Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

The URC has said Dominic Cummings should ‘consider his position’ following his account of his 260-mile trip to his parents’ farm when he and his wife were ill, despite government advice to stay at home, especially if you had coronavirus. It said his actions were a blow to trust and integrity. ‘Dominic Cummings’ explanation of his actions shows how important it is to maintain a clear sense of what is right and wrong, along with the ability to be sorry for mistakes made; none of which he displayed. Trust is built on integrity and his actions have been a blow to both.’ Some bishops have received death threats after commenting on Cummings. The Bishop of Worcester was warned, ‘Stay out of politics or we’ll kill you’. The Bishop of Ripon was told, ‘Stay out of politics or it will be the death of you’. The Bishops of Newcastle and Liverpool also received hate mail. See

Home should be the safest place. But for child victims of online sexual exploitation, it is far from safe. Lockdown has meant being locked in with their abusers, with no way to escape. As you read this, western predators from the UK are paying to livestream the sexual exploitation of children from the Philippines. Tragically, this vile crime is growing. In almost two thirds of cases in the Philippines, children are abused by their own families - like Maarko, who, aged just seven, became a victim performing ‘shows’ for sex offenders in the UK to watch. The pandemic creates a perfect storm for increased child sexual exploitation online. Children are locked in with their abusers, and western predators are at home with more time to spend online. Global law enforcement is reporting that child sexual abuse sites are crashing due to increased demand during lockdown.

280,000 social care workers are in insecure and low-paid work, leaving them vulnerable to Covid-19. A petition has been launched appealing for Matthew Hancock to provide funding so that all social care sector staff can be paid the Real Living Wage of £10.75 an hour in London and £9.30 in the rest of the UK. Dr John Sentamu said, ‘It is morally wrong to put our care workers on the front line in the face of infection and potential death, with limited personal protective equipment, and to do that for poverty pay. I hope that if this epidemic teaches us anything, it will be to draw us back to justice, compassion and love. That is why I am proud to support the campaign for the Government to prioritise the proper funding of social care, ensuring that every care worker will get paid a Real Living Wage.’

25,000 contact tracers started work on 28 May, making their contact calls to track down the 2,013 people who tested positive the previous day. They will be told to self-isolate under new test and trace schemes being launched in England and Scotland. Tracers will text, email or call people who test positive with coronavirus and ask who they had contact with. Any of those contacts deemed at risk of infection will be told to isolate for fourteen days, even if they are not sick. Those who have already had the virus will also be asked to self-isolate. The aim of the system is to lift blanket lockdown restrictions and move towards more localised, targeted measures. Contact is defined as spending 15 minutes or more at a two-metre distance; household members; or people with whom you have had face-to-face conversations less than one metre away.

The Prime Minister has asked scientists to review the two-metre social distancing rule to see if it can be reduced in an effort to help public transport and the hospitality sector. On 27 May, Boris Johnson told MPs that members of the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) had been told to review the guidance. While hotels and restaurants are currently scheduled to start reopening from 4 July , hope has been raised for beer gardens to be opened much sooner. Mr Johnson said, ‘On hospitality we are trying to go as fast as we can. It is really difficult to bring forward hospitality measures in a way that involves social distancing. But I am much more optimistic about that than I was. We may be able to do things faster than I previously thought.’ He has now announced that the lockdown will be eased further with effect from 1 June.

1,775 migrants entered the UK in small boats this year: a record 741 landed in May. The French navy is escorting them across the Channel and into British waters as smugglers exploit legal maritime loopholes. By a 1974 law, all mariners must provide assistance to vessels in distress at sea. The small boats crossing the Channel are often overloaded and taking on water. When French vessels attempt to intercept them, migrants threaten to jump into the sea, or even throw children overboard. Their refusal to be rescued by French authorities puts lives at risk, so the French have no option but to shadow the boats into British waters, where migrants are safe, knowing they will be taken to Britain, not back to France. MPs are calling for new powers to return people to France.

YouTube has decided to reintroduce John Piper's audiobook 'Coronavirus and Christ' after initially banning it. The audiobook saw a sudden uptick in views after being re-uploaded, jumping from 187,000 to over 200,000 and growing. It hit the spotlight after an atheist group urged the US secretary of defence to punish a military chaplain for sharing a copy of the publication with his colleagues. The book was written both to call for repentance and to bring people into a transformation of thinking, feeling and living in alignment with the infinite values of Jesus Christ.

The following is based on portions of a post on the Passion for the Nation website: ‘As lockdown eases and transition begins, we can pray for a spirit of peace, prosperity, safety and well-being to rest on the cities, towns and streets of this nation. Let us ask for God’s mercy to be with every individual, ministry, businessman or marketplace leader struggling at this time; let us ask Him also to pour fresh joy, fresh strength and fresh life into those feeling failure, despair, disillusionment or loss. We thank God for the equipping of His church, and the work of His Spirit in individuals through this lockdown season. Please continue to pray for our government, scientists, researchers, economists and all advisors. May they work as a team with humility and mutual respect. “Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.” (Isaiah 9:6,7)’

Faith leaders and the Government have met virtually and organised a ‘places of worship taskforce’ to determine a timeline for churches coming out of lockdown, including possibly allowing buildings to open at different times depending on their community and practice. Members of the group include the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Imam Asim Yusef, Rajnish Kashyap from the Hindu Council UK, Jasvir Singh from City Sikhs and Daniel Singleton from Faith Action. They will consider whether forms of worship such as individual prayer might be permitted before they fully reopen.

The big debate over the past few days has been whether it is safe to open schools to children other than those of key workers or classed as vulnerable. Many are saying, ‘We need to get children back into education, but a locally managed approach using testing and tracing is the only way.’ There will never be ‘no risk’. In a world where Covid-19 remains present in the community, it is about how we reduce that risk, just as we do with other kinds of daily dangers, like driving and cycling. To judge whether schools are safe enough to open, there need to be data with which to make informed decisions. Pray for concurrent accurate monitoring to be developed at local levels to tell us what the daily number of new cases and rate of transmission is. May actual, reliable numbers be what drives policy.