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Hundreds of thousands of Christians across Britain and Ireland are joining in the 2013 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in churches across these islands. The Week is an annual event marked by churches of all traditions - Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, evangelical and indigenous. It runs from 18-25 January, though many congregations were most involved on last Sunday, 20 January. The collaborative event aims at building bridges in witness and common service between Christians of many backgrounds and understandings, and is promoted by ecumenical bodies nationally and internationally. The theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2013 comes from an ecumenical group in South India. They have reflected upon their own context and offer to people across the globe thematic ideas that call fellow Christians to respond to the obligation to act justly in the world. The text is taken from Micah 6.6-8.
Pray: for a significant legacy from the week of prayer. ( Mic. 6:6-8)
More: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17826
With austerity being the talk of the day, the Bishop of Bath and Wells has challenged the church to step up and be the ‘bigger society’ at a time when sacrifice is being asked of all. Preaching in Wells Cathedral last Sunday, the Rt Rev Peter Price said: ‘Nationally we face the ongoing realities of overseas conflict, a war economy, a national debt, difficult decisions by government, calling all of us to sacrifice. For some the sacrifice will be all too real in terms of lost jobs, homes, even futures. In any democracy, calls for sacrifice to meet pressing realities require the trust of people that government will keep covenant – faith – to fulfil its obligations of serving the common good, and the possibility of a ‘better future for everyone’. Here we find sure ground for faith, firm support for hope, and the basis of a society in which trust, neighbourliness and humanity is found’.
Pray: that the Government and electorate will keep faith with each other to ensure fairness to all. (Isa.26:2)
British prisoners are increasingly being forced to convert to Islam by their fellow inmates, the prison officers’ union has warned. Muslim gangs are growing in power and influence among prisoners and there are concerns that they are targeting vulnerable new arrivals – making prisons a breeding ground for extremism. ‘It is a concern, and there’s been clear evidence from a variety of different incidents. Young men are being targeted and then coerced into converting to Islam,’ the association’s general secretary, Steve Gillan, told Sky News. One woman, whose brother is being bullied by a gang trying to force him to convert, told the broadcaster: ‘He just looks like a broken man, he's tearful on visits. I'm just really scared for him. He's been physically assaulted. He's had black eyes. In the shower, he got threatened with a knife. He's not going to back down. He's not going to convert for anyone.’
Pray: against the growth of Muslim extremism in our prisons and the pressure they exert to convert to Islam. (Mt.23:15)
An Islamic television channel has been hit with a hefty fine after a Muslim hate preacher told viewers, live on air, that it was the duty of all Muslims to murder anyone who shows disrespect for the Prophet Mohammed. Noor TV, a British-based Satellite Television Channel that broadcasts programmes about Islam throughout Europe, was fined $115,000 by the British broadcasting regulator known as Ofcom for inciting people to commit murder. Ofcom said the fine imposed on August 21 was so large due to ‘the serious nature of the breaches of the Broadcasting Code.’ It said young Muslims watching Noor TV could become ‘radicalized’ and take ‘violent and criminal action as a result of watching videos of Muslims with extreme views.’ The programme in question, Paigham-e-Mustafa, is a talk show aimed at young British Muslims with questions about a wide range of issues and personal conduct relating to Islam and Islamic teachings.
Pray: against this trend to radicalize Muslims and incite murder. (Mt.5:21)
More: http://europenews.dk/en/node/70934
Britain ranks the third worst country in Europe for pressures on families, according to an index compiled by the Relationships Foundation. The think tank’s new family pressure gauge compares the pressures on families in 27 European countries and finds that families in Britain are struggling more than their European counterparts under the weight of money worries, long working hours and high living costs. Only families in Romania and Bulgaria are more pressured. The study found that while Britons work the longest hours per week in Europe – 43 on average – they are also paying dearly for it, with nearly a quarter of the family income (23.5%) being spent on childcare. That amounts to twice the amount paid by families in France, three times that paid by German families, and four times the cost of childcare in Sweden. Around one in five British families with dependent children (20.9%) is experiencing ‘difficulty’ or ‘great difficulty’ in making ends meet.
Pray: that these shocking statistics will awake our government to the needs of families. (Pr.11:29a)
More: ttp://www.christiantoday.com/article/britain.third.worst.country.for.families.in.europe/28029.htm
Britain hosts the third biggest volume of internet pornography in the world and is home to more than half a million sites, according to a shocking survey. There are more than 52million pages of pornographic content in the country, including rape websites registered under the national domain name which ends co.uk. The revelation that Britain is one of the most popular worldwide locations to host adult websites will intensify pressure on the Government to provide an opt-out system for online porn. There are no restrictions on pornographers registering their sites under Britain’s domain name, for which a private company called Nominet UK is responsible. John Carr, a government adviser on child internet safety, called on Nominet to ban websites containing certain words like rape and said the ‘free for all’ should end. He said that all porn sites should be under the domain name .xxx and declared: ‘The UK should not provide succour and comfort to porn merchants.’ (See also Prayer Alert 30-2013)
Pray: that the Government will move forward their plans to control internet pornography, crime and other misuse. (Col.3:23)
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali has warned that Britain is no longer a free society where conscience is respected. Speaking at the Christian Broadcasting Council’s annual conference, the bishop warned that ‘encroaching totalitarianism’ was threatening respect for conscience. ‘What we are facing is not a free society, but an ideology that is seeking to impose its views on us,’ he said. The bishop said that the secular worldview was undermining absolute respect for human life and amounted to an attack on the unborn child, the ill, the disabled, the elderly and the family. He said that respect for the unborn child had been eroded by the ‘demands of science’ and ‘huge commercial interests’, as well as a ‘relativistic’ worldview that cannot explain the dignity of the human person. ‘If you can dispense with a person at the earliest stage of life why not do it at the later stages. Or in between?’ he said. Pray: that the secular worldview and its ideology would not be imposed upon our society. (Job.27:6) More:http://www.christiantoday.com/article/britain.is.no.longer.a.free.society.says.bishop.nazirali/27732.htm
Technology and the pressures of modern life are today blamed for creating an epidemic of loneliness, as increasing numbers of people rely on the Internet to communicate with friends and family. A major report by the Mental Health Foundation suggests that more than one in ten people in Britain feel lonely ‘often’, as increasing numbers choose to live alone, work long hours and see each other less and less. The findings, from a survey of more than 2,200 adults from across Britain, suggest loneliness affects people of all ages but that women are more likely than men to report feelings of isolation. ‘Once loneliness becomes chronic, it is difficult to treat,’ the report adds. ‘People who are chronically lonely can get stuck in a loop of negative behaviour, and might push others away or seek transient contact, such as multiple sexual partners, which can make them even more isolated.’ Pray: for all those who are lonely that God would bring friendship into their lives. Pray also that the Church will find ways of reaching these people. (Ps.68:6a) More: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7135506.ece
Edmund Adamus, an adviser to the Archbishop of Westminster, said five decades of liberalising abortion and gay rights laws had made Britain more anti-Catholic than countries where Christians can be subjected to violent persecution. The director of pastoral affairs in the diocese of Westminster blamed Parliament for allowing the country to become ‘the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death’. His remarks are likely to cause tension ahead of the Pope's state visit to Britain later this month. He said ‘ Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the epicentre.’ The expression ‘culture of death’ is often used to refer to liberal policies on abortion and euthanasia. He added that Parliament over the last 50 years had been ‘the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage, in essence one of the most anti-Catholic landscapes, culturally speaking, more even than those places where Catholics suffer open persecution.’ Pray: for God’s guidance as we weigh these cautionary comments. (1Co.14:29)
The ecclesiastical landscape is changing and new mission movements are growing out of, or in some cases, away from traditional church models. The challenge is: how old and new can grow long into the future in a way that allows them to complement, rather than challenge, each other. Around a hundred Christians engaged in fresh expressions and mission movements across the UK convened at Sheffield Cathedral on Thursday in an attempt to break some new ground on this issue. The Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft, sees it as one of the most important in the coming years. In his opening address to the New Monasticism conference, he said: ‘The principal challenge for the Church of England in the next 10 years is helping structures of the institutional church relate to the new mission structures that are emerging, and to help these mission structures relate to the Church of England.’
Pray: for both 'new' and 'old' to work together to more effectively carry out the work of the Church. (Isa.13:4)
More: http://www.christiantoday.co.uk/article/brave.new.church/29565.htm