World youth prayer assembly
26 Mar 2016
The International Prayer Council are calling for a global Prayer UPRISING from 26 to 30 July 2016 - a united prayer rising in Seoul, South Korea. They say, ‘With the global crisis this generation is facing and the attacks on them, we believe that it's time to gather the youth from across the nations for a prayer assembly to stand against attacks on this generation. The youth are this generation’s Davids, and they will fast and pray and face the Goliaths of this world. They will stand for South and North Korean unity as they intercede at the border of these two nations, believing now is the time to pray for their unification. They will fast and pray as they intercede for change in the regions and the nations.’
UPRISING will call forth and engage an emerging generation, tens of thousands from every nation, to challenge and empower them to fulfil their destiny as catalysts for Christ's Kingdom. It will be a springboard for new youth movements, new youth ministries and new prayer and missions movements. It could also possibly give birth to a new, global Jesus Movement, finding its beginnings at the UPRISING. Pray that God will mobilise the youth of today, in united prayer for the healing of the nations. To watch a short video of Bishop Peter’s invitation to this event go to:
Scotland in prayer
25 Mar 2016
Give thanks for the hundreds of churches and thousands of folk who have taken part in the forty days of prayer during Lent, and for the positive testimonies starting to come in from folk responding to the Trypraying adverts on buses all over Scotland and the Trypraying booklet. John Wesley said, ‘God does nothing redemptively except through prayer.’ One of Jesus’ last recorded acts was to pray for all those who would believe in Him, and that all those believers would be united in relationship ‘as one’; not as identical clones, but as one loving family with all the diverse variety and richness of character, personality, gifting and purpose you see in any family - all given by our Father, the ultimate Creator, to fulfil His plans on earth. God’s plan is nothing less than the complete transformation of society: turning from darkness to light, from sinful independence from God to complete dependence on Him, bringing in the rule and reign of His Kingdom.
Unusual ways to celebrate Easter
25 Mar 2016
In Spain hundreds of processions take place at Easter. Some local processions of penitents can be very serious with people wearing white cloaks and burka-type hoods. In Greece, people hurl clay pots from windows and balconies onto the streets. It’s not clear what the origin of this custom is. Norwegians have recently begun having an Easter Crime Genre (Påskekrim) when they read crime novels over the Easter weekend! Portuguese celebrations include many locals dressing up to recreate scenes of the story of Christ’s resurrection and collecting donations for widows and widowers. Polish artists follow an egg-painting tradition and transform thousands of eggs into beautiful paintings. In Germany on Good Friday, dancing and loud music are banned. The sixty-year-old law has become increasingly controversial: Germany is home to millions of Muslim, atheist and Jewish citizens who are also affected by the ban.
‘Stop Islam’ campaign on social media
25 Mar 2016
Shortly after the attacks in Brussels were carried out, a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment began hitting social media, with people using the hashtag #StopIslam. Hundreds of thousands of messages with that hashtag have been posted across the world on Twitter, according to Dataminr, a monitoring service. By Wednesday morning Twitter users were using the social media platform in a war of words, and some believed that comments on the #StopIslam hashtag platform were beginning to be censored due to its trending so powerfully. Initially users tweeted with the tag to express their frustration with another terrorist attack as well as the politicians who refuse to link the extremism with Islam. As the tag spawned a huge wave of tweets from around the world, people began using it to argue against condemning an entire religious group for the attacks. Other messages posted were ‘Christianity must be disempowered and demonised’, ‘Islam must be empowered and promoted’, and ‘#StopIslam is trending worldwide. There will never be peace in the Western world until Islam is gone’. See also:
Brussels bombs
25 Mar 2016
A series of deadly explosions rocked Brussels on Tuesday, targeting the Belgian capital's main airport and metro system. Christians across Brussels have called for prayer. The coordinated attacks came as the city was on a high level of alert following the arrest of Paris atrocity suspect Salah Abdeslam last week. The Archbishop of Canterbury said: ‘In the great Holy Week of Christian prayer and mercy, the Brussels attacks shock all those who seek peace and justice through the terrible cruelty and utter separation from all that is of God. Once again we see the contrast between the vain efforts to terrify through indiscriminate murder and the call of God to us to show mercy, seek peace and pursue it. Let us at every service this week pray for those caught up in the traumatic events at the airport and in the city of Brussels.’
Good Friday BBC reappraisal of Judas
25 Mar 2016
Some clerics, including a Church of England bishop, have joined the call for a reappraisal of the disciple who betrayed Jesus, leading to his crucifixion. The Rt Rev Nick Baines, the Bishop of Leeds, said Judas has had a ‘lousy press’ for the last two thousand years; while he is reviled as the ultimate traitor, the truth behind his decision to hand Jesus over to the religious authorities may have been decidedly more complicated. His comments come in an article in this week’s Radio Times ahead of a new BBC documentary by the Church of England vicar and reality television star Rev Kate Bottley. In the programme ‘In the Footsteps of Judas’, to be shown on BBC One on Good Friday morning, she examines theories about what led him to betray Jesus for pieces of silver and later to hang himself.
Martin McGuinness and Christianity
25 Mar 2016
Comments made by Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister that he is a ‘very broad-minded Christian’ and a ‘practising Catholic’ have been slammed by a victim of the Troubles. Ann Travers, whose sister Mary was murdered by the Provos, said she was ‘flabbergasted’ to hear Mr McGuinness, a former IRA commander, call himself a practising Catholic. The Sinn Fein man said he was a very young man when the conflict began and he was very much involved in participating in the civil rights protests. He then went on to describe how his family were devout and he prayed every night. Mr McGuinness said his faith was important in finding common ground with Mr Paisley during the peace process.
Police corruption
25 Mar 2016
Three policemen and a retired police officer were arrested in an inquiry into fraudulent activity at the Police Federation of England and Wales. Surrey Police are investigating the transfer of £1m to a charitable account last August. One of those arrested quit as federation vice-chairman earlier this week. Two of the men are Met police officers on secondment. The organisation represents thousands of constables, sergeants and inspectors. Surrey Police's economic crimes unit were involved in the probe and are contacting the Charities Commission. Meanwhile a detective constable from a London unit, which investigates rapes, serious sexual violence and child abuse, was charged with a string of child sex offences and suspended from duty. DC Chris Maitland was originally arrested last November, and has now been charged with two counts of sexually touching a girl under 13, five counts of taking indecent images of children, and seven counts of making indecent images of children. Pray for our police at