This weekend Presbyterians from across the island came to Belfast and Assembly Buildings, the administrative heart of the Church, for a special event entitled ‘Graciously Confident Gospel Engagement in the Public Square’. The event sought to provide an opportunity for those involved in the public square to be inspired and equipped as they seek to live as gospel people with gracious confidence in the spheres where God has placed them.

Many Presbyterians in both jurisdictions across the Church are involved in the public square. As teachers, healthcare workers, civil servants and other areas of  public sector life, in business, research and development, as elected representatives – national and local - the media, the list is endless.

As PCI’s Public Affairs Officer, Karen Jardine explained, “Our involvement in the public square as a Church and the many Presbyterians who serve in so many different ways, as responsible citizens and as disciples of Jesus, comes at a time of a rapidly changing cultural and moral landscape that has become more challenging and complex.”

Saturday’s event was built around the paper from the Council for Public Affairs, (p257) received by the General Assembly in 2021, which was entitled ‘Graciously Confident Gospel Engagement in the Public Square – a framework of principles, postures and practices’. The keynote speaker was Dr Nathan Mladin, a senior researcher with Theos, a Christian think tank founded by the Bible Society.”

Miss Jardine continued, “Dr Mladin is no stranger to PCI, or Northern Ireland, having completed both his Masters degree and PhD through Union Theological College. While he and his wife were in Belfast they worshiped at Bloomfield Presbyterian. I hope that everyone who was there on Saturday was able to take something away from Dr Mladin’s presentation and the contributions of our panellists.”

Entitled, ‘Church & Culture: Becoming cultural gardeners’ Dr Mladin looked at how culture was a multi-faceted complex system and how it interacted with society. Using a garden as a metaphor for culture, he made the point that Christians need to be ‘cultural gardeners’ caring, cultivating and co-creating the cultural landscape, in a way that sows Kingdom seeds, enabling it to grow and expand.

“Jesus used many agricultural parables and examples during his ministry, and the contours of His biography, His relationships and actions are the clearest vision of the nature of God’s engagement with the world, Dr Mladin said.

“Our starting point when thinking about public and cultural engagement should be the Incarnate Son – We are to seek a Christ-like effect in culture and carefully consider the contours of Jesus’ life: the relationships He cultivated, His actions, His priorities, His approach to political power – it’s in Jesus that we see most clearly God’s ways with the world. This should be the starting point for our theology of culture. And of course there are many things to say here: I’ll just say that if we are to have a Christ-like effect in culture, our approach will have to be incarnational-contextual and kenotic, and it will look like – what I’m calling – cultural gardening…”

Dr Mladin continued, “So my invitation for you, is to see yourself as gardeners of culture. We have the privilege and sacred calling of cultivating the world with God, co-creating sacrificially and joyfully with Christ, towards the kingdom, in the power and through leading of the Holy Spirit. What does this mean more concretely? It means improving the conditions which make flourishing possible for as many people as possible, particularly those marginalised or excluded.”

The panel discussion involved four Presbyterians, Stephen Douglas, a retired architect, Heather Carey, who is active in community engagement and the first director of The 174 Trust, Joy Hadden, a senior public servant and an elder from County Tyrone and Judith Gillespie, the first women to be appointed Assistant Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who retired in 2014 as Deputy Chief Constable. From their own perspectives, and their careers, they helped to unpack what engaging with gracious confidence means in practice.

There was also an opportunity for small groups to think about what Dr Mladin had said and how might engaging with gracious confidence impact their congregations, workplaces, and communities.

Opening the morning, Rev Daniel Kane, Convener of  the Council for Public Affairs, talked about the paper that had been presented to the 2021 General Assembly and how it sought “to provoke our thinking on how to live as citizens of a different kingdom with humble compassion, respectful dialogue and constructive engagement for the healing and blessing of society,” he said.

In a short devotional he also spoke of the Roman centurion found in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 7:1–10 who believed Jesus could help heal a servant who was about to die. In doing so Luke tells us that Jesus ‘marvelled at him’ and was impressed by the centurion’s faith, telling the crowd that had followed Him, “‘I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith’” (Luke 7:9 Matt 8:10.)

Mr Kane continued, “This centurion was one the most unlikely people to amaze Jesus. But here he is; a miracle of God's marvellous grace. In this one humble and faithful man, we get a beautiful vision for what it looks like to be a force for good in this world. His faith had unleashed him to do good, the kind of good that caught the attention of many lost people, the kind of good God calls us to be and do.”

“So, this morning let us who are in Christ consider how we can be a force for good, for the rest of our lives, in every area of our lives. And this vision is the beautiful fulfilment of his grace in and through each and every one of us. Adorning the Gospel remains the primary calling of every follower of Jesus,” he said.

Photos: (1) Presbyterians from across the island listening to the panel discussion at ‘Graciously Confident Gospel Engagement in the Public Square’ (2) Dr Nathan Mladin, director of the think tank Theos giving his presentation (3) Karen Jardine, PCI's Public Affairs Officer taking the conversation forward wth panelists (left to right) Heather Carey, Judith Gillespie, Joy Hadden, and Stephen Douglas (4) taking part in the morning were (left to right) Karen Jardine, Dr Nathan Mladin, Rev Daniel Kane, PCI's Convenor of the Council for Public Affairs (5) Rev Daniel Kane welcoming participants.