These articles were first published in our July edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
Boris Johnson has quoted Psalm 14 when asked by a reporter whether he believed in God.
Asked by ITV’s Robert Peston, the Prime Minister initially said: ‘I don’t discuss these deep issues, certainly not with you.’ But he then added: ‘The foolish man has said in his heart there is no God.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is reported to have said he does not believe in God.
Popular evangelical musician Noel Tredinnick has been awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to church music and to music education.
In 1972 Dr Tredinnick joined All Souls Langham Place, the church of the late John Stott, as its organist and Director of Music. He remained there until his retirement in 2019.
Evangelical leaders were among those attending a Prayer Breakfast in Cornwall alongside the G7 international summit.
Speaking afterwards, Krish Kandiah, who currently holds faculty positions at Regent College, Vancouver and Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, said the event had focused on freedom of religion and belief, and called on G7 leaders to uphold this right.
Westminster Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Newcastle has a new panel advising its leaders.
They include Dr Joel Beeke, from the Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, Dr Joseph Pipa, of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Dr David Garner from Westminster Theological Seminary.
Abortion statistics for 2020 have just been released by the Department for Health and Social Care. They show the highest number of abortions ever recorded in England and Wales, with 210,860 taking place in 2020, an increase of 1,341 from 2019.
This significant rise in abortions has accompanied a ‘temporary’ measure in March 2020 allowing ‘DIY’ home abortions.
Sixty-five ‘selective termination’ procedures were performed, where a twin, triplet or more were aborted in the womb. There were 3,083 disability-selective abortions in 2020. A total of 693 of these were due to babies with Down’s syndrome, an increase of nearly 6% on 2019. There were also 35 abortions where the baby had cleft lip or cleft palate, an increase of 106% year on year.
See also Letters, page 8
The UK Government’s failure to implement safeguards designed to stop children accessing porn sites and to curb ‘extreme’ content has fuelled sexual harassment in schools, campaigners have said.
A report by schools’ regulator Ofsted has concluded that sexual harassment has become ‘normalised’ among school-age children.
James Mildred, Chief Communications Officer at Christian campaign group CARE, said: ‘Legislation has been on the statute book since 2017 to require commercial porn sites to verify the age of their users and provide for a regulator of extreme content. For some inexplicable reason, Ministers have chosen not to implement these safeguards.’
The Evangelical Alliance says the pandemic has left many church leaders feeling exhausted and perplexed.
EA Scotland Director Fred Drummond says: ‘Many of the church leaders I have spoken with feel bruised and wounded after the past year. The pandemic has taken a lot of out them, leaving them tired and bewildered.’
Drummond has written a series of articles on the EA website which he hopes will help such leaders find a way forward.
An influential evangelical leader has voiced frustration with the ongoing restrictions on church worship.
Graham Nicholls of Affinity said: ‘It is very disappointing that the restrictions for churches, especially on mask-wearing whilst seated and the effective ban on congregational singing, have not been relaxed. With all the information now in the public domain I cannot see the scientific justification for all these measures to remain in place. We call on the government to change the guidance for churches and allow us the freedom to gather and sing without masks. This has serious implications for our freedom ... We continue to encourage [churches] to love God and love their neighbours as they obey the law and government guidance. But I sense a growing frustration.’
As en went to press, this year’s Evangelical Ministry Assembly was due to be taking place in London.
With the theme ‘Word Work,’ speakers were set to include Rico Tice, Phill Allcock, Willie Philip, Andrew Sach, Stephen Boon and Nigel Styles.
The Evangelical Alliance has launched ‘Seven Conversations,’ which it describes as ‘a full suite of multi-media resources to help leaders in local settings reach, engage and disciple 20s and 30s’.
Phil Knox, EA head of mission to young adults, said: ‘This project has been years in the making and we are longing for it to have an impact. I am full of hope that this resource can help us grow deeper intergenerational bonds and see many 20s and 30s come to faith in Jesus.’
The Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland is backing a proposed Stormont bill on abortion.
The Severe Fetal Impairment Abortion (Amendment) Bill seeks to remove ‘severe fetal impairment’ as a ground for abortion. The church leaders say the law as it stands ‘allows for a subjective judgment to be made on the quality of life of a baby with a severe impairment, and perpetuate[s] stereotypes toward persons with disabilities’.
A son of one of the founders of en is to be ordained as an Anglican this summer.
Al Horn – son of Bob Horn, who was instrumental in setting up en in 1986 – has been heading up a congregation of St Ebbe’s, Oxford, in the east of the city. The diocese’s Twitter feed says he ‘is being ordained to continue his role as senior minister of St Ebbe’s in Headington’.