Singing carols is a reasonable excuse to remove your face mask in church
Latest advice from the Church of England and the Methodists about Covid-19 rules after the recent new restrictions, confirm a degree of flexibility over singing in church, an issue facing all churches during Christmas services which include singing carols. The advice says face masks are mandatory in a place of worship, but there is a reasonable excuse exemption which allows people to remove a face covering whilst singing if they wish to do so. Locally, congregations can make their own decisions. Otherwise, gatherings can go ahead without social distancing, but there are recommendations for hand washing, ventilation and allowing distancing for people who feel vulnerable.
Tribunal finds China committed genocide against the mainly Muslim Uyghurs
The Uyghur Tribunal, an unofficial UK inquiry into the way China has acted against the Uyghurs, has found China has committed genocide against them. It said there was no evidence of mass killings in Xinjiang, but birth control and sterilisation measures amounted to genocidal intent. There was also evidence of torture and sexual violence against the Uyghurs. The chair, Sir Geoffrey Nice, said the panel was satisfied China had a deliberate policy to bring about long-term reduction of Uyghur and other ethnic minority populations and the Chinese president Xi Jinping, along with senior officials, bore “primary responsibility” for the abuses. BBC report here
The UK has announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing winter Olympics in February next year. They have joined the US, Canada and Australia in protest at alleged human rights abuses in China, which Beijing denies.
Notre dame redesign passed despite objections
Heritage bodies in Paris have approved a controversial redesign of the interior of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, despite objections from prominent artists and academics who said it “Disneyfied” the interior. The church said the plans including possible street art installations and softer mood lighting were not revolutionary and would offer visitors a warmer welcome. The plans are part of the reconstruction of the Cathedral following the devastating fire in 2019. Twenty experts from the National Heritage and Architecture Commission approved the design asking only that the statues on interior walls in the chapels should be retained and the church should rethink replacing the seats with moveable high-tech pews with ambient lighting.
Church of England stats show sharp decline in attendance
Church of England statistics for weekly attendance in 2020 show a sharp decline. Comparing stats for October 2020 with October 2019, average numbers were down by 57 per cent with child weekly attendance down 77 per cent. The church says a drop is unsurprising considering that churches were shut in the lockdowns. But because 8:10 parishes offered “church at home”, online, or even on the phone, the numbers of the worshipping community, both on-line and in person, declined by only 7 per cent and the number of people on church Electoral Rolls was down by just one per cent. Another stat shows that the number of church funerals declined by 35 per cent, with funerals at crematoria rising by 48 per cent. The report concludes that 2020 was exceptional, so the large changes are entirely understandable and clearly a consequence of the pandemic.
£5milliion for church projects to reach new audiences
More than £5 million is to be given to two Church of England dioceses to create new church communities attracting children, young people and diverse congregations. The grants are in line with the church’s vision and strategy for the future, to double the number of children and young people in churches. Projects in Coventry and Southwell include a community choir, a church in a working men’s club, outreach work in parishes serving estates, holiday and lunch clubs, pastoral support, creating new youth leaders and Christian enquiry courses.
Catholic diocese denies sacrament to transgender people
The Washington Post reports that the Catholic diocese of Marquette in Michigan has instructed its pastors to deny baptism, confirmation and other sacraments to transgender and nonbinary people unless they have “repented”. The guidance also stipulates that transgender people may not receive Communion. It says “the sex of the person and the sex of the body are the same. Every one of us is created as either male or female. Thus, to live according to the truth of our human nature, we are to embrace our bodily sex. It is a gift given to us”.
Half a million antisemitic tweets in English are available to view in the UK each year
A report reviewing antisemitism on Twitter, estimates there are up to 1,350 explicitly antisemitic tweets in English posted every day and 100 of those are from people living in England. In total=, there are an estimated half a million antisemitic tweets written in English available to people in the UK every year. The data was collected in an 18 month project by the Woolf Institute, The Community Security Trust and the Antisemitism Policy Trust. They searched for antisemitic tropes and phrases such as Jewish filth, Jewish lobby and Jewish Nazis. This is the third report in a series charting antisemitism on social media, which has also reviewed Google and Instagram. It concludes that anti-Jewish racism persists on major social media platforms, and the tools for addressing it are not fit for purpose, or public policies are poorly enforced or ignored.
