News Round Up

Film and faith chat goes online

Bible Society has launched a web-based resource for groups wishing to set up film and faith discussion groups.  Each month Reel Issues will provide a discussion guide based on a high-profile film released on video and DVD.  For more details, visit:  www.reelissues.org.uk

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Jesus not a swear word

A campaign has been launched to challenge people to rethink their use of blasphemy in everyday language.  Postcards designed with the caption ‘Jesus not a swearword’ placed on a motorway sign, parking meter, taxi meter and as a text message have been sent to over 100,000 homes. 

Posters with the same designs have been put up on billboards, and across the backs of buses. Christians are being encouraged to place them in their windows and at work in a bid to raise awareness that blasphemy is not acceptable. The campaign is now attracting national interest..

Lloyd Cooke, director or Saltbox, the charity behind the campaign explains: “Our aim is to challenge people about their use of language.  In today’s society many people are concerned about offending other religions.  Indeed, there would be outcry if people began to use Buddha or Mohammed as a swear word.”  Details:  www.jesusnotaswearword.org/

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Co-op to share books with Africa

The Co-op is aiming to help educate children in South Africa by inviting its customers to donate unwanted children’s books.  The books, boxed and handed in at Co-op stores throughout the country, will be given to schools and libraries in South Africa.

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Honour the bereaved with a third world gift

Development agency World Vision has launched an online catalogue offering bereaved people the chance to buy gifts for families in the developing world in remembrance of a loved one.  Gifts at www.worldvision.org.uk are based on healthcare, education and agriculture.  “We’re certainly not suggesting that people stop buying flowers,” says World Vision spokeswoman.  “But it would be good to walk away from someone’s funeral knowing that people in the developing world had been given a real chance at life.”

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Meet a monk or nun in York

A new Christian project has being launched in York to explain the history and contemporary ministry of religious communities.

Monks, nuns, friars and sisters from Anglican and Roman Catholic monasteries and convents will hold monthly ‘encounter days’ at the medieval Priory Church of the Holy Trinity on York’s Micklegate.

Details:  www.thisisyork.co.uk/york/insideout/attractions/holy_trinity_micklegate.html

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Premier now nationwide

Premier Christian Radio station has been allocated a channel on the free-to-air digital service Freeview.  This means that Premier will soon be available in homes nationwide.  Anyone with a Freeview set-top box, or an integrated digital television (IDTV) will soon be able to receive the service through a television set.  The station hopes to begin broadcasting on Freeview as early as September. 

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St Paul and the Olympics

The Bible Society of Greece has announced that the country’s three major denominations, Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical, will be distributing 50,000 copies of a scripture portion to be called The Apostle Paul in Greece during August’s 2004 Olympic Games.

Based on the account of Paul’s visit to Greece in Acts 16 to Acts 20, the portion will be made available in 11 languages, including Greek, Russian, Arabic, Korean, Chinese and Japanese.  More than 20,000 English New Testaments will be distributed in the athletes’ village by Games Chaplains, and 7,000 copies of a Greek New Testaments in Today’s Greek Version will be sold for £3.30.

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"Help families living on the edge of hell", pleads aid worker.

Some families are escaping the violence in Darfur only to find themselves living in makeshift camps that are "hotter than hell' with practically no water, according to a British aid worker.

World Vision's Angela Mason arrived in Britain on Friday after visiting north eastern Chad at the border with Sudan where she saw 18,000 refugees in a camp originally designed to fit 6,000 people.

"I was right on the border of Sudan in north eastern Chad in a camp called Touloum. It was baking hot there - about 45 degrees in the shade," explained Angela. "Water is proving to be a huge problem for the refugees. While they need 15 litres per person they are only getting eight to nine litres."

Angela talked about the intense heat in that part of Chad being 'desiccating' with the bodies of donkeys and even camels lying where they fell, completely dried out.

The nearest hospital, in Iriba, is seeing between six and eight children die every day because of dehydration and diarrhoea.

In the village of Amnabak a camp sprang up in the last three months and 4,000 people are now living there. Many people don't even have proper tents or even plastic sheeting to act as a cover. Some just make ad hoc shelters from twigs, branches and leaves"

A World Vision flight from its warehouse in Hanover, Germany, carrying 45 tons of relief goods valued at £74,700 arrived recently. The goods will benefit thousands of Sudanese refugees now living in extremely harsh conditions in eastern Chad.

World Vision is a Christian charity and one of the world's leading relief and development agencies.

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Psalm 23 and the Lord’s Prayer - like you’ve never heard it before

The Church of England is to publish a re-working of the 23rd Psalm in which the words "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death" are replaced by;  "Even if a full-scale violent confrontation breaks out I  will not be afraid, Lord".

The new version of the much-loved psalm shares with the traditional version the opening line "The Lord is my shepherd", but the Psalmist now goes on to declare: "He lets me see a country of justice and peace and directs me towards this land" and that His "shepherd's power and love protect me".

The 23rd psalm, rewritten by Pastor Kameeta, of Namibia, is included in the book "Pocket Prayers for Justice and Peace" which has been compiled  by the charity Christian Aid and will be published in October by Church House Publishing, the Church's books division. Christian Aid will receive a share of the sales proceeds for its overseas work.

The prayer compilation also offers a version of the Lord's Prayer that begins: "Our father who is in us here on earth, holy is your name in the hungry who share their bread and their song."

The ‘new’ Lord's Prayer includes: "giving us our daily bread when we manage to get back our  lands or to get a fairer wage" as "a poor community in Central America".

Eleanor Young, of Church House Publishing, said  that the new book of prayers sought to inspire those  praying and working for harmony, fairness and freedom around the world.  

Paula Clifford, publications manager of Christian Aid, said:  “Some of this might be thought to be radical, but we hope the book might  enable people to see things in a new light.  Allowing Scripture to inspire contemporary thoughts is perfectly legitimate, and there is nothing new about that."

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Trade justice report calls for church action

An urgent call for local churches to campaign for justice in world trade is made in a new report written by Christian Aid and commissioned by the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council.

The 48-page report, ‘Trade Justice - a Christian response to global poverty’ was part of a key debate at the Church of England's General Synod meeting in York in July.

Congregations are encouraged to write to leading politicians, take part in joint action and attend campaign events. They are urged to support a Global  Week of Action on trade from 10-16 April 2005 - as the UK prepares to host next year's G8 summit, and takes over the presidency of the European Union from July 2005 for six months.

The report stresses: "The Churches are in a unique position to contribute to the trade justice campaign. …Church-goers are known to be more politically engaged than most citizens, being more likely to vote in general elections, and more likely to communicate with their MPs. Churches are also respected for the thoughtful and yet impassioned contribution they make to national debate, particularly on development issues."

’Trade Justice - a Christian response to global poverty’ is published by Church House Publishing, £4.99 and is available from www.chbookshop.co.uk  and Christian bookshops.

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Synod to debate Rethinking Sentencing report

Helping offenders face up to their crimes and repair the harm caused to their victims would not only ease the pressure on over-crowded prisons but provide a more effective means of reducing re-offending, according to a report debated by the General Synod in July.

’Rethinking Sentencing’, a report from the Mission and Public Affairs Council of the Archbishops' Council, brings together essays by six national experts in the criminal justice system. It is a contribution to the debate on why, and how, people should be punished that has been at the centre of national life for the last decade.

Restorative justice is seen in the report as offering a new and additional approach compared with retributive justice - based simply on punishment.

Restorative justice works to encourage those who have caused harm to acknowledge the impact of what they have done and gives them an opportunity to make reparation. It offers those who have suffered harm, the opportunity to have that harm or

loss acknowledged and amends made. Many Christians have welcomed restorative

justice initiatives because they are seen as embracing Christian principles of respect, justice, repentance, healing and restoration.

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Website ‘could work wonders’

Linking people with the help they need is the aim of a new website launched by Christian social concern charity CARE.

At the click of a mouse, enquirers can obtain assistance on a wide range of issues. The online directory – www.carelinkuk.org - offers instant access to specialist caring agencies across the country.

To access the new service, concerned friends, family members, church leaders, project managers or community workers simply need to insert the type of support they are looking for.

The CARELINKuk online directory will then provide a list of potentially helpful organisations – free of charge. The aim is to offer information that will assist enquirers in their search for appropriate help.

The website replaces a popular telephone referral helpline formerly run by CARE – which offered callers information on a wide range of issues from marriage counselling to caring for AIDS-stricken families. Users included a woman whose son was battling alcoholism; a father needing debt advice; a girl with an unexpected pregnancy; and a 95-year-old man needing somewhere to stay after hospital.

‘There are bits of information around, but they’re often difficult to get at,’ said CARELINKuk Project Manager Howard Chapman, ‘so we’re pulling them all together in one place.

‘The aim is to make CARELINKuk synonymous with the easy finding of specialist caring agencies. We’re empowering Christians to make a difference.’

About 1,000 agencies are already listed, and their number grows daily.

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Archbishop – the world needs a reformed UN

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has called for far reaching reform of the United Nations to include a voice for non-governmental bodies and religious communities in the deliberations of the Security Council.

Dr Williams, speaking in the United States at an event to support the work of the Anglican observer at the UN, said it was vital to restore the damaged credibility of an organisation whose work remained "indispensable". 

In his first major address as Archbishop of Canterbury on international governance issues, Dr Williams argued that Security Council reform had to go beyond expanding to include permanent seats for nations from the developing world. Questions also needed to be asked about what "right of audience the institutions of global civil society should have."

Dr Williams suggested that a "standing commission" based on such institutions might be set up, which, though not having a veto over Security Council recommendations, could have "the right to comment on proposals, or to be heard in sessions."

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How many school assemblies is enough?

Schools should be allowed to swap daily collective worship in favour of weekly or monthly assemblies, according to the Chief Inspector of Schools, David Bell.

Mr Bell said that he and his inspectors and most secondary schools “struggle” to meet the requirement that every school day shall include an act of collective worship.  Problems include lack of space, and lack of time.

But Canon John Hall, the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer, has strongly defended daily school prayers.

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Alpha campaign

Alpha, the Christian initiation course based at Holy Trinity Brompton, is planning a poster campaign on 1500 sites and the backs of 3000 buses in September.  More than 1.6 million people in the UK are said to have completed an Alpha course since it started in 1992.

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CMS in cash crisis

The Church Mission Society (CMS) faced a cash crisis last year when its legacy income dropped from £2.5million to just over £1 million, and its investments on the UK stock market dropped steeply.     But its income rose in the second half of the year, when people heard of the CMS’s crisis, and increased their giving.

All the same, the lack of finance has meant the closure of the CMS’s training college, Crowther Hall, in Birmingham, and the curtailing of various projects. 

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Jury service

Ministers of all denominations are now eligible for jury service after changes in the Criminal Justice Act, which came into effect this Spring.