism.

When I moved back to Ireland, I got involved with looking at the follow-on from Alpha. What do people do when they have finished the course?

All my life, I’ve lived alongside other

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ALPHA, I THINK, IS ONE OF THE SIMPLEST AND MOST EFFECTIVE TOOLS FOR INTRODUCING SOMEONE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST.

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Christians in a close-knit community but that experience is being lost in the wider church; in many churches, the close connection we have as Christians has been lost. Too often, people stay anonymous to one another and go through the motions of faith. We need to have real relationships and learn to share life together.

Alpha is a great way of starting the process of getting people to share their lives.

Christian life is not just about liturgy or courses; it is a daily, hourly call to be a disciple of Jesus. So how do we give people the opportunity to grow?

When people have experienced that first taste of God’s profound love for them during an Alpha course, the temptation is to keep on running more courses. What is more important is that you continue the momentum of the Christian life praying together, studying the Bible, supporting one another in fellowship, serving the wider church and starting to tell others about Jesus.

These are the pillars of the basic Christian life.

These are not things we learn in a book… we need to follow Christ in our hearts, and we need others to support us.

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MY STORY

VOX MAGAZINE

“My Story” is an opportunity for ordinary people living in Ireland to talk about their journey to faith or the impact God has in their daily lives.

MEET PAUL DONOGHUE Entering prison as a brand new Christian was tough for Paul Donoghue but re-entering real life was even harder. Paul shares his journey to faith in Jesus and his struggles to overcome addiction.

come from a Catholic home. My But they were the most precious, intimate difficulties I faced with my wife and son, the father was really strong, so we times I had with the Lord. In the face of all more I began to go out drinking. Eventually, went to church every Sunday, to the opposition, you start to grow. Towards I ended up back in addiction. After my confession on Saturdays and said the end of my time there, I joined an Alpha dad passed away in 2010, everything went our prayers at bedtime. I grew up knowing course, even though I already knew the downhill and I ended up back in prison in that God was there but I never understood Lord. It was a really good time.

2012. the Gospel.

The guys who led the course were It was a place of darkness, because this My community had a high crime rate, a brilliant. There was music and guitar, and time I couldn’t even pray. But in 2014, a low education rate and a lot of addiction. In anything like that lifts you - it was like a pastor came to visit a friend of mine and that environment, I fell into a lot of things. light in the darkness. People in prison are then came to visit me. That began a journey I was locked up at 18 and spent four years soul searching and hoping for forgiveness. of reconnecting with the Lord. I went into in prison. By 23, I was messed Tiglin treatment centre, and this up. I’d fallen out with my family time I made the decision that I was and was addicted to drugs. I was surrendering my life back to the PEOPLE IN PRISON ARE SOUL SEARCHING AND HOPING FOR Lord no matter the consequences. searching for peace but I was really struggling mentally and We found a church in Tallaght, FORGIVENESS. THEY KNOW THEY ARE ON THE MARGINS. psychologically. I was always and I’ve connected with the being drawn towards the Lord but Release Prison Partnership (www.

I couldn’t pray. release.ie). Now I’m in the process At that point, I was looking at serious They know they are on the margins. Often, of setting up a social enterprise with the criminal charges and, eventually, I went the Holy Spirit is already working in hearts. support of Release. I’ve been going into into a Christian treatment centre for six When they hear the Gospel, there is a real prison, helping with Alpha courses, and months. We would worship in the morning hunger to know more. sharing my story. and study the Bible. That was my beginning Going into prison was one thing; reIn prison, it is cold and clinical. You with the Lord. When I heard the Gospel, entering “real” life was much harder! I had have to protect and defend yourself, and you I was willing to turn around and from a lot of hurt and brokenness and shame. I close down emotionally. When you come that moment my life changed. That was in had never had discipleship. Everything was out of prison, it is critical to know that you January 2003, and then in May, I received on my own with the Lord. Everything was are loved and accepted. That is one of the a five-year prison sentence and went into in isolation. Coming out and trying to find greatest gifts the Christian family can give to Mountjoy as a new Christian! a church that was suitable for me was really someone like me. When people see that they It was tough. I had to learn how to stand difficult. I found myself on the outskirts. are loved and accepted into churches and and be different. I had to die to the image I began to drift away. I wasn’t good into the body of Christ, then through the I had built up and let go of my insecurity. at coping with conflict, and the more body, Christ can display His love.

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FAITH

LIMITATIONS

“It’s annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain in the arse.” - Bono

he theory of human rights has made an enormously positive impact in our world.

Through it, lives have been saved, injustices overcome and new beginnings realised. Both Christians and those outside the church have been central in making this happen, and there is little doubt that perspectives informed by Scripture played an enormous part in developing human rights theory and practice.

So why write an article that critiques human rights? Well, principally because there are lenses and spaces into which human rights theory alone cannot reach.

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theologian Stanley Hauerwas put it like this: “If you need a theory of rights to ground your belief that torture is wrong, then something has clearly gone wrong with your moral sensibilities.”

For example, when the language around abortion switches from life being a “right” to it being a “gift,” a whole set of possibilities open up that transcend, with richness, beauty and justice, the profound limitations that both pro-choice and pro-life campaigns offer.

A focus on human rights can miss the depth of God’s justice

Recently, a cartoon went viral. It features three young kids, each of differing heights, trying to peer over a wall to watch a If you need to find a “basis” baseball game. The first frame, from Scripture for the theory you entitled “Equality,” shows the kids standing on boxes of identical heights.

This means that the tallest WHEN THE NARRATIVE OF SCRIPTURE HAS TO KEEP UP only can view the WITH A RIGHTS CULTURE WAR, IT INEVITABLY SUFFERS. game. The second frame, entitled “Equity,” features the kids have built, then you are already standing in trouble. The cart is before the horse. You end up with Scripture on having to play catch-up to justify this thing called a “right.”

In the language of Scripture, which says nothing of “rights” but lots about “faith,” “hope” and “love,” we find our framework to address injustice.

The Texan

Building a framework of justice on a theory of rights is problematic

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boxes of differing heights - all three can watch the game.

However, since the cartoon went popular, the artist has added a third frame, entitled “Justice” here, the wall has been replaced by a wire fence, allowing all three to watch the game without assistance.

God’s justice runs much deeper than ensuring that a “right” is present and enacted. It goes into the unseen dynamics of power and oppression. The lamenting, garment-ripping, tableoverturning prophets give voice to this every time we open our Bibles.

VOX MAGAZINE

HUMAN A focus on human rights can lead to an impoverished narrative and misdirected squabbles When the narrative of Scripture has to keep up with a rights culture war, it inevitably suffers. Those in places of power and privilege will set the terms and conditions of how the story of injustice is told, and this will inevitably lead to an impoverished narrative.

An impoverished narrative led to people taking sides in the recent Asher’s Bakery case, adopting ideologies to figure out whose “right” is the greater human right.

This means that few Christians are present enough to

hear that QueerSpace, the Belfast agency on whose behalf the infamous cake was ordered, are seeing one new LGBT young person to their doors every week who have been kicked out of their homes by their Christian parents. Many Christians have so effectively sacrificed their right to care about LGBT homelessness that they cannot hear what is really happening.

An impoverished narrative celebrates (rightly) the ending of segregation in the US but cannot see how that segregation has been replaced by mass incarceration, as one in three black men end up in jail. The legacy of slavery and racism continues, just in another form.

That the key platform provider of the alt-right movement is now Chief Strategist in the White House only illustrates how deep the delusion goes.

BY RICHARD CARSON

An impoverished narrative struggles with how to honour the story of Bethany Home, the Dublin venue where hundreds of children died through neglect. The gravesite and the city-centre memorial, incredulously, remain largely untouched sites of pilgrimage for Irish evangelicals.

These are all consequences of focusing on human rights that can and often do happen. This does not mean that human rights theory has no role. It clearly has enormous benefits. So let me propose that we hold human rights gently and with ambivalence. And let me propose that we carry this ambivalence to the margins of our churches and society where Christ already dwells.

If God’s justice is indeed a rolling river, then its currents might run deeper and wider than the theories we construct.

IF GOD’S JUSTICE IS INDEED A ROLLING RIVER, THEN ITS CURRENTS MIGHT RUN DEEPER AND WIDER THAN THE THEORIES WE CONSTRUCT.

Richard Carson is the Chief Executive of ACET Ireland, which runs a range of projects improving health at the intersections of HIV, addiction, faith, sexuality, minority ethnic groups, poverty and more.

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hristmas onnections

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10 ways that churches were engaging with their community in December 2016 Christmas is a natural time to connect with people in our local communities. For many churches, it is an opportunity to serve those in need and to share the message of God’s greatest gift to the world! Here VOX brings you a roundup of some of the great ideas from churches across the country. Why not tell us what your church did? Write to us at editor@vox.ie.

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Turkey and Jesus - Bluebell, Dublin 12

Recognising that many families in Dublin 12 are struggling to make ends meet, the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Bluebell has adopted a simple strategy called “Turkey and Jesus” - providing the Christmas turkey to families also opens doors for the message of God’s greatest gift!

Line Dancing - Dungarvan, County Waterford Joining the town celebrations for the big “switch on” of the Christmas lights, folks from Dungarvan Christian Fellowship were line dancing to worship songs!

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Blue Christmas - Virginia, County Cavan Christmas can be a particularly painful time for those who have been recently bereaved. A number of churches have found simple but meaningful ways to acknowledge and support those for whom Christmas is painful. In Virginia, the Church of Ireland congregation runs a “Blue Christmas” service - a chance to reflect and find comfort in the midst of Christmas preparations.

4 Christmas Meal - Bandon, County Cork

Around the country, a number of churches provided a Christmas Day dinner on December 25 itself for folks who were on their own or facing difficult circumstances. What could be a lonely day becomes a time of community and celebration with this simple act of hospitality. For the Methodist church in Bandon, this was a way to connect and care for people who would not normally attend church. Other meals took place in Arklow, County Wicklow, and in Buncrana, County Donegal.

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VOX MAGAZINE

Christmas Tree Festival - Buncrana, County Donegal

Following the example of Crinken Church (featured in VOX last January), VOX editor Ruth Garvey-Williams and her husband ran a cross-community Christmas Tree Festival in Buncrana involving the local Catholic and Church of Ireland churches and schools along with community groups, businesses and artists to create an entire “trail” of trees that together retold the Christmas story. We also know of Christmas Tree Festivals that have taken place in Drumcliffe, County Sligo, and Derry, County Londonderry.

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The Great Big Giveaway - Dublin, Bray and Clondalkin Once again, Liberty Church in Dublin 8 (inner city), Bray and Clondalkin gave out over 1,000 Christmas hampers to families in need. With generous donations from businesses and local people, the church’s “Great Big Giveaway” has become a major community event. A number of other churches around the country give away food hampers as gifts.

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Christmas Fair and Kids Party - Westport, County Mayo Amazing Grace church in Westport runs a Christmas fair and children’s party in their church and neighbouring charity shop. The annual event is a lovely community celebration.

Dublin Vineyards’ Giving Tree was on display for four weeks leading up to Christmas. People were invited to take a gift tag from the tree and shop for someone in need. From gift packs for the homeless to toys and hampers for struggling families the church was able to extend God’s kindness in a really practical way.

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Christmas Carols Fundraiser for Syrian Refugees - Maynooth, County Kildare While churches up and down the country are running carol services, Maynooth Community Church took the opportunity to raise muchneeded funds for Tearfund to aid Syrian Refugees.

Messy Advent - Kilternan, Dublin

Messy Church has exploded around the country, with many parishes and congregations engaging with families in creative ways. For parents with young children, an active act of worship enables the whole family to enjoy connecting with God, without the worry of disturbing anyone. In Kilternan, the Church of Ireland was just one of the many churches that celebrated Christmas with a “messy” advent service in partnership with the local school.

Over 120 turned up to engage with craft activities and then had sketches and music before enjoying a meal together.

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Wise Men Journey - County Fermanagh Rev. Richard Beadle, based in County Fermanagh and County Cavan, took to social media (@ wisemenjourney) to encourage people to “journey” through Advent in a more meaningful way. This Facebook journey featured creative photos of the wise men posted each day from December 1 2016, to January 9 2017, along with a reflective thought, Scripture and prayer to help people rethink the wonder of Christmas.

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REALITY

The Right to Education How do Christians respond to the debate over religious patronage of schools?

Fierce debates rage around education in Ireland. At present, 96% of Irish primary schools are owned by churches, with 90% of those under the Catholic Church’s patronage. Religious-owned secondary schools make up just over half of all 723 second-level schools.

While many consider it to be vitally important that their children are educated in a school of their choice, this almost-saturation of denominational schools can prove problematic, especially for parents (of any or no faith) who do not want their children to be educated within a specific religious ethos.

The patrons of a school are allowed to determine the course of the religious education the children attending their schools will receive.

Their class material does not have to be approved by the Department of Education.

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These schools are privately owned but publicly funded because the State pays the bulk of the building and running costs. Here, the question of “rights” looms large as differing sides in the debate argue their “right” to have their children educated in a certain type of school.

In Northern Ireland, significant questions remain around the role of education - do separate schools promote sectarianism? How can education encourage inclusion? What should be the future of religious schools?

For this education special feature, VOX magazine looks particularly at the situation in the Republic of Ireland. We asked two senior church leaders and a school principal to discuss the merits of education in different types of “minority” schools in Ireland - those under Church of Ireland patronage, a Christian private school and schools that offer a more secular/inclusive approach.

VOX MAGAZINE

A POSITIVE AND INCLUSIVE ETHOS IN EDUCATION rchbishop Michael Jackson believes tolerance come that Church of Ireland schools in many forms offer a generous contribution to the and expressions, future citizenship in Ireland and including our own argues the case for Christian schools that are approach, which inclusive and outward looking. has been successful Education with a Church of Ireland over many decades ethos is part of the fabric of the modern and has always Irish education system, as indicated by sought to make the opening of Temple Carrig School, a contribution Greystones, by An Taoiseach in October. to informed and This is the first Church of Ireland engaged citizenship secondary school in a voluntary model to for the students in be established since the foundation of the schools within our State. From the outset, Temple Carrig has patronage. been providing inclusive education for The majority of the whole community in the Greystones the schools under and Delgany area. It was a great honour to Church of Ireland patronage are at primary dedicate the school building after five years level, with approximately 15,000 pupils of development, from seed to planting and attending 173 primary schools dispersed from planting to blossoming. across the Republic of Ireland, including Twenty per cent of Temple Carrig’s rural communities in such counties as students are from a Church of Ireland Donegal, Cavan and Cork. background because of the Department of In surveying parents, we have Education and Skills’ requirement that we consistently found a high level of satisfaction implement a specific feeder-school policy. and support for our schools. Diversity In other schools, among the student bodies children from the is not limited to that of Church of Ireland denomination, MUCH OF THE CURRENT DEBATE religious population may form faith or indeed nonAROUND PATRONAGE IN EDUCATION religious belief. The schools the majority of the pupil population.

IS UNFORTUNATELY POLARISED. are diverse in regards to However, in all of ethnicity, language usage our schools, we seek and special needs. Many of to demonstrate that our schools have dedicated a Christian ethos in education is positive autistic spectrum disorder units. and progressive. It has always been the Church of Ireland schools have a long hope and intention of the Church of Ireland history and tradition of being open and to offer this experience to students and welcoming to all, an inclusivity that is pupils without interference in their faith motivated and inspired by Gospel values and principles but offering instead a living being lived out in an authentic human way. heritage of care, community and learning.

Each school does this in its own unique The Church of Ireland has always style, and that in itself is an expression of been keen to ensure that schools under its the diversity within Irish Anglicanism. To a patronage are open and inclusive. We seek to great extent, this is a matter of identity. We offer generous pluralism as our contribution are all from somewhere, and we all have a to education in today’s Ireland. In a context story. This is part of the human experience, where much of the popular focus is on and the community of faith is no different. moving away from faith-based education, We have an identity, and we do not exist our schools cater for the educational in a social or cultural vacuum. The school requirements of an increasingly diverse locates and grounds the community of and broad society. Much of the current the church in the everyday life of society. debate around patronage in education is It weaves all who interact with it into the unfortunately polarised. Diversity and reality of the life of the community. It also

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embeds the learning environment into the community of God. A sense of community in our schools, therefore, cuts both ways and offers an enrichment of belonging. In that sense, it is both the tradition and duty for the community of faith to be involved in education. It has never been the tradition of the Judeo-Christian culture to quarantine faith into the purely personal sphere of life.

Hence Christian schools teach the social values of duty, responsibility, honesty, stewardship, justice, compassion and respect.

I like to characterise this as a generous offering to the future citizenship of Irish society.

Our schools are enriched by the energy and enthusiasm of our pupils, the skills and commitment of our teaching and non-teaching staff, and the generous volunteer support given by parents, boards of management and members of the wider communities served by each school.

We are confident that the young people in our schools will play their full part in shaping Ireland’s future in a changing world.

We seek to inspire their imagination and involvement through exercising a duty of care in a climate of rapid change.

The Most Reverend Dr Michael Jackson is Archbishop of Dublin and Chairman of the Church of Ireland Board of Education (Republic of Ireland). He was previously Bishop of Clogher.

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REALITY

WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD SUPPORT SECULAR EDUCATION

BY NICK PARK

ou will attend that mass, even if I have to drag you there by the hair!” Those were the words of a teacher in Drogheda, directed at a teenage girl whose religious convictions led her to refuse to attend a religious service in which the class had been ordered to sing. When I visited the school principal and pointed out that such compulsion was contrary to our nation’s constitution, he snapped, “How dare your lot come into a Catholic school and start lecturing me about what our constitution says?”

There is an erroneous notion, often propagated by those who want their particular brand of faith to be propped up at the taxpayer’s expense, that having a genuinely secular education system in Ireland somehow represents a promotion

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of atheism, or even a denial of the rights of religious parents.

One of the problems with the words secular and secularism is that they are used in two entirely different ways. Some people understand secularism as a desire to eradicate religion from public life altogether – that you can practise religion in private but shouldn’t speak about it in public. Heiner Bielefeldt, Professor of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy at the University of 30

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Erlangen, makes a very useful distinction teachers, good for religion and good for between doctrinal secularism and political society. secularism.

It is good for families because it puts the Doctrinal secularism is anti-religious in religious formation of children back where it nature and wants to see religion banished altogether. In many IN A POLITICALLY SECULAR SOCIETY, ALL RELIGIOUS GROUPS, ways, this kind of aggressive secularism AND THOSE OF NO RELIGION, OPERATE ON A LEVEL PLAYING functions like a FIELD AND COMPETE IN THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS. dogmatic religion itself.

Political secularism is the idea that the State should be entirely belongs - in the hands of parents. If parents neutral with respect to religion, and that wish to seek the help of churches in that religion should be afforded no special process, then they are free to do so. What privileges and subject to no special is intolerable is that, often through a lack of restrictions. In a politically secular society, available schools in a given area, families are all religious groups, and those of no religion, left with no choice but to hand their children over to a system that submits the child to religious teaching at variance with their values and views.

It is good for teachers because they are not forced into dishonesty. At present, non-Catholic or non-religious teachers must either accept that their career prospects are extremely limited, or else teach doctrines that they themselves do not believe to be true.

It is good for religion itself because faiths thrive when they are shared by those who believe their tenets most passionately.

If I wanted to devise a strategy to destroy a religion, I cannot think of anything more effective than making its teaching a compulsory act, often implemented by those with little or no interest, and inflicted upon bored schoolchildren. Such a practice virtually guarantees that religious belief is divorced from real life and becomes perfunctory and irrelevant.

It is good for society because diversity is operate on a level playing field and compete championed and children learn the kind of in the marketplace of ideas. As Bielefeldt tolerance and mutual respect that can never puts it, political secularism “gives religious flourish under educational apartheid. communities their independence from unwanted state intervention and makes it possible that people across religious boundaries enjoy equal rights and an equal Nick Park is Executive Director status as citizens.” of the Evangelical Alliance of As a Christian leader, I believe Ireland and is currently copassionately that a secular educational authoring a book entitled “Teach system is good for families, good for in School, Preach in Church.”

VOX MAGAZINE

THE CASE FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

BY CATHERINE LYNCH, PRINCIPAL OF GRÁSTA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

n an uncertain and unstable appeared from nowhere. This is in direct world, there is one certainty — conflict with not only the biblical account of the Word of God. At Grásta, we creation but also God’s assertion that every educate our children to provide person has individual purpose and destiny. As opportunities for their futures. We want them Christians, we should be wary about allowing to be independent, happy and secure. Since the world to train our children because of God truly holds all our futures, it makes sense the subtlety of the lies embedded in the for a Christian to give their children a quality curriculum that are taught as fact (Colossians education that prizes God’s truth above all 2:8). of man’s knowledge, as this is the only thing Years spent studying a curriculum that that can truly denies the guarantee their existence of God future. Only an and undermines education built IT MAKES SENSE FOR A CHRISTIAN TO GIVE THEIR His word will upon God’s have an impact CHILDREN A QUALITY EDUCATION THAT PRIZES truth will build on a person’s GOD’S TRUTH ABOVE ALL OF MAN’S KNOWLEDGE. faith. Their the character and faith in an mind has been individual to see trained in the them through the world’s way of unstable times in which we live. thinking, which makes it that much harder to You may feel that your children get accept and believe God’s word and trust Him enough biblical instruction in the home and against all odds. Imagine instead training and church. Perhaps sending them to a Christian renewing the minds and hearts of children school is taking things to a bit of an extreme. in the word of God from day one, and My answer to that is that children spend 30 equipping them with the godly character that hours a week in school. If that school is a is so sadly lacking in society today. Making secular environment, employing a humanistic God’s word central to a child’s life means that secular curriculum, then the children on it will be central to the adult’s life. this programme are taking in the godless, At Grásta Christian School, we employ humanistic values within it, along with the ACE mastery learning programme, everything else they learn from their teachers which enables a student’s education to be and peers. individualised so that they can progress at Science will teach them that all life a rate corresponding to their ability. We on earth evolved by accident out of a can cater for all ages and abilities, as the meaningless collection of atoms that programme allows a student to receive oneon-one with their teacher when they need it.

In His earthly life, Jesus so perfectly reflected His heavenly Father that He was able to say, “Philip, you see me, you see the Father!” (my paraphrase). Sixty separate character traits that Jesus displayed are woven into the curriculum. The students take in biblical values and truths as they learn every lesson, including the core subjects of maths, English, science, social studies and word building.

Students are trained in life skills such as time management and goal setting, so they are prepared for the workload at third-level study and the challenges they will face in their working lives to meet deadlines and targets.

A disciplined environment with plenty of

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positive motivation helps to instill a strong work ethic and desirable character traits such as determination, honesty, dedication and dependability. All this makes our students attractive to universities and employers.

Learning to walk in love requires exercising patience, kindness, gentleness, thoughtfulness, appreciation and tolerance.

The students have godly role models in their teachers to help them develop people skills that will enable them to have an answer to life’s problems in and to their generation.

The results speak for themselves. Our students have attended top universities worldwide, graduating with honours. More than that, they have gone on to affect those around them for the Kingdom of God. Many go into ministry of some kind, whether full-time or in service as volunteers in their church and home communities. Many have gone into missionary work.

Life comes with no guarantees except that it will one day come to an end. I believe that giving your child an education built upon God’s promises is absolutely and by far the best choice a parent could make for their child.

To find out more, contact catherine@ grastachristianschool.ie or 042 933 3831.

Catherine Lynch is the principal of Grásta Christian School in Dundalk.

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FAITH

CORK

Reaching out together

BY PETER GRIER

NAME THE YEAR…

Do you remember the first mobile phone? Were you one of the first students in the new Dublin IT? Were you groovin’ to “Grease” being played over the new RTE2 station, or playing “Space Invaders”?! Or perhaps, on a more sombre note, there are memories of The Troubles. And many of you weren’t even born yet!

1978 was the year when all of the evangelical churches in Cork came together to reach out, using the (now deceased) cinema on North Main Street for films with short Gospel talks after them, among other things. A few projects since then have united some of the churches to reach out with visits of the OM ships and St. Patrick’s Day outreach but not on the same scale.

room (“Citygates”) that would be open 24/7 to pray for the city. Together we’re going forward! “‘Uncover Cork’ is one of the best things to happen in my years in Cork - Christians coming together to make the way clear for people to be reconciled to God. - Rev. John Faris, Presbyterian chaplain at UCC

WHAT IS IT?

Uncover Cork is a three-part mission initiative shaped around ten days of events in March 2017. One student put it simply: “It’s that natural, organic response to an all-consuming, lovely belief in a being so amazing and awesome that you find yourself telling everyone you can in whatever way you can because knowing Him is just better than everything else together.” - Miryam Lightbody, UCC psychology student

EVERYDAY LIFE

2017 - 39 years later, many people in the churches in Cork are intent on putting aside differences and partnering together once more in a city-wide mission, led by the example of the Christian Unions. We’re excited because the very same week some of us were chatting and praying about this idea, elsewhere in the city, believers we’d not yet met felt God leading them to start a prayer 32

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Uncover Cork is not just an events week.

We believe we’re called to be living out our lives in very real ways, right now. We’ll be helping Christians reach out to unique parts of Cork life that perhaps wouldn’t have been as easy to engage with by themselves or as an individual church. There’s a “Christians in Sport” group, “Christians in the Arts” project, prayer group for the Muslim world, groups reaching the more intellectual communities in the city, the city’s International Café and much more.

A WEEK OF EVENTS

Ten days of high profile events will happen across the city, to feed into those pre-existing relationships and also to give

those who don’t have Christian friends a chance to come along and meet the beauty of His church community in action and hear something of the good news of Jesus.

From art spaces and dramatic performances of John’s Gospel, through to persuasive evangelistic café talks from John Lennox and local Irish thought leaders, a debate with William Lane-Craig and community events like a ceilidh, teen night and more – Uncover Cork will have something for everyone.

We’ll also be equipping believers to open up John’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ life one-to-one with their friends and colleagues, because God uncovers Himself in the person of Jesus by the power of the Spirit as He walks off the pages of the Scriptures. We’ve seen it across the universities and colleges of Ireland and Europe as many have come to know Him through this in recent years.

FOLLOW-UP

The events will only be the first chance people will have to engage with the good news of Jesus. For those still sceptical, we will continue to run events throughout the year. For those wanting to hear more, several churches are running follow-up courses.

And for whom the message rings true, Easter services will gladly welcome in new brothers and sisters.

WANT TO CONNECT?

Online: www.uncovercork.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/ uncovercork.

Twitter: @uncovercork Youtube: Uncover Cork Peter leads the Munster and Connacht team of Christian Unions Ireland (formerly IFES Ireland) and in his spare time can be found with the Cork Islamic community and blogging about a theology of travel at www.aljabr7.wordpress.com.

REALITY

RICH CHRISTIANS IN AN AGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE Christian environmentalist Jonny Hanson argues that the Irish churches must address economic and ecological issues, and not just spiritual and sexual ones, as part of their Kingdom mission.

VOX MAGAZINE

rom February to June of transparency and climate change. last year, I joined many The only bright spots that I am others to protest peacefully aware of were an interdenominational against the decision to prayer walk at the site that I helped to drill an exploratory oil well less than organise, at which a representative of the 400m from a drinking water reservoir local Catholic church read a prayer from in the hills above Carrickfergus, my Pope Francis’ creation care encyclical then home. It was my first time getting Laudato Si, and a policy submission on involved in such a process, as it was the planning process to Stormont by for most of the others. And contrary Christian Aid. to the claims of various politicians, the Yet climate change is the protestors were overwhelmingly local defining issue of our time, and one and overwhelmingly ordinary, with that demonstrates the intimate few classing themselves as ‘greens’ or interconnection of economic, ecological ‘environmentalists.’ Also striking was and social (including spiritual) issues. the sense of community that developed Two hundred odd years ago, churches amongst this diverse group over the and Christians like William Wilberforce course of the five months: there were were at the forefront of the abolition of codes of conduct written; there were slavery in the UK and its territories. Fifty barbecues and ceilidhs held. I even odd years ago, churches and Christians brought my kids.

But there was also a serious side to the whole affair. We were there to protest against the TODAY, ON CLIMATE CHANGE, MOST CHURCHES dangerous idea of drilling such AND CHRISTIANS IN IRELAND ARE LAGGING FAR a well, including all the toxic BEHIND THEIR SECULAR CONTEMPORARIES. chemicals used in the process, so close to the water supply of homes in over 1800 streets. We were there to protest against the complete lack of transparency and legality like Martin Luther King Jr. were at the involved in allowing such a scheme to forefront of ending segregation in the proceed. We were also there to protest USA. against the moral madness of attempting But today, on climate change, most to extract yet more fossil fuels at a time churches and Christians in Ireland when all of the evidence suggests that we are lagging far behind their secular should keep such deposits in the ground contemporaries. By limiting its mission to avoid catastrophic climate change, and to spiritual and sexual issues only, instead invest in renewable energy. the church isn’t only watering down The Stop the Drill campaign ended the Gospel; it is also watering down in June when the test well revealed that, its witness to a world weary of rich despite the promises of 25 million barrels Christians doing so very little in response of oil at the Woodburn site, there were, in to climate change. fact, none. But the story of rich Christians Tackling climate change with in an age of climate change only begins compassion is our version of abolishing there. For despite the community spirit slavery, our version of ending segregation. and the triumph of peaceful protest The question is will we, individually and over what many considered to be collectively, be the Wilberforces and illegitimate and immoral development, Luther King Jr.’s in this era? Will we – rich I was profoundly discouraged by the Christians in age of climate change – almost total absence and silence of a local put the interests of the poor before our organisation that should have had rather a love of money and stuff? It is time for lot to say about the matter: the church. the churches of Ireland to answer these To the best of my knowledge, questions. and despite numerous enquiries over the duration of the campaign, I am unaware of the formal involvement of Jonny Hanson any local congregations, clergy or Irish is a Christian denominations. This is despite the environmentalist confluence of critical issues relevant and entrepreneur. A to the prophetic role and mission of referenced and expanded the church that the Stop the Drill version of this article is available at campaign represented, including human www.peopleplanetprophet.com. and environmental health, political

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REALITY

CONFESSION OR COVER UP? HOW DO CHURCHES AND CHRISTIAN ORGANISATIONS RESPOND WHEN WRONGDOING COMES TO LIGHT?

BY RUTH GARVEY-WILLIAMS

e are no strangers to shocking revelations in this country.

Faith communities and faithbased charities, religious orders, churches and individual clergy have all come under fire with accusations of sexual abuse, neglect, violence, cruelty and bullying as well as financial mismanagement and more.

The truth is that abuse and corruption can (and do) take place in all institutions.

The church is not immune. But it is how a church or faith community responds to revelations of wrongdoing that provides the real test. Sadly, our track record in this regard is poor, to say the least.

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In 1989, Patrick O’Brien was convicted Far too often, protecting the institution of abusing Kerry Lawless, who was a and its leadership, saving face, preserving a choirboy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and façade of respectability and even protecting attended school there. At the time, Kerry the reputation of the abuser appear to take and his parents informed the Dean about precedence over protecting victims or what had potential victims, or caring for survivors. happened.

O’Brien pleaded Cover up rather than confession becomes the IT FELT AS IF THEY STUCK THEIR HEADS IN guilty to the norm.

THE SAND AND HOPED IT WOULD GO AWAY. abuse and was given a twoThe recent case of year suspended serial paedophile Patrick sentence.

O’Brien, a volunteer at However, despite his conviction, he was St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, has once allowed to continue as a volunteer (he again thrown up similar questions.

VOX MAGAZINE

was treasurer of the Friends of St. Patrick’s Cathedral) and as a member of the congregation until 2005 when Kerry (now an adult) visited the Dean and shared his concerns that O’Brien was still in position.

Eventually more survivors came forward. O’Brien was arrested in 2014 and pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual abuse over the course of the last 40 years.

In November 2016, O’Brien (then aged 76) was jailed for 13 years for the rape and molestation of 14 boys in a number of different locations including the cathedral.

After O’Brien’s recent conviction, St. Patrick’s Cathedral issued a statement expressing regret, shock, revulsion and sadness at O’Brien’s crimes and emphasising that his role at the cathedral was as a volunteer. “St. Patrick’s Cathedral apologises sincerely and unreservedly for the fact that those victims and their families who needed and were entitled to care and support did not receive this.”

However, speaking to VOX magazine, survivor Kerry Lawless expressed concern at the cathedral’s handling of the case.

“O’Brien’s role as a volunteer gave him access to boys. He should have been removed from having any role within the cathedral. The Dean knew about his proclivities - my parents and I told him - but O’Brien was allowed to remain in position even after his criminal conviction.

“There was no effort to make sure that the boys in their charge were okay,” Kerry said. “Eventually, in

2005, they did remove him, but there was no or leadership in a church. Should someone attempt to look into things and to contact seek to take up any appointment in a church, parents or choristers. It felt as if they stuck under Safeguarding Trust, either an Access their heads in the sand and hoped it would NI or Garda check would be required before go away. being able to do so. If the check showed up a “There seems to be a lack of real empathy conviction, then no appointment would be for the men concerned, and there has been permitted.” no offer of counselling or support. You are talking about Christian values and Jesus, and TELL US WHAT YOU THINK. While new child protection policies, yet here’s a bunch of guys whose lives have garda/police vetting and training have now been destroyed. There is nothing Christian been implemented widely across most about it.

Irish churches (such as the Church of “Unfortunately, abuse goes on in all Ireland’s comprehensive Safeguarding Trust institutions. It happens. But rather than mentioned above), questions remain about circling the wagons, [churches should] take it on the chin and deal with everything that needs to be dealt YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT CHRISTIAN VALUES AND JESUS, AND YET with.”

HERE’S A BUNCH OF GUYS WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED. Kerry feels that the cathedral should contact all the how churches and Christian agencies handle boys who were choristers or attending accusations of wrongdoing, especially those the cathedral during the period in which that predate the current policies.

O’Brien was a volunteer there. He urged At times, leaders talk about the risk of anyone affected to come forward, to report false accusation, protecting the ministry of a what happened to the Gardaí and to get church or the importance of second chances counselling. as reasons for keeping quiet rather than “I still think there are people out dealing publicly with what has happened. there who may yet come forward. It is not Survivors of abuse describe the devastating necessarily in the cathedral’s best interests, effect of being silenced or being expected but it is in the best interests of the survivors not to seek justice (because “we have to of abuse.” (You can contact Kerry by forgive”…). emailing editor@vox.ie).

What is the long-term effect of staying VOX magazine spoke to St. Patrick’s silent or “covering up” accusations - on Cathedral and asked them to respond to victims, on potential victims, on the offender the questions arising from this case. In and on the reputation of the church? How a statement, the Church of Ireland press does a church balance the call to forgiveness officer explained that it is difficult to with the duty of care for those who are most determine why O’Brien was allowed to vulnerable? What does it mean to “walk in remain in position even after his conviction the light”? because the Dean and Dean’s vicar during In this specific case, Kerry Lawless the 1990s have both now died. There would suggests a course of action that is “not have been no specific safeguards in place at the cathedral prior to the introduction of the necessarily in the cathedral’s best interest” what is the risk of responding to wrongdoing Safeguarding Trust in 2006. in the way he suggests? How much does He confirmed that O’Brien was asked to concern about legal action and insurance leave following Kerry Lawless’ visit to the liability dictate the way churches respond to then Dean (Robert MacCarthy) in 2005. accusations?

He added, “St Patrick’s Cathedral is Christian leaders in Ireland frequently committed to ensuring that any former speak out publicly about issues of morality chorister who has suffered abuse and their in civil society. Will we ever see the same families are supported and is currently passion and commitment applied to tackling exploring the best ways to deliver this in the problems within the church? Until we do, imminent future. can we truly expect our voice to be heard “Today, someone known to have such and respected in the public sphere? a conviction would not be allowed to have Write to editor@vox.ie with your views! any post, position of trust, responsibility

JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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REALITY

GOD!

The miraculous story of the Diospi Suyana hospital in Peru n October, Dr Klaus-Dieter John visited churches across Ireland to share the miraculous faith journey that led him to build a mission hospital for the Quechua people of South America. He took time out from his schedule to chat with VOX editor Ruth Garvey-Williams.

Growing up in a Christian family in Germany, Klaus-Dieter John was weaned on stories of missionaries such as the “Jungle Doctor.” From an early age, he knew he wanted to become a missionary doctor, but he could never have imagined the adventure that lay ahead.

It has been a journey that has stretched his faith to the limits. “I have always been a bit of a ‘doubting Thomas,’” he shared. “I have more questions than answers in my life.

For me, faith has meant clinging to the cross of Christ sometimes out of desperation. On one hand, I have a strong faith, but at other times, I sit at home and start crying out, ‘God, where are you? Will it be okay?’”

Pursuing his medical training with single-minded determination, Klaus became a surgeon while his wife, Martina, qualified as a paediatrician. The couple studied in the USA, UK and South Africa before finally heading out to serve at a mission hospital in Ecuador in 1997.

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Here, Klaus and Martina saw first Seconds later, Klaus tried again and the hand the challenges faced by the Quechua gallstone slid free. people. “Medical care for the Quechuas Still dreaming of building a hospital, was horrible beyond description. Travel Klaus remembers wondering how he and to one of the distant towns with better Martina would ever accomplish such a task. medical facilities was unaffordable for most.

Despondently, he opened his devotional Sickness and death loomed over them like a journal at the page for the day and read dense, inescapable fog… I wanted to build a Psalm 32. Verse 8 jumped off the page: “I hospital for these people.” will instruct you and teach you in the way Serving in Ecudaor, Klaus soon you should go.” discovered that prayer was as important “Every great vision is born at a definite as medicine. “Missionary doctors usually moment. For Diospi Suyana, it was that day work in poorly - September 27, resourced 2000. I suddenly facilities. had the rockFOR ME, FAITH HAS MEANT CLINGING TO THE CROSS solid conviction Chronic shortages of that this mission OF CHRIST SOMETIMES OUT OF DESPERATION. both money hospital not and staff make only could be it necessary to built - it would improvise almost constantly. This lack of be built.” security often causes doctors and nurses to Klaus began working on a project seek refuge in prayer. I was no exception.” proposal and studied maps, looking for the Klaus remembers operating for hours right place to build. In summer 2002, Klaus to remove a gallstone that simply would not and Martina sent the proposal to 20 friends budge, no matter what they tried. Dr Kime, looking for their support. Many thought the the anaesthesiologist, prayed, “God, you couple had taken leave of their senses! said that if we had faith the size of a mustard Returning to Germany, they gathered a seed, we would be able to move mountains. few committed friends to form the charity This is just a tiny stone. Please help us.”

Diospi Suyana (loosely translated “We trust

VOX MAGAZINE

in God”) and work began to raise funds for not speak. “In actuality, the planned hospital. his tears said far more A survey trip to Peru identified the about what our hospital perfect location in the remote town of would mean for the Curahuasi, and in 2003, they purchased people of Curahuasi than a plot of land for $25,000. Signing a any speech could ever development contract, they were committed have done,” Klaus shared. to a project that was humanly impossible.

The ground-breaking “But praise God, the word ‘impossible’ is not ceremony took place on in His vocabulary.”

May 24, even though There followed a fundraising marathon Klaus and Martina still as Klaus and Martina met with hundreds of only had a fraction of potential donors. For the first six months, the needed funds for the gifts trickled in so slowly that the couple building project. “From battled feelings of hopelessness, but a human standpoint, our breakthroughs came as the project caught plan was totally crazy.” the attention of German national media.

And the challenges

By February 2005, they had received the were only beginning. Corruption, logistical equivalent of $500,000. problems created by the remote location, But money was not the only challenge. and chronic lack of funds led to seasons Klaus was desperate to find an experienced of frustration, doubt and questioning. But engineer to oversee construction. During even apparent dead ends often led to new a conversation with a lawyer, the name opportunities and miraculous provision.

Udo Klemenz came up. Klaus immediately Sharing the vision, again and again, telephoned Udo and asked whether he Klaus found that people were willing to would consider moving to Peru to supervise support the “crazy” plan in very practical the construction of a hospital… for free! ways. The head of a glass company provided “My request was nothing short of window panes at a 40% discount, while a laughable,” Klaus admitted but to his Belgian company reduced the price of tiles amazement, Udo invited him to visit that and suspended ceilings by 30% after hearing same evening. It turned out that Udo and the story! his wife Barbara were When committed Christians it came to who had been praying importing for God’s guidance that I SUDDENLY HAD THE ROCK-SOLID CONVICTION thousands of very morning.

THAT THIS MISSION HOSPITAL NOT ONLY COULD euros worth “We have been of medical BE BUILT - IT WOULD BE BUILT. wondering whether equipment God might have a (donated special task for us to do.

by German The timing of your call this morning seems companies), Klaus heard horror stories to indicate that God wants us to go to Peru!” about customs in Peru. One priest had Barbara said. waited six years to receive an imported Visiting Curahuasi, Klaus was delighted car! But with the help of Peru’s First Lady to announce that work on the hospital and fervent prayer, the first shipment of would begin in May 2005. The town mayor medical equipment cleared customs in just was so overcome by emotion that he could 90 minutes! “There was simply no human

explanation for what had occurred,” Klaus said.

With the hospital nearing completion, Klaus turned his attention to recruiting highly qualified staff and again saw miracle after miracle as people were willing to come and work for free. By the end of 2006, the staff team had grown to 14 people. As well as working at the hospital, many helped Martina with running a Kids Club, attracting 300 children each week and providing opportunities to share about Jesus’ love!

Finally, the date was set for the dedication of the hospital - 31 August 2007 - but it took a herculean effort to ensure that everything was ready in time. It was a “mountain top” experience that quickly reverted to the reality of running a hospital day to day and finding the ongoing funding to make that happen.

By the end of 2016, the hospital had treated 200,000 patients. It employs 150 local people who work alongside 62 medical missionaries from around the world, 10 of whom come from Ireland!

Although the hospital’s primary focus is providing high-quality medical care for the poorest people of Peru, the Diospi Suyana team quickly found opportunities to share their faith. There are services in the hospital chapel every day, and a pastor works alongside the hospital to follow up with patients and their families.

A signpost leading up to the hospital reads, “Diospi Suyana - a hospital seeking to share the love of Christ.” This remains at the heart of the vision for Klaus and Martina and their dedicated team.

For Klaus himself, the journey has encouraged his wavering faith again and again. “I didn’t want to know about God; I wanted to see God. And through our story, God has become visible. You cannot prove there is a God, but for me, the evidence is piling up!”

You can read the full story of Diospi Suyana hospital in Klaus-Dieter’s book I Have Seen God or find out more on the website: www.diospi-suyana.org.

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FAITH

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS IN IRELAND

BY LOUISE HACKING

ast summer was my seventh summer at Encounter… leaders in Ireland and share the Gospel with the people we meet. We “Get a life!” I hear you say. I first came to Encounter, the may find ourselves handing out leaflets, cleaning toys, running kids’ joint Serge-Christian Unions Ireland (CUI) summer clubs, hanging out with teenagers, playing football, painting walls, internship, as a Northern Irish music student in 2009. I leading prayer meetings, or speaking in churches, all the while eating, didn’t really know what I was walking into, and to be honest, I didn’t breathing, sleeping and generally living… alongside one another! It think I really needed Bible teaching or that I needed to be discipled. I is two weeks of really doing life together! was proved wrong, very quickly.

So why have I I was coming from a very “together” kind of lifestyle, returned summer after or so I thought. I soon realised I wasn’t living a life of summer? Honestly? I freedom but a law-abiding life of constantly trying harder, THESE ARE AMAZING OPPORTUNITIES TO COME crave community! We trying to prove myself and to earn the respect of those spend time during our around me… because obviously that’s what matters, right? ALONGSIDE MINISTRY LEADERS IN IRELAND AND orientation weekend I was living like someone who hadn’t let the grace of SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH THE PEOPLE WE MEET. talking about culture and God flow deeply in her life. It wasn’t until we started to how we, as a team, want walk through the “Free to Love” course that I saw I had to create a culture that is missed the point completely! My life was about so much safe, unique and beautiful more than trying harder, or doing better, or proving myself…

- including different people in a loving and caring community.

Three words describe what Encounter is about: discovering, “Dying to self ” sounds horrendous at first. But slowly, we serving and growing. discover the beauty of what it means - to die to your own wants and desires and to allow the Lord to have His way.

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DISCOVERING

Exploring the transforming power of the Gospel with a mentor and my peers from around the world is one of the main avenues of discovery at Encounter. We spend the first two weeks grappling with the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We learn what it means to be a ‘sent one’ - a son and daughter of our King, fully adopted into His family, finding our confidence in God as His beloved child and maturing in our faith.

We look at what a life in the Spirit is about, what forgiveness looks like, how to deal with conflict in a loving, constructive and life-giving way and ultimately that it is God’s grace that propels us forward to live a life mapped out by the one who creates us! (All in two weeks—wow!) Mixed in with that, we spend time praying in small groups and in big groups as well as having time to worship.

SERVING

We then split up into outreach teams and go on an adventure of serving local churches and ministries around Ireland! From Cork to Belfast to Dublin to Ballymena, our teams traverse the entire island.

These are amazing opportunities to come alongside ministry

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GROWING

Why would we want to leave our comfort zone for this internship? It is a die-to-self sacrifice, and that is what God calls us to.

All of the interns are responding and surrendering to God’s direction and have the opportunity to discover, serve, to love and be loved along the way! These few weeks in the summer, are an opportunity to leave our comfort zones and come on a journey of learning.

For more information about Encounter and to apply, please visit www.encounter.ie or email Steve Keating at skeating@serge.org.

Louise Hacking, originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, has just completed a two-year apprenticeship with Serge in Ireland. She has now started working with Christian Unions Ireland (formerly IFES Ireland) and is a Christian Union Staff Worker in three of the universities around Dublin: Trinity College, Dublin Institute of Technology, and Maynooth University.

VOX MAGAZINE

CELEBRATING THE RELAUNCH OF YFC IRELAND

BY LIAM BURKE

his year, YFC Ireland celebrates its first birthday since an evangelism tool for churches to build a bridge to young people in being officially reestablished. We are now based in the community.

Mullingar in the Midlands and seek to serve the whole Our MyLife programme gets young people active as we examine of Ireland with Simon Marriot as the National Director. their priorities, values and goals. Using a mixture of life coaching Youth for Christ was established in 1944 and operates in 130 and story-telling techniques, the Nomad team engages young countries worldwide. YFC Ireland is a part of this family, and we people in an interactive discussion on life and the Christian faith. aim to help young people better understand YFC also provides resources for life and the Christian faith. churches and youth groups to use with their YFC Ireland was first set up in Ireland in young people, delivered through an online 2002 by Suzie Evans (nee Rowan) and ran WE ARE FOCUSED ON BRINGING THE LOVE OF platform. These resources include activities, until 2009, working in the Wicklow/South games, and discussion ideas reflecting on JESUS TO YOUNG PEOPLE NATIONWIDE AND different themes appropriate to young Dublin area. Suzie, along with a group of churches in Bray, established a drop-in ENGAGING THEM IN A FAITH CONVERSATION. people today. Youth leaders can customise centre and provided Alpha in schools and the sessions to make them unique, resources like Rock Solid for youth groups. responding to the needs of their specific Over the past year, we’ve been getting a youth group. A dedicated YFC team feel for the land, building relationships with other ministries within provides new materials each term to keep it current and relevant.

Ireland, and working in collaboration with other groups. YFC YFC are passionate about developing and giving responsibility Ireland’s heart is to serve schools, churches and communities across to young leaders. Through an internship programme, YFC provides Ireland. We are focused on bringing the love of Jesus to young a wide variety of opportunities for young leaders to gain experience people nationwide and engaging them in a faith conversation. in a ministry setting. Interns grow in maturity, character and their We’re privileged to work in collaboration with Alpha and relationship with God, equipping them for future leadership roles Scripture Union Ireland. Youth Alpha has been a powerful tool for within Ireland. us, and we’ve been so encouraged working with a large group of YFC Ireland would love to serve and partner with you as you Transition Year young people, discussing faith in Jesus and reflecting seek to help young people find Jesus, follow Him and join His on our purpose in life. family. Find out more at www.yfc.ie.

Through our Nomad Cage soccer project, we aim to create a safe space for meaningful interaction with young people, having conversations about life and the Christian faith. The soccer cage Liam Burke is a Nomad can be used in any context with young people, whether in a school intern with YFC Ireland.

- delivering classes and/or retreat days; in a community - working with troubled youth and/or restorative justice programmes; or as

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JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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ENGAGE Training day for those serious about teaching the Bible to children

Training Outline

of 4 3rd ing Train ions s Ses

Trainer Rory Bell is director of Teaching and Training

Ministries, an organisation that equips ordinary people to teach the Bible to children. Rory and his wife, Kim, have worked in a number of different sized churches in a range of contexts both in South Africa and the UK. He has conducted extensive training in churches and theological colleges in South Africa, Singapore, Dubai, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, Australia and throughout the United Kingdom.

TnT Ministries publishes Mustard Seeds Bible teaching resources.

Engaging the Heart Take your teaching beyond passing on facts, appeal to the heart.

See real life-change when you apply God’s word, in an age-appropriate way, to the lives of those you teach.

Engaging Hostility Speaking about Jesus often invites ridicule and persecution. Children as young as five are coming under fire for Jesus on the playground, in the classroom and sadly, at home. Learn to equip children to make a reasoned defence for their faith. Give the them tools they need to stand firm in a hostile world.

Boys are different to girls – everyone knows that!

But sometimes they are taught as though there is no difference at all. Learn how to adapt your teaching style to engage the boys meaningfully.

BOOKING ESSENTIAL

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VOX JAN - MAR 2017

Venue: Swords Baptist Church The Riasc Centre Feltrim Road, Swords, Co Dublin

Bring your whole team and be encouraged, enthused and equipped to ENGAGE!

10:00am to 4:00pm, €20 per person (includes refreshments - bring your own packed lunch)

Engaging Boys

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Saturday 28 January 2017

Thanks very much for Saturday. It’s changed my whole approach to lesson planning. Great stuff!

It was such a great help for me and all the team I lead.

I wanted to say a massive thank you on behalf of our Youth and Junior Church team for your input to our children’s ministries on Saturday. We are so grateful for the teaching, encouragement, discipline, validation, wisdom, food for thought and wealth of ideas we now have to put into practice.

REVIEWS

SILENCE

VOX MAGAZINE

REVIEWED BY CLIVE PRICE

trip everything away so only faith remains. That was the aim of filmmaker Martin Scorsese in his latest production, Silence.

Scorsese had read Shusaku Endo’s novel of the same name – which focuses on religious persecution in Japan – while working in that country. He always wanted to make it into a film, but wondered how.

More than 20 years later, Scorsese has done it. And he’s completed the task using some big names – Andrew Garfield of The Amazing Spiderman, Adam Driver of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Ireland’s own Liam Neeson of numerous action movies.

Garfield and Driver are Fathers Rodrigues and Garrpe, two Catholic priests in the 17th century committed to finding the lost priest Father Ferreira, played by Liam Neeson. They go to Japan, where Ferraira is reported to have given up his faith and assimilated into the Buddhist culture.

They meet the ‘hidden Christians’ of Japan, who hold on to their faith against all odds. An evil inquisitor and his henchmen use the most brutal methods to try to crush Christianity – from decapitation to crucifixion, from burning at the stake to drowning.

Graphic scenes of torture and execution are non-stop. This is not a popcorn movie, though it’s beautifully filmed and the acting is superb.

Rodrigues and Garrpe come face-to-face with this adversary.

What comes to light is that the inquisitor and his team believe

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they’re protecting the Japanese way of life from the Portuguese, the Spanish, the English and the Dutch, who all want to proselytise. The inquisitor doesn’t believe Christianity has anything to contribute to Japan.

We follow mostly the experience of Rodrigues as he debates with his enemy and tries to rescue Ferreira but ends up denying his own faith. Or does he? We’re not quite sure. He sees visions of Christ and hears the voice of Jesus. But our spirits are not lifted by these religious experiences. There is still silence.

This film definitely does what it says on the tin. It leaves you stunned, feeling bereft of hope and faith, yearning for some relief.

Hope comes later – in some free resources from Christian media company Damaris, who’ve produced a downloadable discussion guide (silence.damarismedia.com). The material encourages people to focus on the suffering church. If more people support believers in restricted countries as a result of this movie, that will be the most positive outcome.

For on its own, Silence doesn’t offer much, other than an abyss.

Irish film release: 1 January 2017 Running time: 2 hours 39 minutes Clive Price is a communications specialist for companies and charities across the UK and Ireland and a writer for various publications including VOX, Families First and Irish Music magazine.

He is based in Newry. Contact him at www.cliveprice.com.

JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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VOX JAN - MAR 2017

REVIEWS

Run Wild, Live Free, Love Strong For King & Country

For King & Country is a Christian pop duo composed of Australian brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone. They also happen to be the younger brothers of Christian singer/songwriter Rebecca Saint James. Setting out on their musical mission must have seemed like a daunting task to the brothers when their illustrious sister had already set such high standards, but their debut album, Crave, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim, and Billboard declared them as one of the “New Artists To Watch” for 2012. Sadly, in 2013, Luke was stricken with ulcerative colitis, a condition that resulted in massive debilitating weight loss and threatened his life.

Now, fully recovered and having toured in 2014 with Casting Crowns, For King & Country has produced one of 2016’s best albums. Run Wild, Live Free, Love Strong has already been acclaimed with a Grammy award for Best Christian Contemporary Album of 2016, and at the time of writing it has already been in the charts for in excess of 17 weeks. This album weaves different sounds and genres together in a unique and beautiful way, and its lyrics bring a simple but powerful message: We hurt, but there is hope in Christ. Incredibly, there are 16 songs and a short prelude on this album, and every one of them is a five-star track. Do I have a favourite? For me, the song “Without You,” written from the perspective of Luke’s wife, Courtney, who almost lost him to illness, which features her vocals, is worth the album price alone.

The Very Next Thing

Alleluia

Campfire 2 Simplicity

Casting Crowns are without doubt Christian music’s most popular music group, a distinction they have held since 2007. With record sales of more than 9 million albums to date, and sellout performances all over the world, it seemed that nothing could halt their meteoric rise. However, when lead singer Mark Hall was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, the future of the band was in serious doubt. Now, 12 months later and fully recovered from his illness, Hall and the band are back in the charts with a new album with lyrics that will meet the listener with a strong message song after song.

The Very Next Thing is the brand new album from Casting Crowns and contains 12 intimate, upbeat and fresh-sounding tracks that will inspire and strengthen you. There is a depth and substance in the lyrics that will give plenty of food for thought, and this, coupled with some instantly memorable melodies, will have you singing and worshiping along with the very first listen. This is a must-have album.

And now for something completely different. Reviewing for the magazine and for radio playlists, I get to listen to a wide variety of music. So when I was presented with a copy of the new album by a group called The Priests, my curiosity got the better of me and I gave it a serious listen. My curiosity rewarded me with an hour of quite beautiful music and a few breathtaking listening moments.

So, who are the Priests? Well, they are a classical musical group made up of three Catholic priests, all from Northern Ireland.

Fr. Eugene and his brother Fr. Martin O’Hagan hail from the village of Claudy, County Derry, whilst Fr. David Delargy is from Ballymena, County Antrim.

Alleluia is their third studio album, and it is an absolute delight. It features such beautiful songs as Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, You Raise Me Up, Nearer My God to Thee, and Pachelbel’s Canon, all impressively delivered. For me, though, the standout tracks are Be Thou My Vision, where Clannad’s Moya Brennan shares the vocals, and an absolutely spine-tingling rendition of The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. A wonderful album.

There is something very real and genuine about the music produced by Rend Collective. Do you ever remember sitting around a campfire? Boy Scouts? Girl Guides? Or perhaps as adults on holiday or a beach somewhere? My memories of such occasions are of fun, laughter, exhilaration and freedom. Perhaps this is why I enjoy a Rend Collective recording so much. They manage to capture in their recordings that essence of freedom, joy and fun that campfire fellowship generates and is so lacking in so much of the glossy, artificial worship music we hear today.

The new album from the Bangorbased Rend Collective is called Campfire 2 Simplicity, and it is just the thing to put on when the house is empty and you can turn the volume up and dance and stomp and be lifted to your heart’s content.

It opens with one we all know, “This Little Light of Mine,” and each of the 11 tracks that follow flow seamlessly one after another. This is praise and worship in its purest and rawest and most natural form.

We may be in the depths of winter, but one play of this album will transport you to a summer night under a starry sky, around a campfire with friends and fellow Christians.

Now that’s something to look forward to, isn’t it?

Casting Crowns

The Priests

Music Review by Vincent Hughes from UCB Radio, an Irish Christian radio station that broadcasts 24/7. You can listen on DAB Radio in Dublin and Cork, on SKY Channel 0214, UPC (TV) Channel 918, and online at www.ucb.ie. Contact UCB Ireland at ucbireland@ gmail.com, 01 4299899, or find them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Rend Collective

JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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EVENTS

VOX MAGAZINE

Events Calendar What’s happening where and when January Children’s Ministry Training Day Saturday, 28 January Swords Baptist Church Swords, Co. Dublin www.tntministries.org.uk March Chapel National Young Adult Conference 10 - 11 March St. Marks Church, Dublin 2 www.chapeldublin.com April Amazing Grace Festival 6 - 12 April Buncrana, Co. Donegal www.amazinggrace.ie

July Sligo 17 9 - 14 July Sligo www.newwineireland.org

May Youth Leader Training Day Saturday 6 May, 10am Irish Bible Institute, Dublin 1 www.thebighouse.org.uk June Summer Fire 23 - 29 June Trabolgan, Co. Cork www.summerfireconference.com Summer Madness 30 June - 4 July Glenarm, Co. Antrim www.summermadness.co.uk

Pulse Youth Camp 2017 24 - 29 July www.agireland.org/pulse August New Horizon 5 - 11 August Ulster University, Coleraine www.newhorizon.org.uk Visit www.vox.ie/events for a more up-to-date event listing.

(You can also inform us about your upcoming event there.)

TOP OF T H E R O C K P OD PÁ I R C & WA L K I N G C E N T R E Drimoleague, West Cork

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44

VOX JAN - MAR 2017

REVIEWS

VOX MAGAZINE

CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE

BY RICHARD FOSTER REVIEWED BY REV. LAURENCE GRAHAM

n August 1990, this was one of several books I purchased and packed into a trunk that was then shipped to Haiti, where I was going to serve as an agricultural missionary with the Methodist Church. I never saw the trunk for about six months and then, not long after I got my hands on its contents, I was evacuated from Haiti after a coup d’état!

So, finally, in the summer of 2016, I got to read this book!

The title itself almost seems to contain a contradiction – have you ever celebrated discipline? However, in this case there is no contradiction because spiritual disciplines are ways of acting and living that “…allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.”

Written in a very readable style, this book was in fact a joy to read, and all through it is clear that Foster is not just writing about theoretical concepts but out of his own personal experience of walking with God. There are chapters on the kind of things that you would expect to find in such a book including prayer, fasting and Bible study but also on less often discussed topics such as simplicity, solitude and submission.

I have always considered myself to be much more a spiritual minnow than a giant but in some surprising ways I’ve found that actually, maybe I was involved in more of the spiritual disciplines than I realised. For example, Foster describes how the study of nature is a spiritual discipline, and my mind went back to my teenage years when I found that biology classes really did a lot for my faith. On the other hand,

I

as might be expected from a preacher, I realised I had a long way to go in the discipline of silence!

One particularly poignant section is entitled “The Dark Night of the Soul.” I suspect I’m not the only reader of VOX to sometimes have a “…sense of dryness, aloneness, even lostness…” in my spiritual life. For Foster, such a ‘dark night’ is not something bad or destructive but rather should be welcomed much as a sick person might welcome surgery that promises future health. “ The purpose of the darkness is not to punish or to afflict us. It is to set us free. It is a divine appointment …..”

Behind this statement lies the fundamental truth of spiritual disciplines that Foster emphasises in various ways throughout the book, namely that spiritual disciplines in and of themselves do not necessarily lead us to a tangible experience of God every time we practice one of them. It is only God himself who can touch us in this way. However, spiritual disciplines are the way that God has given us to put up our sails so that when the wind (of the Spirit) blows, we will be carried closer to the heart of God. But if your sails aren’t up, then don’t expect to catch the wind.

Laurence is an ordained minister with the Methodist Church in Ireland, based at Dublin Central Mission, and in June 2018 is to be installed as President of the Methodist Church in Ireland for a year.

JAN - MAR 2017 VOX

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VOX PS

TIDE AND WIND

BY SEÁN MULLAN

suppose there’s something to be said Arthur would not be a silent spectator. for being on your own.”

Fifteen minutes into the game, the That was the first time I’d night’s first surprise comes from Arthur. ever heard Steve admit that there He asks Joe about the course that he’s might be more to life than work, sport, doing. Joe has already told the lads that he’s politics and music. He’d been off for a week started doing a course in theology. And Joe on his own on the Camino walk in Spain, is pretty sure Arthur doesn’t know what and something had theology is other than happened there. He the fact that it’s got wanted to talk about something to do with it, but when it came “I’m studying HE DOESN’T PUSH, DOESN’T RUSH - religion. to trying to get it out, theology, Arthur.

WAITS FOR THE TIDE AND GOES WITH IT. Why do you ask?” that was the best he could do - the value “Ah nothing - just of being on your own. wonderin’,“ comes the This was his best stab reply. at talking about the inner life. It had taken Just then, Man U miss the simplest of three years of walking, talking and listening chances; Arthur starts swearing at the telly to get to that point - the notion that there and the moment passes. might be something more - something else As Joe tells it to me, he describes it as worth paying attention to. the tide coming in and the tide going back Steve came to mind last month when out - the moment has passed. But after a Joe, a friend of mine, was telling me about trip to the loo, a trip to the bar and some a conversation he’d had in the pub. It was more swearing at the telly, the tide comes in

I

a Thursday night, and two of the usual gang of four hadn’t shown; it was just Joe and Arthur. So Joe’s hopes of a half-decent conversation had been left at the door.

Worse still, it was Man U on Sky Sports, so 46

VOX JAN - MAR 2017

again. Arthur has another question for Joe. “What made you want to study something like that?”

As Joe tells it, the tide comes in and goes out several times. But by the end of the

evening, Man U are forgotten and Arthur is no longer asking about Joe; he’s telling Joe about Arthur. And as they leave the pub, Joe knows that he’s learned more about the real Arthur in one evening than in all the years they’ve known each other.

As Joe tells me the story, I’m fascinated.

Joe’s the type who’s keen for this kind of deep conversation, but he’s quite happy to watch the tide go out and wait for it to come back in again. He doesn’t push, doesn’t rush - waits for the tide and goes with it.

I often get frustrated that we Irish men can’t talk easily about what’s going on inside ourselves. Seamus Heaney writes about the wind on a Clare beach buffeting the car and catching the heart off guard and blowing it open. It may be that many Irish men experience such moments, but most of us don’t know what to do with them. We’re certainly not going to write a poem about it and, for most of us, the idea of talking about it is as embarrassing as finding your zip’s been open for the last two hours and no-one has told you.

And when it comes to belief in God, or some greater power than ourselves, the embarrassment seems to double. So even at a graveside when what lies beyond death seems the obvious topic of the moment, we dodge it by chatting instead about last Sunday’s match.

But like Joe tells it, there comes a moment when the tide comes in. And whether it’s in the pub, on the road, in the 12-step group or late on the night shift, we could learn a lot by watching for the tide and going with it. Or - if I can mix my metaphors - going with the wind when caught off guard and letting it blow us open.

Seán Mullan has been working in church leadership for many years.

He has developed a project in Dublin City Centre called “Third Space”.

PUT YOURSELF IN THE PICTURE Find out how your church can reach those in greatest need.

Invite a Tearfund speaker to your church call Emma Lynch on 01 878 3200. www.tearfund.ie

Tearfund Ireland registered Charity No. CHY 8600

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Jesus Loved People.

He did it radically, unexpectedly, generously.

He had open arms for the poor, a welcome for those on the edges.

Will you and your Church join Christian Aid to show the same love to the world’s poor and marginalised?

Talk to us about how we can support you and your church.

Jane Burns, Dublin dublin@christian-aid.org 01 496 7040 48

VOX JAN - MAR 2017

Refugee boy puts on a new pair of wellies from Christian Aid partner Philanthropy who are supporting refugees in Serbia.

christianaid.ie/churches Helen Newell, Belfast belfast@christian-aid.org 028 9064 8133

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