Britain’s church of the year announced
The “simple, unadorned” St James the Great, at Aslackby, in Lincolnshire, has been named church of the year in the “Baftas for churches”. Fifteen winners were named from among 55 finalists and 200 nominations in the National Church Awards presentation at the Chapter House of Lincoln Cathedral yesterday afternoon. Aslackby is a tiny, isolated village of 100 dwellings and the church style was influenced by the Knights Templar. Organisers say the finalists show the diversity of churches in the UK, in terms of buildings, the work they do and the people who use them. For example, St Ethelbert, on farmland in Laring, Norfolk, is heated by a woodburning stove and lighted by oil lamps. Redeemer Central, in Belfast city, gathers a diverse group to share food every week at The Long Table. Tundergarth Parish Church, near Lockerbie, Scotland, has become a place of global pilgrimage through its connection to the Pan Am 103 tragedy in 1988. And St Nefydd & St Mary, in North Wales, is caring for nature with its “Swifties Tours” to support birds on the red list of conservation concern. The list of winners is here
Religion playing ‘huge role’ in US election campaign
Polling day in the United States is approaching fast and, both sides continue to jet around the country wooing prospective voters — often in places of worship. Last weekend the Democrat candidate Kamala Harris visited churches in Atlanta as part of a nationwide push to mobilise African-American voters, known as “souls to the polls”. At the first, she shared a stage with Stevie Wonder and later that day sat for an interview with the civil rights activist the Rev Al Sharpton. Last week, Donald Trump spoke to faith leaders in North Carolina, in which he cast himself as the protector of Christians. Religion is all-important in the US, compared with many other countries in the western world. Two-thirds of Americans identify as Christians, according to the most recent census of American religion, while minority faiths are assuming a pivotal role as world events affect their vote. Lianne Kolirin’s report is here
Death of Muslim scholar praised for tolerance … and accused of coup
Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim scholar praised for being “pro-democracy, pro-equal opportunity, pro-science”, and in favour of non-violence has died, aged 83, in exile in the United States. He was among the first Muslim leaders to publicly condemn the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Islamic State in 2014. He was also accused of planning an attempted coup in Turkey. Gülen, described as the second most powerful man in Turkey, was the spiritual leader of the Hizmet (or “service”) movement, a powerful Islamic community with followers worldwide. He was an ally of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and became known for promoting a tolerant Islam that emphasised altruism, modesty and hard work. But as the movement grew, his followers expanded into business and began taking jobs inside the government, the military and the police, which challenged Erdogan. Hizmet was declared a terrorist organisation in May 2016 and Gülen — who was living in Pennsylvania — was blamed for a coup two months later, which he denied. BBC report here. Professor Paul Weller has written about Fethullah Gullen here and here.
London Muslim festival draws in 50,000 but planning was ‘uphill struggle’
Organisers of the Global Peace and Unity festival, held at the Excel Centre in London last weekend, say more than 50,000 people attended. It marked a return after a 10-year hiatus, and included talks, seminars, shopping areas and stalls where Muslim organisations publicised their businesses. However, the right wing think tank Policy Exchange published a report alleging the event would “platform a substantial number of extremists, misogynists, antisemites and supporters of the 7/10 attack on Israel”. The Daily Telegraph reported that the Metropolitan Police had distanced itself from the festival and government minister Sir Stephen Timms withdrew as a speaker after being told one of the participants would be Zwelivelile Mandela, who has reportedly praised leaders of Hamas, though it’s understood he didn’t attend in the end. In opening the festival, its chairman, Mohamed Ali Harrath, spoke of “the uphill struggle to organise the event, due to interest from right-wing and far-right media, who see Muslims as outsiders”. He added: “It wasn’t easy for us. Until now, we are seen as an extension of foreign forces. We are part and parcel of this land.” A Met spokesman told the Religion Media Centre: “The Metropolitan Police Service is not a supporting partner and is not contributing financially to the event. The organisers were never given formal permission to use the Met logo. We asked for it to be removed from the website.”
A haunting lullaby from Auschwitz
A “hauntingly beautiful piece of history” written in Auschwitz in 1941 will be broadcast for the first time today from 11am. The recording, of Adam Kopyciński’s Kołysanka (Lullaby) — which can be streamed here — is part of the Orchestras of Auschwitz project, in which music manuscripts discovered at the concentration camp are being recomposed into an opera-ballet by Leo Geyer, artistic director of Constella Music. Mr Geyer said: “The music does not seek to express the horrors of the camp, but rather strives to escape it. With rich and luscious harmony, you can hear Kopyciński reaching beyond the barbed wire to evoke a memory of better times. To those listening, perhaps it would have been a chink of light in darkness: a glimmer of hope.”
Sabbath opening for Hebridean supermarket despite Presbyterian protest
A supermarket on Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides is to be allowed to open on Sundays, despite strong opposition from Presbyterians and an online petition signed by almost 2,000 people wanting to maintain the ideals of the traditional Sabbath. Tesco has announced it will go ahead with its plan to open on Sundays and that “at least 30 jobs” would be created. As a concession to the opposition, however, the Stornoway store will be the only one in the UK to delay Sunday opening until noon and remain open until 8pm. Times report here
Jewish Film Festival to show shunned Polanski work
A film shunned in America and the UK because of a sexual scandal surrounding Roman Polanski, its director, is to be given a British premiere at the Jewish Film Festival next month. Organisers say they have decided to approve the showing of An Officer and a Spy, based on Robert Harris’s novel about the Dreyfus affair in France during the late 1800s, because its plot echoes antisemitism experienced in this country today. Polanski, now 91, pleaded guilty in 1977 to having sex with a girl of 13, but fled the US for France, where he has lived since. Michael Etherton, chief executive of the UK Jewish Film Festival said the subject matter of the film — about a French military officer wrongly convicted of being a German spy, largely due to antisemitism, was “highly relevant”. He added: “We want to give audiences the choice of whether they want to watch a film by Roman Polanski.” Tickets for the film, to be shown on 3 November, sold out within hours. Times report here
Catholic peer and the ‘10 inconvenient bishops’
A leading Catholic in the House of Lords has questioned the Vatican’s lack of response to oppression of 10 bishops in China. Lord Alton, a former Liberal Democrat MP who now sits as a crossbencher, points out that seven of the bishops have been detained under continued persecution by the Chinese Communist Party, some of them having been under continuous detention for years. He calls them the “10 inconvenient bishops the Vatican wants us to forget”. Catholic Herald report here
Vatican and China agree over bishops
The Vatican and China have agreed to extend a provisional deal on the appointment of Catholic bishops there. A 2018 agreement, extended twice previously, was an attempt under Pope Francis to bridge long-standing differences over control of the church. Vatican relations with China were cut in 1951 after communists came to power and the country’s estimated 12 million Catholics were divided into a state-recognised church and an underground one that stayed loyal to Rome. AP report here
