These articles were first published in our February edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
It has been standing room only at times for Oxford Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) as it returned to in-person Sunday morning services after 83 weeks online.
The church, which has held its 5pm services in person through most of the pandemic, has given thanks for the many new people, including couples, students and families, it has seen. Last November, the church held its first ever Thanksgiving celebration since its initial planting four years ago.
The Robertson Trust has formally apologised to, and reached a settlement with, the Free Church of Scotland after equality law breaches.
The Trust admitted discriminating after unlawfully cancelling contracts for the hire of a conference facility on religious grounds. Responding to the trustees’ apology, the Revd Iain Macaskill, minister of Stirling Free Church, said: ‘It is against the law to advertise a venue as being available to all-comers but then cancel the contract simply because the booking is for a religious event. Christians have the same legal rights as everyone else and the outcome of this case affirms that.’
The ‘amazing’ Covid-19 vaccine cannot save us and we cannot save ourselves, ‘but God can’, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in his Christmas sermon.
Preaching at Canterbury Cathedral, Justin Welby acknowledged that the nation has been confronting difficult things. ‘We have been faced collectively as never before in peacetime with our limits… And as a society, too often we have faced these challenges without hearts open to God,’ he said. But he closed with our ultimate hope: ‘Thanks be to God – the Saviour of the world is born.’
The Free Church of Scotland has a new vision statement for 2022: ‘A healthy gospel church for every community in Scotland’.
The church seeks prayer that this will be ‘more than an empty slogan but will fuel their vision for the glory of Christ in one of the most secular parts of Europe’. Sharing the new vision statement, CEO Andrew Giffen said the new year is ‘an opportunity to reflect on spiritual health – our own individual spiritual health and the health of our congregations’. He said the FCS will be further promoting that vision.
The influential evangelical missionary leader Michael Griffiths has died.
In a full and active Christian life, he was for a while a Travelling Secretary (as they were then known) for Inter-Varsity Fellowship (now UCCF). In 1957 he and his wife sailed to south-east Asia to serve as missionaries in Japan with the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). After 13 years he was invited to become OMF’s General Director as they continued to adjust to their expulsion from China (when know as the China Inland Mission) and grow new work across SE Asia. Subsequently he was Principal of London Bible College (now London School of Theology) and rounded off his working life as the first Professor of Mission at Regent College Vancouver. There will be a full obituary in next month’s en.
A street preacher fined more than £16,000 after holding a church service for 30-plus homeless people in a Nottingham pub car park and another in a business centre car park during the February 2021 lockdown has won her case.
Magistrates told Chizumie Dyer that the fine, imposed for holding an ‘illegal gathering’, had been withdrawn, and the CPS was no longer prosecuting her for the car park service. Chizumie said: ‘We were the spiritual doctors who were not on furlough. People were suffering and needed us. We reach people with the Good News of Jesus Christ during the toughest of times. This is what the church is and what the church should do. For this, however, I was treated like a criminal.’
The 1,000-strong College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has warned that assisted suicide is incompatible with good medical care, ahead of attempts to legalise it under the Dying with Dignity Bill.
In a position statement, the College said assisted dying is ‘contrary to the efforts of psychiatrists, other mental health staff and the public to prevent deaths by suicide … [and] likely to place vulnerable people at risk’. It said existing services should be improved. Dr Eric Kelleher, one of the paper’s authors, said: ‘Assisted dying or euthanasia are not necessary for a dignified death.’ Co-author Dr Siobhan MacHale said: ‘If a right to assisted dying is conceded, there is no logical reason to restrict this to those with a terminal illness.’
Sunday service attendance within the Church of England has almost halved in 30 years, except in London.
It was revealed that where minsters cover more than one parish, there is a ‘loss of confidence’ translating to an average 40% decline in regular worshippers. Durham saw the biggest loss of worshippers – 10,900 in 2019 compared to 26,800 in 1987. However, there has been a slight increase (1.7%) in the number of worshippers in London where there is one minister for each parish.