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Police officers have been given the right to take days off to dance naked on the solstices, celebrate fertility rituals and burn Yule logs if they profess pagan beliefs. The Pagan Police Association claimed yesterday that it had been recognised by the Home Office as a ‘diversity staff support association’ - a status also enjoyed by groups representing female, black, gay, Muslim and disabled officers. Endorsement would mean that chief constables could not refuse a pagan officer’s request to take feast days as part of his or her annual leave. The eight pagan festivals include Imbolc (the feast of lactating sheep), Lammas (the harvest festival) and the Summer Solstice (when mead drinking and naked dancing are the order of the day). Problematically, the pagan festivals also include Samhain (known to non-pagans as Hallowe’en), a day when police leave is often cancelled because of the high incidence of vandalism, violence and antisocial behaviour.
Pray: that the problems caused by all these diverse requests will not damage working relationships or effective policing.
(Pr.28:19)
Primark has been forced to withdraw padded bikinis for seven-year-olds after critics condemned the store for fuelling child sexualisation. The Children’s Society slammed the popular high street chain for ‘premature sexualisation and unprincipled advertising’. A child protection consultant who works to help victims of paedophilia said: ‘It never fails to amaze me just how many High Street household names are now prepared to exploit the disgusting ‘paedophile pound’.’ Parents warned that children were facing pressure to grow up too soon. Penny Nicholls, director of children and young people at The Children’s Society, said: ‘We know from our research that commercial pressures towards premature sexualisation and unprincipled advertising are damaging children’s well-being. The evidence shows that adults feel children are more materialistic than in past generations, while children themselves feel under pressure to keep up with the latest trends.’
Pray: for our youngsters and against pressures that promote the premature sexualisation of our children. (Eph.5:5)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/padded-bikinis-for-7-year-olds-dropped-after-outcry/
A controversial new BBC lesbian drama which showed two women having sex next to a corpse has left TV viewers appalled. BBC 3’s Lip Service, aimed at viewers as young as 16, began airing this week and has attracted complaints from scores of viewers. Actress Laura Fraser, who plays a character called Cat, said: ‘I started to feel like I was making a porno film. At the end of a day I was thinking ‘what am I doing for a living?’ The BBC describes Lip Service as being a ‘bold’ drama ‘about the sex lives and love affairs of twenty-something lesbians living in contemporary Glasgow’. The show has attracted a number of complaints, one viewer describing the funeral parlour sex scene as ‘stomach churning’. Harriet Braun, the show’s creator, claims that the show is as realistic as possible. She said: ‘It was important, I wanted it to reflect real life.’ Pray: that the BBC comes to recognise that it should set standards rather than follow minority foibles. (1Ti.6:20) More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/viewers-outraged-over-bbcs-new-lesbian-show/
An e-book which billed itself as a guide for paedophiles has been withdrawn from sale by prominent online retailer Amazon.com after horrified customers called for a boycott of the site. The book, entitled The Paedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct, had been available for the retailer’s electronic reading device since October. The e-book claims that paedophiles are misunderstood, and offers advice about how to avoid falling foul of the law. Though Amazon.com has now withdrawn the contentious publication, other highly controversial books can still be bought through the online retailer. Amazon initially appeared to be reluctant to withdraw the book, saying in a statement, ‘Amazon believes it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable. Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions.’ Pray: for Amazon to review their decision and to ban texts that support illegal activities. (Dt.7:12) More: More http://www.christian.org.uk/news/outrage-after-amazon-sells-paedophile-guide-online/
Churches in the UK and Ireland will be holding services outdoor next month as a mark of solidarity with persecuted Christians around the world. The Great Out doors Church Service is an initiative of Release International, which works with Christians suffering for their faith. In some parts of the world, authorities have demolished churches or banned congregations from meeting in their own buildings. Worshippers at Shouwang Church in Beijing, China, are banned from entering their building and have been arrested as they meet outdoors. According to Release International, Shouwang Church has now held more than 100 services in the open air after being refused official recognition by the authorities. In Nigeria, the destruction of churches by extremists has forced many Christians to hold their services in the open air. In Central Asia, Christians have resorted to meeting in the countryside to escape surveillance. Churches in the UK and Ireland will be holding their services outdoors on 19 and 26 May as an act of public witness.
Pray: that those who are persecuted 'and where Churches have been destroyed, will be protected and God will provide. (Gen.50:21)
Scotland is ‘on the brink of declaring illegal the belief that every child where possible deserves a mother and father’, the chairman of a threatened Roman Catholic adoption agency has said. It follows the agency being told to end its pro-marriage policy by officials who say it discriminates against gay couples. But one board member of the agency commented: ‘The ultimate irony is that apparently in the name of tolerance, societies such as Saint Margaret’s are no longer to be tolerated.’ St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society, which is based in Glasgow, lost a ruling in March from the charity regulator. The regulator backed a previous decision which forces the agency to end its policy of prioritising couples that have been married for at least two years. And he added: ‘The reality is that the issue is not one about equality or diversity, but about freedom of religion and belief.’
Pray: that those organisations that hold to a belief in the centrality of marriage will be able to follow those convictions. (2Cor.8:13)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/our-beliefs-risk-being-made-illegal-says-adoption-agency/
The Orange Order has rejected draft legislation for new mechanisms to deal with contentious parades. The Grand Lodge met in County Tyrone on 6 July to consider the plans. The vote was 37 against and 32 for, with four abstentions. The proposals were drawn up after the Hillsborough Agreement and envisage a focus on dialogue and a code of conduct for both residents and marchers. The DUP said: ‘We are the only party to have put proposals on the table to deal with issues surrounding parading and protests, based upon upholding the fundamental right to freedom of public assembly’. The DUP and Sinn Fein set up a six-strong group to work on the matter to propose a new and improved framework to rule on controversial marches. One of those who sat on the working group, Sinn Fein MLA John O'Dowd, said that the vote showed the Orange Order needed to ‘wake up’. Pray: for reconciliation between the opposing parties in the province. (Lk.12:58) More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10534075.stm
Christians have welcomed the launch of Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ initiative as a way of getting everyone involved in their communities. Spelling out his vision in Liverpool on Monday, Cameron hailed the Big Society as ‘the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman in the street’. He wants to see more people at the grass-roots level work together to improve the quality of living for all through voluntary work. Initiatives include the local buy-out of a rural pub and the recruitment of volunteers to keep museums open. Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, said Christians are already at the heart of serving their communities, and should grasp this opportunity to get further involved. Steve Chalke, founder of Faithworks and Oasis, welcomed the thinking behind the ‘Big Society’. ‘This is what the church has always been about so there are enormous opportunities for churches in all of this. Pray: for Christian groups to prayerfully consider how this opportunity can be used for God’s work. (1Th.5:15) More:http://www.christiantoday.co.uk/article/christians.see.opportunities.for.the.church.in.camerons.big.society.pla
Only half of British adults are confident that Britain can now be described as ‘a Christian country’, according to research. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has written to David Cameron urging him to review laws that have seen Christians forced to abandon their faith in public. He warned that reforms introduced under Labour promoted ‘tolerance, equality and fairness’ at a cost of eroding Christianity as the foundation of British culture and society. The warnings follow a series of court cases in which the beliefs of Christians have come into conflict with the state authorities. In the letter to the Prime Minister, Lord Carey said Christians were too often ‘ridiculed’ and dismissed as relics of ‘a bygone age’. ‘Notwithstanding its vast and varied contribution to our society, there appears to be a suspicion about the validity and value of the role that the Christian faith plays in our national life,’ he said.
Pray: for the Church to take up the challenge to be the light in the darkness. (1Th.5:5)
More: http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2010/12/27/only-half-of-britons-say-uk-is-a-christian-country/
The Archbishop of Canterbury has told Anglicans at the Fourth Global South to South Encounter in Singapore that it is only the work of God’s Spirit that can heal tensions within the worldwide Anglican Communion. Dr Rowan Williams said in a video message to the meeting this week that the recent actions of certain provinces had made the ‘confusion, brokenness and tension’ in the Anglican family ‘still more acute’. Dr Williams pointed to the Anglican Communion Covenant, a document aimed at uniting the provinces despite their divisions, as a new way of ‘grounding’ the Communion’s mission and laying the foundation for its future. ‘It is the work of the Spirit that heals the body of Christ, not the plans or the statements of any group, or any person, or any instrument of communion’ he said.
Pray: that God would send His Spirit to heal the broken body of His bride. (Mt.12:25)