Priti Patel argues with the church
21 Apr 2022
Justin Welby spoke against proposed plans for illegal migrants to be transported to Rwanda before being able to apply to live in the UK. He said, ‘The principle must stand the judgement of God. It cannot carry the weight of our national responsibility as a country formed by Christian values. Sub-contracting out our responsibilities, even to a country that seeks to do well like Rwanda, is the opposite of the nature of God, who himself took responsibility for our failures.’ Also Dr Rowan Williams said, ‘Is the policy sinful? In a word, yes.’ The Archbishop of York said, ‘We can do better than this.’ Priti Patel has fought back against the criticisms via an article in The Times. It reads, ‘We are taking bold and innovative steps and it's surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions.'
CARE on online safety bill
21 Apr 2022
Last week we prayed for better laws and legislation to safeguard children from online sexual exploitation. This week the Christian charity CARE said that the legislation - as it stands - falls short of safeguarding children. They said many amendments must be made to the bill, such as the issue of age verification measures. Tim Cairns said, ‘Last year, they drafted a bill that didn't cover all pornography websites. They amended the bill and the second reading was on 19 April.’ CARE said that there are still issues to be ironed out. For example, websites with self-selecting tick boxes do not meet the requirements for age assurance, or age verification. CARE said, ‘There is a moral duty to do this, given its broken promise to usher in age checks in 2017. Ministers can’t afford to let children down a second time.’
Nadhim Zahawi rejects smacking children ban
21 Apr 2022
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he does not believe the state should be ‘nannying’ parents about the way they bring up their children. He has rejected the call to ban smacking children in England, saying, ‘Parents are entitled to discipline their children. My very strong view is we must trust parents on this. They should be entitled to discipline their children. There is a very big difference between a “light smack on the arm” and child abuse.’ Dame Rachel De Souza, the children's commissioner, has signalled her support for changing the law to give children the same protection from assault as adults. Wales has made illegal any type of corporal punishment, including smacking, hitting, slapping or shaking illegal. In England and Northern Ireland, smacking a child is unlawful, but is allowed as long as it constitutes ‘reasonable punishment’.
The Russian Orthodox Church is echoing Putin to justify the war. Its stance is driving many Ukrainian priests and parishioners to reject its teaching and join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Father Nicolay Pluzhnik said, ‘When the war started, I waited to hear from Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the “father” of our church.’ There was no reaction, and then Patriarch Kirill and most of Moscow’s priests gave blessings to the war. They failed to condemn killing innocent Ukrainians or call for a ceasefire. Instead, they held large, televised services in Moscow to bless Russian troops, with sermons proposing the Kremlin's war is a righteous war about the future of Christianity. Patriarch Kirill said, ‘What is happening today is much more important than politics. It’s about human salvation.’ Dr Rowan Williams said, ‘There are elements in the Russian Christian tradition that become toxic when they follow Christian nationalism. It’s a messianic approach to Russia’s fate.’
Ukraine: battle for control of the skies
21 Apr 2022
Much of the focus of the war in Ukraine has been about the battle on the ground - but the fight to dominate the skies is just as important. The BBC has interviewed a Ukrainian air defence officer about the battle for control of the skies. Captain Vasyl Kravchuk has a surprisingly ready smile for a man who has endured fifty days of war. They spoke to him via video link from his base at an undisclosed location. He knows the coming weeks will offer no respite. Russia may have received a bloody nose in its aborted attempts to take Kyiv, but with the Eastern region of the Donbas now firmly in Moscow's sights, the men and women of Dnipro's anti-aircraft missile brigade will continue to play a key role in the next phase of the war. Capt Kravchuk said, ‘Past wars have shown that whoever dominates the air wins the war’.
India: authorities arrest 36 Christians
21 Apr 2022
A congregation of 100 Christians celebrating a Maundy Thursday service in Uttar Pradesh’s Fathepur District were threatened by a radical Hindu mob who surrounded the church and subsequently locked the doors. A First Information Report was lodged against 36 of the Christians on alleged forced conversion charges based on Uttar Pradesh’s anti-conversion laws after the mob’s leader, Himanshu Dikshit, complained that the church was working to convert Hindus to the Christian faith. Most of the congregation were freed from the locked church, but the 36 remained in jail until the wider Christian community raised their bail amount. One of the congregation said, ‘This is a perfect portrayal of Jesus’ suffering 2,000 years ago. We know Jesus endured, and we will.’
Indonesia: Sumatra’s lost people group
21 Apr 2022
Over 220 million Indonesians are Muslim, 87% of the population. Christians are 8% of the population and live mainly in the major cities and the eastern Indonesian islands. Despite being a recognised religion Christians are persecuted, particularly in Aceh on the island of Sumatra where they apply Shari’a law instead of Indonesian law. Acehnese strongly oppose anyone who has converted to Christianity. There are 0.12% Christian and 0.00% evangelical Acehnese. Pray for missionaries to reach the Acehnese with the love of Christ so that many will know and believe Jesus died to pay for their sins and rose from the dead. Pray for them to understand the weight of their sin and that doing good works doesn’t erase their sins. Pray for the few Christians there to understand the imperishable inheritance they have in Jesus. See
Africa: deaf are unreached people
21 Apr 2022
There are some Christian deaf leaders and deaf believers in South Africa who now have scripture published in sign language by Door International. That gives them a perfect opportunity to move into training local leaders in how to evangelise, disciple, and plant churches. Published sign-language scriptures and deaf leaders are rare. Deaf people are one of the world’s largest unreached people groups. Less than 2% of the world’s 70 million deaf people have access to the Gospel. Using a new technique, Door is teaching deaf leaders from Angola and South Africa how to reach their people for Christ. The programme ‘2×2’ is based on Christ’s mission approach in Luke 10. Between now and June four leaders are going into the field to live, work, observe, and serve alongside existing two-by-two teams to gain some of the tools they need and then return to their country and continue the process.