It's a long way from Tipperary

…to Lisbon.. .. or, indeed, most other places for that matter.

From Coleraine, its 282 miles to be exact. Last Sunday found us in the rolling hills and fields of South Tipp as they call it, sharing with a small fellowship that meets in an old Methodist church building in the town of Clonmel, and, later that same day in Kilkenny. In both cases, we were so impressed with the level of spiritual life, the depth of their fellowship and commitment to one another, and the richness of cultural variety God has brought into every corner of the republic of Ireland.

I was born and brought up in Ireland, but there’s much that’s unfamiliar and much that’s changing in the in Ireland of 2007. They have called it the land of Saints and Scholars, but today’s Ireland is more about the cost of housing and how many euros you can stash away into pension funds and offshore accounts in the shortest time possible, than about any pursuit of holiness or scholarship. So, it's refreshing then to find a group of people who regard storing up treasure in heaven as a more important occupation of their time and energy. We're praying that God will produce a similar sort of thriving fellowship in the coming months in the Park of the Nations, Lisbon.

Matthew and Barbara Brennan with their two boys, Timothy and Simon, who serve with the Church in Clonmel, live on the edge of a grand old country Estate that bears all the echoes of a bygone era of Anglo Irish gentility.