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The National Lottery has given £205,000 to fund a two year research project which will make spiritual ‘healing therapies’ available on the NHS. The project, led by charity Fresh Winds, is designed to identify the effectiveness of a Buddhist ‘healing’ technique (called Reiki) by testing the method on 200 patients suffering from bowel disorders at NHS Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. The National Lottery will brief the NHS on the research findings next year ‘to inform their decision whether to introduce elements of complementary therapy into the management of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.’ The controversial therapy, which has been termed by critics as another form of ‘voodoo’ involves the running of hands over the patient’s body (without touching) to radiate ‘healing energy’ which allegedly works ‘like a gentle set of jump leads’ and relieves symptoms of pain.
Pray: that the healing power of the Holy Spirit would be recognised as superior to alternative therapies. (Act.10:38: Mt.10:1)
Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has warned, ‘New equality laws are forcing religious people to flee the country because they are being denied the freedom to live in accordance with their beliefs’ The Orthodox Jewish leader claimed that anti-discrimination policies had fuelled an ‘erosion of religious liberty’ in Britain that was leading to a new ‘Mayflower’, a reference to the flight of the persecuted Pilgrim Fathers to America in the 17th century. His comments follow growing alarm from leading religious figures over the increasing influence of equality laws. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has called on the Prime Minister to review equality legislation amid concerns that religious freedoms and Britain’s Christian heritage are under threat. Speaking to the House of Commons public administration select committee, Lord Sacks also said, ‘I share a real concern that the attempt to impose the current prevailing template of equality and discrimination on religious organisations is an erosion of religious liberty.’
Pray: that rapid social change would not alter religious practices that have been in place for many years. (Lk.1:50)
Lord Patten the new chairman of the BBC waded into the growing row over secularism, saying atheists are ‘intolerant’ of religion. Lord Patten a former Cabinet minister and practising Catholic said that he felt he was regarded as ’peculiar’ over his faith. His comments come amid a deepening battle over the freedom of religious belief in the British Isles. He will take control of the BBC Trust next month. He is the highest-profile political figure to enter the debate over what is seen as a creeping attempt to remove Christianity from public life. His comments angered secularists who expressed concern that his faith could affect his ability to remain objective in making decisions. Speaking last week at Our Lady of Grace and St Edward in Chiswick on the theme, ‘Faith and Public Service - Christian witness in the wider world’, he said he was dismayed by the attitude of secularists to the Pope's visit last year. Pray: that God would use Lord Patten in his role at the BBC and many other Christians in the media to be His vessels of hope in the face of secular values. (Ps.33:8) More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8469734/Lord-Patten-attacks-intolerant-secularists.htmll
Local bureaucrats who have no sense of Britain’s religious history are squeezing faith out of public life, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. He says those who think religion is ‘automatically a problem in our public life’ often lack an understanding of Britain’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Speaking in the House of Lords, Dr Rowan Williams said a generation of administrators and local officials has grown up with ‘little or no sense’ of ‘how our political and legal history’ is shaped by its relationship with Judaism and Christianity. He said that ‘failure of understanding’ is one of the reasons for ‘the reluctance in recent years to develop effective partnership between statutory bodies and faith groups in the work of social regeneration’. He did however say that there were signs of improvement in the area. The Archbishop has previously accused the Government of treating religious faith as a ‘problem’ and an ‘eccentricity’ practiced by ‘oddities, foreigners and minorities’.
Pray: for the re-establishment of Biblical faith in public life. (2 Pe.1:21)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/rowan-williams-local-officials-sideline-religion/
Liverpool has become the first city in the UK to carry a homosexual rainbow emblem on some of its street signs, despite other councils banning Christian symbols. Liverpool City councillor, Nick Small said: ‘The new signs clearly show that we are recognising where the LGBT scene is based in the city and that it is a very important part of our city life.’ The city’s enthusiasm to promote the emblem stands in contrast to other local councils that have banned Christian symbols from public display. Camden Council in North London told a church group that it could not advertise an event on religion and climate change unless it removed words like ‘Christian’ and ‘God’ from the text. Staff at Salisbury Council were told not to use the phrase ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ when talking to people because the religious reference might offend atheists.
Pray: for the authorities that make unwise decisions that go against common sense may their ideas be thwarted. (Ps.94:8)
The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) has nine key points it wants the Government to consider in its recently announced review of the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway. It suggests that only those who are in the last few days of life should be placed on the LCP and that placing someone on the LCP should be discussed with the relative or carer. Latest figures suggest that around 130,000 people a year are dying on the LCP, amounting to about a third of annual deaths in the UK. Writing in a review for CMF’s Journal, Dr Jeff Stephenson, a Devon-based consultant in palliative care says: ‘The LCP represents a pragmatic and effective response to some of the suffering experienced by many in the last days of life. There is always potential for misuse and abuse and there are undoubtedly instances where this occurs.’
Pray: that the CMF’s points will be considered seriously in the coming review. (Lev.19:32)
Liverpool Councillors have called for extremely addictive high-stake betting machines to be banned from betting shops in the city. Councillor Nick Small said that Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs), which include virtual versions of casino games like roulette, are the fastest way for gamblers to lose money. The machines allow people to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds, and city leaders have called on the Government to ban the machines or give local councils the power to implement restrictions. Councillors voted unanimously in favour of a motion tabled by Cllr Small on the matter. Cllr Small said: “People are spending money they can ill afford on these terminals”. He added: “There’s hundreds of betting shops in Liverpool and we just don’t have the power to control them. “Ultimately, we need power to reduce the speed of play and to bring down the maximum stake.
Pray: for a local councils to be given the power to control to restrict high-stake betting machines. (1Tim.6:9-10)
More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/liverpool-calls-for-ban-on-addictive-betting-machines/
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Sermons delivered by Catholic priests are often painfully ‘grey and dull’ and need to be livened up with the ‘scandal’ contained within the Bible, the Vatican's most senior cultural official said. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi said preaching in churches had become so formulaic and boring that it risked becoming ‘irrelevant’ to congregations accustomed to the excitement and immediacy of television and the internet. ‘The advent of televised and computerised information requires us to be compelling and trenchant, to cut to the heart of the matter, resort to narratives and colour,’ said the cardinal, who as the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture is the Vatican's unofficial minister for culture. Too many priests employed theological language that was ‘grey, dull and flavourless’ and instead should spice up their sermons with graphic stories contained in the Bible, which used much more forceful imagery. The Bible was ‘crowded with stories, symbols and images,’ he said.
Pray: for all those who preach to be led by the Holy Spirit to convey the Word in relevant and appropriate ways. (Ac.11:15)
More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8872795/Catholic-priests-urged-to-liven-up-sermons.html
Couples who live together before marriage are at significantly greater risk of divorce, a recent report says. ‘Those couples who have lived with each other are noticeably (around 15 percent) more likely to divorce; couples who have previously lived with a different partner before getting married are around 45 percent more likely to divorce,’ report authors Dr. John Hayward and Dr. Guy Brandon in ‘Cohabitation: An Alternative to Marriage?’ released by the Jubilee Centre, About 55 percent of cohabitations now lead to marriage, while 45 percent end in separation, they said, adding that even those couples who do separate and go on to other live-in arrangements, later marrying their second (or subsequent) partner, are far more likely to divorce. Since the early 1980s, cohabitation overtook marriage as the most common form of first live-in relationship. Marriage remains by far the most common family form of choice overall, the report concluded.
Pray: that this report will raise awareness and the importance of marriage in relationships. (Heb.13:4)
Live streaming of child sex abuse via webcams has emerged as a method of exploitation, experts have warned, amid a doubling of reported indecent images. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said children were being ‘abused to order’. Offenders targeted vulnerable families overseas, paying them to facilitate child abuse, according to its report. CEOP said those carrying out abuse used a ‘hidden internet’ to disguise their identity and avoid detection. Their report found the number of still and moving child abuse images reported to CEOP had doubled in the last year to 70,000. The child protection body - part of the Home Office's Serious Organised Crime Agency - said it received 8,000 reports of indecent images of children being shared last year. It said live streaming emerged in 2012 as a means of producing and distributing images. ‘We're seeing cases where they're effectively being abused to order for paying customers,’ Chief Executive Peter Davies told the BBC.
Pray: that CEOP will have success in exposing offenders who distribute such material and especially as they use live streaming. (Eph.5:11)
More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23137754