In Depth:  Ireland

Last year saw the inaugural ‘Kinfire Festival’ – a holiday conference for Irish reformed/conservative evangelicals – with about 500 in attendance.

This year over 700 people gathered in Kilkenny from 15–18 August. It’s hard to put into words how amazing it is to see those numbers of brothers and sisters in Christ gathering to worship from all over the island. This is new for us in Ireland.

Great Bible teaching, great fellowship, great fun, great encouragement – all these marked the inaugural Kin(cid:30)re Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland. Six hundred Christians from all over Ireland gathered to worship, learn, fellowship and hang out together.

The idea for Kinfire was born out of an online prayer meeting hosted by the Irish Gospel Partnership (IGP),that attracted over 300 people from all across Ireland. The question was asked: ‘What if we were able to get this many people together in person to spend time together around God’s word and to be encouraged by simply being together?’ And so Kinfire was born.

At least two new churches have been planted in Ireland in tandem with the recent ‘What’s the Story?’ (WTS) outreach initiative in Ireland.

Christ City Church in central Dublin (some members pictured) had been looking to plant a church in the more residential area in the south of the city to reach the people there.

Around 15% of the entire population of Ireland – if not more – may have engaged with the What’s The Story? mission held across the island.

Statistics released by the organisation behind the initiative state that out of a total population of 5.1million, of which only around 1% are currently evangelical believers:

Between 22 September and 30 October 2022 thousands of people and communities are joining together to connect people with questions to local churches across the whole of Ireland.

The map shows the location of events being held under the banner of ‘What’s the Story?’ It follows a survey of almost 1,000 people three years ago around the country to discover what they thought about life, religion and faith.

A six-week mass marketing campaign starting on 22 September will herald the start of Ireland’s ‘What’s the story?’ national evangelistic initiative.

David Coulter, Chair of the initiative, explained: ‘ “What’s the Story?” is a sentence often used among people in Ireland. It represents connecting together and hearing from one another. Stories are a powerful element of Irish culture. We want to help Irish believers to connect with people in their community, share their stories on how Jesus changed their life, and inspire and challenge people with the ultimate Story – the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ The six-week campaign will use social media, radio, local newspapers, banners, billboards, etc. People will then be directed to a website, where they’ll find participating churches and events.

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A recent survey carried by Aontas (an association of Irish evangelical churches) has found that there are 115 towns with a population of over 5,000 people where there is no evangelical witness at all.

At present Ireland has the lowest percentage of evangelicals in the English-speaking world. Because of this very low percentage, it is difficult for the church in Ireland to produce sufficient leaders to meet current needs. Therefore, there remains a constant need for missionaries.

The 2007 appointment of a practicing homosexual as elder at a Dublin Presbyterian church has culminated in a dispute within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

In October 2019, Steve Smyrl, who is in a same-sex marriage, was disallowed by the Dublin presbytery from continuing in office at the Sandymount congregation. An appeal failed, but Smyrl was then co-opted onto the Church Council. A presbytery commission found that ‘the minister and church council have caused scandal injurious to the purity and peace of the church’.The commission said it would start disciplinary proceedings in January against the church’s minister, the Revd Dr Katherine Meyer, and discipline the church council for appointing Smyrl to the council unless they recanted.

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Columba and evangelicals

In the midst of the pandemic many churches across Ireland are celebrating a prince, born into a minor royal family 1,500 years ago, who became the founder of one of the greatest evangelistic movements ever in Europe.

Between 7 December 2020 and the same day in 2021, senior church leaders from across County Donegal in the northwest of Ireland are uniting to pray together, and walk together, to celebrate the life and ministry of Colmcille (Columba), born in a remote part of the county, who founded a movement that spread the gospel to the pagan Scots, and then to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and inspired generations of Irish and English Christians to bring the gospel to their pagan kinsmen in mainland Europe.