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New guidance for parishes planning services to help transgender people mark their transition has been published by the Church of England. The pastoral guidance will be incorporated into Common Worship. It encourages clergy to be ‘creative and sensitive’ in using liturgy to enable people to mark a major transition in their lives. It formally commends...

A recent Parliamentary report that berates the Government’s housing for asylum-seekers has been supported by the Church of England’s refugee welcome co-ordinator, Nadine Daniel. Ms Daniel said that the entire asylum-housing system was crippled by a ‘perfect storm’ of insufficient funding, a paucity of housing stock, and a surge in asylum claims in the past...

Full extent of Church of England work to support local communities revealed Lead Bishop for Education calls on Government for Rural Strategy Nigeria’s Christians brace for attacks ahead of elections 2020 Lambeth Conference Four out of five Christians have ‘taken action’ on poverty Religious freedom under threat worldwide Churches urged to embrace contactless payments as...

More than 33,000 social action projects – from food banks to debt counselling – are run or supported by churches, according to figures setting out for the first time the full scale of the Church of England’s service to communities. The findings – which amount to the largest survey to date of the extent of...

The Church of England’s lead bishop for Education, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway,  Bishop of Ely, has called for a cross-Government rural strategy to safeguard the future of education in rural communities. Bishop Stephen said that while ‘We have been reassured that the Government has a presumption against the closure of rural schools,’ and also...

A leading Anglican is warning that Nigeria’s Christians face escalating attacks by Islamist militants in the lead-up to this year’s (2019) general election. Christian farmers in the north are being driven from their homes and killed by Fulani herdsmen. The Anglican Archbishop of Jos, Benjamin Kwashi, has called for the Nigerian government to intervene to...

The 2020 Lambeth Conference will be held in Canterbury from 23rd July to 2nd August.  The theme is to be ‘God’s Church for God’s world’, and the aim is to help the Communion to ‘look at something greater and bigger than ourselves, and not to quibble around the little things in the family’.   It is...

There is a link between reading the Bible and wanting to relieve poverty. So found a recent poll by the research firm Barna Group, on behalf of Tearfund. In fact, 87% of Christians have taken action on poverty in this past year alone, and say they see it as a core part of their discipleship....

Religious freedom is under threat in one of every five nations around the globe, due in part to an increase in “aggressive ultra-nationalism”, a Catholic NGO has said. Aid to the Church in Need found incidents of religious persecution in 21 countries in the two years to June 2018, including Niger, Myanmar, India and China. ...

With more and more Brits choosing the likes of Apple Pay and plastic over cash, the Church of England’s Parish Buying Team is encouraging churches to embrace contactless payments. Contactless payments have been on offer in petrol stations, retail stores and restaurants across Britain for several years.  Now churches are being urged to follow suit,...

Sixty-five religious leaders, including senior figures from the Anglican, Catholic and Methodist Churches, Masorti, Reform and Liberal Jewish movements and the Muslim Council of Britain recently published a letter in the Sunday Times backing the real Living Wage. They expressed deep concern at low pay and in-work poverty, ‘which is damaging family life, and robbing...

Gin’s current popularity is being put to good use by Blackburn Cathedral. It has just launched its own-brand gin, Cathedra, which aims to be a brand that will sell across the country, and thereby create an income stream for the Cathedral. Blackburn Cathedral invested £12,000 in developing the gin, which is handcrafted at Brindle Distillery...