The Anglican Church insists that gay clergy with partners live a celibate life if they wish to continue working as priests or bishops. This is an unfair burden on gay clergy as well as being discriminatory within the 21st century workplace.
In the News
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January 30th, 2017
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January 30th, 2017
On Thursday we published the story of Diane Munday, who had an abortion before the change in the law - 50 years ago - which made it legal in Britain.
In response to her story, many women sent emails with their own experiences of abortion over the last half century and more. Here are a selection.
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January 30th, 2017
Reversing its stance of more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America said on Monday that the group would begin accepting members based on the gender listed on their application, paving the way for transgender boys to join the organization.
"For more than 100 years, the Boy Scouts of America, along with schools, youth sports and other youth organizations, have ultimately deferred to the information on an individual's birth certificate to determine eligibility for our single-gender programs," the group said in a statement on its website. "However, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state."
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January 30th, 2017
What if clergy were given this choice; perform a same-sex marriage in their church or risk prosecution?
Human Rights Law Alliance Director Martyn Iles addressed a senate committee last week on freedom of conscience.
"Unfortunately, we’re just seeing that the links between religious freedom and the issue of marriage are just not being made by judges. So, the answer is no, I don’t think there is a way to preserve freedom post same sex marriage" - Martyn Iles
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January 30th, 2017
Christians are being warned against celebrating too soon, after talk of the government possibly retreating on plans to regulate Sunday schools.
The Evangelical Alliance and the Christian Institute fear church classes still face potential inspections by Ofsted regardless of whether the Counter-extremism bill becomes enshrined in law.
Simon Calvert, deputy director for public affairs at the Christian Institute, told Premier's News Hour: "If the government wanted to go ahead with some kind of regulation and inspection system, it could do that without the need for a counter-extremism bill. We have to be on the alert."
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January 30th, 2017
Thousands of gay and bisexual men found guilty of decades-old sexual offences in England and Wales have been posthumously pardoned.
The enactment by the government of the so-called Alan Turing law means about 49,000 men will be cleared of crimes of which they would be innocent today.
Wartime code-breaker Mr Turing was pardoned in 2013 for gross indecency.
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January 30th, 2017
Sonia woke up in dingy room with searing pain in her stomach. All she remembered was being accompanied by her husband to a clinic for an ultrasound. She’d recently found out she was pregnant; her husband had often been abusive and didn’t react well to the news. Today was supposed to be different: he insisted on going to the clinic so he could see the scan and Sonia hoped that reflected a change of heart.
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January 30th, 2017
During a parliamentary debate last week, Lord Kevin Shinkwin spoke out against a legal loophole that allows selective abortions based on disability in the United Kingdom.
"I can see from the trends in abortion on grounds of disability that the writing is on the wall for people like me," said Shinkwin, who is disabled. "People with congenital disabilities are facing extinction. If we were animals, perhaps we might qualify for protection as an endangered species. But we are only human beings with disabilities, so we do not."
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January 30th, 2017
Ibrahim Ali remembers his first church service well. The smell of the candles, the cheap plywood pews, and the hymn singing that sounded so foreign to him at the time.
The 57-year-old Muslim Syrian never imagined that when he fled to neighbouring Lebanon to seek refuge from the war that he would end up converting to Christianity.
But Mr Ali is not alone. Hundreds of Muslim refugees living in Lebanon have been baptised in the past year alone.
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January 30th, 2017
The Netherlands dedicated $10 million to pay for abortions internationally last week after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting U.S. taxpayer funding to groups that promote or perform abortions overseas.
Lawmakers in the Netherlands — one of the few countries where the barbaric practice of child euthanasia is legal, in addition to abortion – proposed the creation of a new global abortion fund to make up for the money the U.S. no longer will provide.