Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

Figures based on safeguarding assessment data from local authorities reported children in England being abused due to belief in witchcraft has risen by 34% in three years. Abuse is driven by believing the child is possessed by demons or the devil. Families experiencing some kind of misfortune, such as parental mental health or experiencing exclusion because of poverty, try to make sense of their experience by believing that a spiritual realm has an impact on what happens here. They treat children as scapegoats for the misfortune that they are experiencing, and by punishing them they believe they are expelling the spiritual evil. Some UK belief-based child abuse is linked to child-trafficking where children are taken through different practices like witchcraft, juju, and black magic to silence them - as a form of control.

A Christian man is calling for more caution from medical and mental health services after undergoing irreversible gender reassignment surgery. His story represents a stark warning to parents, government, and medical and educational services, at a time when figures released by the NHS reveal a 2,500% increase in referrals to gender identity clinics over the past decade. After an appointment with a psychiatrist, despite having suicidal thoughts and mental health issues on his medical records, he was automatically put on a waiting list for gender identity clinic with ‘no underlying medical conditions’. The NHS paid for the operation, which he now deeply regrets, saying, ‘When I see and hear of books such as “10,000 Dresses” being read to schoolchildren, I see the same influence that led me to this harmful addiction. More must be done to protect our children, not to encourage them to pursue the same destructive path that I did.’

A former Blackburn day school and Sunday School built in 1834 to nurture young people will be able to continue its legacy, thanks to the BBC Children in Need annual appeal. At the parish rooms of St Silas Church (with Pudsey Bear among the congregation), Rev Sheelagh Aston quoted Luke 3:11, ‘Whoever has two coats is to share with him who has none’. She threw out the challenge, ‘What if we did give what we had to others?’ Her comments were just one of many as people once again seek to raise money for Children in Need. By clicking the ‘More’ button you can read more about how Children in Need, DIY SOS, and hundreds of volunteers gave their time to come and serve the community and the church.

Large navy vessels will watch at chokepoints while smaller vessels will patrol key transit lanes, and airborne assets will monitor traffic in the Persian Gulf. This stems from a new coalition officially launched on 7 November from its Bahrain headquarters. It will protect shipping in the troubled waters after a string of attacks that Washington and its allies blame on Iran, threatening the world’s oil supply. Iran denies responsibility for the attacks, and has put forward its own proposals for boosting Gulf security - that pointedly exclude outside powers. The new mission, dubbed Operation Sentinel, will see vessels escorted through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint at the head of the Gulf and the main artery for transporting oil. Australia and the United Kingdom are the main non-Gulf countries to have sent warships to escort shipping. The newest member, Albania, joined on 6 November.

The mission of an evangelism boot-camp will be to equip, train, and launch radical evangelists, whose hearts burn to touch the world with the Gospel, onto the front lines of the harvest field. The first ever bootcamp by Christ for all Nations will launch in January 2020. This six-month intensive training is a fast track to the field which will open the door for Christians to preach the gospel in Africa alongside a gospel crusade team. Not for the faint of heart, this programme will include rigorous components of study and service. In only a few months participants will be prepared mind and spirit to fulfill the plans that God has for them to reach the lost! This first training school is limited to only fifty students. But its launch will be a step to an extended school coming soon, with additional training requirements for work in the field. 

Passion for the Nation reminds us that ‘the favour that brings promotion and power does not come from anywhere on earth, for no one exalts a person but God’ (Psalm 75:7). Pray that every political party will be filled by gifted people on whom God’s favour rests; men and women of righteousness and integrity, who will know, experience and be guided by heaven’s wisdom and truth, aligning this nation with Kingdom purposes and plans. We can declare that God’s light will shine into every dark place, and we speak God’s plans for good over every other agenda, in the name of Jesus. The Evangelical Alliance has launched a prayer series entitled ‘Praying ahead of the general election’. CARE has recently gone live on a bespoke election website, EngaGE19. The World Prayer Centre team have invited Christians to join them at PrayerShift on 9 November, Watch and Pray on 25 November, and intercession on 12 December. See

A plural, sustainable and diverse media is vital for a healthy democracy, but the UK has just three companies dominating 83% of national newspaper circulation. Last year a survey of 250 political articles and news segments from the largest (online and television) providers revealed that the anchors made 29 false statements or claims, a further 66 clear instances of misleading or distorted coverage including misquotations, reliance on single source accounts, omission of essential facts or right of reply, and repeated value-based assumptions made by broadcasters without evidence or qualification. In total, a quarter of the sample contained at least one documented inaccuracy or distortion. At this time of election media fervour, please pray for an end to the overwhelming imbalance of news reporting that this survey reveals. Pray for improvements and changes to be made in reporting so that the UK communications environment functions in the public interest. See also the next article, Christians in media.

The media influence people, shape worldviews, and can ultimately bring about change in society. While the world gets constantly bombarded by images and messages that distort God’s truth and shift people further from Him, Christians in the media desire to see them used to bring about positive changes. Alan Rusbridger, for twenty years editor-in-chief of the Guardian, recently warned, ‘We are, for the first time in modern history, facing the prospect of how societies would exist without reliable news’. Christians can pray for restraints to be put on technology owned by individuals with particular agendas. Pray for an end to false revelations and closely guarded secrets being spread at the click of a button. May dangerous misinformation be blocked by up-to-date infiltration technology. Pray for authors, anchor men and women, researchers and recorders to be true to the facts and avoid fake news stories. May quality news reporting and higher ethics be established across all media outlets.

Each year the Hope for the Countryside partnership hosts a day to gather those with a heart to see a fresh move of the Holy Spirit across all of rural England. The next one is on Saturday 16 November in Sutton Lanes End Macclesfield, from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm. This is very much open to all who live in our cities and towns as well as in the countryside! Come and join us to worship, learn and pray together - or give some time to pray wherever you will be. Download a flyer for more details: With Brexit postponed, and its implications for farming still unclear and uncertain, farmers are even more anxious about what might be ahead. They are also divided as to what they believe is best for farming’s future, The NFU said a no-deal Brexit would be catastrophic, but a September poll showed over 40% of farmers favor this outcome.

Children’s panels recognise that offending behaviour is usually a sign of other problems. The panel system was introduced in Scotland in 1971, with a wholly different approach to supporting children in crisis. They focus on welfare and protection. There are no juvenile courts, unless the case involves homicide or rape, which go into the mainstream legal system. There are no prosecutors or police officers sitting in, even though 75% of cases are referred by the police. The panel members are not judges or magistrates, but trained volunteers who act as the child’s guarantors, often directing social work departments and schools to put in place tailored support and services. Nearly 3,560 children went before a children’s panel last year. Hearings are not interested in innocence or guilt, but only in the young person’s welfare; they listen really hard to the young person, to the family, and to the professionals. Then they decide whether the young person needs the protection of the law.