Coronavirus and Religion update – 17 April
UK A report from the Office for National Statistics suggests the number of church and faith-based weddings has fallen to just 23% of all ceremonies – the lowest percentage on record. The report looked at marriages in 2017 and indicates a long term trend. In 1900, 85% of all weddings were religious ceremonies, in the late […]
Coronavirus and Religion update – 16 April
By Lianne Kolirin UK Readers of the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish News have learnt that there may be some hope for the beleaguered titles, which announced their liquidation last week. An announcement on the websites of both newspapers has revealed that on Tuesday, the Kessler Foundation, which owns the Chronicle, “submitted an offer to […]
Is the NHS our new national religion?
In the pandemic crisis “the churches have faded into the background, they’ve shut up shop literally and deferred to the NHS”, claims Linda Woodhead
Coronavirus and Religion update – 14 April
By Lianne Kolirin UK Tributes have been pouring in for the popular north London rabbi, Avrohom Pinter, who has died from the coronavirus. Community leaders and politicians alike have taken to social media to express their sorrow at the passing of Rabbi Pinter, an influential and leading figure of Stamford Hill’s Strictly Orthodox community. A […]
Three Easter messages of Hope
London: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, delivered the Easter Sunday service from his kitchen in London. “At this very difficult time in the life of the nation and of the world, our prayers today are especially with those who are suffering, with those who care for them, and for all who mourn…. “Imagination, ambition, […]
Easter 2020 during the pandemic
By Tim Wyatt This week has marked the most important period in the Christian calendar. Starting with Palm Sunday last weekend, Christians across the country would normally track the final week of Jesus’s life throughout Holy Week through to Easter Sunday with services, processions, rituals, songs, prayers and meals. On Maundy Thursday, believers remember the […]
Coronavirus and religion – update 9 April 2020
By Tim Wyatt Here are today’s latest religion news stories: Millions of Jews around the world celebrated the beginning of the Passover festival, or Pesach, yesterday with Seder meals. Traditionally, large groups of family and friends would gather to share a special meal and recite the story of the Jews’ escape from slavery in Egypt […]
Passover During the Pandemic
By Lianne Kolirin Celebrating Passover this year will be “exceptionally difficult” says Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis. The festival, lasting for eight days, is one of the most significant in the Jewish calendar and has been marked by Jews around the world since about 1300BC. But restrictions imposed to try to minimise the spread of […]
Coronavirus and religion – update 8 April 2020
By Lianne Kolirin The Board of the Jewish Chronicle has just announced that it is going into liquidation. Here’s the statement “With great sadness, the Board of the Jewish Chronicle has taken the decision to seek a creditors voluntary liquidation of Jewish Chronicle Newspapers Ltd. Despite the heroic efforts of the editorial and production team […]
Counselling the dying and the bereaved
By Tim Maby The ability of chaplains, imams and rabbis to console the dying has been seriously curtailed by the Covid-19 pandemic, says the Rev Mark Burleigh, head of chaplaincy and bereavement services at Leicester University hospitals. In a briefing for the Religion Media Centre, he said chaplains can contact the dying only in negotiation […]
