These articles were first published in our June edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
The latest figures for marriages in England and Wales published in the Spring revealed that the number of men and women getting married has fallen to a new low.
In 2017, there was a total of 235,910 marriages between opposite-sex couples – a decrease of 2.8% from 2016, and of 45% in the past 45 years. Only 22% of marriages were religious in 2017, the lowest percentage on record. In addition, around 81% of couples that had a religious ceremony cohabited before they got married.
People fly-tipping outside closed charity shops and clothing banks are costing The Salvation Army thousands of pounds which would otherwise be spent on services for homeless and other vulnerable people, it was reported in April.
For every carrier bag of dumped clothing which ends up being taken to landfill from the recycling sites, the church and charity will lose £7. An emergency response has been mobilised to clear the clothes and other items.
Jeremy McQuoid will take on the role of Chairman of Trustees on 1 August 2020 as Tim Chester retires.
Jeremy is pastor of Deeside Christian Fellowship, an independent evangelical church in the suburbs of Aberdeen. He previously served as pastor of Thornhill Church in Cardiff. As he takes up his post, his wife Elizabeth steps down after being a trustee of Keswick Ministries for ten years. She will continue as the Commissioning Editor of Keswick Ministries Publications.
A prominent researcher changed his mind in April on cannabis legalisation after seeing the harm it has caused overseas.
Sir Robin Murray, a professor at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, has long believed that, while cannabis can be harmful, legalisation would regulate the drug and therefore make it safer. But, having seen the results from other countries which have legalised the Class B drug, he is now warning the government not to follow suit or else risk a wave of mental health problems.
Christians in Sport’s Big Online Sports Quiz brought together sports teams from all over the world in April to compete in the ultimate test of sporting knowledge and to hear a talk on the Christian faith.
Christians in Sport quizzes usually have participants from within the UK. However, this new online quiz had 350 teams playing online from 38 different countries around the world – including Spain, Fiji, New Zealand and India.
Samaritan’s Purse provided almost £200,000 of PPE kit for faith and charity workers to use during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The kits and grants aim to support people as they continue their ministries but need PPE and funding to continue their work. Not all in ministry would be able to work. Clergy who volunteer as chaplains in hospitals have been told by the future Archbishop of York, Bishop Stephen Cottrell, that they will not be permitted to visit the sick and dying during the coronavirus crisis.