Thinking Anew, Irish Times, 22nd March, Gordon Linney – It’s quite a distance from New York to Sychar, a city that once stood in what we know today as the West Bank that tragic land ruled by fear and patrolled by Israeli soldiers. In the time of Jesus it was called Samaria. In […]
In the Press
Coverage of Changing Attitude Ireland's work in the press, with most recent articles appearing first. For an overview of all press coverage on one page, visit the In the Press sitemap page.
Religious Conservatives Are the New Minority, But They’re Not Victims
April 1, 2014
Right Revd Gene Robinson comments in The Daily Beast on the fact that religious conservatives are now in the minority: http://tiny.cc/d3endx
Church Committee On Sexuality Meets CAI
March 23, 2014
The Church of Ireland ‘Select Committee on Sexuality” has met with a delegation from the Church’s pro-gay group Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI). The meeting took place today Tuesday 18th March at the Emmaus Centre in Swords, County Dublin. The Select Committee on Sexuality was established by the Church of Ireland General Synod last year, […]
Irish Times: Ireland is continuing to fail its gay teachers in the classroom
February 11, 2014
It is to be hoped that following their impassioned speeches in the Dáil last week about the cruel realities of life as gay men in Ireland that TDs Jerry Buttimer and John Lyons will hold their seats at the next election. What they said prompted the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, to say on RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme last Sunday that “the gay community in Ireland has suffered enormously. When I heard the debates in the Dáil . . . what do I say when I hear somebody spat at them? That’s a horrendous thing to happen to anybody.” [Continue Reading]
Irish Times: Church of Ireland sectarianism row ‘no bad thing’ says former judge
October 28, 2013
Former Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness has welcomed recent criticism of sectarianism within the Church of Ireland by Archbishop of Dublin and Glendalough Michael Jackson. However, she said she had never heard the term “polyester Protestants” to describe those who were members of the church by conviction. [Continue Reading]
Irish Times: ‘There is a certain combat and indeed violence deeply embedded in theology’
October 26, 2013
There was a little of Lady Macbeth in the reaction of some in the Church of Ireland to Archbishop Michael Jackson’s recent observations on sectarianism in Dublin and Glendalough. It was just a mite too upset. You will recall how Lady Macbeth on being told of the murder of Duncan, King of Scotland, at her castle, an act in which she ably assisted, betrayed herself by asking: “What, in our house?” As if. Sectarianism among the decent, God-fearing Anglicans (polyester, genetic, whatever) of Dublin and Glendalough Whoever would suggest such a thing? [Continue Reading]
The Irish News: Lives remembered – Rev Mervyn Kingston
August 24, 2013
If there was a theme that resonated throughout Mervyn Kingston’s Church of Ireland ministry, it was ‘reaching out’. In parishes across Belfast, Down and the Armagh/Louth border, the gay cleric stretched out a hand of friendship and understanding wherever he went. In south Armagh, the east Belfast Protestant developed a love of the Irish language – he would often recite the Lord’s Prayer as Gaeilge – as he worked to bring communities together. [Continue Reading]
Revd. Mervyn Kingston, R.I.P.
August 3, 2013
Revd. Mervyn Kingston, co-founder of Changing Attitude Ireland, died peacefully at home in North Down, on Friday 2nd August, 2013, after a long battle with cancer. From Pink News: “Rev Kingston was a pioneer of the gay Christian movement in Ireland since the early 1980s as well as a member of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA). He served in a number of parishes in the Church of Ireland, his final one being as rector of the Creggan and Ballymascanlon (1990-2003) which he retired from in 2003 following a diagnosis of cancer. In that same year he co-founded Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI).”
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Guardian: Unionists defeat Northern Irish gay marriage bill
April 29, 2013
Unionist politicians have defeated a Sinn Féin bid to create marriage equality for gay couples in Northern Ireland. The votes of the Democratic Unionist party and Ulster Unionist party in the Stormont Assembly helped defeat a Sinn Féin motion backed by the SDLP, Alliance and the Green party. But their defeat of the proposed bill sets the scene for a legal challenge in both the British and European courts against the continued ban on gay marriage in part of the UK. [Continue Reading]
Irish Independent: CoI group weighs in behind gay marriage
April 13, 2013
A Church of Ireland pressure group says marriage should be extended to same-sex couples. Changing Attitude Ireland (CAI) has also said that children being raised by same-sex couples “need the protection of marriage”. The CAI, formed in 2007, has told the Irish Independent that it is “quite indignant” that it was not afforded the opportunity to make oral submissions at today’s Constitutional Convention, which is debating whether same-sex marriage should be voted on in a referendum. [Continue Reading]
