Displaying items by tag: Religion

Prison Fellowship, a Christian organisation, is part of a global movement of people motivated by their faith to transform lives and communities by bringing love in action, acting with justice and showing mercy. They write: ‘Our dream is ‘to see every life in prison transformed! Our mission is to show Christ’s love to prisoners by coming alongside them and supporting them. We seek through prayer and practical care to help, support, and develop a Christian ministry to prisoners and their families.’ They do this through a network of volunteers - currently over 2,400 across England and Wales. Prayer is the basis for all that they do, and where it all started. All activities are underpinned by prayer through PF groups that meet monthly.

Ireland’s constitution protects the right to a religious education and for parents to ‘provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children’. A new proposal preventing Catholic schools from prioritising Catholic students is being called discriminatory, as it does not apply to schools of other faiths. The Church runs 90% of state schools. When a school is full, it prioritises Catholic students when deciding how high they are on the waiting list. The education minister wants to end giving preference to Catholic children who live some distance away over non-Catholic children living close to the school. The changes would not apply to non-Catholic faith schools. Faith in Our Schools is fighting the proposal, saying the policy ‘openly discriminates against the conscience and educational rights of Catholic parents and the autonomy, and associational rights of Catholic faith schools.’

Proposals for dialogue between North Korean and American national leaders in the midst of increasing tensions, conflicts, and fear of war have inspired International Prayer Connections (IPC) to call on Christians to pray for a just and peaceful resolution. Pray for wisdom for political, diplomatic and military leaders as they work through differences toward a goal of peace, security and freedom. Ask God to bless the efforts of citizens who seek to bridge the vast differences between these countries. Pray that, however profound the differences between their governments, Americans and North Koreans will not view each other as enemies, but on the contrary desire only the best for each other. May the decades of business, humanitarian and education contact between the two countries now bear fruit by putting a human face on those who are characterised as enemies.

Archbishop Allan Migi, the Anglican primate in PNG, has condemned the increasing number of alleged witches and sorcerers being killed. He said killing a child suspected of witchcraft is strongly opposed to the way of Christ; it is child abuse in its worst form. The practice of sorcery and witchcraft is ‘an evil thing’, as is ‘the killing of a suspect or taking somebody’s life’. Recently the UN high commissioner for human rights, visiting the country, called for ‘decisive government action’ to tackle the endemic gender-based violence and horrific attacks against those accused of sorcery. The new police minister said, ‘It is not in our history to burn or stone people for sorcery. In the last year or so it has accelerated.’ There is now a police task force to tackle attacks on suspected witches.

Supermarket shelves have for weeks been full of Easter Eggs, Easter bunnies and hot cross buns, to remind us that ‘Easter is coming’. A three-year-old’s comments on Facebook remind us of how far the commercial marketing of Easter has removed us from our Christian tradition. You can watch her conversation with her daddy by clicking the ‘More’ button. A few of her comments were, ‘I don’t understand what Easter’s all about. Why do you give me chocolate at Easter, when you say it is bad for me? We learn about Easter at nursery school. Are Easter bunny and Jesus best pals? Is the Easter bunny in the Bible? Does Jesus carry a basket of eggs all the time? Does Jesus like chocolate?’

Pastor David Lynn leads a Toronto church and has preached on the streets for 22 years without conviction. He also heads up Christ’s Forgiveness Ministries, which has 40,000 supporters and a YouTube channel with 8.8 million views. When he preached outside Barking tube station on 20 March, he was arrested and kept in custody for over 20 hours. David began preaching at 1 pm, and at 3.30 pm a group of supporters joined him. He preached about people searching for love in the wrong places; only through a right relationship with Christ can this deep need be satisfied. A large crowd formed, and David handed the microphone to onlookers to allow them to respond to his preaching. Fortunately his preaching was videoed, so that when a lady accused him of calling her ‘perverse’ and ‘sinful’ the footage of the event did not substantiate her complaint.

A lawyer representing survivors of clerical sex abuse in the CofE said at a public hearing, ‘The Church of England is an inappropriate organisation to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults, and would have been closed if it were a school.’ The inquiry used the diocese of Chichester as a case study to investigate the CofE’s failure to protect children from sex abusers. Another lawyer said, ‘Over the past three weeks I have been struck by how inappropriate the Church as an organisation is to have charge or care of children and vulnerable adults. Personally, I would not want my son to spend a moment in the company of a member of this organisation.’ The lawyers were struck by the ‘impotence’ of the Archbishop of Canterbury to hold bishops to account, calling it a deep-seated cultural and structural problem.

On 28 March DUP MP Jim Shannon commented during PMQs on the return of many believers to the Nineveh Plains, and asked the Prime Minister to pledge her support to them. In her reply Mrs May said, ‘Easter is of course the most important time in the Christian calendar. It is a time of new life and hope. The message of the cross and the resurrection helps to support Christians around the world. We stand with those persecuted Christians. We will be looking to see what more the Government can do to support them.’

The overwhelmingly Catholic Republic of Ireland will hold a referendum on 25 May on whether or not to alter its constitution to legalise abortion. The move follows the recent Irish Senate vote in favour of holding the poll by a wide margin. Last year prime minister Leo Varadkar won leadership of the governing centre-right Fine Gael party after campaigning on same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws.

Turkey was a secular country, but since President Erdogan's rise to power it is returning to its Ottoman and Islamic heritage. This shift is manifesting through authoritarianism, consolidation of power, increased support of radical Islam, reintroduction of Islamic cultural practices, the threatening of long-held borders, and the dismissal of thousands of government workers, military, and journalists. But what matters most is the 99% of 80 million people who call Turkey home but have never heard the Gospel. The early Church thrived there. Much of the New Testament took place there. For a nation so hardened to the Gospel, and resenting Christianity, prayer is the only way to bring change.