LONDON’S QUESTIONS OF LIFE
Naresh Mistry
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
With 140,000 people working and 40,000 living in London’s Canary Wharf, how are they going to hear the gospel?
It was this challenge that occupied the thoughts and prayers of working Christians and members of St Peter’s Barge as they met to hear Rico Tice explain the vision for ‘Questions of Life’ (www.questionsoflife.org.uk). This outreach aims to give everyone in the Wharf a chance to engage with the gospel – specifically through a week of talks arranged for 14-20 March.
news in brief
Bite-sized Bible
Paul Minter, from Bexhill, has produced a mock-up of a Bible (currently unpublished), divided into five easy-to-read sections to help people access it more easily, it was reported in May. ‘I got the idea of producing the Bible in five paperback natural sections: the Law with 187 chapters, the History 249 chapters, Poetry 243 chapters, the Prophets 250 chapters, and New Testament with 260 chapters’. Paul, a carer for disabled and autistic children, added he was ‘passionate’ about getting people reading the Bible daily for the rest of their lives.
Bible Society’s Newswatch (Bexhill Observer)
Not aggressive?
Atheist scientist Richard Dawkins denied in May that he is too aggressive in his views, and instead called on atheists to ‘take on some of the gentle decency of the Church of England’. He critiqued the problem of being labelled racist when one criticises Islam, condemning the persecution faced by many who choose to renounce Islam. ‘In the case of immigrants from Syria and Iraq I would like to see special preference given to apostates, people who have given up Islam. They are in particular danger’, said Dawkins.
Lewis and the EU
Robert Coulson
Date posted: 1 Jul 2016
Dear Editor,
Further to the excellent article on the EU
by David Burrowes M.P. (June en) your
readers might like to note the following comment made by C. S. Lewis in a letter of 15
September 1953 to Don Giovanni Calabria:
‘I feel that very grave dangers hang over us.
This results from the apostacy of the great
part of Europe from the Christian faith.’
Burma: a church under pressure
David Burrowes
Date posted: 1 Nov 2014
On my flight to Burma in early October, I read a book about the extraordinary life of America’s first foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson.
He survived starvation, imprisonment and torture, alongside watching friends and family die, in his calling to spread the gospel in Burma. One of the highlights of my visit was to find a Gideon Bible in a hotel in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State. It was a Burmese Bible which was originally translated 175 years ago by Judson.
Refugee commitment
EN
Date posted: 1 Mar 2016
The International Development Committee report at the end of January found that 90% of Syrian refugees are not in camps, including some of the most vulnerable people such as religious minorities.
David Burrowes MP called on the Government to respond concerning unaccompanied minors. ‘Many people, particularly Christians, will not go to the camps, because they fear double persecution there. They seek refuge through churches and other communities and are dispersed. They are not being registered and we need to recognise that they are among the most vulnerable groups. We need to ensure that the relocation programme involves Christians as well as others.’
Will the promises be kept?
David Burrowes MP on where we are a year on from the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act being voted through Parliament
The consequences of the Act are only now beginning to come to light.
LWC: live, pray, hope
Jane McNabb
Date posted: 1 Dec 2013
‘How are we as God’s people to respond to
the reality of living in a hostile world?’ was
the question posed at this year’s London
Women’s Convention on October 19.
Lizzy Smallwood turned to the Book of
Daniel, from which the gathering learned that
like him we are to live uncompromising lives,
pray faithfully and put our hope in God’s
promises as we wait for our own return home.
Sinister semantics
The Christian Institute
Date posted: 1 Apr 2014
Westminster MPs backed changes to a raft of centuries-old laws on March 5.
A committee of MPs approved new rules to go alongside the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, proposing changes such as replacing the term ‘widow’ with ‘woman whose deceased spouse was a man’ or ‘that person’s surviving spouse’ in some instances. Under the rules, other Acts were excluded from the remit of same-sex marriage, so that a gay King’s ‘husband’ is prevented from becoming Queen.
Marriage: have your say
David Burrowes
Date posted: 1 Mar 2012
In March a consultation will be launched by the Government to redefine a word — marriage.
The point of the consultation is to find out how best to legislate for same-sex couples to marry. All Christians should be asking their MP by letter, email or in their advice surgery to take a step back and answer why it is necessary to redefine marriage.
Liberty’s roots
David Burrowes
Date posted: 1 Jan 2012
Book Review
FREEDOM AND ORDER
History, politics and the English Bible
Read review
A new type of government?
David Burrowes
Date posted: 1 Jul 2010
EN: Do you think coalition government carries the same authority in the country as a government by a single party which has clearly won the election?
DB: As far as the country is concerned, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition has the combined figure of 60% popular support. This provides more popular authority than any single party would realistically be able to achieve. More important is the authority gained from two parties working together which I feel matches the public desire for politicians to be less tribal, working together in the national interest as we face severe problems in the economy and society.
Would turkeys vote for Christmas?
David Burrowes
Date posted: 1 Dec 2009
‘Do turkeys vote for Christmas?’ A general election is not too far away and a letter in EN (August) asked provocatively whether we should vote for any political party if the result was Christians being marginalised and persecuted.
Well, as a Member of Parliament since 2005 and Parliamentary Chairman and co-founder of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, I was duly provoked to respond. Another time I would be pleased to answer specific concerns about party policy, and I am sure politicians from other parties will also have an opportunity in the run up to the general election to make their case if they want to in EN. For now, there is a question which goes deeper about why bother at all about party politics.
Unseen sovereignty
Janet Burrowes
Date posted: 1 Jul 2010
Book Review
A SWEET & BITTER PROVIDENCE
Sex, race and sovereignty in the Book of Ruth
Read review
Don't look back?
Joy Horn
Date posted: 1 Jan 2008
Famous books
John Knox’s The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women was published in 1558. This splendid title was an attack on the ‘unnatural rule of women’, namely Mary I of England and Mary of Lorraine, the dowager queen of Scotland.
Richard Baxter’s A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live … from the Living God was published in 1658.
