Sinéad O’Connor, Irish singer and seeker after truth, has died
The Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor, has died at the age of 56, following a period of mental anguish after her 17-year-old son Shane, “decided to end his earthly struggle” last year. She cancelled all live performances due to overwhelming grief. She had several brushes with religion in her life. In 1993, she scandalised Catholics by tearing up a picture of the Pope on stage in protest at child sex abuse. In 1999 she became a priestess of the breakaway Latin rite Tridentine Church. And in 2018, she converted to Islam and took on the new name “Shuhada’ Davitt”, writing: “This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey”. She is remembered for her social and political activism, and for her songs, including the international hit “Nothing compares 2 U”.
Robots incapable of taking on role of religious leader
Psychologists writing for an American publication, say their research shows that robot preachers are less credible than human beings and they may in fact precipitate decline in religious commitment. Researchers studied cases in Buddhist and Taoist temples and found lower levels of listening and less religious commitment with a robot sermon. They suggest that the religious elite, the leaders, hold on to their influence because they are seen as highly credible. Robots may be able to write and deliver sermons, but people don’t see them as credible. They conclude that not all occupations can be outsourced to robots, and certainly not religious leadership which relies on modelling beliefs and behaviour. Times story here
Times surveys 5,000 clergy for response to major issues
The Times has embarked on a survey of 5,000 Church of England clergy to gauge their opinion on important issues within the church and wider society. One of the clergy picked to respond, posted the invitation on Twitter. It said that views of church senior leaders are well known, but the same cannot be said of the clergy, and there has been no comparable survey since 2014. A randomly chosen selection of clergy are being asked for their views on parish finances, the pressure of being a cleric, same sex marriage, climate change, safeguarding, politics, racism, memorials, Brexit and church leadership.
Taizé appoints a British leader
The Taizé community has announced that its new prior will be Andrew Thorpe, a lay Anglican from Pudsey in west Yorkshire who has been part of the community since he was 19. Taizé is an inter-denominational community of 90 brothers, which is known for simple worship and chants, and organises retreats for young people Andrew Thorpe He will take over from Brother Alois Loeser, who is retiring after 50 years in Taizé, with 18 as its leader. The Church Times reports that in December, there were allegations of spiritual or sexual abuse by community members, acknowledged by Brother as intolerable and appalling.
Wes Streeting MP at ease with being gay and a Christian
The Labour MP Wes Streeting has given an interview to Premier Christianity, saying he feels at ease with his identity as a gay man and a practising Christian, following an internal struggle when he discovered he was gay. He said people who use Leviticus to argue that same sex relationships are sinful, “do quite a bit of pick and mix” around other laws on food and clothing. “We’re made in God’s image. I think God created gay people, that we are accepted and our relationships are valid and important”. Aged 40, he was brought up in the east end, went on to study at Cambridge University and became an MP in 2015. He is now shadow health secretary.
HTB internal disagreement over same sex letter
Members of St Augustine’s Queensgate, which is part of the wider Holy Trinity Brompton parish, have written to the vicar of HTB the Rev Archie Coates, protesting at his decision to sign an open letter arguing it was “unlawful, unconstitutional, and illegitimate” for the bishops to commend the prayers of love and faith, and synod should authorise them instead. The Church Times has reproduced the Queensgate response in full. Members say the letter their vicar signed was a tactic to frustrate same sex blessings and conclude it was done “to prolong discrimination by procedural default”. They say if the Bishop of London can bless fire barges, which she did this week, then Jesus is unlikely to reject blessings for Christians who want to dedicate their commitment to one another. St Augustine’s Queensgate is in the modern Catholic tradition, and after it was joined to HTB in 2010, it continued its liturgical tradition, led by an HTB curate. The merger has previously been welcomed and judged a success by the former churchwarden who wrote to Archie Coates.
Jewish community in Letchworth disappears without trace
The gradual decline of the once thriving Jewish community in Letchworth has been charted in a book by local historian Yanky Fachler. The town was regarded as a stronghold of orthodoxy in the second world war, after Jewish families moved there from London to escape the bombing, attracted by a Jewish property developer who built an estate which lay empty. Synagogue services were held in the home of the Sassoons and several famous rabbis moved there. But the Sassoons left for Israel and when the last leader left for London, the community came to an end. The author observes that the Jewish community left no permanent trace such as a school, synagogue or cemetery, so there is close to no collective memory that Letchworth was once a thriving centre for the Jewish faith.
90 year old former vicar cycles from Lands End to John O’Groats
Peter Langford, a retired vicar from Beccles in Suffolk, is to cycle from Lands End to John O’Groats four days after his 90th birthday to raise money for the homeless. He thinks it will take him a month, starting on 22 August. He has done the 1100 mile route before, aged 75, 80 and 85, raising £60,000 in the process. The East Anglian Daily Times quotes him saying: “If I can raise awareness of the cause and my supporters donate what they can, together we can make a real difference to many people’s lives”.
