John Henry Newman, Saint
John Henry Newman, the Victorian author, academic and Anglican turned Roman Catholic, is to be declared a saint at a ceremony in Rome. by [...]
Abortion laws in Northern Ireland
Church leaders in Northern Ireland are resisting a decision to lift abortion restrictions in Northern Ireland and have appealed for a weekend of prayer. [...]
Fact Sheets
FACT SHEETS
SEX ABUSE IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE UK
CHURCH OF ENGLAND
THE SCALE OF THE ABUSE
In 2016, the Church of England was dealing with 3,300 complaints of sexual abuse. This is the latest […]
Glossary of Jewish terms
Aliyah Literally means “ascent” but has come to mean the act of emigrating to Israel. Someone who moves to Israel is said to “make Aliyah”.
Anti-Semitism/antisemitism […]
“The re-emergence of religion in the public square is one of the biggest and most significant paradigm shifts of recent times.”
GRAHAM WARD
Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford
There are 7.5 billion people in the world and an estimated 85% identify with a religious group. The biggest religion is Christianity, accounting for about one-third of the earth’s population. The next is Islam whose adherents make up about one-quarter of the world’s inhabitants. There are about one billion Hindus, 500 million Buddhists, 14 million Jews and many smaller faith groups http://www.pewforum.org/.
Understanding religion and belief is and will remain central to public life and debate, however significant the growth of secularism. Tens of millions of people in the UK continue to identify with a religious faith and we all have frequent encounters with people of all faiths and beliefs. Religious literacy is essential to understanding the world in which we live and our daily interactions across all levels of society, in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
The media plays a key role in developing and enhancing this understanding. The Religion Media Centre has no editorial line nor does it promote any one religion, or religious belief in general. Instead, it exists to provide accurate, timely and relevant information to the media, enabling the public to be better informed and promoting decision-making based on fact, not prejudice or stereotypes.
Religion and Media festival
Exploring Belief, the second Religion and Media festival, was held at the JW3 Centre in north London on 30 April 2019. The keynote speaker, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, said: “The media has not covered religion as well as it might; not given it space, time or quality of knowledge that it should have done. And yet religion is essential in understanding what is going on in the world.” An audience of media professionals, academics, faith representatives and others, listened as the theme was picked up with panel discussions on how religion is understood; the stories still waiting to be told; and the impact of social media on the transmission of religion. Punchy, provocative polemics included the story of a young Jamaican Muslim rapper, Tanya Muneera Williams, who was spat on and abused by a gang. How has the media, she asked, contributed to the normalisation of hate? Read a full report of the festival here
On how and why nonreligious parents choose godparents — or should that be guideparents? Oddparents? Squadparents? W/ some insights from
@U_Unbelief
'It locks you into a disintegrating friendship for life': the new rules of godparenting https://t.co/NyACJ6h9rG
Along with @ctrlamb & @cardinalrlburke among others, quoted here in v balanced take by @timothy_stanley from Rome. “Why Britain's first saint almost 50 years could hold key to reform in Catholic Church.” https://t.co/CYOjTUcd67
Excited to launch our brand new website for the APPG on Religion in the Media. We will be announcing events soon - in the meantime, please follow our pages, RT and get in touch via our ‘contact’ page.
https://t.co/hRPKSI1WFH