Displaying items by tag: United Kingdom

Before President Trump decided to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he received last-minute pleas from many people, including the heads of Jerusalem churches and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Justin Welby wrote, ‘Mr President, we have been following, with concern, reports about the possibility of changing how the United States understands and deals with the status of Jerusalem. We are certain that such a step will yield increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, moving us farther from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division. We ask you to help us all walk towards more love and a definitive peace, which cannot be reached without Jerusalem being for all.’ For the full letter to President Trump, go to

A two-minute video calling on Christians to safeguard God's good world by working towards a future free of nuclear weapons has been released. This call to action is being distributed digitally to thousands across the world by the Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Church of Scotland, and URC. The video explains, in simple cartoons, the basis for the Church's support for the new UN treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, and calls on people to join in this multinational movement towards a world free of them. The treaty, once ratified, will make the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal under international law. People are being invited to submit their names to a picture petition, which will be delivered to the UK Government in February.

Numbers are falling in the Church in Scotland, church buildings are closing, and in a recent survey 51% said that they have no religion. However, there is a ‘stirring’ going on under the surface. The Church has often been called the ‘sleeping giant’. We may be experiencing a reduction in numbers but, as the story of Gideon’s army tells us, numbers are not everything when it comes to accomplishing the plans and purposes of God for a people and a nation. The sleeping giant is starting to awake from its slumber! There have been many local outreaches, summer missions, etc, which, together with the excellent Alpha courses, have borne fruit with folk coming to Christ. With Ffald y Brenin, we can pray, ‘O High King of heaven, have mercy on our land. Revive Your church. Send the Holy Spirit for the sake of the lost, the least and the broken. May Your Kingdom come to our nation. In Jesus’ mighty Name. Amen.’

The Christian mental health organisation Livability called for churches to be more honest about life's difficulties. A survey found that half of UK adults (26 million people) would feel uncomfortable or unsure about telling others if they experienced a mental health problem. The director of Livability said, ‘It's about creating communities where we talk about our well-being. There's a real need for us to start normalising the level of conversation that we have in our churches. There's a negative impact when we don't talk about these things.’ He encouraged churches to move away from criticism and adopt a culture of honesty, with leaders talking about their own emotional and mental well-being. The survey found that people aged between 16 and 24 are most likely to experience mental health issues. To be called a ‘snowflake’, implying that you are easily offended or hurt, is damaging to mental health.

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who resigned after a row over whether gay sex was sinful, gave this year’s Theos Annual lecture on 28 November. One of his comments was: ‘Genuine Christianity has always has been countercultural, going against the norms of the day. In Revelation 17, we read about the final fall of Babylon: materialistic, complacent, ambivalent towards the poor and vulnerable, self–satisfied, and proud. The Babylonian empire had been dead for hundreds of years by then, so why mention it? Because Babylon stands for every empire, every society where human beings choose to live for themselves and not for God. So Babylon in 90 AD was Rome, and today it is our society, and as Christians we are to live as aliens in such a land.’ He also said that Christians are deemed ‘dangerous and offensive’ by the public.

Peter challenges us to ‘be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks’. Sometimes the questions are not easy. The Christian Enquiry Agency is here to help. Our website (www.Christianity.org.uk) gives enquirers individual answers to their questions about Christianity, a Gospel of Luke if they request one, details of a local church, or prayer for any issue.

(Peter Graystone, Christian Enquiry Agency)

Students and staff at Immaculate Heart Girls’ School in Los Angeles were buzzing with the news that a previous student was marrying into the British royal family. Meghan Markle studied there from age 11 to 18. On 2 December 1936, the royal engagement of Prince Edward and American divorcee Mrs Simpson was announced: within eight days Edward had abdicated. How times have changed as this week the royal family, politicians, media, and the public celebrate the news that next year an American divorcee will marry Prince Harry. The Archbishop of Canterbury confirmed there will be a church wedding.

Time2Turn is a national prayer conference, to take place from Monday 12 to Wednesday 14 March 2018. It will be a time to pray for things to change, and to be willing for God to use us as His instruments of change. This WPC National Prayer Conference is as much a calling as it is a conference. It is for people who want to stand in God’s presence to worship Him and let Him minister to them; a time dedicated to praying for God’s Kingdom to come in our lives and in our nation; a time of listening to His call. It will be a conference for all people, whether new to prayer or seasoned intercessors, young or old, from any background. This conference is for people who have a hunger for the purposes of Jesus and a hunger to see change in our nations. The guest speaker will be Malcolm Duncan.

The Government's minister for faith, Lord Bourne, has said he is 'unable to welcome' Donald Trump to UK on a state visit following his retweeting of videos posted by the far-right group Britain First. Lord Bourne said millions of people will be appalled by the conduct of the US president when he shared videos claiming to show Muslims inciting violence. Trump was later condemned by Theresa May, to which he responded that she should ‘focus on the destructive radical Islamic terrorism that is taking place within the UK’. Although Downing Street confirmed that Trump’s visit to the UK still stood, Lord Bourne said that many feel ‘unable to welcome him here under these circumstances’. His feelings were echoed by London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who called on Mrs May to cancel her offer. He said, ‘It's increasingly clear that any official visit from President Trump to Britain would not be welcomed.’ Others expressed a different viewpoint, commenting that the UK’s relationship with the USA was strong and a different issue from the President’s comments.

Christian charity Hope for Justice has encouraged those appalled by the Libyan slave trade (see World article no 2) to take action. They produced a petition asking for the Government to put pressure on Libya to stop enslavement of Africans; by 30 November, 90,000 people had signed it. Also a national anti-slavery march has been organised for 9 December. Protesters will meet in Belgrave Square at 12 noon and walk peacefully to the Libyan embassy. The march will also raise people’s awareness that globally 24.9 million people are held in slavery. International Organisation for Migration has helped 13,000 people to get out of detention centres in Libya and 8,000 in Niger, but that is the tip of the iceberg.