UK & Ireland in Brief

Rachel Sloan, one of the Directors for Women’s Ministry with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC), is leaving to work full-time at Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh.

The FIEC says: “Serving in this role since 2020, Rachel has helped to develop our network and has been pivotal in continuing the work of Thrive, our annual retreat for women in ministry. Rachel has also run Bible-handling training for women in ministry and supported countless ministry workers in churches across FIEC.”

FIEC

The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) is offering support for smaller churches.

A special team of experienced pastors is now available to help such congregations. The FIEC says: “We can’t offer a quick fix, and certainly not a magic wand, but we are fully convinced of the sovereignty of God in salvation.” The FIEC website has more details about accessing the team.

en staff

A group of independent Christian schools are taking their challenge of the government’s VAT on school fees policy to the Supreme Court.

The court has granted permission to appeal on a narrow but crucial ground – whether the government properly applied the proportionality test when implementing its blanket policy to charge VAT on school fees. The schools argue that the policy disproportionately impacts Christian schools and the families who choose them, particularly those of modest means.

Christian Concern / Nicola Laver

Westminster must focus on promoting the lifelong union between one man and one woman, the Christian Institute says.

The organisation spoke out after the Ministry of Justice announced a consultation on proposals strengthening the financial and succession rights of cohabitees. Joanna Timm from the Christian Institute said the consultation further undermines the special status of marriage in law. The proposals would create a new framework granting legal rights to couples “who have lived together for at least three years or live together and share a child”.

Christian Institute / Nicola Laver

The provision of gender-neutral toilet facilities at a Scottish primary school unlawfully discriminated against girls, the Court of Session has ruled.

Parents of a girl at the school petitioned the Court over concerns that the main toilet areas at East Calder Primary School in West Lothian were not single sex.

Judge Lady Poole decided that the school’s policy to provide mixed-sex toilet blocks with communal sinks breached legal duties to provide separate lavatory spaces for girls and boys and amounted to indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

Christian Institute