In Depth:  Peter Lynas

Peter Lynas

Peace and reconciliation are not the same thing, and Northern Ireland is being reminded of the difference at Drumcree.

I still remember the Drumcree conflict in 1996. A dispute over an Orange Order march had brought much of Northern Ireland grinding to a halt. Those in the Protestant Orange Order attempted to follow their traditional route, the Garvaghy Road, ahead of the 12 July parade but the nationalist residents there protested - triggering widespread violence.

Peter Lynas

I like Artificial Intelligence (AI). I use it most days, and it has already proved itself a remarkably useful tool. But I also have concerns.

I used to be a lawyer, and it seems obvious to me that AI will make a good junior lawyer. It can review documents, analyse contracts, summarise case law, and draft a first version of a legal argument at astonishing speed. What's far less obvious is how anyone becomes a senior lawyer in a world where AI does most of the junior work.

Peter Lynas

"Who do you actually represent?" It’s a question I am often asked in my role at the Evangelical Alliance. Usually it is followed by another: "How many evangelicals are there in the UK?" Then, "What actually makes someone an evangelical?"

For years, those questions did not have straightforward answers. We pointed to our 30,000 personal members, and to our more than 3,000 church members. We might mention charity Tearfund's research from 2007, which estimated there were around two million evangelicals in the UK. It was the best answer that we had, but it was almost 20 years old.

Peter Lynas

In recent months, I’ve noticed something shifting. Church leaders across the UK tell me that political conversations are becoming more contested, pastoral pressures are continuing to grow, and more people are turning up at church. This doesn’t feel like a passing phase, but part of something bigger.

Some have described the larger cultural moment as a "polycrisis" – not one crisis, but many, colliding at the same time. War in Ukraine and the Middle East; persistent cost of living pressures; a political landscape fracturing in ways that feel genuinely new; and artificial intelligence arriving faster than most of us can process, raising real questions about work, identity and what it means to be human.

Peter Lynas

As mass demonstrations blend Christian imagery with nationalist politics, questions are growing about how Christians should respond to Christian nationalism.

Many Christians are uneasy about the ways faith and politics are increasingly intertwined.