News Round Up Responding
to the Tsunami Churches
across the country have responded strongly to the Tsunami
disaster with prayer, collections and special services. Church
of England mission agencies were among the many
organisations that responded swiftly with a range of
initiatives. Details of their responses as well as
resources for prayer and worship can be found on their
web-sites: http://www.cms-uk.org/, http://www.themothersunion.org/,
http://www.uspg.org.uk/ For
details of the response by Christian Aid, see http://www.christian-aid.org
Bishops
back drive to end world poverty Church
of England bishops have backed 'Make Poverty History',
the worldwide effort to end extreme poverty. They
commended the worldwide response to the plight of those
suffering after the Asian Tsunami disaster, and have
called on governments and international institutions to
honour their pledges and help bring about long term
transformation for the area. But
they noted that the outpouring of aid and goodwill in
this case contrasted with the lack of political will to
push back poverty elsewhere in the world: “With
poverty claiming a child's life every three seconds, a
man-made and preventable disaster on the scale of the
Tsunami happens every single week. World poverty is
sustained not by chance or nature, but by our human
failing.” The
bishops are committed to mobilising their parishes,
deaneries and dioceses to help the cause this year,
noting that “..our Christian calling demands
us to speak out on behalf of those without a voice and to
challenge unjust structures that keep people poor.” The
Church of England's membership of the Trade Justice
Movement means that in 2005 it is part of the Make
Poverty History Coalition. This is an alliance of
more than 150 charities, unions and faith groups who are
calling for trade justice, debt cancellation and more and
better aid for the world's poorest countries. Archbishop
commends Environment report The
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams urges
Christians to recognise their duty to celebrate and care
for every part of God's creation in his foreword to the
report Sharing God's Planet which accompanied the
Environment debate at General Synod in February. The
debate coincided with the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol
around the world. “Receive
the world that God has given”, he writes of the
importance of celebration. “Go for a walk.
Get wet. Dig the earth.” In
terms of the Christian's duty to the planet, Dr Williams
stresses that for the Church of the 21st century, good
ecology is not an optional extra but a matter of justice.
It is therefore central to what it means to be a
Christian. The
report has practical ideas for the local church to adopt
at ground level, from recycling to car-pooling, and an
education programme to promote this to churches is in
place with government backing. But
Sharing God's Planet also suggests that there's a
spiritual dimension to be brought into Christian worship.
'Creation
Care Prayers' and the use of natural materials in worship
such as organic bread and wine are just some of the ideas
suggested in the chapter "a practical Christian
response"; ideas which the Archbishop commends in
his foreword: "I have called upon our Church to
undertake an ecological audit...such local, internal
responses are vital." Sharing
God's Planet ISBN 0 7151 4068 X published by Church House
Publishing, costs £5.99. Review
recommends 'common tenure' for Clergy The
second stage of the Church of England's Review of Clergy
Terms of Service was debated at General Synod in It
proposes that common tenure should apply to all clergy
office holders, including vicars and rectors who now have
the freehold which means they are virtually irremovable
from office. In fact, the proposals affect appointments
at every level including bishops and cathedral clergy. The
proposals have implications for almost every aspect of
clergy working life including their legal rights and
responsibilities, the conduct of ministerial review (or
appraisal) and the basis on which they occupy their
housing. The concept of common tenure was well received
by the Church last year, and the report proposes
extending it to all clergy office holders including
parish clergy with the freehold, bishops, archbishops,
archdeacons and cathedral clergy, and also to Non-Stipendiary
Ministers with licenses and 'house for duty' appointments. Professor
David McClean, Professor of Law at Church
gives views on prostitution Sexual
activity should not be treated as a commodity by
decriminalising and regulating prostitution, the Church
of England has warned in a response to a Home Office
Consultation on Prostitution. The
submission also criticised convicted prostitutes being
classified as 'sex offenders' providing they pose no
threat to other people, because of the detrimental
consequences for their future rehabilitation. Bishops
write on rural issues. Fourteen
bishops from rural parts of New
guidelines for the treatment of human remains Archaeologists,
developers, clergy, museum staff, church organisations
and scientists will benefit from a new set of guidelines
which set out, for the first time in The
document 'Guidance for best practice for treatment of
human remains excavated from Christian burial grounds in The
Guidance Document sets out best practice in five key
areas: *
continuing burial; *
development of burial grounds; *
research excavation; *
excavation, study and publication; and *
reburial and deposition. The
Working Group felt that burials should not be disturbed
without good cause, but it recognised that the demands of
the modern world often mean that it is necessary to
disturb burials in advance of development. The
Group emphasised that human remains should always be
treated with respect and dignity. Although most
burials recovered archaeologically are of unknown
identity, it was felt that when buried remains were of
known personal identity, the feelings of living
descendants, when known, should be accorded strong weight
regarding decisions concerning their treatment. Copies
of the guidelines are available as a free download from
the English Heritage (www.english-heritage.or.uk) or
Church of England (www.cofe.anglican.org) websites. Statistic
of the Month: Continued growth of Alpha Alpha
Courses are well known in the More
than 600,000 British people have now attended an Alpha
Course, equivalent to 10% of the population. About half
of these would already have been churchgoers, there to
assist the non-churchgoers also attending, and many of
these churchgoers would have attended several times. But
even if 5% of the British public have attended a course
of introductory Christian instruction that has to be
encouraging! No wonder the churches running Alpha Courses
are so positive about them! Not
only the British attend Alpha Courses. Holy Trinity,
Brompton, the Supplied
by Christian Research Queen
to visit the Cathedral for 2005 Maundy Distribution
Her
Majesty The Queen has chosen The
coins will add up to a face value of 79p to mark the
Queen's 79th year and will be handed to 79 men and 79
women. Each of the 158 pensioners will also receive
a red leather purse containing a £5 coin commemorating
the Trafalgar Victory and a 50p piece celebrating
Johnson's Dictionary of 1755. The
recipients are all retired pensioners recommended by
clergy and ministers of all denominations, in recognition
of service to the Church and to the community. The
Yeoman of the Guard will carry the Maundy gifts during
the service and the choir of the Chapel Royal and the
Royal Wandsmen will also take part. Public
admission to the service will be on an invitation only
basis. The
tradition of Royal Maundy, as an act of service by the
Sovereign, is inspired by the gospel accounts of the Last
Supper in which Jesus washed the disciples' feet.
The service is arranged in conjunction with the Lord High
Almoner, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of The Rt
Revd Nigel McCulloch will visit The
Queen was last in The
Bishop of The
Dean of Wakefield, the Very Revd George Nairn-Briggs said:
"The fact that Her Majesty The Queen has chosen to
come to Wakefield Cathedral for the Royal Maundy Service
means that we have an opportunity to recognize the great
service that 158 men and women have given to both Church
and Community. They have worked quietly without
seeking publicity and it is good that we are able to put
their names forward to receive the Royal Maundy money." Church
attendance figures show rise More
than 1.7 million people attend church and cathedral
worship each month while 1.2 million attend each week and
one million each Sunday, according to provisional
figures for 2003 released by the Church of England. The
figures for 2003 show a small but significant rise of one
per cent in each of these measures of church attendance,
although the traditional 'usual Sunday attendance'
measure showed a drop of two per cent to just over 900,000. Nineteen
dioceses saw an increase in each of their Sunday, weekly
and monthly attendances. For
the first time local churches and cathedrals have clear
evidence of an increase in people attending church
services. Also, for every 50 people attending
church on a typical Sunday, another 10 attend during the
week. These
latest findings endorse previous research revealing
widespread contact and support for local churches and
cathedrals. The Church continues to be a valued part of
everyday life but the wider community is dependent on a
declining core of committed church members. Key
features of the 2003 statistics Adults,
children and young people *
Adult attendance at church and cathedral worship was one
million over a typical week and more than 850,000 on a
typical Sunday. Both these figures increased by two
per cent in 2003 while adult attendance across a
typical month (more than 1.3 million) increased by one
per cent. Twenty-three dioceses saw an increase in
each of their Sunday, weekly and monthly adult attendance
levels for 2003. *
Although the national picture of church attendance for
children and young people under 16 years of age
remains low, eight dioceses ( *
Figures show that 430,000 children and young people
attended church over a typical month in 2003 which
reflects a small rise of one per cent. Some 230,000
children and young people attended over a typical week
while 164,000 attended on a typical Sunday. Church
attendance at Christmas and Easter *
Attendance at festival services in 2003 on Christmas Day/
Eve and Easter Day/Eve increased by two per cent to 2.65
million and 1.5 million respectively. Twenty-seven
dioceses saw an increase in attendance on Christmas Day/Eve
and 30 dioceses saw an increase in attendance on Easter
Day/ Eve. While Easter communicants - at one
million - also rose by two per cent, there is a clear
move away from Christmas communion with a drop of two per
cent in the number of communicants on Christmas Day/ Eve
2003 (1.2 million). Church
membership * In
2003 parish electoral rolls stood at 1.2 million having
experienced a small increase of two per cent in 2003
following the major revision in 2002. In some
dioceses the electoral roll is larger than adult
attendance over a typical month while in others it is
noticeably less than adult monthly attendance. This
reflects different diocesan approaches to the composition
of parochial electoral rolls. * The
ongoing pattern of reduction in numbers of baptisms
and confirmations continued in 2003 but parish
involvement in weddings and funerals increased by one per
cent overall. Blessings in churches and cathedrals
following civil marriage are becoming less popular but
marriages and funerals in churches and cathedrals are
growing in popularity. * The
19 dioceses that saw an increase in each of their Sunday,
weekly and monthly attendance levels are: *
Other key statistics are: 72 per cent of people in Cathedrals
express concern at grants announcement English
Heritage has announced £1 million of grants for repairs
to cathedrals, but the Association of English Cathedrals
has expressed concern about the level of future support. The
Very Revd Colin Slee, Dean of Southwark, said: “We
are deeply concerned at the reductions in public funding
for heritage, with the government grant to English
Heritage cut in real terms. Proposals in the
Lottery Bill could also affect the funds available to the
Heritage Lottery Fund. Cathedrals – and the wider
historic environment of which they form such a key part
– need much more support, not less.” Cathedrals
spend £11 million on restoration and maintenance each
year, raising, by their own initiatives, more than ten
times as much as English Heritage is now able to allocate.
Cathedrals
do not receive any other government support. Independent
research for the Association of English Cathedrals and
English Heritage has shown that visitors' and cathedrals'
own spending accounts for at least £150m per year to the
economy. They are major employers and centres of social
cohesion. Numbers
of worshippers have been rising in cathedrals for over a
decade. In 2003 they attracted over 12.5 million
visitors, well in excess of |