These articles were first published in our August edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
In early June Church Army evangelist Maureen Greaves was honoured with the British Empire Medal (BEM) as part of the Queen’s Birthday honours.
Maureen’s husband Alan was murdered on Christmas Eve 2012 as he walked to church to play the organ at the late night Christmas service. At the time of the murderers’ trial she said: ‘It's through God's mercy that I have been able to extend real and true forgiveness,’ adding that she prayed that they would find ‘true repentance’ in jail.
As figures published in early June showed that the Church lost 1.7 million worshippers in 2012-14, vicars in rural parishes are being encouraged to find new ways to stay open.
‘If you were running the Church nakedly as a business, it would be quite simple – you’d close down the uneconomic branches,’ said Nick Spencer, Research Director of Theos, ‘but the Church takes rightful pride in being a presence in every community in the country. That is the big challenge it faces.’
In late June the Church of England sold its £1.6m stake in Soco, which has been searching for oil in Africa’s oldest national park, saying it had failed to address allegations of bribery, corruption and human rights abuses.
This is only the third time in recent years that the Church has disinvested from a company on ethical grounds and it did so after 20 months of sustained engagement with Soco.
Thousands of members of the Salvation Army descended on The O2 arena for five days at the end of June to celebrate its 150th anniversary.
The organisation welcomed members from countries across the world including Kenya, Latvia and India. The movement began in East London in 1865 and was the idea of William and Catherine Booth to help the poor.
Prayers will be said once again at the start of Tiverton Town Council meetings after councillors voted to bring them back, it was reported in July.
A total of 18 councillors voted – 15 in favour and three against the motion – resulting in prayers becoming a formal part of future council meetings. Following a successful Private Member’s Bill from Jake Berry, The Local Government (Religious Observances) Act 2015 came into force allowing councils to include prayers within their meetings.
In the 8 July budget, George Osbourne made a U-turn on a pre-election assurance not to change the law on Sunday trading and announced that a consultation would be taking place to lengthen the hours that large shops may stay open on a Sunday.
Critics have said that it will erode the time that families spend together and the TUC expressed concern that a change in trading hours would pressurise people into working longer hours.
The Labour disabilities minister expressed support for legalising assisted suicide in mid-July, despite being aware that many disabled people will be ‘horrified’ and ‘outraged’ by her stance.
Kate Green said she did not accept disability rights campaigners’ arguments against changing the law. She said she had ‘no reason to believe that it is not’ possible to draw up safeguards, adding that she does not want ‘a single unnecessary or unwanted death’. Disabled peer Baroness Campbell said she would seek an urgent meeting with Green.