Churches in London’s congestion charge zone are warning that changes to the congestion charge rules could force them to close. The charges have increased by 30%: £15 is now payable on Sundays and weeknights. Charges are enforceable from 7am to 10pm, hitting all Sunday worship hours.

Fearful that many families with children and the elderly will be most affected, many church leaders have appealed to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for some sort of exemption. Jonathan Evens, an Assistant Curate at St Martin-in-the-Fields, who chairs Churches Together in Westminster, argued that as a result, ‘many churches could become unsustainable’.

A round-up of encouraging news stories from the UK and overseas during the coronavirus pandemic

Staying positive

‘How can you stay so positive in the middle of all this?’ This was a question put to one of the Caring For Life (CFL) staff by a gentleman he has been supporting remotely during lockdown.

A High Court judge ruled in February that police acted unlawfully in their investigation into so-called ‘transphobic’ tweets, and suggested there was a creeping Orwellianism at work.

Humberside constabulary visited former policeman Harry Miller’s workplace after a complaint was made about tweets he sent challenging transgenderism. Miller founded the organisation ‘Fair Cop’ to challenge the police’s actions, arguing that the recording of non-crime ‘hate incidents’ was unlawful and that the police had breached his freedom of expression.

Three senior judges overturned a decision made in June that a woman who has the mental age of a young child should have an abortion. This termination had been against her wishes because it was argued that it was in her best interests.

During the initial ruling, the 22-year-old was told she would go to sleep and when she woke up the ‘baby would no longer be in her tummy but she would get a new doll’.

Recently, confusion has reigned concerning the position of the government and Ofsted over the registration and possible monitoring of church youth groups.

During the period of consultation on the registration of groups who teach children for more than six hours a week, including churches, the Chief Inspector for schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw stated that he wanted Sunday schools registered and if problems were cited, Ofsted would ‘go in’. This implied there were no current mechanisms for investigating such problems, which is not the case. Any member of the public can go to the police or social services if they have concerns about any child in any setting.

On February 11, the Girl Guide movement announced that Christian members of the Girl Guides will be allowed to mention God before they take the organisation’s new pledge in a compromise backed by the Church of England’s Synod

Members of the movement will be now be able to add a line to the start of the new promise specifically mentioning God.

On January 10, the Charity Commission announced it will allow an Exclusive Brethren church to register for charitable status after it turned the group down in 2012.

In its previous arguments against the church, the regulator criticised the church’s trustees (Preston Down Trust – PDT) on grounds that the group did not meet the ‘public benefit’ requirement of the Charities Act 2006 and that the trust’s communion services are reserved for members only. PDT will now be able to register as a charity on the condition that its trust deed, a binding document, reflects clearer ‘doctrines and practices’.