Common humanity and vulnerability of women stressed by UK Forum on FORB

Sep 24, 2020 by

Bishop Philip Mounstephen of Truro welcomed seventy-nine participants to the new UK Forum on the Freedom of Religion or Belief (as expressed in Article 18 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights) to its first meeting on September 15, held by zoom under Chatham House rules. The forum has 55 stakeholder organisations at present. Its purpose and objective is to be stakeholder led and action focused. Its theory of change holds that a diverse group of stakeholders with common values can achieve more...

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PM confirms church worship unaffected by new COVID restrictions

Sep 9, 2020 by

The Christian Institute reports that Churches can still open for worship as long as social distancing procedures are followed, the Prime Minister has confirmed. In his press conference this afternoon, Boris Johnson said “COVID secure venues like places of worship, gyms, restaurants and hospitality venues can still hold more than six people in total.” The new ‘rule of six’ in no way affects the total number that a church may hold, but social distancing restrictions remain in place. Read...

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Colin Blakely, January 1960 – September 2020

Sep 8, 2020 by

Colin Blakely, January 1960 – September 2020

From Church of England Newspaper: We regret to inform readers that our long-time editor of CEN, Colin Blakely, passed away on Monday morning. We will be leading the paper this week with warm tributes, and publishing a full commemorative issue next week. With best wishes, The CEN team

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Churches urged to spread hope during pandemic

Sep 3, 2020 by

From Church of England Newspaper: Being the church is not fulfilled by attending worship once a week. Its unique identity is as a spirit-filled community called out of a lost humanity, gathered for worship and witness in Jesus’ name with his authority to act on earth on behalf of his kingdom. This was the theme of ‘Being the church during this pandemic’, the topic of the third Evangelical Fellowship of India Theological Commission webinar on August 27. It was led by Dr Takatemjen Ao,...

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JK Rowling stands up for the rights of conscience

Aug 29, 2020 by

JK Rowling is reported by the Times August 29  to have returned a Human Rights award to an organisation which criticised her views on women’s rights as being transphobic. JK Rowling issued a statement on her website in which she said: “[Clinicians and therapists] along with a growing number of other experts and whistleblowers are critical of the ‘affirmative’ model being widely adopted, and are also concerned about the huge rise in the numbers of girls wanting to transition.”  “I’ve been...

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Why I will vote for Joe Biden by Dr Ron Sider

Aug 29, 2020 by

Martin Bashir writes in the Times (Saturday August 29) that “More than 80 per cent of white evangelical Christians voted for him in 2016 and exit polls found that white Catholics supported Trump over Hillary Clinton by 60 per cent to 37 per cent.” Dr Ron Sider writes on his blog “Jesus is not running—has never run—for president of the USA. Always, in every presidential election, the two major candidates have both strengths and weaknesses. So this year we must ponder and pray...

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