CR spoke with Editor Ruth Garvey-Williams

Rebecca: I was going to ask, who are your contributors?

Ruth: We have senior church leaders in Ireland. The Bible college lecturers are very active in writing for us and also individual Christians who have influence in business and politics and different areas of the country.

Rebecca: What do you think the future of the church in Ireland looks like?

Ruth: What excites me in Ireland is a growing sense that we need to come together. The Evangelical Alliance is promoting a prayer initiative this autumn. It's called If My People, obviously based on the famous passage of us coming together to pray together for our nation. I'm seeing a real move to say, it's time to put aside our differences, it's time to unite. That excites me, because I think if we could unite here and work together, the church could make a much greater impact in society.

Increasingly churches are saying, you know the church is not just about meeting together on a Sunday; it's about the church in the market place; it's about being in real life and engaging with every sphere and every aspect of society, whether it's politics, finance, the local youth centre or community centre. That gives me great hope.

We have some tremendous leaders in this nation; tremendous church leaders, who are really godly people seeking what God wants for this nation. I have a lot of hope. There are challenges to that of course, but I think we will see growth.

We have tremendous immigrant churches in this country; vibrant Nigerian churches and other African nations; in fact the Redeemed Church of God is the third largest denomination in the Republic of Ireland now. As we seek to engage with the Irish church and with the African church here we're very excited for that relationship to flourish and grow. I actually believe the future's bright. There are a lot of reasons to be worried but I think God's doing something.