These articles were first published in our January edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
A midwifery student, who faced suspension from her studies due to her involvement in the university pro-life society, has won an apology and payout from her university.
Julia Rynkiewicz, 25, faced suspension from the University of Nottingham and a four-month-long fitness-to-practice investigation in 2019 as a result of lecturers raising concerns about her being pro-life. After a formal complaint was filed, the university has now conceded a settlement and apology.
Andy Pitt has begun a pastorate at Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Newport.
Originally from Stroud, Andy has spent the last 18 years serving as pastor of Park Baptist Church, Merthyr Tydfil. He succeeds The Revd Bernard Lewis who pastored the church from 2010, retiring in October. After a short induction service, Andy preached on Romans 1 focusing on the gospel’s power to save, granting deliverance from guilt’s burden. The availability of this redemption is there for all who believe this good news from Newport to the ends of the earth.
Over 31,000 people have signed a petition to stop the soap opera Emmerdale from running a storyline where a couple abort a child who is to be born with Down’s syndrome.
Petition organiser Rachel Mewes, whose three-year-old daughter has Down’s syndrome, said the decision to run the story has ‘shaken me to the core’, adding that the storyline entrenches ‘misleading information about Down’s syndrome that is endemic in our society’. MP Stephen Morgan has written to broadcasters ITV about the ‘negative and offensive narrative’.
Over 50 palliative care practitioners have voiced their opposition to another review of the law on assisted suicide after a letter to The Times claimed that palliative care could not stop people suffering.
Peter West, a trustee of a hospice, rejected the suggestion that hospices should offer assisted suicide. Baroness Finlay, a Professor of Palliative Medicine, and Dr Carol Davis said claiming that palliative care could not always keep terminally ill patients from ‘protracted suffering’ was perpetuating ‘the myth that ‘assisted dying’ is needed to avoid dying in pain’.
All Souls Langham Place, London, has announced the appointment of Charlie Skrine as its new Rector. Currently the Associate Rector at St Helen’s Bishopsgate, he is a member of General Synod. Aged 45, he studied at Queen’s College, Oxford and Oak Hill College. He will start work at the church in 2021. Former Rector, Hugh Palmer, retired several months ago at the start of the summer.