News
Round Up MU
magazine celebrates 50 years A
special publication has been produced by the Mother’s
How
The Passion was made To
mark the recent DVD launch of The Passion of the
Christ, a documentary telling of how it was made has
been released. In it Mel Gibson confesses that at one
point he realized that the film was “too violent for
any normal audience” and cut some of the bloodiest
scenes. In
contrast to the staged violence in front of the camera,
the audience also heard about the severe discomfort
actor Jim Caviezel had to endure off screen. Not only did
he contract hypothermia while filming, but he also got
struck by lightning while on the cross during filming in
the city of 4.1
million copies of the DVD were sold on the first day of
its release in the BibleLands
feeds children in BibleLands,
a UK-based Christian charity, has awarded grants
totalling £100,000 that will provide nutritious daily
meals for children in Dial-a-chaplain? NHS
patients seeking spiritual help may soon be able to
benefit from an NHS Direct-style phone-achaplain service
as part of proposals aimed at ensuring better access to
religious support. This is the suggestion of a report
prepared for the Department of Health by John James, a
former NHS chief executive. The reports paints a picture
of a service that has developed piece-meal way. Less
sex please, we’re children A
recent survey for the BBC has found that the majority of
British people believe that there should be tougher
restrictions on sexual images on children’s
television and magazines. The Healthy Britain poll saw 86
per cent of respondents supporting tighter controls, with
92 per cent of 55 to 64 year-olds backing the idea and 78
per cent of 18 to 24- year olds. The findings come
against the background of rising teenage pregnancy rates,
currently the highest in To
combat this, Stephanie Gutmann (27), a youth leader at
City Gates Christian Centre in Ilford, is to launch a
magazine entitled Sublime aimed at teenagers in
December, designed to provide an alternative perspective. “There
is way too much sexual imagery in many of these
magazines,” she says. “It is verging on the
pornographic.” Man
On Fire star has deep Christian faith “God
is first”, according to Oscar-winning actor Denzel
Washington. Mr God
is “the breath of life “for him. “I’ve
been blessed in my acting. It’s not what you’re
given, it’s what you do with what you have that I
learned from the Bible. What are you doing with what you
have? Everybody
has a different gift to give. Who did you lift today? Who
did you make better today?” Mr
At
the press conference launching Man On Fire, he
said that he had managed to persuade director Tony Scott
to change the dialogue to include a Bible verse that he
felt fitted the material: ‘Do not be overcome by
evil, but overcome evil with good.’ Terrorism
and Community Relations – the Church warns the
Government The
threat of terrorism understandably makes it hard for
governments to maintain security without undermining
human rights. But some current counter-terrorist measures
threaten to aggravate tensions between Muslims and other
groups in British society. So
warns the Church of England in a recent submission to the
House of Commons Home Affairs Committee
enquiry into the effects of counter-terrorism legislation
on community relations. The
problem is partly due to the legislation that creates a
separate system (criticised by all-party groups) for
indefinite detention of terrorist suspects who are not
British nationals. The submission from the Church of
England’s Building
Faith in our Future Church
buildings can make a real contribution to the life of
their community. Therefore the Government (national,
regional and local), along with other public bodies,
should give more support to the upkeep of these unique
buildings. So
says ‘Building Faith in our Future’, an
illustrated document recently produced by the Church
Heritage Forum, with the help of the Ecclesiastical
Insurance Group. The report can be read on the Church of
England website www.cofe.anglican.org. Help
for parishes - engaging with children If
you want to help develop the children’s work in our
church, here is a very useful new guide. ‘Where
Two or Three: help and advice for churches with few or no
children’, is full of practical ideas and real
life examples. The
guide is the latest in Church House Publishing’s Sure
Foundations series. It’s peppered with lots of
ideas for developing children’s work, how to work
with other small churches and suggestions for engaging
with children in the community. The author, Margaret
Withers, is the Archbishop’s Officer for Evangelism
among Children. A most encouraging book! You can buy it
from www.chbookshop.co.uk Churches
spearhead campaign to tackle climate change Hundreds
of Christian campaigners took part in a colourful
procession through rainbow
colours, in October for the official launch of Operation
Noah, the new Climate Change Campaign,
supported by the Church of England and other churches. The
day was organised by Christian Ecology Link (CEL) on
behalf of the Environmental Issues Network of Churches
Together in Promoting
mental health A
guide to how churches can make a real difference to the
mental wellbeing of their parishioners has been published
by the Church of England and the charity ‘mentality’. The
guide, Promoting Mental Health: a resource for
spiritual and pastoral care, gives practical advice
on how to offer support to people with mental health
problems and to tackle some of the causes of mental
distress. The
guide was tested out in parish groups across Bringing
‘mission-shaped church’ to life Here’s
a guide for anyone interested in church planting.
Southwell diocese has produced it to help parishes
engage with ‘mission-shaped church,’ the report
commended by the Church of England’s General Synod
in February. The
report - which has now sold more than 10,000 copies -
examines church planting and fresh expressions
of church in a changing context. More information about
the study guide from Canon Missioner
Mark Brown on revmbrown@aol.com or 01636 817220.The
report can be purchased from Church House Publishing at www.chbookshop.co.uk
. Women
to overtake men The
Church of England will ordain more women than men in 2005,
according to a new official projection from the Church of
England. Ten
years after the first ordinations of women, synod members
are still pulling in different directions over the issue
of women. The Ven Richard Atkinson, archdeacon of But
Lay Synod member Margaret Brown, who co-founded Women
against the Ordination of Women in 1992, however, warned
that “going down this road will see God becoming a
Goddess”. Bishops
oppose ‘misguided and unnecessary’ euthanasia
Bill Church
of England and Roman Catholic bishops have joined forces
to urge Parliament not to change the law on euthanasia,
arguing that allowing assisted suicide would undermine
the protection of vulnerable people. In
a joint submission to the House of Lords Select Committee
on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, the
Church of England House of Bishops and the Roman Catholic
Bishops’ Conference of England and In
its conclusion, the bishops’ joint submission says:
"It is deeply misguided to propose a law by which it
would be legal for terminally ill people to be killed or
assisted in suicide by those caring for them, even if
there are safeguards to ensure it is only the terminally
ill who would qualify. "To
take this step would fundamentally undermine the basis of
law and medicine and undermine the duty of the state to
care for vulnerable people. It would risk a gradual
erosion of values in which over time the cold calculation
of costs of caring properly for the ill and the old would
loom large. As a result many who are ill or dying would
feel a burden to others. The right to die would become
the duty to die." It
adds: "The Bill is unnecessary. When death is
imminent or inevitable there is at present no legal or
moral obligation to give medical treatment that is futile
or burdensome. It is both moral and legal now for
necessary pain relief to be given even if it is likely
that death will be hastened as a result. But that is not
murder or assisted suicide. "What
terminally ill people need is to be cared for, not to be
killed. They need excellent palliative care including
proper and effective regimes for pain relief. They need
to be treated with the compassion and respect that this
Bill would put gravely at risk." Church
joins the Trade Justice Movement The
Church of England has become the newest member of the
Trade Justice Movement. The General Synod voted for
membership at its July meeting in The
TJM campaigns for trade justice, with the rules weighted
to benefit people and the environment,
rather than free trade. Dr Daleep Mukarji, Director of
Christian Aid, said, "We are delighted the Church of
England has joined the TJM - working with others for
justice in International Trade so that people and
countries from the south benefit. With the recent
commitment of the Church of England to trade justice at
the Synod, we believe we can get the wider Anglican
community worldwide to be part of the international
movement. Together we can make a difference." "The
Church of England’s membership of the Trade Justice
Movement comes at an important and opportune time of
renewed moral and political energy around the issue of
trade justice," said the Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop
of Southwark and vice-chairman, public affairs, of the presidency
in 2005, there’s a sense that we are at a tipping
point where it might yet become possible to develop a
trading system that allows developing countries to remove
trade barriers at a pace and in a way that lies within
their own development plans.” Church
Statistics 2002 The
Church of England has published its Church Statistics for
2002. Highlights
from the statistics include: *
In 2002, the Church of England had 27,990 licensed
ministers *
The dioceses of *
*
On average, each stipendiary parish priest undertakes one
baptism, wedding or funeral every week *
There were a few more confirmations in 2002 than in 2001
and the increase was wholly due to an increase in male
confirmation candidates. *
Attendance at city centre churches increased while it
dropped at other geographical types *
Electoral rolls in commuter rural and other rural
churches increased despite 2002 being the six- yearly
renewal of rolls when numbers traditionally fall *
The number of people signed up to tax-efficient giving
schemes broke 500,000 for the first time *
Parishes gave away £44,395,000 in charitable donations;
comparable with the latest Children in Need (£30million)
and Comic Relief (£60million) appeals. Statistic
of the Month: Christian Bookshops sell 4% of all books Figures
shortly to be released in the monthly magazine Christian
Marketplace show that the percentage of books sold by
Christian bookshops was about 4% of all the books of all
types sold throughout the The
number of religious books published in 2003 was 4,400,
again about 4% of books on all subjects published. Not
every religious book is Christian, but the large majority
is. Most
of the 500 specialist Christian bookshops sell many other
things besides books - magazines, cards, videos, and so
on. In 2003 their overall income was in excess of £82
million, a large amount of money, reflecting the
commitment of those working in this ministry. But
commitment was always important for the By
Dr Peter Brierley, Executive Director, Christian
Research, September 2004 |