Methodist Church re-envisages mission; Archbishop of Wales blesses centre for autistic children; Bishops urge parishes to help Scouts and Guides ‘Keep the Promise’; Street porridge sale for Child Poverty Action Group Scotland; MP Jacob Rees-Mogg critical of succession law shake-up; Gay marriage: ex-minister plans sets out to change law after Facebook case
Methodist Church re-envisages mission
The Methodist Church has renewed its commitment to mission in the UK and overseas.
Its Council voted at a meeting in London this week to continue the process of integrating the Methodist Missionary Society into the Church.
The process is being undertaken to strengthen the Church’s mission work in a changing world.
David Friswell, Leader of World Church Relationships, said: “With fresh expressions of church growing, changes in children and youth work, existing in an ever growing multi-cultural community, there are many exciting challenges facing the development of mission work both in the UK and abroad.
“Our vision is clear: that mission is core to the very heart and soul of the Methodist Church in Britain and will continue to be so for many years to come.”
The Council also considered the Church’s involvement in education and the possibility of increasing the number of Methodist schools, proposed last year by the Methodist Conference.
The Methodist Church currently operates schools in 22 of the 31 Districts across Britain.
David Gamble, Education Project Officer, said: “This is an exciting time for the Methodist Church as it responds to the challenge set before it by last year’s Conference and explores ways to develop its commitment to and involvement in education.”
Archbishop of Wales blesses centre for autistic children
Children with autism welcomed the Archbishop of Wales to their new state-of-the-art school centre on Monday 20th Feb. Dr Barry Morgan dedicated and blessed the £4.8m Marion Centre, built in the grounds of the Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales High School in Cardiff, at its official opening.
The two-storey building will accommodate up to 42 secondary school aged pupils who have an autism spectrum condition. It has seven classrooms, two specialist rooms and a spacious hall which converts to a gym.
Following a short service of music and prayer, the Archbishop and other guests joined the children in launching purple helium balloons, tagged with their names to see which would travel the furthest.
The centre, which received its first pupils in September, is named after the late Marion Richards, who was a governor at the Bishop of Llandaff school and was passionate about special needs education.
Praising the new building, the Archbishop said, “This is an imaginative and well thought out building which meets the needs of these children who deserve the best. It is named after someone who knew the importance of treating all people equally. I am sure the pupils here will flourish and reach their potential.”
Headteacher of Bishop of Llandaff school, Revd Chris Hollowood, said, “The ways in which we have integrated the pupils into our school was the dream and we have done it. The way that pupils help to support the Marion Centre is transformational. But above all the pupils here have given us so much – they have helped us understand their condition and shown us that the world looks very different to some people. It is a privilege to stand alongside them as they struggle to comprehend what is around them. Unless we pause and try to see what they see we will fail to understand the world. We will not understand young people.
“So today is a celebration of all of this but for me it is a thank you to the young people who have given us, the school, the community more than they will ever realise.”
Bishops urge parishes to help ‘Keep the Promise’
Both Girlguiding UK and UK Scouting are currently conducting consultations into their new members “Promise”.
While there is no formal link between the Church and uniformed organisations, many parishes across the country have close links to their local groups.
“Keeping the Promise” asks those with links to uniformed organisations in the Church and other interested parties to complete the consultations with a view to the retention of the reference to God and the Queen.
Four Church of England Bishops have called on parishes to respond to public consultations being run by uniformed organisations about the ‘promises’ their new members make.
In an open letter, published in the Church Times today (24th January 2013), the Bishops of Jarrow, Southwell and Nottingham, Grantham and Truro encourage all to engage in the public dialogues being run independently by the Scout Association and Girlguiding UK.
The Scouts consultation, which closes on January 31st, asks some significant questions about how Scouting might look in the future as a value-based organisation. Specifically, it asks whether an alternative version of the Scout Promise should be developed for “atheists and those unable to make the existing commitment”.
Girlguiding UK’s consultation, which runs until March 3rd, questions the relevance of promises to serve God and the Queen, to modern members. On its website the organisation states, “We know it’s crucial that girls and young women understand and believe in the words they say.”
In their letter, the Bishops recognise the “deep links” many parishes have with the uniformed organisations and pay tribute to “all that Scouting and Guiding do as value-based organisations for many thousands of young people throughout our country.”
However, they “urge guides, scouts, their leaders and parents to respond to this important consultation to demonstrate the support, collaboration and goodwill of the Church communities in our partnership with the Scouting and Guiding movements.”
The full text of the Bishops letter:
Dear Sir,
We write to encourage those in Churches to take the opportunity to respond to the public consultations being undertaken independently by the Scouting movement and Girl Guiding Movement within the UK.
The Church has deep links with uniformed organisations. Many have come to faith through scouting and many to scouting through faith and the link with churches. There is much for which to be grateful in all that Scouting and Guiding do as value-based organisations for many thousands of young people throughout our country. The commitment of many of the leaders is an example to many of us
The consultation from the Scouting movement – which closes on January 31st – asks some significant questions about how Scouting might look in the future as a value-based organisation. The public consultation from the Guiding movement closes on March 3rd
A briefing paper entitled “Keeping the Promise” is available on the Church of England website and provides further helpful detail on the consultations.
We urge guides, scouts, their leaders and parents to respond to this important consultation to demonstrate the support, collaboration and goodwill of the Church communities in our partnership with the Scouting and Guiding movements.
Yours faithfully,
Mark Bryant + Jarrow
Paul Butler + Southwell & Notts
Tim Ellis + Grantham
Tim Thornton + Truro
A briefing paper entitled “Keeping the Promise” is available on the Church of England website.
A briefing paper is available from the C of E at –
http://churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2013/01/keeping-the-promise.aspx
The URLs of the two consultations are:
The Scout Association http://members.scouts.org.uk/fundamentals/?pageid=2944
Girlguiding UK http://www.girlguiding.org.uk/news/promise_consultation_now_open.aspx
Street porridge sale for Child Poverty Action Group Scotland
Ekklesia – Following the success of our last ‘porridge stall’ here in Edinburgh, we have chosen to support the local charity Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland (CPAG) with another one from 8am to 12pm at St John’s Church, on the corner of Princes Street and Lothian Road, on Friday 25 January 2012.
The ‘we’ is the team behind the Festival of Spirituality and Peace, which takes place in Scotland’s capital every August – but which has been increasing its activities throughout the year, including the recent Edinburgh Charities and Volunteers Fair.
So why are we backing Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland?
Well, one in four of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in poverty. In some areas over one in three children grow up in poverty. With Scotland’s undoubted wealth CPAG believes this is a scandal. There is no reason why our child poverty rates should be so much higher than in many other European countries.
Poverty remains one of the most serious problems facing children today. Its effects last a lifetime, negatively impacting on health, education, social and physical development and seriously harming future life chances and opportunities.
CPAG in Scotland was established in 1999 and works to raise awareness of the devastating impact poverty has on children in Scotland, maximise families’ incomes by helping to ensure those eligible for benefits and tax credits receive their full entitlements and campaign for positive policy changes to end that poverty. www.cpag.org.uk/scotland
MP Jacob Rees-Mogg critical of succession law shake-up
From This is Somerset – West Country MP Jacob Rees-Mogg launched a scathing attack this week on new laws to modernise the rules of succession.
The North East Somerset Tory told the House of Commons that major constitutional changes were being rushed through the House with just two days for debate.
[…] Mr Rees-Mogg said the Bill was being “treated as if it was terrorism legislation” and it was an “insult to the nation and to our sovereign and indeed to Parliament”. He said: “We need time to consider constitutional issues properly because they have complex knock-on effects and their phraseology is crucial to how the Crown might pass in future, and if mistakes are made now we could discover that we end up with consequences that we do not want. What is being proposed is that a Catholic may marry an heir to the throne, but may not then maintain the succession by bringing up a child of that marriage as a Catholic. Now the reason I object to this is that it is an attack on the teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The Prince of Wales has reportedly expressed concerns about the Bill and his friend, Tory MP Nicholas Soames, warned of the “unwanted, unintended consequences that often flow from tinkering with legislation of this type and could damage the crucial relationship between Church and State, as well as peerage law and quite possibly interfere with accepted conventions and laws reaching back down the times”.
Mr Soames said the Government was acting “out of consideration… of political correctness on one hand and the European Convention on Human Rights on the other.”
Gay marriage: ex-minister plans sets out to change law after Facebook case
by John Bingham, Telegraph – A former minister is attempting to change the law to protect workers such as teachers, who believe in the traditional definition of marriage, from being disciplined or sacked.
Edward Leigh, the Tory MP, is calling for a change to the Equality Act to prevent a repeat of the case of a Christian housing trust manager who was demoted for airing his views on gay marriage on Facebook.
Adrian Smith, 55, was stripped of his managerial rank at the trust in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and had his salary almost halved after expressing the view that same-sex weddings in churches were “an equality too far”.
The posting, amid a discussion thread on his personal Facebook page, echoed what was Government policy at the time but a colleague took offence, prompting his demotion.
And even though he won a legal challenge against his treatment, the High Court had no power to order his reinstatement.
Mr Leigh fears that teachers and other public servants could be punished and “treated as outcasts” for refusing to promote gay marriage if it becomes law later this year.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9819036/Gay-marriage-ex-minister-plans-sets-out-to-change-law-after-Facebook-case.html