Slovenia will request from Croatia a list of refugees who are being transported, and detailed information about them. ‘If it does not receive such information, Slovenia will refuse to accept the refugees’, said the state secretary at its Ministry of the Interior. The introduction of controls on the internal borders between some Schengen countries is a temporary measure, but Slovenia is ready to introduce additional control measures on its border with Croatia if the migrant crisis continues. Slovenia recently requested a meeting with the Croatian authorities in order to clarify its proposals about additional controls of migrants passing through the Balkan route, for the purpose of their identification. In future, Croatian police must submit with each train sent to Dobova a list of migrants with their personal data. If the lists are not delivered, Slovenia will refuse to accept the migrants. Some media outlets report that Slovenia has discovered terrorist suspects among migrants.
Ireland: challenged on children’s rights record
15 Jan 2016
Irish minister for children James Reilly was challenged on his knowledge of child poverty rates at a United Nations committee on Thursday. Addressing the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva, Dr Reilly said child poverty and family homelessness were the two most important children’s rights issues in Ireland. The minister is leading a delegation of senior civil servants and legal advisors, as Ireland is examined on its compliance with the Convention of the Rights of the Child. The state was last examined by the committee ten years ago. Norwegian commissioner Kirsten Sandberg said, ‘It is my understanding that the level of consistent child poverty last year in Ireland was one in nine.’ 330,000 people lost their jobs in the recession, which had an enormous impact on Irish society. A family escapes poverty when the head of the household has a job paying more than welfare.
Former football club chaplain Richard Gamble plans to build a national landmark made of bricks representing one million answered prayers. ‘The Wall’ would be the size of 62 semi-detached houses. The Royal Institute of British Architecture hopes to open a design competition in the summer. Mr Gamble wants the monument, with a Christian message, to be seen by thousands of passing drivers on a motorway. ‘I'm going to get Christians from all over the UK to buy a £10 brick and tell us what prayer God has answered for them. Then people driving past The Wall will be able to see that Jesus has answered a million prayers. Instinctively we remember big prayers that Jesus has answered, but Jesus is interested in the little things in life as well. I'm hoping and praying that we will have all the Church responding to this with an entire range of different answers to prayers.’
Safe homes, safe places, safe cities
15 Jan 2016
Last month the World Prayer Centre team issued a call to pray for protection on our nation, after a credible source reported that there were a series of five terrorist attacks scheduled to hit five key English cities. They were keen to stress that the call to prayer was not simply because of the prophetic word but also because the nation was particularly vulnerable to terrorist attack. Thankfully there were no attacks. Was that due to prayer or because nothing was ever going to happen? We can't say, but we need to continue to be vigilant. IS has supporters in many of our cities and towns. This is more than terrorism. We can pray for safe homes where children and families are protected; for schools, universities and churches to be protected; for our cities and regions to be safe from attack, crime and despair. Out of this protection we can then pray blessings. Isaiah 62:6 says, ‘Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent.’
Remedying C of E attendance drop
15 Jan 2016
Statistics published on Tuesday record the number of people attending Church of England services each week as below one million for the first time, reflecting a decline over recent decades of growing secularism, religious diversity, and ageing worshippers. Many believe the Anglican schism over sexuality marks the end of a global church. However the church is not surprised; recent trends have been anticipated and are being acted on. Justin Welby said, ‘The church has embarked on a radical reform and renewal programme intended to reverse declining numbers, partly by diverting funds away from small, struggling rural parishes to urban churches where the potential for growth is greatest.’ Several urban churches have shown remarkable growth in the past year, eg St Swithun’s in Bournemouth, established in 2014, now with weekly attendances of 500. The C of E is also developing ‘network churches’ that meet in cafés, pubs and other places outside consecrated buildings.
Churches challenge Government on food poverty
15 Jan 2016
Hundreds of churches have joined a campaign for ‘the right to food’ as an estimated two million people in the UK are malnourished and three million at risk of becoming so. Church Action on Poverty has initiated a campaign for the right to food for all families in Britain. The Government is legally bound by international human rights law to secure enough food for everyone, but the Trussell Trust has fed over one million people between 2014-15 via food banks. They attribute that to a number of things, but in particular benefit delays, benefit changes and low income. They say that churches and charities operate foodbanks and offer food parcels to hundreds of thousands of people, but this cannot be a long-term solution. A growing list of organisations have called for stronger and more coordinated action, to provide food aid and to press national and local government to secure everybody's human right to adequate food.
A radical overhaul of the UK’s anti-money-laundering system is needed if the UK is to close the door to the billions of pounds in corrupt money coming into the country every year, according to a report by Transparency International UK (TI-UK). The majority of sectors covered in this research are performing very badly in terms of identifying and reporting money-laundering. Major problems have been identified in the quality, as well as the quantity, of reports coming out of the legal, accountancy and estate agency sectors. There are ineffective sanctions and low fines in relation to the amounts being laundered. Laws are failing to be effective deterrents. Of the seven HMRC-regulated sectors, the total fines in 2014/15 amounted to just £768,000. The research highlights that 1/3rd of banks dismissed serious money laundering allegations without adequate review, and there were only fifteen suspicious cases reported through art and auction houses.
The persecution of Christians across the world continues to increase, according to the publication of the 2016 World Watch List. The CEO of Open Doors said that persecution levels have risen rapidly; every year over 100 million Christians are persecuted because of their beliefs. The most notable increases are in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Eritrea. Open Doors has urged the Government to do everything possible within their spheres of influence to affect this situation. David Cameron said standing up for religious freedom is a priority for his government. ‘We are committed to promoting and protecting the right to freedom of religion or belief as one of the foundations of human rights. No matter what faith we follow, charity, compassion, responsibility and forgiveness are values which speak to us all.’