Faith groups in the front line of community action again this winter
Faith Action, which supports a national network of faith organisations involved in social action, says it is confident that they will again provide effective responses to the needs of their communities in the tough winter ahead. It says faith groups’ experience of frontline work during the pandemic means they will be called on again to provide public services. Faith New Deal partnerships are due to be rolled out, where 16 faith-based groups will share £1.3m to support vulnerable people, in a partnership with councils, schools, police, health providers and voluntary groups. Faith Action has issued guidance to groups in their work this winter: make warm spaces anonymous, billing them as social events, so people don’t feel stigmatised; remember the cost of living crisis is about mental wellbeing as well as economics; make compassion the starting point of help in the community.
Theos research: Some ‘non-religious’ believe in God
A report by the Theos think tank into what it means to be “non-religious” has found only 51 per cent don’t believe in God and 42 per cent believe in some form of the supernatural. The “nones” accounted for 14.1 million people in England and Wales at the time of the Census in 2011, representing 25.1 per cent of the population, a figure that is widely expected to increase in the 2021 Census, whose results for religion questions will be published next week. Theos researcher Dr Hannah Waite identifies three types of “nones”: “Campaigning Nones”, atheistic and hostile to religion; “Tolerant Nones” broadly atheistic but accepting of and sometimes warm towards religion; and “Spiritual Nones”, characterised by a range of spiritual beliefs and practices. The conclusions were drawn from a survey of 5,153 UK adults in May and June 2021, in a project funded by the Templeton Religion Trust. Theos report is here
The 2021 Census results on religion are due to be published on Tuesday 29 November and we are holding a Zoom media briefing the same day at 1200, with guests including Professor Linda Woodhead and Dr Lois Lee. More information here
Home secretary concerned at response to antisemitic hate crime
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, has said she shares the concern about law enforcement in relation to antisemitic hate crime, following the decision to drop charges in the case involving abuse shouted from a convoy of cars in north London. Four men were arrested after the convoy, flying Palestinian flags, drove through a largely Jewish neighbourhood in Finchley. But the cases of all four were dropped after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was no realistic prospect of conviction. Suella Braverman told the home affairs select committee this week that she would “take the issue away” but did not commit to a review. She said it was a “sorry state of affairs” when the community had to rely on the Community Security Trust rather than public policing and law enforcement. Jewish News story here
Pope Francis: women make theology more profound and flavourful
The Pope has appealed for more women to study theology. He was speaking in an audience with the International Theological Commission which advises the church. Vatican News reports that he invited theologians to help correct the tendency of “backwardism” where tradition refuses to grow and said theologians must be open to the contributions of other disciplines, deepening all human knowledge. He said they should teach theology in a way that provokes “wonder and awe” to those who hear them. Pope Francis suggested that it would be important to increase the number of women theologians, not because it is fashionable, but because women bring a different intellectual perspective to theology, which can make theology “more profound and more ‘flavourful’.”
Moderates offer solution as US Methodist church fragments over same-sex marriage
The Religion News Service describes the fracturing of the Methodist church in the USA, with congregations divided over same-sex marriage but also over what to do next. The United Methodist Church has still to take a final vote on whether to allow same sex marriage, but already a rival conservative organisation is under way, the Global Methodist Church, with many congregations joining, while others are going it alone. The RNS reports on White’s Chapel UMC in Texas, which has voted to leave the UMC while stating an intention to find common ground for moderate people, neither progressive nor conservative. It is setting up the Methodist Collegiate College, to create a new form of connection among congregations which it hopes will join them in time.
‘No such thing as a witch’ hotly disputed in Northern Ireland town
A plaque to eight women and a man found guilty of witchcraft at the last witch trial in Ireland in 1711, has been edited after local councillors questioned the historic verdict. The plaque is for the Gobbins Visitor Centre in Islandmagee, where the trial took place, on the coast north of Belfast. Local councillors decided to drop the words: “Today the community recognises your innocence”, after Ulster Unionist councillor Keith Turner questioned whether the council had the power to overturn the verdicts, to the incredulity of Alliance councillor Robert Logan: “There are no such thing as witches. How can you be accused of being a witch if there is no such thing as a witch?”
Bishop blesses gritters in Lincolnshire as winter approaches
A bishop has blessed Lincolnshire County Council’s 47 gritters, their crews and 29,200 tonnes of salt in an annual ceremony paying tribute to the teams that keep roads safe. Dr Nigel Peyton, an assistant bishop in the Lincoln diocese, said the ceremony, now in its 20th year, plays a meaningful part in winter preparations, encourages people to drive safely as winter approaches and values staff who go out at all hours to serve the community.
