The former general secretary of the Anglican mission agency Crosslinks, Bishop John Ball, has died at the age of 81 after a period of illness, his family have announced. During his ministry, John Ball served as the assistant bishop of the Diocese of Central Tanganyika, part of the Anglican Church of Tanzania; and upon his retirement served as an honorary assistant bishop in the Church of England’s Diocese of Chelmsford.
In the News
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September 6th, 2016
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September 6th, 2016
What is the church for?
In chapter three of his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reveals his understanding of the purpose of the Church. He doesn’t look at this in sociological terms, from a human perspective, but from a supernatural, spiritual viewpoint. The primary purpose of the church is to be like a ‘broadcasting tower’, a means of making known to invisible spiritual powers the wisdom of God – wisdom which is described in most familiar translations as ‘manifold’ but which literally means something like ‘multi-faceted’ or ‘variegated’ (Ephesians 3:10).
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September 6th, 2016
Katarzyna Jachimowicz, a Polish family physician working in Norway, became the first medical professional in the country fired because she exercised her conscience rights.
Dr. Jachimowicz has refused to surrender to government officials who wanted her to abandon her moral standards regarding the sanctity of life. Instead, she is fighting for freedom and tolerance for family doctors.
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September 6th, 2016
Novelist Salman Rushdie spent two decades in hiding under the protection of the British government over a 1989 death sentence imposed on him by the Iranian government and murderous threats by other Muslims for purported blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad in his novel “The Satanic Verses.”
He doubts that would happen today.
Now, Mr. Rushdie says in an interview with a French magazine, Western governments are too eager to appease Islamism, both at home and abroad. He was also sharply critical of President Obama for his reluctance to use the I-word when speaking of terrorism.
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September 6th, 2016
Ministers have defended the care system after a former Liberal Democrat MP said council social services departments in England and Wales were "under pressure" to get children adopted.
John Hemming, who campaigns for improvements in the family justice system, said the process of assessment used by judges who make decisions about children's futures was biased towards council management objectives.
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September 6th, 2016
Peers have warned about the rising levels of HIV infections among young people, renewing calls for inclusive sex and relationship education.
Telegraph exec and Conservative peer Lord Black of Brentwood led a debate on HIV in the House of Lords last night.
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September 6th, 2016
A man who used a Catholic anti-abortion agency to try to illegally adopt a baby almost 20 years ago is connected to a string of new agencies operating across Ireland and the UK under a different name, The Times can reveal.
Yesterday an undercover investigation by this newspaper exposed a Catholic anti-abortion group that has been linked with a crisis pregnancy agency in Dublin. A counsellor at the Women’s Centre at 9 Berkeley Street in Dublin 7 was secretly filmed telling a woman that abortion can cause breast cancer and turn women into child abusers.
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September 5th, 2016
The former Bishop of Rochester and others have been criticised on social media for being part of a delegation that has met President of Syria Bashir al-Assad.
Besides Michael Nazir-Ali, the delegation included Rev Andrew Ashdown, the Bishop of Winchester's former interfaith adviser, who was the group leader; Baroness Cox, a committed Christian and a crossbench member of the House of Lords; David Clark of Cambridge University; and Raymond Hilton of Parliament's human rights committee.
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September 5th, 2016
A protocol released on 31 Aug 2016 by the state Lutheran church, Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko, said the new law will have no impact on church weddings, as the church’s prayer book defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. “It can be concluded that the changes to be introduced to the Marriage Act on 1 March, 2017, will have no effect on the rights of pastors to officiate church weddings,” the report (below) states.
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September 5th, 2016
I’ve just discovered another class of persons whose courageous choices must be defended against bigotry: bearded breast-feeding ladies. No, this is not a side-show in Barnum & Bailey; it’s a major feature in this week’s Time magazine which is being praised as “amazing, poignant, incredibly compelling, extraordinary, beautiful and honest.”
Journalist Jessi Hempel describes the pregnancy of her transgender sister (who is living as a man). “My brother Evan was born female. He came out as transgender 16 years ago but never stopped wanting to have a baby.”