2025 Templeton Prize goes to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians, has been awarded the 2025 Templeton Prize for his “pioneering efforts to bridge scientific and spiritual understandings of humanity’s relationship with the natural world, bringing together people of different faiths to heed a call for stewardship of creation”. The Templeton Prize citation says he has used his office “to convene groups of scientists, scholars, political leaders, and clerics from the Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim worlds”. In October 2018 the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate agreed to grant self-governing status to the Orthodox church in Ukraine, a move which led to a split with the Russian Orthodox church based in Moscow.
The ‘first Christian hymn’ from 200AD is released today
A scrap of tattered papyrus, found by archaeologists in Egypt 100 years ago, is said to hold the lyrics of what is believed to be the first Christian hymn. It was found in a vault at Oxford university by visiting Wheaton College Professor John Dickson, who dated it to the mid-200s AD. He found that around a fifth of the words, the beginning lines, were missing, but 35 words remained which he translated from Greek and was surprised to see references to the Trinity:
“Let all be silent, the shining stars not sound forth, all rushing rivers be stilled as we sing our hymn to the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, as all powers cry out in answer, Amen, Amen, might, praise and glory forever to our God, the only giver of all good gifts. Amen. Amen.”
The corresponding tune to the lyrics was missing, but there was another tune intact on the papyrus, so musicologists built on the surviving song and Christian musicians Chris Tomlin and Ben Fielding performed it. Named “The First Hymn Project”, the song will be released today, 11 April. An accompanying documentary and live performances are scheduled for next week. The story, lyrics, links to song and documentary are here. Baptist Press article here
Pope Francis greets the faithful in St Peter’s Basilica
Pope Francis made an unexpected appearance in his wheelchair at St. Peter’s Basilica, where 20,000 people had gathered for the Jubilee of the Sick. Vatican News reports that he paused to pray at the tomb of St. Pius X, greeting restorers working behind protective screens and blessing children and pilgrims who crowded forward to meet him. The Pope is resting for two months after a long stay in hospital where he was treated for double pneumonia.
Churches call for review into police raid on Quaker Meeting House
Churches Together in England (CTE) has sent an open letter to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, calling for a police review and a meeting with him, to discuss the police raid on a Quaker Meeting House in Westminster. Twenty officers forced entry and detained six young women from the group “Youth Demand” who had booked a room for a meeting. The CTE letter says they were dismayed to hear about the raid and regard the forced entry into a place used for worship, as unnecessary. They would welcome a meeting with the Metropolitan Police along with representatives from the Quakers “to discuss this matter further, to avoid such an incident happening in a place of worship again”.
Christian charity accuses government of “immoral” social security cuts
Church Action on Poverty is accusing the government of “immoral” cuts to social security, “singling out disabled people for swingeing cuts, while allowing far richer people to bear little or no burden.” In its latest Family Resources Survey, it says the government’s own statistics show that disabled people are already three times as likely to be living in food insecurity and it would be disastrous to further cut support for disabled people, as the government proposes. It says “The threatened cuts to Britain’s shared social security system are immoral, deeply harmful to some of the country’s poorest people, and are based on misleading spin”. Statement here
Labour MP highlights stories of persecuted Christians
Labour MP Ruth Jones, who is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for International Freedom of Religion or Belief, has written an article for Politics.co.uk, setting out her view that Christianity is the most persecuted minority faith in parts of the world. This includes baseless eviction from their homes, rejection from employment opportunities, imprisonment and death. The threat comes from Islamist extremism, Marxist regimes, and dictatorial governments, she says, and the article reports statistics from the charity Open Doors, sugegsting almost 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith last year, with most coming from Nigeria. Premier Christian News story here
US Episcopalian leader opposes public funding of Catholic school
The Episcopal News Service reports that Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe has joined a coalition of Christian, Muslim and Jewish groups in opposing government funding of religious charter schools, an issue that will be heard this month by the US Supreme Court. The case concerns St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in Oklahoma, which was given permission by a state board in 2023 to become the first US religious charter school. However, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against the change and now the case is before the Supreme Court. Opponents say using funds to support a religious school is unconstitutional and runs counter to the separation of church and state, threatening religious freedom by supporting one specific denomination.
Passover – a reminder of transformation in a broken world
Passover, the Jewish festival remembering the exodus of the people of Israel from slavery in ancient Egypt, starts tomorrow, 12 April. The co-leaders of Progressive Judaism, Rabbi Josh Levy and Rabbi Charley Baginsky, have issued a message pointing to the exodus as “a slow, often frustrating process of building a society based on justice, equality, and shared responsibility.. Our civil and political worlds are fractured, often defined by fear rather than hope. Yet, Pesach teaches that transformation is possible”. Message is here. Factsheet explaining Passover is here
