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A branch of McDonald’s in Sydney, Australia, threw a party this week to mark the 30th anniversary of one staff member’s first day on the job.
Russell O'Grady, 48, who has Down’s syndrome, first came to the restaurant on a work experience placement organised by Jobsupport, a government initiative that helps people with intellectual disabilities find paid employment.
A Co Down man who was barred from advertising his views on sexuality in London by Boris Johnson believes he has been treated unfairly compared to the Ashers bakery case.
Dr Mike Davidson, who lives near Hillsborough, said that in both cases would-be clients approached a service provider asking them to publish a message linked to their sexual orientation and in both cases they were refused.
Surrogacy should be banned in Ireland as it exploits women and “commodifies” children, a campaigner has said.
Jennifer Lahl, founder and president of the Center for Bioethics and Culture in California, spoke in Dublin on Tuesday night at an event organised by the Iona Institute, which is also campaigning against surrogacy.
It seems family structure matters after all. An important new paper from the ESRI devotes a chapter to this question, and after controlling for factors like poverty, it nonetheless finds that being raised in a two parent household as distinct from a one parent household can confer certain advantages on children.
The paper is called 'Cherishing All the Children Equally' and chapter 4 of the paper is entitled ‘Is Family Structure a Source of Inequality in Children’s Lives’? The chapter uses data based on the 'Growing Up in Ireland' longitudinal study and looks at children aged 9 and 13 to find out whether the answer to the chapter’s question is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. It finds out that the answer is yes, family structure is a source of inequality in children’s lives.
[Editor’s note: This is a discussion paper commissioned by the Officers of the Church of England Evangelical Council, distributed initially to all members of the College of Bishops and Diocesan Evangelical Fellowships, and now published on the CEEC website. The paper argues:
* Blessing of same sex relationships cannot be justified biblically or theologically.
* If the C of E permits such ‘blessings’, it will no longer be ‘apostolically faithful’.
* If this were to happen, there must be a division, managed peacefully and with fairness to both ‘sides’ in the debate if possible, according to various options.]
An app commissioned by Scripture Union is in big demand in schools.
The app, Guardians of Ancora, uses games to help children engage with stories from the Bible.
Schools in Blackpool are on waiting lists for the Christian clubs that run the apps.
Bishop Angaelos used the annual Coptic New Year service in Westminster Abbey to remind Christians of their "responsibility to proclaim the good news, to set captives free and to be light and sight to those who may live in darkness and blindness".
The general bishop of the Coptic Church in the UK said it had been a "challenging" year in the ceremony last week, citing the EU referendum and ISIS. Messages from the Prime Minister Theresa May and the Archbishop of Canterbury were also delivered to the congregation that included MPs, peers and government officials.
The Appeal Court in Belfast today ruled that a local Christian-run business, Ashers Bakery, acted unlawfully when it refused to decorate a cake with a political pro-gay marriage message.
This verdict is a defeat for freedom of expression. As well as meaning that Ashers can be legally forced to aid the promotion of same-sex marriage against their wishes, it also implies that gay bakers could be forced by law to decorate cakes with homophobic slogans.
In the year 250 an edict was issued that everyone throughout the Empire was required to sacrifice to the Roman gods and the well-being of the Emperor Decius. These sacrifices were to be witnessed and certified by a Roman magistrate. This was state-enforced conformity.
The Court of Appeal in Belfast has ruled against the owners of Ashers Baking Company, in an “oppressive” use of Northern Ireland’s equality laws.
The McArthur family had been taken to court accused of political and sexual orientation discrimination, after they refused to make a cake with the campaign slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’.
After a protracted and costly legal action, the case brought by the taxpayer-funded Equality Commission for Northern Ireland has gone against the Christian family.