Archbishop calls Back to Church Sunday “essential” – as registrations open for 2012 ; Diamond Jubilee New Testament published; Charity tax proposal misguided says Christian Aid; Dr Glynn Harrison’s views about homosexuality; Gay-therapy Professor defended; In praise of Dean’s wife … Pamela Greener; Preston Guilds Christian parade faces criticism; UK Government preparing for Family Planning Summit for developing countries; Cameron calls on Islam to embrace democracy and reject extremism
Archbishop calls Back to Church Sunday “essential” – as registrations open for 2012
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, says Back to Church Sunday is “essential” in a new videocast going live as registrations open for Back to Church Sunday, 30th September 2012. In a speech to diocesan and denominational Back to Church Sunday champions at Lambeth Palace, the Archbishop said: “We have been in danger of forgetting just how much we still have in the ‘bank’, just how much… wish there is for connections to be made in the minds and hearts of a lot of people. What Back to Church Sunday has more than anything demonstrated is that you don’t have to dig too far to find that desire for connection.”
He added that Back to Church Sunday is “part of a proper bit of forward thinking which builds on an intelligent analysis of what is genuinely there in communities… for the sake of the Gospel”.
The Archbishop’s address is available at www.backtochurch.co.uk. Organisers hope that it will inspire 5,000 churches to take part in 2012, continuing the upward trend in participation and average returner numbers. In 2011, 4,200 churches took part, 20 per cent up on the year before, and the average number of people coming back was the highest ever, at 20 per Anglican church. Throughout all dioceses and denominations about 77,000 people came back to church in one day in 2011*.
Since the first Back to Church Sunday in 2004, feedback suggests about 230,000 people have come back through the prayerful invitation of a friend. Back to Church Sunday was first launched in the Diocese of Manchester in 2004 and has since spread across the Church of England and to other denominations.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/registration.open.for.back.to.church.sunday.2012/29663.htm
Diamond Jubilee New Testament published
C of E Media – The Church of England has worked with HOPE and Biblica to produce a Diamond Jubilee edition of the New Testament; 44,300 copies were ordered over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2012/04/diamond-jubilee-new-testament-published.aspx
Charity tax proposal misguided says Christian Aid
Christian Aid has called upon the Chancellor to rethink his proposal to cap the tax relief on charitable donations
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/charity.tax.proposal.misguided.says.christian.aid/29660.htm
Dr Glynn Harrison’s views about homosexuality
Church Times – Giles Fraser writes about his concernsabout some ministry to gay people. Professor Glynn Harrison is very careful with his words. He does not believe in the concept of a “gay cure” or “gay conversion”,…
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=127076
Gay-therapy Professor defended
Church Times – Church House, Westminster, has issued a defence this week of Professor Glynn Harrison, a lay member of the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), after it was alleged that he believed that sexual orientation could be changed.
Professor Harrison is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Bristol, and one of the three members of the House of Laity of the General Synod sitting on the CNC, which will nominate the next Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the co-author of a booklet published by the Christian Medical Fellowship, Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction: Issues of pastoral counselling and support (News, 13 January).
A report published in The Guardian on Tuesday said that Professor Harrison “believes some gay people can be counselled to suppress or possibly change their sexual orientation”.
The Church House statement said: “Professor Glynn Harrison does not believe in concepts of ‘gay cure’ or ‘gay conversion’ and has never been involved in offering any formal counselling or ‘therapy’ in this area himself. Such descriptions, because they depend on inappropriate notions of ‘sickness’, convey simplistic and stigmatising views.”
http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=127180
In praise of Dean’s wife … Pamela Greener
Guardian – Singing a song of protest. It may have been a terrific year for Wakefield’s famous rhubarb, but the same cannot be said for their poor cathedral. Having set out on a much needed £5m redevelopment of the cathedral fabric, work has now had to stop. The cathedral has sold its pews to create more flexible community space and ripped up the floor for new heating, but the chancellor’s recent budget loaded another £200,000 on to the project by upping the VAT on listed building work. And there isn’t the money; £200,000 is lot of coffee mornings. Step forward Pamela Greener, wife of the Dean of Wakefield. Her YouTube protest ditty against the VAT hike is central casting Church of England. In a style somewhere between Richard Stilgoe and the Women’s Institute, Mrs Greener lays into the chancellor. “This charge is anti-community, unlikely to build big society,” she sings, all togged up in her hard hat and reflective vest. “Come on Mr Osborne, do the decent thing.”
The Vat Ditty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEWgVkBKpeI
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/12/in-praise-of-pamela-greener
Preston Guilds Christian parade faces criticism
Christian Today – Religious leaders in Preston have expressed disappointment over a church procession taking later in the year. People from local congregations are set to take part in the 2012 Guild Churches Procession on 3 September, while other faith communities will have a separate Community Procession four days later. The church procession takes place only once ever 20 years but leaders from other faiths have expressed their desire to see greater inclusiveness when the next one comes round in 2032.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/preston.guilds.christian.parade.faces.criticism/29654.htm
UK Government preparing for Family Planning Summit for developing countries
The UK government is planning to host a Family Planning Summit in London in July, shortly before the Olympics. Here’s what the Department of International Development has to say:
The UK Government is working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and partners to host a Family Planning summit in London in July 2012.
The event will aim to generate unprecedented political commitment and resources from developing countries, donors, the private sector, civil society and other partners to meet the family planning needs of women in the world’s poorest countries by 2020.
There are hundreds of millions of women in developing countries who want to delay or avoid a pregnancy but are not using an effective method of family planning. The UK Department for International Development’s priority for this year is to support national governments’ efforts to increase access to family planning in the poorest countries. This is part of the UK’s contribution to the UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health “Every Woman, Every Child.”
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/News/Latest-news/2012/Family-planning-UK-to-host-summit-with-Gates-Foundation/
Cameron calls on Islam to embrace democracy and reject extremism
Speaking in Indonesia, the world’s largest Islamic country, the Prime Minister will urge young Muslims to abandon “the dead-end choice of dictatorship and extremism” by forcing their countries to hold elections. He will claim it would be “the greatest defeat that Al Qaeda could ever suffer,” if more rebel and follow the lead of the young Muslims who sparked the Arab Spring. In one of his most significant speeches on Islam, the prime minister will say that the world can defeat extremists, who are a “dangerous foe” on a par with supporters of slavery.
Cameron will hail the “extraordinary journey” undertaken by Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, since the end of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998 as an example of the “inspirational path” countries can follow.
“What Indonesia shows is that in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, it is possible to reject this extremist threat and prove that democracy and Islam can flourish alongside each other,” the prime minister will tell students at Al-Azhar University in Jakarta. “That’s why what you are doing here is so important, because it gives heart to those around the world who are engaged in the same struggle.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9198537/Muslims-must-embrace-democracy-says-David-Cameron.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/12/cameron-islam-embrace-democracy-extremism