These articles were first published in our May edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
Guernsey will hold a vote on whether or not to legalise assisted suicide in May.
If the motion is passed by politicians, an 18-month consultation period will then take place on the legal framework. The proposal will allow people to kill themselves with assistance from a doctor, and will ask the Parliament to consider issues such as conscientious objection and a requirement to be terminally ill.
Church of England schools will promote biblical marriage within Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) lessons, its Chief Education Officer said in mid-March.
The Revd Nigel Genders’ comments came in a blog post explaining the CofE’s response to the Government’s RSE consultation. Genders said: ‘Healthy relationships and sex are good gifts from God and should bring joy’, affirming that marriage is the context for sexual relationships. He added that abstinence and celibacy should be taught as ‘positive life choices’.
Fifteen years ago on 29 March 2003, Hoole Baptist Church in Chester held its first monthly toddler group for dads, part of an outreach initiative to engage fathers which has grown to reach 8,000 people each year.
The programme now helps well over 250 Who Let The Dads Out? groups in churches throughout the UK and elsewhere. Its mission is to be a ministry to men – one that builds strong family units, invigorates local communities and encourages people to pass their Christian faith on.
Age UK reported in March that almost 1 million older people say their lives rarely have any meaning.
Based on interviews with older people, Age UK found that many were not motivated to look after themselves. Significantly, ‘all these people lacked hope that life could change for the better’. Author Louise Morse was asked on Premier Radio if this was the same for Christians. She said each older person has an individual God-given purpose, but that ageism has obscured the Bible’s teaching.
The Times reported in March that 10,000 more people died in the first seven weeks of this year than would be expected, the biggest difference since the Second World War.
Academics say that loneliness, over-stretched hospitals and the crumbling elderly care system could all be contributing to the sharp increase. They have called for an urgent investigation after the latest in a string of figures that show older people are dying earlier than expected.
Ofsted has been heavily influenced by campaign group Humanists UK, a former Deputy Head has said for the website ‘Christians in Education’.
Gill Robins wrote: ‘It might seem far-fetched, but with Ofsted policy now clearly being directed by aggressive secularism masquerading as muscular liberalism, invasion into the privacy of the family will continue unabated.’
Criminalising smacking in Scotland would remove parental rights and hand them to the state, an MSP warned in March.
Writing for Scottish Legal News, lawyer and MSP Gordon Lindhurst dismantled the Scottish Government’s arguments for a ban, before accusing it of being underhand in its tactics to outlaw smacking. He said that rather than banning assault on children (which is already illegal), the proposal aims to rebrand loving parental discipline as ‘assault’.