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.
CofE decline
Bible Society (The Guardian)
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.’
Oil stake sold
Bible Society (Daily Telegraph)
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.
Salvation Army celebrates
Bible Society (Premier)
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.
Prayer: on the agenda
Christian Concern
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.
More Sunday trading
The Christian Institute
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.
Representative?
The Christian Institute
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.
