Refugee children from Europe
06 May 2016
Last week's Prayer Alert reported that the Government had defeated an amendment to the immigration bill proposing that the UK accept 3,000 child refugees from Europe in addition to those it has promised to take from Syria. There are many unaccompanied children who escaped to Europe and are in need of loving homes. This week David Cameron changed his mind and said that the UK will take in more unaccompanied Syrian refugee children from Europe, although he did not commit to a specific figure. Ministers will talk to councils before deciding how many can be resettled. Labour said that the announcement, made at Prime Minister's Question Time, did not go far enough and more action was needed.
Helping migrant churches
06 May 2016
In a recent conference on the migrant situation, one refugee commented, ‘It’s not the ground we serve with the gospel, it’s the people.’ In Denmark there are now more than two hundred migrant churches, making up a colourful mosaic. Currently a new church is founded every month. KIT (Churches Integration Programme) exists to help with the challenges connected with being church in a foreign country. Many projects in KIT have arisen from the problems that these churches experience while serving migrants. KIT also intends to build bridges between the migrant churches and the more established Danish ones. Practically, KIT helps the migrant churches with rules, acceptance from public authorities, missionary visas and pastors’ networking. In the Netherlands, a See http://www.kit-danmark.dk/dk/ and http://interserve.org.uk/gospel-eu-meeting-point
EU visa-free travel deal with Turkey
06 May 2016
EU governments and the European Parliament still have to approve it but, should they agree, Turkish citizens will be able to travel to all Schengen-zone countries . Freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, and revising terrorism legislation to improve protection of minority rights are just some of the criteria demanded before visa requirements are lifted. It is hard to see how Turkey could be described as meeting those conditions. Ankara increasingly cracks down on its critics in a manner more autocratic than democratic and has not fulfilled quite a number of the criteria required by the EU. But these are desperate times. Most EU governments are under huge public pressure to ease the migrant crisis. The deal is for Ankara to take back potentially every migrant now trying to cross the Aegean to Europe and achieve visa-free travel by the end of June when the European Parliament votes on visa liberalisation. The EU fears that if the visa agreement slides, so will Turkey's commitment to stop migrant crossings.
Labour anti-Semitism row
06 May 2016
Norman G Finkelstein, a Jewish author whose parents survived concentration camps during the Holocaust, published a map on his blog in 2014 entitled ‘Solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict’. The map depicted the country of Israel superimposed on a map of the USA. Mr Finkelstein said he posted the map because he found it funny, adding, ‘such jokes are commonplace in the US’. Labour MP Naz Shah copied this map, and has now been suspended by the Labour Party; seventeen other Labour members have been suspended for anti-Semitism and racism since Mr Corbyn took over as leader, including former London mayor Ken Livingstone. The row has lifted the lid on how serious prejudice against Israel has become, and opened a debate around Zionism (the Jewish people's right to self-determination in Israel) and anti-Semitism (hatred directed at Jewish people).
In this week following key elections around the UK, it is so timely that Christians can join together in this great wave of prayer for the evangelisation of our nation - praying 'Thy Kingdom Come'. Tens of thousands of Christians up and down England – and, increasingly, around the world – will be praying in the week of 8-15 May for more people to know the life-transforming love of Jesus Christ. Emails have been flowing in from far and wide, from parishes across a range of traditions and a variety of locations, from urban town centres to rural parishes, from the centre of England to the USA, from Bermuda to Brussels and Israel saying they are joining with us to hold prayer and Beacon Events. Canterbury Cathedral will live-stream their service over the internet (7pm on 15th May). See the WPC 3 things to pray video
School pupils' mental health
06 May 2016
The Government has axed Natasha Devon, who was appointed last August as mental health champion for schools in England. This decision came after she had used a head teachers' conference to stress the level of mental strain being put on pupils by rigorous testing. The Department for Education denied that the role had been cut to silence criticism; rather, an independent NHS report had recommended that a cross-government mental health champion be created. Ms Devon, who was made an MBE last year for her work helping young people conquer mental health and body image issues, said she hoped the new champion would be a positive force for good, but she was 'sceptical'. She had undertaken the role on an unpaid basis, whereas someone in a paid role would be under more pressure to 'toe the party line'. The Government says it is putting £1.4bn into children's mental health, with separate money allocated for peer support schemes in schools.
Care homes at risk of closure
06 May 2016
About 5,000 residential care homes risk closure because they carry too much debt and don’t make enough profit to cover loan repayments. Research by business risk analysts found that individual care homes were borrowing 61% of the value of the business - £4bn across the industry. There are 20,000 homes in the UK, operated by 5,871 owners who make about £60,000 profit as operators. Opus Business Services said the figures make investment difficult and leave a very small pot to encourage people to stay in this market, run homes and invest in them to create ‘the extra capacity that we all know this market is going to need as the baby boomers get old and need to go into care’. There is concern that future investors will want big and quick returns on their investments, and the profitability of care homes has been hit by rising costs like the new national living wage of £7.20 per hour.
Dementia patients - second-class citizens
06 May 2016
The Alzheimer’s Society said that some GPs are refusing to visit vulnerable care home patients unless they are paid up to £36,000 a year, and will only prescribe drugs over the phone. One elderly woman was made to wait in agony for 17 hours after suffering an allergic reaction because the GP would not see her out-of-hours. Some surgeries will not even register patients once they move into a home because they are deemed to take up too much of doctors’ time. A fifth of care homes are being charged a fee for a GP visit, which should be free. Martin Green, chief executive of Care England (which represents care homes), who wrote the report, said patients were being all but abandoned by GP services. 70% of adults in care homes have dementia and need regular check-ups by GPs as well as extra visits if they are unwell or suffer a fall.