UK & Ireland in Brief

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is suing venues in Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield and Wales for breach of contract, it was reported on 1 November.

Franklin Graham told the Guardian that he was ‘being denied [a platform] because of religious beliefs’. Some people have regarded his views as homophobic or Islamophobic. Others have welcomed the opportunity to have him speak in the UK. The events were cancelled amid protests made by LGBT rights campaigners.

The GAFCON General Secretary, Ben Kwashi, came round from cancer surgery singing, praising the Lord with a lifted hand!

The surgery was more extensive than planned, as the colon cancer had spread to his liver. ‘The providence and divine arrangement of the Lord made all things to work together for good. The liver specialist was available, all in God’s good hands and grace,’ wrote the Archbishop.

The Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Wales, Dr Abdul-Azim Ahmed, has written to the Evangelical Alliance Wales expressing sympathy and disbelief at the attacks in France, and wanting to ‘strengthen the ties and relationships between Christians and Muslims’.

The letter went on: ‘It hurts me, and indeed many of the Muslims I have spoken to in recent days, that the killer shared our faith … It is difficult to fathom what drives a person to violence, and even more difficult to understand how such violence can be carried out in a place of worship and glorification of God.’

The Northern Synod of the Free Church of England discussed church planting opportunities at its meeting in early October.

The Stipendiary Presbyter, Jonatas Bragatto, spoke about the church’s strategy in taking its gospel witness to a region of Middlesbrough. Cathy Jacobs, the Society of Anglican Missionaries and Senders (SAMS) missionary, is due to be based at St David’s, Preston, next Spring. Parishes were invited to draw up placement projects for ordinands and theological students sponsored by SAMS.

‘An Unchanging Gospel’ is the theme for the April 2021 Connexion Conference planned for High Leigh in Hertfordshire.

The key speaker will be John McGinley, who will talk over three days on mission work using the titles: Everything Has Changed, Nothing Has Changed, Making Changes. John is Head of Church Planting Development for New Wine and Development Enabler for the Archbishop’s College of Evangelists.

The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783 by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, as a result of the Evangelical Revival.

Campaigners were granted a judicial review over a Scottish Government move to redefine the meaning of ‘woman’.

For Women Scotland (FWS) took legal action against the government for including men who identify as female in a law designed to address the number of women on public boards. FWS say the definition of ‘woman’ was altered in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 following pressure from the Scottish Trans Alliance. Public policy has been influenced around the world to the extent that ‘woman’ is not just defined as an ‘adult human female’.

The BBC reported on mothers who have stood up to pressure to abort their children after they were diagnosed with Down’s syndrome.

One said she was pressured to abort her daughter 15 times, and was told at 38 weeks through her pregnancy that she could change her mind right up until being induced. Emma Mellor explained that ‘even though we made it really clear that it wasn’t an option for us’ they ‘really seemed to want us to terminate’.

DUP MP Jim Shannon has asked Health Minister Edward Argar whether new regulations about human tissue being introduced as part of Brexit address the concerns about the use of tissues or organs from aborted babies, and if so, how is the issue of consent dealt with?’.

Mr Argar said he would write to the MP so that his response was ‘on record’.

Shannon compared the donation of adult bodies to that of the unborn and the need to address consent clearly.