New Loyalties: Christian Faith and the Protestant Working Class
by Philip Orr

New Loyalties examines issues of social deprivation, the demise of the church's presence in the inner cities, the history of conflict in Loyalist communities and the polarisation of class.

Moving beyond and analysis of church and community estrangement, New Loyalties considers specific models of mission, like Billy Mitchell's conflict transformation work and offers a series of case studies that model experimental and innovative engagement. While they show a diversity of local church theology and practice, the initiatives share a common commitment to not abandon the Protestant working class.

By looking at church and community experiences in England, USA and the Republic of Ireland we locate our regional challenges within the wider context of disaffected communities on the margins of many western societies.

This publication will be a helpful resource for church and community leaders considering the challenges of post-conflict mission and will be of value to anyone concerned with the widening gap between the Protestant church and loyalist communities.

ISBN 9781 874324 86 7

Price: £9.99

Copies can be ordered from CCCI (helen.smith@contemporarychristianity.org, 028 90325258)

Changing Women, Changing Worlds Evangelical Women in Church, Community and Politics
by Fran Porter

In-depth interviews with evangelical women in Northern Ireland provide a remarkable insight into their involvement in church, community and politics.

A more engaged participation in all aspects of society is part of the overall change in the position of women, along with an ongoing challenge to the attictudes and practices that previously kept them in the background.

As they become increasingly involved in church, community and political life, evangelical women face a number of issues. This book explores these questions of participation, inclusion, difference, authority, domesticity and priority and considers their implications for churches, evangelicalism and civic society.

During her research for this ground-breaking new book, Fran Porter interviewed seventy evangelical women about their lives, faith and work. The candour of their responses, together with her astute commentary, reveal the issues involved in the significant contribution such women are making to church and society in Northern Ireland.

ECONI 2002

ISBN 0 85640 717 8

Price: £9.99

Fields of Vision Faith and Identity in Protestant Ireland
by Alwyn Thomson

In this new book Alwyn Thomson encourages us to think about how we see our past and our future, our identity and our faith The book looks at the role that Protestantism has played in shaping the identity of Britain and of Irish unionism in the past and suggests that it remains a crucial factor in shaping identity in the present.

The book also looks at the theology of God, land and nation that has shaped Britain and Ireland and suggests alternative ways of thinking about these fundamental issues.

By challenging and changing our field of vision the book aims to create a fuller understanding of the identity of Irish Protestantism and to shape a deeper understanding of the Christian vision of God, belonging and identity.

ECONI 2002

ISBN 1 87432 456 5

Price: £7.00

Not of This World? Evangelical Protestants in Northern Ireland
by Glenn Jordan

Evangelicalism is one of the least understood sectors of Northern Irish society, evoking emotions that range from bewilderment to disdain and even fear

Arguing that evangelicalism plays far too important a role to be so easily dismissed or misunderstood, this important new book is based on in-depth interviews with more than seventy men and women from the Protestant evangelical tradition. They talk revealingly about their deepest beliefs and convictions, their understanding of Northern Ireland's troubled history and their hopes and fears for the future.

The result is a candid and complex portrait of an influential community - a portrait that also offers a more profound understanding of the wider society in which evangelicals live, work and worship.

ECONI 2001

ISBN 0 85640 699 6

Price: £9.99

Faith in Ulster
by Alwyn Thomson

ECONI's first book. This is a compilation of over 50 contributions from MPs, church leaders, community activists, academics and artists. The book aims to contribute towards a fuller understanding of unionist identity and to provide an introduction which it is hoped will stimulate further debate.

ECONI 1996

ISBN 1 874324 01 8

Price: £6.00

Great White Tent
Various Contributors
Edited by Alwyn Thomson (ECONI Research Officer)

FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS ECONI has been involved in a research project entitled God, Land and Nation, exploring the relationship between religious and political identities. In 1996 ECONI published Faith in Ulster, which gave unionists an opportunity to reflect on their own identity.

This book, The Great White Tent, invites twenty-five contributors from the nationalist tradition to share their perceptions of unionist identity. Politicians, academics, clergy, community activists and journalists representing a broad cross-section of nationalism question, challenge, appeal to, and reflect on their unionist co-citizens.

"The publication of this book presents a huge challenge to the Protestant community in Northern Ireland," said David McMillan, a member of ECONI’s Steering Group. "The challenge is to be prepared to listen to the opinions of those whom we have lived alongside, yet for so long have been strangers to, as they reflect on how we appear to them."

ECONI believes that the diversity, which this publication represents, will contribute to a broader understanding of identity and help to break down simplistic and stereotypical perceptions of the ‘other’ community.

ECONI 1999

ISBN 1 874324 468

Price: £5.00

Seek the Welfare of the City
Church and Society in Scotland and Northern Ireland
Edited by Megan Halteman and Alwyn Thomson

Scotland and Northern Ireland are changing, but change can be an opportunity or a threat.

Scotland has experienced a dramatic social transformation and Northern Ireland may not be far behind, while both places are learning new ways of doing politics. Churches, too, are facing the challenge of change.

In September 2000 the Centre for Contemporary Christianity in Ireland held a major conference in Belfast bringing together representatives from churches in Scotland and Northern Ireland to reflect on the church's identity and role in the midst of change. The aim was to encourage churches to see change, not as a threat, but as an opportunity. This book brings together the papers from the conference.

ISBN 1 874324 51 4

Price £7.00