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A leading campaigner has warned of a gathering storm for persecuted Christians in China. Release International partner, Bob Fu, says the persecution of Christians has worsened dramatically under President Xi Jinping, and is set to get worse now Xi has been declared president for life. Bob Fu said: ‘Churches have been totally destroyed under President...

The Bishop of St Albans, a leading campaigner for measures to limit the harm done by Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs), has recently responded to recommendations from the Gambling Commission. The Rt Revd Alan Smith supports reducing the maximum stake on the machines to £2, from the current level of £100. The Commission has recommended limiting the stake to at...

Lords Rowan Williams and Richard Harries have helped launch a new campaign for a fairer tax system: Church Action for Tax Justice (CAT). CAT will seek to inspire all Churches about the urgency of creating fairer and more effective tax systems to fund healthier public services, both in the UK and internationally. Rowan Williams, who...

So says the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ‘Just Finance Foundation’. In a recent statement, it said: ‘Primary school pupils should receive compulsory lessons on how to manage money as part of the response to growing levels of financial insecurity and problem debt in the UK.’ Learning where money comes from, when to spend and how to...

Schools should teach children to look beyond the culture of cosmetic surgery, fast cars and designer labels, a bishop has told leading head teachers. In a recent address to school leaders in London, the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Rt Revd Stephen Cottrell, said schools can be places where children learn to seek “fullness of life”...

There is a forest coming.  Well, 50 million trees that will ‘embrace’ Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Chester and Hull, among other urban centres.   Over the next 25 years, with the M62 as its ‘spine’, the Woodland Trust will be working with the Community Forest Trust to plant a 120-mile “Northern Forest” between Liverpool and Hull....

Vending machines that can provide essentials such as water, sandwiches, and warm socks to rough-sleepers 24 hours a day, are to be installed in several cities in the UK. The first machine was installed in Nottingham at the beginning of the year, and already Action Hunger, the charity behind it, has had requests from charities...

Could you ‘mocha difference at a CAP café this summer?’ So asks the group Christians Against Poverty.  It is offering a free event pass, free camping AND free food at Big Church Day Out or New Wine’s United 18 in return for volunteer help with their café teams this summer. CAP says: ‘We need 40...

Brexit could just be the catalyst that tips Britain into succumbing to ‘British introspection, xenophobia, and self-pity, if a self-regarding attitude leads to economic failure and international impotence, as well being morally wrong in and of itself.’ So warns the Archbishop of Canterbury in his new book, Reimagining Britain: Foundations for hope*.  He warns that...

In Ethiopia, one girl in five is now married off before she reaches the age of 15.  Two in five girls are married by the age of 18.  Many are married before they are 13.  Child-marriage is on the increase due to the on-going drought, where struggling farmers sell their daughters, often to wealthy men,...

Planning policy is finally coming to the aid of church bells.  No longer will people who move into areas with ‘noisy’ church bells be able to complain and have them shut down. As the Secretary of State for Housing, Sajid Javid, recently said, ‘Churches have been part of British life in towns and villages for...

Are there hungry people in our parish?  There could well be. A recent poll found that one in every four parents worries about not having enough to eat.  23 per cent of parents of children under the age of 18, and 27 per cent of parents of primary-school children admit to either skipping meals, or...