Considering Grace. Gladys Ganiel
but was not as important a part of nationalist identity. He wrote: ‘This is the only conclusion that makes sense of Ian Paisley’s career … [Paisley’s] political success can only be understood if one appreciates the central role which evangelical religion plays in Ulster unionism.’ (author’s emphasis)4 We would add that Northern Ireland’s brand of evangelicalism reflects and has been shaped by an older Presbyterian tradition.5
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the evangelical movement swept through Britain, Ireland and North America. Then, as now, evangelicals were best-known for their emphasis on conversion – their insistence that one is not born a Christian but rather must be ‘born again’ in order to be a true Christian. They believe that being born again gives people a personal relationship with Jesus. Evangelicals also believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. Many, but not all, insist that the Bible should be understood literally. In the north-east of Ireland, evangelicalism intersected with the existing Protestant traditions, the largest of which was Presbyterianism. Presbyterianism had gained its foothold in Ireland with the arrival of Scottish settlers during the Plantations of the early 1600s. Evangelicalism appealed to people across all Protestant denominations, serving as a unifying force. It informed the ethos of the Orange Order, which was formed in 1795. It helped to quell previous antagonism between Presbyterians and the established Church of Ireland. Presbyterians had been subjected to some of the same penal laws as Catholics – their marriages were not recognised by the state, and they were compelled to pay a tithe to the established church. As relationships among Protestant traditions improved, evangelicals adapted and adopted theological concepts from Presbyterianism. One of the most important of these was the covenant. The idea behind the covenant was that Christians were in committed, covenantal relationships with both God and the state. If the state followed God’s laws – including upholding ‘right’ religion – God would bless it. If it did not, God would curse it. It was Christians’ job to monitor the state, ensuring that it followed God’s laws and protected ‘right’ religion. If it did not, Christians were required to resist the state, even violently as a last resort. This covenantal commitment to both God and the state is reflected in the popular slogan ‘For God and Ulster’. It is no coincidence that the document that unionists produced to oppose Home Rule in 1912 was called the Ulster Covenant, and that one of the perceived threats of Home Rule was that ‘right’ religion would be overwhelmed by Catholicism. Hence the unionist slogan: ‘Home Rule is Rome Rule.’
So, it is significant that this book’s invitation to consider grace comes directly from the large and long-standing Presbyterian tradition. Today, Presbyterianism’s influence is waning as secularisation gathers pace. Like all Christian denominations, the numbers of Presbyterians have been declining steadily throughout the Troubles. In the 1961 Census, 29 per cent of the overall population identified as Presbyterian – by 2011, only 19 per cent did so. PCI’s official membership statistics echo these trends. In 1961, 28 per cent of the population of Northern Ireland were members of PCI; by 2011, that had dropped to 15 per cent. Even so, Northern Ireland is one of the least secular regions in Europe. It is, without a doubt, the most evangelical-saturated place in Europe. In 2008, Claire Mitchell and James Tilley estimated that up to a third of Protestants could be considered evangelicals.6 And evangelicalism remains a major force with Presbyterianism. It is a source of strength within PCI, providing energy and enthusiasm. It is also a source of division. PCI struggles to balance tensions between evangelicals and non-evangelicals. There are even tensions among evangelicals who disagree with each other on a range of issues. One of the most significant of these issues is how to approach peacebuilding – or even if peacebuilding should be a priority at all.
Considering Grace
The General Assembly of PCI meets once a year over four days to discuss issues related to the church and its role in society. Around 1,000 ministers and elders attend. It is presided over by an elected Moderator, who serves a one-year term as leader of the denomination. In 2016, the General Assembly agreed a Vision for Society statement, in which ‘We, members of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, saved by grace and called by God to grace-filled relationships … CONFESS our failure to live as Biblically faithful Christian peacebuilders … [and] AFFIRM Christian peacebuilding to be part of Christian discipleship.’7 The General Assembly also agreed to support the research project on which this book is based, addressing the question: ‘How did Presbyterians respond to the Troubles?’
A few weeks after the General Assembly, Rev. Tony Davidson, minister in First Armagh and chair of PCI’s Council for Public Affairs (CPA) dealing with the past task group, wrote about the Vision for Society statement and the launch of the research project on the Contemporary Christianity blog. One of this book’s authors, Gladys Ganiel, read the post. A few weeks after that, she bumped into Rev. Norman Hamilton, who convenes the CPA. Norman is a former Moderator who has retired from ministry at Ballysillan Presbyterian in North Belfast. ‘Who is doing the research project?’, she asked. Norman confessed, ‘We don’t know.’
Norman explained that the task group wanted to contribute constructively to societal healing and public discussion about dealing with the past, so they had decided to gather the stories of 100 Presbyterians with a variety of experiences and perspectives, enabling them to tell a wider story about Presbyterian responses to the Troubles than has ever been available. Through these stories, they wanted to recognise that which was good, honourable and even heroic, while at the same time reflecting on the times when Presbyterians failed to be faithful peacemakers. The project appealed to Gladys, a sociologist at Queen’s University. She worked with the CPA to secure funding for the research from the Irish Government’s Reconciliation Fund. This enabled Queen’s to employ the other author, Jamie Yohanis, to help interview Presbyterians.
The most influential book about the role of religion during the Troubles is Religion, Civil Society and Peace in Northern Ireland by John Brewer, a sociologist at Queen’s.8 He argued that the ‘institutional’ churches, that is denominations like PCI, did not do enough to contribute to peacemaking. Rather, it was people he called ‘mavericks’, brave clerics and laity acting in small groups, who took the risks needed to bring peace. Some readers will be familiar with the roll call of these outstanding leaders: Frs Alec Reid and Gerry Reynolds at Clonard Monastery; Presbyterian ministers Revs Lesley Carroll, Ray Davey, John Dunlop and Ken Newell; Church of Ireland Archbishop Robin Eames; Fr Michael Hurley SJ and Geraldine Smyth OP at the Irish School of Ecumenics; and Methodist minister Harold Good, among others. Brewer claimed that the institutional churches lacked the courage and conviction to take peace seriously, and even failed to support the individuals who were doing the hard work on the ground.
During the Troubles, church leaders from the four largest denominations often appeared together or issued joint statements condemning violence. Some denominations released statements advocating peace. The Vision for Society statement is the latest in a line of such statements from PCI. The most significant of these was its 1990 Coleraine Declaration, issued after a special meeting of the General Assembly.9 It was followed by a 1994 Peace Vocation statement. Only a handful of people told us they had been inspired by these statements. Throughout the Troubles, PCI’s Church and Government Committee, the precursor to the CPA, produced a series of documents on peace-related issues. But Brewer dismissed these and similar efforts from other denominations as ‘speechifying’. Statements were an elaborate form of preaching to the choir, because only a minority of Christians who were already committed to peacemaking heard them. The message barely registered at all with people outside the churches.
When we asked people to evaluate how PCI as a denomination had responded to the Troubles, we were usually greeted with silence. People mentioned individuals like Dunlop or Newell, or talked about what their local ministers and congregations had done. But most could not name any initiatives from PCI itself. Only a few ministers and three laypeople mentioned the Coleraine Declaration, Peace Vocation or Vision for Society. Nor did they talk about PCI’s Peacemaking Programme, which ran from 2006–9. Their silence revealed a staggering failure of communication between denominational headquarters, ministers and congregations.
Lynda Gould is clerk of session at Knock Presbyterian in East Belfast. A kirk session is the elected board of elders which governs each Presbyterian congregation; the clerk sees to the functioning of the session, conducts correspondence on the session’s behalf and