| News Round Up Licensing
Bill - will churches be exempt? During
the Committee Stage of the Licensing Bill in the House of
Lords late last year, the Government acknowledged the
need to consider exempting altogether 'bona fide places
of worship' from the provisions of the Licensing Bill. The
Bill as drafted seeks to impose on churches, other places
of worship and schools, a requirement to obtain licences
for events (such as concerts and dramas) other than acts
of worship. The
Bishop of London, who proposed an amendment which the
Government is considering, has said: "In recent
weeks countless examples have come to light of just how
close the relationship between church and community often
is. Along with leaders of other faith communities, I
welcome the Government's acknowledgement of this and look
forward to workable revisions to the Licensing Bill. But
- I am waiting to see the terms of any Government
amendments before I hang out the bunting." Clergy
employment arrangements set to change The
Archbishops' Council is setting up a working group to
identify ways of amending the employment arrangements of
Church of England clergy. The aim will be to enhance
safeguards against injustice and to ensure a proper
balance between rights and responsibilities. The
Council was responding to the Department of Trade and
Industry's discussion document on employment status and
statutory employment rights issued last July. The Council
has accepted that there are 'unsatisfactory features in
the present situation and that these need to be
addressed'. "We
accept that, for some clergy, the present arrangements do
not provide sufficient safeguard against possible
injustice. For a greater number, it is also at least
arguable that the present arrangements do not provide an
effective framework of accountability." The
response also points out that there could be 'major
implications for the nature of the relationship between
bishop and clergy and for the way in which parochial
clergy are deployed, including raising questions over the
sustainability of the clergy's historic right to the
freehold'. The
group's first task will be to produce a report during
2003 on ways of improving the position of that minority
of clergy who have neither freehold nor contract. The
review will be chaired by Professor David McClean,
Professor of Law at Sheffield University, and will be
conducted in close Provisional
2001 Church of England attendance figures Attendance
at cathedral services, in particular, has increased to
approaching 120,000 on Christmas Day/Eve and approaching
3/4 million over Advent. Attendance at cathedral worship
has continued to rise steadily over the previous seven
years and, in 2001, reached nearly 18,000 on a typical
Sunday and approximately 26,700 adults and children over
a typical week. The
Church of England introduced a more rigorous and
comprehensive collection of parish and cathedral data in
2000. The latest statistics come from only the second
such collection of data, making it difficult to identify
trends. The exclusion of wedding and funeral attendance
from the 2001 weekly attendance figures means they are
not strictly comparable with the 2000 weekly attendance
figures. Average
Sunday attendance (ASA) in the year 2001 was more than 1
million, which is 11% higher than the comparative usual
Sunday attendance (uSa) count of 940,000. The number of
children and young people in the ASA figures has dropped
since 2000, from 180,000 to 173,000, and the number of
adults from 878,000 to 868,000. Statistically
significant growth in adult attendance was recorded in
the dioceses of Norwich (3%), Oxford (4%), Guildford (3%)
and Ripon and Leeds (5%) while such growth in children
and young people's attendance was recorded in the
dioceses of Exeter (15%), Europe (12%), Ripon and Leeds
(9%), London (4%) and Newcastle (3%). Overall, 17
dioceses saw an increase in adult attendance, 7 saw no
change and 20 saw a decrease. Seven dioceses saw an
increase in children and young people's attendance, 12
showed no change and 25 saw a decrease. Average
weekly attendance (AWA) over the year 2001 was 1.2
million, 16% higher than the ASA figure and 28% higher
than the uSa estimate. The AWA figure has decreased since
2000 as attendance at weddings and funerals has been
excluded. The church participated in more than 450,000
rites of passage in 2001, including 63,500 marriages/
blessings of civil marriages and 228,300 funerals not
recorded in the weekly attendance figures. The
total number of people attending church and cathedral
worship over a typical month was in excess of 1.7
million, which is the figure reported by parishes as the
highest weekly attendance figure over a typical month.
The number of worshippers over a typical month is thus
42% higher than the average number in any particular week
and 64% higher than the average number on any particular
Sunday. Deeper
and deeper in debt Have
you paid for Christmas yet? If so, you are one of the
lucky ones. Ever-rising debt and the difficulty of
finding affordable credit is a growing problem, according
to the Debt on our Doorstep campaign, launched in the
House of Commons just over two years ago. A
recent report, Forgive Us Our Debt, As We Forgive Those
Who Debt Against Us, by the National Policy Forum of
Church Action on Poverty, has looked at the whole problem
in depth. The report urges loan companies to offer more
flexible credit, and seeks legislation to make
extortionate local rates unlawful. Bailiffs are
'ineffective, inefficient and draconian,' and should be
abolished, it says. The
report warns that it will not just be poor people who
suffer if the nation's debt problem is not addressed.
Britain's social and economic well-being is also under
threat. The Government's anti-poverty strategies are
being held back because of the banks' unwillingness to
give credit to people living in poverty, even where they
have taken out the new basic bank accounts. The
problem is set to grow worse this spring, the report
warns, when most social-benefits payments will be made
into bank accounts rather than in cash at post offices.
One in five adults has no bank account, and 29 per cent
of households have no access to mainstream credit.
·
Tighter regulation of high interest lenders ·
Reform and/or replacement of the failing Social Fund ·
Greater funding for credit unions and other forms of
social lending ·
Banks and high street lenders to provide socially
responsible services ·
Fair debt recovery practices that take proper account of
inability to pay A
spokesman says: "We believe that urgent action must
be taken to alleviate the burden of debt on impoverished
families and to promote the full economic citizenship of
all members of society." The
Government is currently reviewing the Consumer Credit Act
and late last year Debt on our Doorstep took its case to
Parliament. Over 300 people attended, to lobby their
M.P's, participate in workshops to look at ways of
providing a joined up response to the problem of
financial exclusion, and to see the launch of two key
reports - one from the New Economics Foundation (NEF),
and one from Church Action on Poverty. |