Evangelizing Ireland in the 21st century
Historical Context: Ireland never had a reformation! England had, and it transformed the country into a Protestant country. But Protestantism in Ireland was always associated with the ruling (and foreign) political power and was never conceived of as being truly ‘Irish’. The Gospel, preached by Protestants, was therefore always associated by the majority Roman Catholic community with something not quite Irish and regarded with great suspicion. Great attempts have been made in the last 400 years to preach the Gospel to the Irish. We think of the Bible in Irish by Bishop Bedell in the 17th century, the evangelical missions to the Irish Catholics in the 19th century (known as ‘the second reformation’), but none made lasting impressions. On the contrary, the 17th century witness was impeded by the fact that Protestantism and Puritanism were associated with Cromwell and the bloody campaigns that he waged in Ireland. Also the established Church of Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries was associated with Penal Laws, oppressive Landlords and tithes imposed on Roman Catholics. The religion of the Protestants was far from attractive to generations of Roman Catholics in Ireland.
In the 20th century, the rulings of Vatican II in the 1960’s allowed for the breakdown of Catholic hostility to Protestantism. A thaw began then which has led to quite a different set of relationships between Protestant and Catholic in the Republic of Ireland; so much so, that many Roman Catholics, living in what now is a more secularized and liberal state, have joined the Church of Ireland. Ecumenism, unheard of before the 1960’s, has made a lot of progress in that people are more willing to enter one another’s churches. The ‘Troubles’ of N. Ireland have delayed this process in Ulster though the same ecumenical thaw can even be seen there.
Social and Economic Context:
The Republic of Ireland is still very much a Roman Catholic state in that over 86% of the population according to the last census (2006) describe themselves as such. However, this does not mean that Roman Catholics go to church in such numbers! The Roman Catholic church has suffered badly since the visit of the Pope to Ireland in 1979. In the 1970’s Ireland joined the EEC and with that came a demand to lessen the church’s role in education so that children could be taught the knowledge and skills associated with the new business opportunities afforded by Europe. Numbers applying to Roman Catholic seminaries began to decline as Ireland became more secularized in the 1980’s. When the scandals about bishops and child abuse came to light in the 1990’s, the reaction by the Irish people was one of shock, disgust and rebellion against the authority of the church. Therefore, the figures for attendance at Catholic churches are at an all time low. Never before in the history of Roman Catholicism in Ireland have so few attended mass. In the cities, attendance is at 20% and in Dublin is in single digits! Furthermore, the vast majority of Roman Catholics who do go to church are over 55. The younger generations are largely missing. The advent of the economic boom of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ brought in thousands of refugees, which has changed the demographics of the country. It is now estimated that 10% of the Irish people in 2006 arrived recently from overseas with the figure at 13% for the city of Dublin. The 2006 census showed that the third biggest religious group in the Republic of Ireland is Islam! This is bigger that Presbyterians and Methodists put together! In fact after Roman Catholicism, the biggest category of people are those describing themselves as having no religion! The reality in the 21st century for the Republic of Ireland is that it has become more multi-cultural, more cosmopolitan, more secular, anti-authoritarian, and less dominated by the Roman Catholic Church.
Evangelicals in the Republic
The charismatic renewal of the 1970’s did indeed have an impact on Ireland. Combined with a new openness from Vatican II to Roman Catholics reading the Bible, the numbers of those regarding themselves as evangelical have grown. Research published by the Evangelical Alliance Ireland (EAI) shows that the number of evangelicals tripled from 10,000 in 1980 to 30, 000 in 2006. However evangelicals still make up less than 1% of the population. Furthermore the research by EAI shows that more than 60% of evangelical churches have started in the last 25 years; 40% in the last 10 years. Nearly half of evangelicals in the Republic claim no denomination. Many of the evangelical congregations tend to be charismatic or Pentecostal in nature, with a few holding to the Reformed doctrines of grace. ‘Aontas’, an alliance of independent evangelical churches tends to provide a focus for the more Reformed churches. In the student scene, evangelical students and many of the CU’s in the Republic tend to be influenced more by the charismatic and Pentecostal teachings rather than by Reformed, biblical teaching. Expository preaching is being promoted by the Irish Preachers’ Conference, and regularly attracts over 60 pastors and church workers. Furthermore, there has been a growing number of Irish students studying overseas at Moore College, the Sydney Mission and Bible College (SMBC), Cornhill and Oak Hill.
Church of Ireland context:
A recently published book, ‘Counting the People of God’, reckons that the Church of Ireland in the Irish Republic has grown by 42% from 2002 (present figures are 125,585 C. of I. people out of a population of some 4 million), with many of this new growth being accounted for by immigrants into Ireland, as well as some transfer from the Roman Catholic Church. However this is in the context of the fall of the numbers of Protestants in the Republic of Ireland generally over the past century. In 1891, the census recorded that Protestants amounted to around 10% of the population, whereas in 1991, this proportion was about 3%. Overall then, in the past 100 years, the number of Protestants has effectively fallen by 70%. Though two-thirds of the Church of Ireland resides in N. Ireland, the church is dominated by a liberal-catholic outlook that often militates against evangelicalism. This can be seen typically in selection for ministry, appointments to parishes and bishoprics, General Synod representation, and historically in the theological teachings of the Church of Ireland college and the appointments to College posts (with a few exceptions). Church of Ireland congregations are in long-term decline – again with some exceptions. There is no denominational interest or plan to evangelize the nation. Teaching the Bible in any meaningful way is regarded as ‘fundamentalism’ and is frowned upon. There is a great need in the Church of Ireland to rediscover the power of the Gospel.
The Gospel context:
The Gospel on the other hand demands that we evangelize the nations with the message of the Bible about Christ crucified. Irish people, like people everywhere, face the wrath of God, and are going to Hell, and are without hope without Christ. Nothing should stop us from proclaiming the Gospel to them. We should be working with all like-minded Gospel people from no-matter what denomination to get this message of Christ crucified out to Ireland. The Bible envisions a new community of people, gathered in through the faithful preaching of the Word of God, an elect community who belong to God in Christ and who come from many different nations, races, and languages. Jesus commanded us to go into all the world, and the reality for modern day Ireland is that the world has come here! Research by Aontas suggests that there are many unreached communities in Ireland. There are approximately 50 towns in Ireland with a population of 7,500 and above with no Gospel witness. Of this 50, there are 17 towns of over 15,000 people with no Gospel witness.
ICM’s vision:
Our goal must be to proclaim the Gospel to Ireland. To do this requires prayer and the recruitment , training and deployment of faithful Gospel workers. Because of the decline in church attendance and widespread ignorance of the Gospel, we need to have a ‘missionary’ rather than a ‘maintenance’ mindset. Therefore we need to train a new generation of Gospel workers, who are missionaries to Ireland – evangelists and church planters, who can plough new ground.