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In the News

  • Gatestone Institute: Church Attacks: Love Alone Will Not Save Us by George Igler
    September 4th, 2016

    In the north-eastern Syrian city of Al-Qamishli, nestled on the border with Turkey, Islamic fundamentalists bombed St. Charnel Church, an ancient site of worship for the Assyrian Orthodox Christians.

    On July 18, reported ARA News, gunmen detonated explosives inside the church. Activists point the finger of responsibility at ISIS. "We saw a huge fire and security forces arrived and extinguished the fire. But the church was completely destroyed, you can see only ashes here,"remarked one eyewitness to the attack.

    Read more.

  • Irish Independent: State to fund IVF for couples which may include surrogacy
    September 4th, 2016

    Childless couples desperately seeking costly fertility treatments may be able to avail of a State-funded scheme in a matter of months, the Sunday Independent has learned.

    And a set of legal guidelines governing highly controversial fertility-related issues - ranging from embryo implantation to stem cell research - are also currently being finalised.

    This landmark development will regulate a range of controversial health issues in Ireland for the first time.

    Read more.

  • Times (£): Muslim head attacked over diversity rights at school
    September 4th, 2016

    A Muslim head teacher who was honoured by the Queen has become the victim of anonymous attacks after promoting religious diversity and gay rights at his school.

    Kamal Hanif OBE, who runs Waverley School in Birmingham, one of more than 20 schools embroiled in the so-called Trojan Horse plot two years ago, is understood to have become the target of “anonymous vexatious letters” that attack his leadership and teaching values.

    Read more.

  • BBC: CofE Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain reveals he is in gay relationship
    September 3rd, 2016

    The bishop of Grantham has become the first Church of England bishop to say that he is gay and in a relationship.

    Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain, a suffragan in Lincoln diocese, was consecrated last year by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby - who has said he knew about the bishop's sexuality.

    He was in a "long-term and committed" relationship, Archbishop Welby said.

    Read more.

  • BBC: Revd Canon Andy Lines: 'Christian leaders are to be above reproach'
    September 3rd, 2016

    The Reverend Canon Andy Lines, Chairman of the Global Anglican Future Conference UK Task Force told the BBC : "Christian leaders are to be above reproach".

    He was responding to the revelation on Friday that Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain is gay.

    Read more.

  • Anglican Mainstream: Conservative Anglican vicar criticises church leaders for appointing gay bishop
    September 3rd, 2016

    Bishop Nicholas Chamberlain’s revelation raises tensions between traditionalists and liberals in the Church of England. The conservative Anglican group Gafcon has said that appointing a gay man as the Bishop of Grantham was a “major error.” Reverend Canon Dr Gavin Ashenden, a Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen and a vicar in Jersey, says that the leader of the Church of England took a risk by making Nicholas Chamberlain a bishop and placed ‘difficult stresses on a church which is hanging together by the skin of its teeth.’

  • Challies: Why Marriage Is Better Than Cohabitation by Tim Challies
    September 3rd, 2016

    Though Christians continue to affirm the uniqueness, the goodness, and the necessity of marriage, our society continues to legitimize cohabitation as either a common precursor to marriage or a complete alternative. This slide is troubling, for marriage offers a number of important benefits that are absent from cohabitation—benefits that extend to couples, to their children, to their families, and to society as a whole. Christopher Ash helpfully outlines these in his book Married for God.

    Read more.

  • GAFCON: GAFCON Statement on the appointment of the Bishop of Grantham
    September 3rd, 2016

    We note with prayerful concern the revelation that Nicholas Chamberlain, Bishop of Grantham, is in a same sex relationship.

    Our understanding is that the nature of his relationship conforms to the guidelines set out by the Bishops, and that he has not been campaigning publicly for a change in the church’s teaching on sex and marriage. We do not doubt that he has many gifts as a leader and pastor.

    Read more.

  • BioEdge: Acts, omissions, and euthanasia for organ donation
    September 3rd, 2016

    With the push to legalise assisted dying in several Western countries, bioethicists are starting to consider the possibility of “organ donation euthanasia”. In a new article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Warwick University bioethicist Zoe B. Fritz suggests that it is permissible to actively end the life of a terminally ill patient --either conscious and consenting or unconscious and not consenting -- for the sake of harvesting their organs. Indeed, this would allow clinicians to avoid the problem of premature organ desiccation.

    Read more.

  • Catholic News Agency: Abortion linked to mental health problems down the road, study finds
    September 3rd, 2016

    Abortion during the late teen and early adult years raises a woman’s risk of mental health problems and may be linked to almost one in ten cases of these women’s mental disorders, a new study says.

    “Evidence from the United States confirms previous findings from Norway and New Zealand that, unlike other pregnancy outcomes, abortion is consistently associated with a moderate increase in risk of mental health disorders during late adolescence and early adulthood,” said the study’s abstract.

    Read more.