Religious messages disrupt FA’s rainbow campaign
Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi will face no formal action from the English Football Association, after twice writing “I (heart shape) Jesus” on his rainbow armband celebrating LGBTQ+ inclusion. He wore it on Saturday during a Premier League match against Newcastle, and again on Tuesday in the match against Ipswich, when he wrote “Jesus (heart) you” on his armband, contravening an FA regulation that religious messages are prohibited on any item of clothing. The rainbow captain armbands were issued to the 20 Premier League clubs for matches last weekend and in the current midweek round, as part of an 11-year campaign in partnership with LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall. The Ipswich captain, Sam Morsy, who is Muslim, didn’t wear the armband because of his religious beliefs. Manchester United abandoned the plan after defender Noussair Mazraoui declined to take part. BBC journalist Dan Austin analyses the way religion has featured in the LGBTQ+ campaign here
Civitas report says CofE bureaucracy is threatening existence of parishes
The think tank Civitas has produced a report “Restoring the Value of Parishes”, which says the Church of England is spending millions of pounds on bureaucracy at the expense of parishes. It says dioceses are on average spending 21 per cent on administration, employing one administrator to every three-and-a-half priests. An emphasis on management, centralisation in the Archbishops Council and awarding of money for mission projects has led to a merger of parishes, which, it says, has had a harmful effect on loyalty. The report gives the example of congregations in Wigan falling by 30 per cent and donations by a third. This coupled with a decline in the number of priests and closure or church buildings, is leading to the disappearance of the church in every community, said author Esmé Partridge. The report asks why the Church Commissioners are not spending a £10 billion endowment fund on supporting parishes. The report is written up in The Telegraph, which quotes a spokesman for the Church of England said: “We don’t recognise the picture painted by this report which appears to fundamentally misunderstand how clergy are paid and ignore the essential front-line support dioceses provide to parishes across the country in everything from safeguarding to finance. Contrary to the image the report portrays, Church of England churches have seen notable growth in the last year – with overall congregations passing a million again in 2023”.
Church of England congregations increased in 2023
A Church of England report on church attendance says the numbers at Christmas services increased by 20 per cent last year and the number of worshippers at Easter was up 8.6 per cent. The Statistics for Mission 2023 report said 1,961,000 attended services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year, up from 1,636,000 in 2022. And at Easter 2023, 938,000 attended services, against 864,000 for the previous year. The report indicates that attendance levels are still below 2019 pre Covid levels, but they have now grown for three years. Overall weekly attendance at Church of England churches rose to 693,000 in 2023, from 663,000 in 2022, an increase of 4.5 per cent. The number of children attending weekly increased from 90,000 in 2022 to 95,000 (up 4.9 per cent in a year). The Church of England’s overall “worshipping community” – the total number of regular worshippers – rose to 1,007,000 in 2023, from 982,000 the previous year. Report is here
Statement on Archbishop of Canterbury’s departure
Lambeth Palace has issued a statement clarifying that Justin Welby’s last day in post as the Archbishop of Canterbury will be on the Feast of the Epiphany, 6 January 2025. “From that date, his primatial functions (role as an archbishop) will be delegated, mainly to the Archbishop of York, his metropolitan functions (role in the province of Canterbury which has 30 dioceses) to the Bishop of London and his diocesan functions (work in Canterbury diocese) to the Bishop of Dover”. He will not be participating in any public Advent and Christmas services nor delivering the traditional televised new year message on New Year’s Day.
Commons Bill to include Sikh and Jewish categories in ethnicity data
Preet Kaur Gill MP has introduced a bill in the Commons to oblige public organisations to include “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories when collecting data on a person’s ethnic group. She told the Commons yesterday that Jews and Sikhs are in the unique position of being considered both ethnic and religious groups under the Equality Act 2010, but data is not collected routinely at present. The only data collected on Sikhs and Jews in recent years is religious data, which tends to be patchy and incomplete, does not include non-practising people from these traditions and is not used as a basis for delivering public services or to monitor inequalities in services. She cited examples of how Sikhs and Jews had been disproportionately affected by Covid, and the lack of information on Sikhs giving blood. She said: “Sikhs and Jews are missing from whole swathes of public data—on education, housing, crime, health, criminal justice, the public sector workforce and the ethnicity pay gap”. The bill went through to second reading on 7 March 2025. Speech in Hansard here
Opponents of assisted dying appeal for places on the committee reviewing the bill
Opponents of assisted dying have urged Kim Leadbeater MP to include them in the committee that will scrutinise the bill in the next five months. The Times reports that Labour MP Rachael Maskell wrote to Ms Leadbeater with their request and she herself desires a committee place as a former member of the Commons health select committee which carried out a 14-month investigation into the issue. The letter says they want eight spaces on the committee and say they will act in good faith with the bill, to ensure it is safe. Other names suggested are Daniel Kruger, Meg Hiller, James Frith, Jess Asato, Daniel Kruger, Dr Ben Spencer, Sarah Boot and Sarah Olney. The Times reports that “sources close to the anti-assisted dying campaign said that they feared Leadbeater could ‘stitch-up’ the committee by appointing inexperienced MPs or those who have signified softer opposition to it”. In a Religion Media Centre briefing, faith leaders pointed to outstanding areas of concern such as safety of vulnerable people, the right to conscientiously object, protection for Muslim medical staff whose faith precludes participation in assisted dying, safeguards for institutions opposed to it, preventing coercion and avoiding “the slippery slope”. Read Lianne Kolirin’s article on the briefing here. The links to the YouTube film and podcast are on our website page here.
Religion News Service announces new partnership to improve understanding of religion
The Washington based Religion News Service (RNS) and National Public Radio (NPR) have announced the formation of a new partnership to report on the impact of religion on public and personal life. In a statement, RNS said it would “help fill the gap caused by the reduction in the number of journalists covering religion as newspapers and news organizations nationwide have closed”. New editors and a producer will create original audio and digital news stories for both platforms, drawing on work of existing journalists in both organisations. RNS Publisher Deborah Caldwell said: “Religious belief informs some of the most important issues facing Americans. To understand our country now and throughout its history, it’s critical to understand the diversity of faith and the ways in which religious belief helps strengthen communities”. Full statement here
Slavery, America’s “original sin”
US President Joe Biden has described America’s history of enslavement as “our nation’s original sin”. He was speaking at Angola’s National Museum of Slavery during a visit to the country to view local industry funded by US investment, and the “Lobito corridor”, allowing materials from the DRC and Zambia to be exported through Angola. He said: “The United States is founded on an idea, one embedded in our Declaration of Independence, that all men and women are created equal. It is abundantly clear today we have not lived up to that idea, but we have not fully walked away from it either.”
