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In the News

  • Premier: C of E slams BBC for cutting in-house religious programming team
    April 2nd, 2017

    The Church of England has criticised a decision by the BBC to close its in-house religion and ethics television production department.

    Bishop of Norwich, Rt Rev Graham James, who comments on media issues for the Church of England, was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying: "It is a failure of the BBC as a public service broadcaster."

    He spoke after director of factual at BBC Studios, Lisa Opie, warned staff in a leaked email the recent loss of the contract to produce Songs of Praise "means we will no longer have a permanent religion and ethics department in Salford."

    Read more. 

  • Mail: Parents are paying £70k to send teens on a course to stop them sexting
    April 2nd, 2017

    Aside from a small safari park, there is nothing remarkable about the leafy town of Hilvarenbeek, 90 minutes south of Amsterdam.

    Unless, that is, you are a resident of one white-painted compound down a tree-lined driveway.

    For the young people staying there, Hilvarenbeek means a new and quite extraordinary regime – hour upon hour of exercise, rigorous scheduling, a careful diet and a complete ban on mobile phones.

    Read more.

  • BBC Radio 4: Bishop of Woolwich, Crucifixion row, 500-year-old carol recorded
    April 2nd, 2017

    The Church of England's first black bishop in more than 20 years says he came to Britain from Nigeria as a missionary to help a "spiritually deficient" country. William Crawley speaks to the Right Rev Dr Woyin Karowei Dorgu, the 13th Bishop of Woolwich.

    Read more and listen online. 

  • Guardian: Welfare shakeup 'will push a quarter of a million children into poverty'
    April 2nd, 2017

    A government shakeup of welfare payments being introduced on Thursday will push a quarter of a million children into poverty while wiping thousands of pounds off payments for bereaved families, according to research.

    Analysis for the Guardian reveals that a family whose third child is born before midnight on Wednesday could be up to £50,000 better off over 18 years than one whose child is born on Thursday.

    Meanwhile, a terminally ill man has told the Guardian that his wife and children will see tens of thousands of pounds wiped off their bereavement benefits if he survives beyond this week's welfare deadline.

    Read more. 

  • Times (£): Oxford students try to gag Jenni Murray as 'transphobic'
    April 2nd, 2017

    Oxford students have called for the broadcaster Jenni Murray to be refused permission to speak at a literary festival today because of allegedly "transphobic" comments she made in The Sunday Times.

    The attempt to "no platform" Murray — a move she said yesterday was "sad and frightening" — follows an article last month, "Be trans, be proud — but don’t call yourself a real woman", arguing that women who have lived as men "with all the privilege that entails" do not have the experience of growing up female.

    Read more. 

  • BBC: Doctor Who gets first openly gay companion
    April 1st, 2017

    The new series of Doctor Who will see the Time Lord joined by his first openly gay companion.

    Bill Potts's sexuality will be revealed pretty much straightaway in her second line of dialogue when the show returns to BBC One on 15 April.

    "It shouldn't be a big deal in the 21st Century. It's about time isn't it?" Pearl Mackie, who plays Bill, told the BBC.

    "That representation is important, especially on a mainstream show."

    Read more. 

  • The Marriage Foundation: Cohabiting parents now account for majority of family breakdown
    April 1st, 2017

    Cohabiting couples now account for over half of family breakdown despite making up only a fifth of parents, a report by Marriage Foundation has found.

    Previous Marriage Foundation has shown around one per cent (1.3 per cent) of married parents split in the course of a year, compared to over five per cent (5.3 per cent) of cohabiting parents.

    The number of cohabiting couples has reached almost 1.3 million (1.26 million), up from 950,000 in 2006, with the number of married parents relatively stable on 4.8 million.

    The increase in the proportion of cohabiting couples means they have now overtaken married couples in the numbers that split up.

    Read more. 

  • Mail: Australian Anglican Archbishop has lashed out against same-sex marriage activists
    April 1st, 2017

    The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has lashed out on marriage equality activists as 'bullying' Australians who don't agree with it. 

    Archbishop Glenn Davies has accused same-sex marriage campaigners of 'swamping the public debate' by denying free speech to those that are against it. 

    Writing a column in The Australian, the Archbishop argued that a plebiscite would reveal that the majority of Australians opposed same-sex marriage. 

    Read more. 

  • Telegraph: Ofsted to spy on Facebook accounts of parents and pupils
    March 31st, 2017

    Ofsted is looking to spy on the Facebook accounts of parents and pupils to help predict failing schools.

    The school's watchdog is looking at the possibility of using social media to help predict which schools are at risk of a drop in performance.

    In a new document Ofsted reveals it is talking to the government about a project that would explore how data and information gathered from the internet could be used to "predict and prevent" declines in standards.

    Read more. 

  • Telegraph: Having comfy chairs in church is more important than preserving pews, church court rules
    March 31st, 2017

    Church of England Christians will be used to spending uncomfortable hours listening to sermons on traditional Victorian pews.

    But that experience may soon be a thing of the past as a Church of England court ruled that plans to replace them with comfortable seating would encourage more people to attend.

    Allowing one vicar to replace pews with modern upholstered chairs, Chancellor for the Diocese of Rochester John Gallagher said there was "no theological basis" for the retention of pews and overruled the objections of conservationists. 

    Read more.