Inter-Church Committee on Social Issues

Purpose: This Committee was reconstituted by the IICC in July 2005 (although in various forms it goes back to 1983) with the following mandate:

  1. to advise and support IICC, ICC and its member churches on matters within the general area of church and society (including social, economic and public policy issues in either/both jurisdictions in Ireland or internationally affecting Ireland), seeking to promote a common Christian response to such matters
  2. to maximise shared working and joint responses to relevant issues by the member churches and to progress towards the pooling of resources by member churches to further its objectives

ICCSI continues to evolve as it seeks to fulfil its mandate more effectively. In particular, it is continuing to develop an approach whereby it acts as the oversight committee for a number of ecumenical projects, which address specific social issues.

The first of these commenced in 2005. The Eco-Congregation Ireland (ECI) initiative continues to operate successfully in promoting a greater awareness of environmental issues within the churches and a greater integration of a theology of creation and environment within the life of the member churches.

The committee also continues its pattern of having a specific focus at each meeting on the structures and emphases within a particular member church, in rotation, on how they deal with social issues. In addition, ICCSI acts as a useful ‘clearing house’ of information on ongoing activities and publications on social issues within the churches including child protection.

Parish-based Integration Project

January 2007 marked the start of a new three-year integration project at parish level based in the Republic. This ecumenical project is managed by the Inter-Church Committee on Social Issues (ICCSI), funded by the Dept of Justice (Reception and Integration Agency) and based at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Dublin.

The Project Officer appointed to this position spent the previous seven years working with the Vincentian Refugee Centre in St. Peter’s Church, Phibsboro, Dublin. Adrian Cristea, an immigrant himself from Romania, brings a unique experience in areas such as integration and general immigration. His previous position enabled him to work directly with people from many different backgrounds and cultures, thus giving him a deep insight into various forms of diversity.

The Parish-based Integration Project seeks to promote and support the practical integration of immigrants based around parishes and local congregations. Many of the new immigrants have strong church links in their countries of origin and tend to seek out parishes and local church congregations as natural sources of practical support. The overall objective of the project is to boost integration activities, at local parish level and on an ecumenical basis if possible. It seeks to address the issues which may be inhibiting Irish people from fully reaching out to assist the new immigrants.

The project will create a central resource geared to the specific type of activities which are best undertaken at local parish/congregation level. This resource will contain a wide range of support material relevant to the aims of the project. It will promote models of best practice on integration issues. It will include any changes in legislation, policies and practice. All these resources can be accessed on the website. It is linked to those statutory and non-statutory agencies most involved in immigration, integration and working with immigrants. The project will also identify models of good practice, making them known and available; visit local parish groups (as far as possible ecumenical groups), providing advice, assistance, facilitation, training and other practical support required for integration activities and promotion of inter-culturalism.

Address: Parish Integration Project Office, Irish School of Ecumenics, Bea House, Milltown Park, Dublin 6. Phone 00353(0)1 269 0951 or visit www.iccsi.ie

Inter-Church Committee on Social Issues 2007 Inter-Church Committee on Social Issues 2007

All-Ireland Churches Consultative Meeting on Racism

AICCMR Aims and objectives

Working for God’s Kingdom through an emphasis on the equality of all people (Galatians 3:28)

Inter-Church Relations

  1. To relate and report to the appropriate church and inter-church structures, including direct responsibility to the Inter-Church Committee on Social Issues and thereby to the Irish Inter-Church Meeting; to keep them fully informed of current and planned work and thinking, and follow up suggestions for work from them. AICCMR has the mandate and endorsement of the Irish Inter-Church Meeting.
  2. The committee will be representative of the broad spectrum of churches in Ireland today.
  3. To provide an all-island focus and vision to complement the work of other Christian agencies in the field such as the Parish-based Integration Project (PIP), Refugee and Migrant Project, Churches Asylum Network (CAN), and Embrace.
  4. Where relevant to the group’s aims, to promote contact with Christian churches which are outside the existing inter-church structures, especially migrant led churches.

Awareness and Education

  1. To conduct or commission research, publishing or other work which will assist the aims of the group
  2. To organise educational, networking and symbolic events which will challenge, inform and support the churches and others in society

Advocacy and Networking

  1. To maintain a familiarity with relevant church and government policy issues and monitor policies and practices in the areas of inter-culturalism and of racial justice, in both jurisdictions on the island.
  2. To have space at each meeting to share relevant news, developments, ideas and events
  3. To support and challenge the churches and Christians in Ireland to create a welcoming and sustaining environment for people of all cultures and ethnic origins which will embrace diversity, difference, and integration. This includes both inside the churches and how they relate to their local communities.

AICCMR’s work

AICCMR has been in existence since 2003 and represents one strand in the concern of people in and around the churches and inter-church structures to respond to racial justice issues and to the Gospel imperative to welcome the stranger. In particular, AICCMR owes its existence to the work of the late Fee Ching Leong and Rev Arlington Trotman, then of the Churches Commission for Racial Justice.

AICCMR organised a major conference in 2005, ‘Challenged by Difference: responding to the strangers in our midst’, November 2005 (for some of the papers see http://www.iccsi.ie/resources/dromantine.pdf ). It has also organised a number of regional meetings and been involved in the production of resources (see e.g. http://www.iccsi.ie/resources/intercultural%20insights.pdf), and of ‘Taste and See’ inter-church, inter-cultural worship events in Dublin and Belfast. A project being undertaken in 2008 is overseeing, and involvement in, the production of a directory of migrant led churches and key players in the traditional churches either from a migrant background or involved in working with migrants.