UK & Ireland in Brief

All UK & Ireland

These articles were first published in our March edition of the newspaper, click here for more.

Church bill 147x higher

Castleton Baptist Church, near Newport, was charged almost £44,000 by SSE for energy usage, despite normally paying around £300 a month. The church had not seen a letter confirming the bill, because the building has no letterbox to receive post.

Church treasurer, Nathan Evans saw that the massive direct debit had been taken when he examined the church accounts, and upon recalculation, SSE admitted the church should have been charged just £304. SSE have apologised for the mistake, and offered £500 compensation.

Police busker warning

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Ian Paisley, son of the former First Minister of the same name, has said that the Metropolitan Police should ensure their officers are ‘aware of the rights of all the citizens of this United Kingdom’, after a volunteer police officer told a Christian in Oxford Street, London that she could not sing worship songs outside of a church.

The officer had told Harmonie London, a gospel singer with over 296,000 followers on Instagram, that ‘you’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds, by the way.’ The police force has said the officer was mistaken, and apologised for any offence caused, and that the issue should have been unlicensed busking, and not the content of the songs.

Daily Hope line closes

The Daily Hope Christian telephone line has closed due to a lack of funding. It had been in operation for four years, having been launched collaboratively during the Covid pandemic to support older people who could no longer attend public worship or access services online.

The phone line received about 10,000 calls a month, even after lockdown restrictions eased, and Faith in Later Life, who took over its running from the Church of England a year ago, stress that they cannot find the funds to continue its operation.

Church pharmacy call

Churches are being encouraged to allow pharmacies to operate from their buildings.

Pharmacists have recently been allowed to prescribe drugs for several conditions, which could free up about 10million GP appointments per year.

Luke Randall

 

Transgender appeal

Former CoE school assistant Kristie Higgs, who lost her job after expressing opposition to transgender ideology on Facebook, is taking her unfair dismissal case to the Court of Appeal.

Her case raises important legal questions about the dismissal of an employee for expressing her beliefs.

Maths teacher Sutcliffe fights back

Maths teacher Joshua Sutcliffe is appealing a ruling banning him indefinitely from the classroom for bringing the profession into disrepute.

Sutcliffe was dismissed after ‘misgendering’ a pupil, posting a video on social media criticising Muhammad, and expressing Biblical views on same-sex marriage.

Street preacher Green to appeal

Stephen Green, 72, a street preacher fined for displaying a Scripture verse on a placard outside an abortion clinic in breach of a Public Spaces Protection Order, is to appeal.

He said: ‘I will appeal and will no pay fine’.

 

Nicola Laver