These articles were first published in our November edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
Oak Hill Theological College has launched its newly revalidated undergraduate programme. It is designed to be ‘deeply-rooted and unified theological training’, the college says.
College President Johnny Juckes adds: ‘Jesus instructs His followers from the earliest days of their discipleship to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more labourers. Please join us in praying this.’
The Keswick Convention is planning to go ahead from 17 July to 6 August 2021.
Recognising there may be Covid constraints, it encourages people to keep updated via their website. It has a line-up of speakers including Alistair Begg and Phil Moore in a packed programme to encourage attendees in their walk with God.
Paul Woolley is to take up the position of CEO of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) in January 2021.
He is currently Deputy Chief Executive at Bible Society. Prior to his time at Bible Society he founded Theos, an influential UK think tank dedicated to stimulating debate on religion and its place in society. He’s also worked in Parliament, public affairs and the media, bringing his faith to bear on matters of public policy. He is currently undertaking a PhD on Wilberforce’s use of the Bible.
NUI Galway has dropped its mandatory requirement that all students must sign a pledge to adhere to public health advice and ‘behave responsibly’ as a condition of registration for the new academic year. (October en)
The university has updated its website page to state that the students were now ‘being asked’ rather than ‘required’ to sign the pledge. A spokesman for NUI Galway confirmed the community promise was now a ‘voluntary public commitment’ and separate to registration.
The Free Church of Scotland has announced the appointment of Andrew Giffen as its new Chief Executive Officer.
He will take up his new post at the beginning of November. He has a background in both finance and church leadership. Having trained as an accountant, he then studied theology in Vancouver before working in an executive minister role in a large church in Newcastle, then as associate minister of a church in Glasgow. Andrew Giffen is replacing Scott Matheson who was five years in the role and will be much missed.
The annual Assembly for the Baptist Union of Great Britain has taken place online.
Several hundred people tuned into the hour-long event, broadcast on Crowdcast and streamed to their YouTube channel. There were more than 800 individual streams across both platforms. The evening was an opportunity to hear about and pray for the work of Baptists Together. The Annual Report for 2019 was presented and updates were provided on work on future plans.
Ben Thomas, 44, a former minister in Criccieth, admitted to 40 offences including indecent assaults and voyeurism and was jailed for over ten years in October.
The offences happened over a 29-year period in north Wales, Shropshire, London, and Romania. The judge said Thomas’s ‘preferred method of abuse’ was to wait until his victims were asleep. He abused a child while two of his own children were asleep in the same room. Many victims did not know they had been abused.
Harry Coulter has received an apology from a hotel that cancelled his meeting on traditional marriage in 2019 in Northern Ireland. He received a refund and his legal costs.
In other news, an appeal is to be made in the case of Kristie Higgs who was sacked from her job for raising concerns online about LGBT lessons at another school.