Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

Olubunmi Diya is mourning after her daughter Comfort (9), son Praise-Emmanuel (16), and husband Pastor Gabriel (52) drowned in a hotel swimming pool on Christmas Eve. Olubunmi said she believed something was wrong that must have made swimming difficult for them’, and that they were somehow dragged into the middle of the pool. The hotel owners issued a statement stressing that exhaustive investigations by the police confirmed that the pool was working normally and there was no malfunction of any kind. They also cited the police statement that ‘the tragic accident was due to the lack of swimming expertise of the victims’. Olubunmi said that they were able to swim. Her family is not satisfied with the idea that it was a simple accident, and may open a parallel investigation into the deaths.

Conservative peer Charles Moore, as a guest editor on Radio 4's Today programme, said the BBC has a liberal bias: ‘What I am objecting to is preaching.’ He said the BBC is a secular church which tells us what we ought to think about things. Mr Moore had difficulty trying to get information about climate change onto the programme, even though he was the guest editor and should have had a free rein. He said the obstacles came because of bureaucracy and the fact that Roger Harabin, the environment editor, is ‘so biased’. Nick Robinson defended his colleague, stating the BBC is regulated by Ofcom. The director of Affinity, a network of UK churches, said that he has ‘a lot of sympathy’ with Mr Moore; BBC intolerance of any other view causes questioning and framing of questions to be based on a number of presumptions.

Between April 2017 and December 2019, Kent police investigated 109 children for possessing, or threatening with, an offensive weapon or blade at school. Two children, aged seven and nine, were not prosecuted for knife-related offences because they were under ten - the age of criminal responsibility. The most common age group for suspects was 14- to 15-year-olds. Five adults were also investigated for having knives on school premises. These figures follow similar disclosures by the majority of forces in England and Wales; numbers are much higher in places like London. An October investigation found that thousands of children had brought weapons to school, with some suspects as young as four. Pray for churches, support workers, and social services as they seek to help overwhelmed parents juggling busy lives with badly-behaved children and teenagers.

Britain's personal debt mountain is growing. Households borrowed an extra £20bn on credit cards and have £45bn more personal debt than they did a decade ago – an increase of 25%. In 2019, total unsecured debt (credit cards, personal loans and overdrafts) was £225bn. A decade ago Britain was near the peak of cheap credit-fuelled debt binges. Many hoped that personal debt would be reined in. This has not happened. Borrowing increased as wages failed to keep pace with inflation. These statistics do not include secured borrowing such as mortgage debt or student loans, which increases the figure substantially. Experts believe the personal debt surge is due to credit becoming cheaper towards the end of the decade. StepChange, a debt charity, recently estimated that across Britain, over three million people fell behind on an essential household bill in the last 12 months.

CofE staff are being given ‘unconscious bias training’ in a bid to see an equal gender split across its leadership by 2030. The Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, said, 'I certainly think that having women as priests enables different types of conversations that probably wouldn't happen if you're a man. My background as a nurse means people often talk to me in a different way.' The presence of female leaders within the Church has risen in recent years, with the number of women in senior leadership positions doubling between 2012 and 2017. Of the 115 UK bishops within the Anglican Church, currently 25 are women. However the door is still closed for female priests within the Catholic Church.

UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab expressed ‘serious concern’ about a possible miscarriage of justice by a Cypriot court convicting a British teenager of lying about being gang-raped on holiday. The 19-year-old originally told police she was raped by twelve Israeli youths. She withdrew her complaint two weeks later, saying she was ‘forced’ to do so by police who left her ‘scared for my life’ and who did not record the interview; it was her word against theirs in court. The alleged attackers have returned home, while she faces jail and a fine. The case raises questions about Cyprus’s treatment of victims of sexual assault. Protesters claim the Cypriot authorities ‘always find a reason not to believe women who claim they have been raped’. The teenager has been contacted by others who were ‘forced to remain silent’ during similar experiences. She will be sentenced on 7 January.

France, Germany, and Britain have told the UN's secretary-general that Iran has developed a ballistic-missile system capable of delivering a nuclear weapon in violation of the Security Council resolution. A letter from those countries, plus Russia, China, and the USA, stated that the development of such missiles was inconsistent with the resolution endorsing a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and urged Tehran not to pursue activity related to such missiles. Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the letter ‘a desperate falsehood to cover up European countries' miserable incompetence in fulfilling their commitments to the nuclear deal. He said, ‘If Britain, France, and Germany want a modicum of global credibility, they can begin by exerting sovereignty rather than bowing to US bullying.’ Pray for Iran’s church leaders amid the upheaval. They are praying that God will give them strategies to use the current unrest to advance His kingdom.

1 Timothy 2:2 tells us to ‘pray for all who are in high positions’. Boris Johnson’s first speech after the election urged ‘everyone, on either side of an increasingly arid three and a half year argument, to find closure and let the healing begin’. We can pray that his words will be a prophetic declaration, and the division and pain will give way to healing and restoration of our nation. After accepting the Queen's invitation to form a government, he spoke of a ‘one-nation conservative government, acting for everyone in the UK’. Pray for the new legislation which will pave the way for the UK leaving Europe on 31 January. Pray for the future trade and security talks that will begin almost immediately.

Quakers in Britain are challenging Boris Johnson’s new government to give priority to its promise to take action on climate breakdown. They are urging him to ensure that the economic transition puts the most marginalised people first. They want the government to create a humane and fair immigration system and a culture of welcome. They will encourage the Conservative party to focus on its manifesto pledges on crime prevention and rehabilitation, rather than on longer sentencing, to transform justice; and also to promote peace and nonviolence across the UK and abroad. Quakers want to work with the new government to build a fairer, greener society, and encourage politicians from all parties to come together in the national interest. See also @PoliticalQuaker.

The headteacher of a London primary school ruled that children should sing ‘baby boy Jesus’, not ‘little Lord Jesus’ in the carol Away in a manger (so that pupils of all beliefs could join in). Children also sang edited versions of modern hymns at a carol service and nativity at a nearby church. Margarita, whose children attend the school, said: ‘As a family we go to church, pray together, and celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus the Son of God. If he was just a baby boy named Jesus, there wouldn't be a celebration in the first place. He is our Lord and Saviour and King of all Kings - that's the whole point.’