WHAT ABOUT THIS WEATHER?
Dr. Tim Bruton
Date posted: 1 Mar 2014
Everyone seems to be talking about the weather as never before.
After 2013 saw the coldest spring in the UK since 1891 and December 2013 was the stormiest since records began in 1869, 2014 opened with the wettest January in southern UK since 1988, and the fifth wettest ever.
Crossing the Culture
Culture & #LoveTrumpsHate
Angeline Liles
Date posted: 1 Mar 2017
It shook thousands of people out of their homes and onto the streets in protest.
The executive order, signed by the newly inaugurated President Trump on 27 January, immediately suspended the settlement of Syrian refugees for an undefined period of time. It also stopped the resettlement of all other refugees for four months.
Nigeria: who will help us?
World Watch Monitor
Date posted: 1 Feb 2017
Christians in the south of Nigeria are failing to help their persecuted compatriots in the north, according to a veteran humanitarian campaigner, it was reported in late December.
Baroness Caroline Cox, who has made numerous aid missions to the country said: ‘My personal view is that many of those churches are immensely wealthy and I would hope they could do more to help those who are suffering in the north, particularly the internally displaced people who are left. They could work with churches [in the north] who know the needs to reach those most in need. From a Christian point of view, St Paul said that where one part of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer. There is an obligation to help our Christian brothers and sisters.’
Niger: YWAM kidnap
World Watch Monitor
Date posted: 1 Dec 2016
The kidnap of a pioneering American missionary on 14 October is a ‘terrible tragedy’ for
the communities he served for 24 years,
according to the local mayor, and it has
raised security concerns among the country’s missionary community.
Jeff Woodke, 55, who worked for a branch
of the US-based Youth With a Mission, was
abducted by unknown assailants from the
town of Abalak
in northern Niger. They
killed two guards and he was taken to eastern Mali where Mujao – a radical Islamic
group – have a stronghold.
Australia: faith and federal elections
Peter Riddell
Date posted: 1 Sep 2016
Around 15 million Australians voted in the
Federal election held on 2 July.
Australian
Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull had called for a double dissolution
election, so seats in both the lower house, the
House of Representatives, and
the upper
house, the Senate, were up for grabs. After
winning a landslide in the 2013 Federal election,
Turnbull’s
conservative
Liberal-National Party Coalition government was
expected to win comfortably.
Not the same God
Victoria Vinet
Date posted: 1 Sep 2016
On 12 July at The Law Society in Chancery
Lane, London, Christian Concern hosted a
book launch for Not the Same God, written
by two former Muslims, converts to the
Christian faith.
Christian Concern is a non-profit organisation founded by Andrea Williams. She said of
the book that it ‘certainly shines a spotlight on
contemporary culture’, one in which there is
considerable pressure to minimise differences
between religions and to accept that Muslims
and Christians worship the same God.
Cheers and challenges
David Baker
Date posted: 1 Sep 2015
It’s very easy to lament all that is wrong about the Church of England – after all, there is quite a lot to choose from!
Sometimes, however, it’s also good to reflect on some of the positives that still exist. For example, as a national church, the CofE still has a voice that carries some weight in a way that other denominations do not. Thus, in recent discussions about the migrant crisis at Calais and its effect on the UK, the Bishop of Dover was on hand to offer a much needed Christian comment on how we view those seeking to come here.
What is a nation?
Jim Sayers
Date posted: 1 Apr 2016
As the debate over the united nations of Europe floods our media, Jim Sayers asks a pertinent question.
2016 is the year for the people of Britain to think hard about nationhood.
Rebuilding a nation
Phil Reid
Date posted: 1 Jan 2016
Phil Reid walks us through the ideas embedded in Nehemiah 8.1–12
A nation lies in ruins. There is a need to rebuild – physically, morally, spiritually.
Myanmar: the tide is rising
Peter Nicholas
Date posted: 1 May 2015
Myanmar’s economy is booming. International investor Jim Rogers says: ‘If you can find ways to invest in Myanmar, you will be very, very rich over the next 20, 30, 40 years.’ In 2012 the military government allowed foreign companies to have 100% ownership of the companies they start in the country.
The economic tide is rising fast. Everyone seems to have a mobile phone. Construction sites, modern hotels and shopping malls are everywhere in Yangon (Rangoon). The Myanmar Times is transitioning from a weekly to a daily edition. Tourists are now free to travel beyond the usual sites of Yangon, Pagan, Mandalay and the beautiful Inlay Lake. Luxury coaches ply the well tarmaced highways. Will the church in Myanmar be able to surf the wave?
Keeping the bookshop sailing
en staff
Date posted: 1 Feb 2015
The high street still provides tremendous opportunities for the gospel
The double award-winning Manna Christian Bookshop in Streatham, South London, opened in 1981.
Christian Aid?
Chris Sugden
Date posted: 1 Apr 2015
Christian Aid Week in May is an established national institution. Thousands of volunteers, including me, drop red envelopes through people’s letter-boxes and collect them at the end of the week. Thousands who never attend church respond generously to appeals to help the most deprived in the world.
Christian Aid began in response to the refugee crisis at the end of the Second World War. It puts into practice the teaching of Jesus to love our neighbours and to obey him in helping the poor, the hungry and the naked. Jesus did not specify that these poor people had to be Christian.
Nones on the rise
Dr James Emery White
Date posted: 1 Jul 2015
Martin Salter interviews Dr James Emery White for en
James Emery White is senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina and founder of Serious Times, a ministry which explores the intersection of faith and culture and hosts ChurchandCulture.org. Recently he authored the book The Rise of the Nones about people with no faith.
Creation care
James Hindson
Date posted: 1 Sep 2013
My son Tom is not yet a Christian.
He provoked me recently by saying that he felt that we Christians are living lives of what he called ‘delusional necessity’.
Token men?
David Baker
Date posted: 1 Sep 2014
Will there ever be a conservative evangelical bishop who believes in complementarianism in the Church of England again?
According to the Archbishop of Canterbury, there will. Justin Welby was explaining to members of Parliament’s Ecclesiastical Committee a previously-made promise to appoint such a conservative evangelical bishop ‘within a matter of months’.
Iran: controls on media
Elam Ministries
Date posted: 1 Dec 2013
The publication of an article that questioned a religious tenet led to the ban of
another
Iranian
newspaper
early
in
November.
Media is tightly controlled in Iran, and
censorship
is particularly
tight when
it
comes to religious topics. Christians should
pray for a change in media climate and for
freedom of expression to be protected
LMC: last of its kind
Andrew Gilkerson
Date posted: 1 Jun 2014
The ‘last London Men’s Convention in its present form’ was bathed in sunshine as hundreds of Christian men from various parts of the UK arrived for the evening session at Westminster Central Hall on April 26.
Andy Fenton led the singing – how great it is to praise God in a big crowd. Having started in 2002, those gathered reflected on the past 12 years of the convention and gave thanks to God for men coming to a saving faith during the conventions and for many Christians being encouraged.
Burma: human rights report
CSW
Date posted: 1 Jul 2013
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on
May 13 released a new report on human
rights in Burma following a four-week fact-finding visit to the country.
The report welcomes signs of political
change
in the country,
including
‘significantly
increased freedom’ for media, civil
society and political actors, and improvements
in
freedom of expression
in some
areas, but warns against ‘premature euphoria’ and highlights ‘many very grave challenges and concerns, particularly in respect
to the protection of human rights, including
freedom of religion or belief’.
God and the storms?
‘What do you think?’ she asked me. Someone in our congregation had been asked on Facebook about the accusation, which hit the headlines recently, that the heavy storms across Britain were God’s judgment for the government’s legalisation of gay marriage.
The question put me on the spot. My response was to say that as a nation we are guilty before God of all kinds of sins and already under his judgment. Whether or not the floods were related to that matter specifically was beyond my wisdom.