|
News
Best wishes for the new Pope Good results from the Church Commissioners Women bishops study programme goes on-line Church criticises Select Committee report Church House Bookshop National Worship Development Officer appointed Support for ‘A Place of Refuge’ Euthanasia committee report adds little to the debate, says Christian charity Archbishop - adults need to grow up Emotional damage is a factor in abortion time limit debate Baptist World Congress to meet in Birmingham 27 – 31 July
Best wishes for the new Pope
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has offered his best wishes and prayers for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the successor to Pope John Paul II.
He said he looked forward to working with the new Pope “to build shared understanding between our churches in the service of the Gospel and the goal of Christian unity.”
Dr Williams described Pope Benedict XVI as “a theologian of great stature, who has written some profound reflections on the nature of God and the church. His choice of the name Benedict suggests he wants to connect his vision of the church to the monastic spirit of service and contemplation.”
Good results from the Church Commissioners
The Church Commissioners – who manage assets worth more than £4 billion on behalf of the Church of England - achieved a return of 13.6 per cent on their investments in 2004. This placed them in the top three per cent of more than 700 similar funds.
As a result of this above-average performance over the last ten years, the fund is able to distribute £37 million more each year to the Church than if the investments had performed only at the industry average. The Commissioners contribute around 18p in the pound of the cost of running the Church.
The Church Commissioners have also completed the sale of their Millbank site in central London to the House of Lords for £65 million. They will move out of 1 Millbank in 2007, when around 100 staff will join other staff of the National Church Institutions in refurbished offices in Church House, Great Smith Street.
Women bishops study programme goes on-line
A study programme to help parishes, deaneries and dioceses engage with the Rochester report, Women Bishops in the Church of England?, has been published on the Church of England website.
The study programme is intended as part of the process of discussion about women in the episcopate that began with two General Synod debates on the issue in February. The Synod voted to take note of the report Women Bishops in the Church of England? and to have a further debate in July.
The material at http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/papers/women bishops/ is aimed at recognising the range of issues involved in the debate.
Church criticises Select Committee report
The Church of England has issued a critical response to the House of Commons Science and Technology select committee report on Human Reproductive Technologies and the Law.
Speaking as Vice Chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Tom Butler said:
“The Church of England would oppose strongly any proposals that tend to erode proper priority for the welfare of the child or that embrace a view of children as consumer commodities.
“Sex selection for social reasons would have serious consequences for society as well as for families. From a Christian perspective, the child is a gift from God and should always be regarded as an individual, not as an extension of parental consumer choice. Parents need to be left to receive and accept their children just as they are, not be led into believing they can select children as they would a customised personal accessory.”
Church House Bookshop
The Archbishops' Council has announced that it is hoping to sell Church House Bookshop, Great Smith Street, London, as a going concern. The decision is in line with the Council's ongoing review of its activities and its desire to focus on core functions.
Church House Bookshop is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading Christian bookshops. Its reputation is based on high levels of customer service delivered by knowledgeable staff, a broad range of stock - including the complete range of Church House Publishing and General Synod publications - its mail-order department, and website www.chbookshop.co.uk
National Worship Development Officer appointed
The Revd Peter Moger, Vicar of Godmanchester (Ely diocese) since 2001 and previously Preceptor of Ely Cathedral, has been appointed National Worship Development Officer by the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England.
Peter Moger will start his new job in July, and will be working with the Liturgical Commission in this newly-created post to promote good practice in the preparation and leading of worship. The main focus of the role will be leading the development of a co-ordinated programme of training and development for worship leaders, including the preparation and production of suitable resources.
Support for ‘A Place of Refuge’
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has welcomed ‘A Place of Refuge - a positive approach to asylum seekers and refugees in the UK’, published by the Church of England’s Mission and Public Affairs Council.
They sent their “heartfelt thanks for…your report A Place of Refuge which communicates with great clarity the desperate situations faced by refugees and asylum seekers forced to flee their lives and homes in search of sanctuary. UNHCR particularly appreciates the Church's commitment to challenging negative stereotypes and unwarranted associations, often created and perpetuated by the media…”
A Place of Refuge is available in .PDF format on the Church of England website, is published by Church House Publishing, priced £5.99, and is available from all Christian bookshops. Or e-mail bookshop@c-of-e.org.uk, or visit www.chbookshop.co.uk
Euthanasia committee report adds little to the debate, says Christian charity
Christian social concern charity CARE has expressed disappointment over a House of Lords Select Committee report on euthanasia.
The Report, which is a product of a session long enquiry into the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, was recently released. In key conclusions and recommendations the committee stopped short of rejecting the legislation outright but drew attention to key problems in the Bill, such as the likelihood of voluntary euthanasia ‘slipping’ into non-voluntary euthanasia.
The legislation, sponsored by Lord Joffe, provides for a terminally-ill person who has reached the age of majority and who is suffering unbearably to request either assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia.
CARE has opposed the legislation on the grounds that it would weaken society’s prohibition of intentional killing, threaten safeguard against non-voluntary euthanasia, affect patients’ ability to trust doctors and the health care system and lead to a fundamental change in the ethos of medical care. There are also fears that the Bill would lead to pressure for all seriously ill people to consider euthanasia rather than becoming a ‘burden to their relatives’.
The Bill, like it predecessor the Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill, has been criticised by the Disability Rights Association, Disability Awareness in Action, Help the Aged, Age Concern, the British Medical Association, the Association of Palliative Medicine and the National Council for Hospice and Palliative Care Services.
Archbishop - adults need to grow up
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has said that adults must face the demands of being grown up if they are to meet the needs of children. In a lecture given at an event organised by the Citizen Organising Foundation, Dr Williams said: “We can’t shape the lives and minds of children without a sense of responsibility we have as adults.”
“If we want to give children a chance of experiencing childhood as they should - experiencing it as a time to learn, play, grow, in an environment of stability and security - we have to face the demands of being adults ourselves. We have to accept that growing up is about taking on the task of forming other human lives.”
The Archbishop warns that the pressures of modern life are eroding the time and space needed for the development of children as individual people, and cautions that this is itself likely to lead to further problems.
Emotional damage is a factor in abortion time limit debate
Women undergoing late abortions are in greater risk of emotional damage. This is the finding of CARE Centres Network (CCN), a nationwide network of trained advisors that helps women undergoing pregnancy crises and post-abortion difficulties.
This claim corroborates the recent statement made in the Sunday Times by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, referring to abortions as ‘anguished decisions’.
Philippa Stroud, speaking for CAREconfidential, the freephone helpline run by CCN, said: “We welcome the fact that the debate surrounding the abortion time limit has been re-opened and we hope the limit will be reduced. We have found that women who underwent terminations after 18 weeks of pregnancy often experience profound feelings of guilt and grief. This is because the mother has felt apparent signs of life in her womb – kicking and moving. From this point the mother instinctively feels a connection with the child living inside her.”
CCN is comprised of 150 pregnancy crisis centres all over the UK. CARE Centres Network helps women who find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy by giving compassionate support and accurate information regarding the choices available to them. It aims to help women who are considering an abortion to look at all the other options open to them.
The reduction of the current abortion time limit of 24 weeks was called for by the Conservative leader Michael Howard and supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
Baptist World Congress to meet in Birmingham 27 – 31 July
The Baptist World Congress, which has been described as “a Baptist Olympic Games without the medals”, is coming to the UK next month. Up to 15,000 delegates from around the world are expected.
A World Congress is convened every five years by the Baptist World Alliance, who chooses a different continent each time. In 1990 it was Seoul, Korea; in 1995 it was Buenos Aires, Argentina and for the millennium year of 2000 it was Melbourne, Australia.
As the BWA was founded in 1905 in London - the 2005 Congress will be the Centenary Congress and the Baptist Union of Great Britain has been asked to serve as host to 10,000 to 15,000 guests from around the world.
The Congress will be held 27-31 July 2005 at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Birmingham, with evening celebrations taking place next door at the National Indoor Arena (NIA).
There are 43 million Baptist Christians in 200 countries of the world and this five yearly Congress is an opportunity for as many of those as possible to join together for a life changing experience. A Congress is a very colourful experience where delegates mix with and are surrounded by fellow Baptists of all experiences and cultures, many often in their magnificent national costumes.
The Congress programme will include: evening celebrations, morning Bible studies, afternoon workshops, seminars and fringe festivals, an exhibition hall, dynamic concerts revealing the rich, varied musical talent of the world family, and worship led by gifted worship leaders from around the world with musical and other creative art contributions from many within our wider Baptist family.
|