Faith groups meet parts of society that others cannot reach
The Labour Government wants to work with faith organisations as it drives forward its programme of national renewal, a leading member of the government said last night. According to Sir Stephen Timms, “no other networks can match the presence of faith communities”. Speaking at St Bride’s Church, in London’s Fleet Street, where he gave the Religion Media Centre’s annual lecture, Sir Stephen said that the Covid pandemic had shown that “faith groups had the motivation, the resources, the buildings, the people and some cash” to step up to help”. Sir Stephen, who was formerly the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society and is now a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, said that faith covenants, where local councils commit to work with faith groups, are vital. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer recognises the importance of groups and wants to work with them. “Faith groups,” said Sir Stephen, “are known and trusted by their communities. They can reach hard to reach groups” but as the government succeeds in its plans for rebuilding society and the economy, he predicted “they will no longer be exhausted filling in for an absent state”.
Catholic bishops renew call to end two child benefit cap
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales has renewed its call for the government to scrap the two-child benefit cap on Universal Credit payments and is asking Catholics to contact their local MPs to make their feelings known. The Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Richard Moth, said the bishops have opposed the cap since its introduction in 2017. He said it undermines the financial security of families with three or more children and “In challenging times, the cap can prompt families to make difficult decisions about having new pregnancies rather than rightly valuing every new life as sacred and a blessing”.
CofE pensions board launches tool assessing wide disparity of pay
The Church of England Pensions Board has launched the Fair Reward Framework to guide votes by investors at company AGMs. It assesses pay policies and practices including CEO pay awards, pay gaps and ratios, worker consultation, the extent of trade union coverage and the results of recent shareholder votes on pay. In a pilot study it found the median CEO pay was £4.1m with awards ranging from just under £1m to £17m. The median CEO to median employee pay ratio across the sample was 75:1, while the highest was 431:1 (Tesco), and the lowest was 13:1 (St James’s Place). Clare Richards, Director of Social Factors at the Church of England Pensions Board, said the results would inform its voting decisions at company AGMs, as well as engagement with company remuneration committees.
Southern Baptists put headquarters up for sale to pay for sex abuse cases
The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian body in the United States, has puts its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, up for sale in order to help pay the $12 million cost of dealing with the church’s sex abuse cases. Among them is one related to the former SBC president, Johnny Hunt, who has claimed the SBC leadership ruined his reputation by a report on past sexual misconduct cases, which he denies. Members of the SBC Executive Committee have also voted to set up a new department to deal with the issue of abuse reforms, which will take over the reform effort from volunteers, Religion News Service report here
Call for Uyghur academic to be freed
Amnesty International is appealing to world leaders to take steps to secure the release of the Uyghur academic Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on 23 September 2014 on a charge of separatism. It says he was targeted by the Chinese government after peacefully advocating for dialogue and conciliation between the Uyghur ethnic group and China’s majority Han population. The charges “stem from his writings and teachings on systemic discrimination and oppression faced by Uyghurs”, who are majority Muslim, in northwest China. It says Tohti’s China-based family has not seen him since spring 2017, when their quarterly prison visits abruptly stopped. Amnesty International has launched a petition calling on Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure Ilham Tohti’s immediate and unconditional release.
