Displaying items by tag: Evangelical Alliance

Rishi Sunak’s rise to Prime Minister was on the front pages of most of India’s newspapers. The Evangelical Alliance said his appointment would reflect Britain's religious diversity. ‘As a nation, we celebrate freedom of religion and belief and it's important that we're able to recognise different people's religious beliefs and how they practise it. We should be encouraged that people are free to practise different beliefs, but in the same way, that we should stand for the freedom to practise our own religion.’ There are calls for a period of a ‘quiet, stable government’ under Rishi Sunak. Christian Conservative MP John Glen who has known Mr Sunak since 2014, said he believes Sunak has the integrity, drive and intelligence to restore the UK's reputation after the political and financial turmoil of recent weeks.

The Evangelical Alliance are asking the Scottish government to open a grant for converting church buildings to become net zero in energy efficiency, ventilation and in their heat networks so that every church in Scotland is carbon-neutral by 2045. They said, ‘We believe it is part of our commission as Christians to be good stewards of God’s creation. After God created the earth and everything in it, He declared it very good. He invited the people to have “dominion” over it; they were to take responsibility for its care. As followers of Jesus, we should treat the earth with respect because God has entrusted us to take care of it.' Meanwhile seventy respected climate scientists want Boris Johnson to end new oil and gas developments off Shetland and urgently set out a concrete plan for moving from fossil fuels to low-carbon electricity sources.

At the end of 2020, national records reported that over 1,200 people had died of a drug-related death, putting Scotland at the top of the chart for drug-related deaths in Europe. The report painted a heart-breaking picture of loss and pain in so many families and communities across Scotland. Evangelical Alliance Scotland, Bethany Christian Trust, and Cross Reach carry out amazing work caring for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, but they want to find out how they can further support the work of churches and agencies that focus on drug addiction. Therefore they are currently carrying out a survey with key questions around how drug addiction affects people's churches and how they can together provide sustainable solutions. 

As the first Covid-19 vaccines are rolled out, many people are asking what Christians should think about the safety of vaccines developed and tested so quickly. There are questions around the equitable distribution of vaccines both in the UK and to the global community, plus the ethical issues surrounding a false rumour of their connection with tissue derived from an aborted foetus. The media are full of false vaccine claims - everything from alleged plots to put microchips into people to the supposed re-engineering of our genetic code. At a webinar hosted by the Evangelical Alliance NI two renowned speakers, Prof John Wyatt and Dr Mary Neal, addressed some of these issues and gave believers guidance on how to make up their own minds about what to do when their turn comes.

The Walk and Pray resource which the Evangelical Alliance released during lockdown has proved to be one of their most popular downloads to date, showing that many people have indeed been ‘looking up’ to the Lord for help during this time. Consequently, they have released a sequel, Walk, Pray, Talk, a five-part resource that will help people to explore prayer through the themes of being people of God, present to God and people, participation, and caring for a place.

Lord, we pray for peace in this election season. We pray for peace between divided communities and within families; we pray for peace between political opponents. We pray that You will be our refuge and our strength, our mighty fortress in times of need. Lord, keep our focus on you, and as we hear and think about politics we would seek to serve and worship you. ‘I lift my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven’ (Psalm 123:1). We pray for political journalists who are reporting on the election and Brexit, that they will work with integrity and maintain professionalism; and for young people under the age of 18, who cannot vote, still to be engaged in politics and voice their concerns.

The Evangelical Alliance writes, ‘Paul reminds Timothy that praying for our leaders “pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.’’ (1 Timothy 2:4) So we should not just be praying for competence for our leaders, but that they would know Jesus Christ. If they already say they know Jesus, we should be praying that their faith would deepen and grow. Paul’s life gives us a number of principles that can guide our prayers for those in authority. However, there is still a difficult question: how do we pray together for our politicians when we may disagree quite strongly on their policies? This question is an important one for Christian unity, and will get more acute as the Brexit debates enter a new stage.’ Nevertheless we can all recommit to praying for our political leaders to know Jesus.

Bursting with energy and faith, Phil Knox, the Evangelical Alliance's first ‘head of mission to young adults’, cannot wait to make more friends and disciples. ‘For the last twelve years I have worked at Youth for Christ, sharing the good news about Jesus with tens of thousands of young people, and in that time, I have personally seen thousands of lives changed before my eyes. It was the best job in the world. It was always going to take a huge wrench to wrestle me from it, but that wrench came: a new day is here, and this week I joined the Evangelical Alliance. I am an evangelical because I am a good news person and loved by the Creator of the universe. 2018 is described by some global sociologists as VUCA: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Most of us will experience a VUCA world as we are confronted by disconcerting news headlines and navigate personal suffering.’

The Evangelical Alliance (EA) has called on Christians to 'fully engage' in the general election and speak hopefully with vision for the future. They will release resources to help churches discuss the opportunities and challenges facing society, structured around the themes of love, freedom, justice and truth. Steve Clifford, EA’s general director, said that this election provides a chance for Christians to take part in debating the future of our society. ‘It’s a chance for us to speak hope into a society that is so often searching for meaning. Between now and 8 June we can consider what the political parties are proposing, and the vision they are offering for our society. We can have a society that is more loving than it is now, we can live in greater freedom than we currently know, we can see justice as a lifestyle and not a soundbite, and rediscover the power of truth as the basis of a society working for the common good.’