What is the church’s main response to abortion? If we’re honest it can often be described in one word: silence.
Addressing this problem, Brephos – a new project of the Centre for Bio Ethical Reform UK – hosted a landmark conference on the 16 October called ‘Breaking the Silence’. It sought to equip pastors to speak out about this multi-faceted and painful issue. Over 100 church leaders gathered at London’s Emmanuel Centre to listen to expert speakers from different fields.
First to speak was John Wyatt, Professor of Ethics and Perinatology at University College London. He explained what abortion was and gave a number of startling statistics, most notably that almost 200,000 babies are aborted in the UK each year. Wyatt encouraged Christian’s to be both prophetic – speaking the truth against abortion – and also incarnational – showing love, grace, and compassion to those whose lives have been impacted by abortion.