More than 20,000 campers and day visitors descended on the Wiston Estate near Steyning, Sussex, for a two-day event over Pentecost weekend. The Big Church Day Out offered families the Big Church Fete where there were fair rides, a climbing wall, arts and crafts and face painting. There were three different stages with a variety of worship styles brought to crowds by artists from the UK and abroad, including Rend Collective; American worship leader and composer Israel Houghton; Martin Smith, formerly the front man of the Christian rock band Delirious?; the Watoto Children’s Choir; and rap and dance group LZ7. There was prayer and more intimate worship in Wiston Church, near the estate’s house. The church was packed throughout both days as people sought some quiet, more reflective worship time. Tearfund ran its ‘Free a Slave’ campaign, and the event ended with a beacon being lit to launch the Diocese of Chichester’s new mission strategy.

A plan has been suggested to enable people who are ill, too nervous to attend church, or who have family commitments on Sundays to take part in church services. It will help mums and dads throughout the country who might have preferred to go to church on Sunday but have sacrificed their spiritual needs to stand in the cold and wet on football and rugby sidelines to support their children's sporting endeavours. They will now be able to stay in touch with their church community while continuing to support their children's Sunday morning activities. Many clergy and parochial church councils impose strict controls over taking photographs or videos at services, including weddings. But the mood against media is undergoing a profound shift with the nation's young people growing up digitally literate from early childhood. The sacred can be found in the social as well as in the sanctuary. See THE MILL GATHERING:

‘In every free democratic society there are limits placed on human freedom in order to protect the common good and vulnerable people. It is right that the law is not to be changed to accommodate the wishes of a small number of desperate and determined people at the expense of the rights of others.’ These were the comments of Dr Gordon Macdonald after a bill proposing to introduce assisted suicide was defeated on its first reading at Holyrood last Wednesday. He added, ‘Legal and medical experts consistently warned that the proposed Bill was deeply flawed and would be difficult to enforce in practice. We thank God that the Scottish Parliament rejected this dangerous legislation and voted in favour of protecting the lives of thousands of vulnerable people.’ See article 4 below.

Yesterday Queen Elizabeth set out the Government's plans for a European Union membership referendum as David Cameron faces pressure to explain when it will be held and what changes to the EU he wants before then. Mr Cameron says he would prefer to stay inside a reformed EU but isn't ‘ruling anything out’ if it fails to change. He was re-elected on a pledge to reshape ties with the bloc before allowing Britons to vote on whether to stay or leave. The new government plans to pass a law in its first year that would allow a referendum on the EU to occur by the end of 2017.