January
Hugh Dawes

Hugh Dawes

It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of Hugh Dawes.

Hugh was one of the founders of PCN Britain, the first Chair of the organisation and also the editor of Progressive Voices. More than that though, to many within PCN Britain he was a friend and mentor. Hugh died peacefully on the 7th February after a short illness, his wife Jill was with him.

We at PCN offer our condolences to Jill and all those who loved Hugh as they grieve, and offer our thanks for his life and many acheivements.

The Church Times Green Church Awards

The Church Times Green Church Awards

The Church Times Green Church Awards have two objectives: to celebrate the remarkable efforts made in recent years by individuals and congregations to offset the damage being done to the earth, and to set good examples before others who might be inspired to follow suit.

The 2024 Church Times Green Church Awards are organised jointly with the Church of England’s environment programme, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, and Eco Congregation Scotland. They are open to church groups and church schools of any denomination.

Gay man facing deportation supported by Open Table

National church invests in LGBT+ charity

A CHARITY which affirms and empowers lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) people to build communities hosted by welcoming and understanding churches has received a large cash boost from one of Britain’s national churches.

The United Reformed Church (URC), which agreed in 2016 to allow local churches to vote on performing marriages of couples of the same gender, has committed to supporting the Open Table Network (OTN), a growing partnership of communities across England and Wales run by and for LGBT+ people, their families and friends.

The grant, for £50,000 over the next three years, is the first donation OTN has received from any national church in the 15 years since it began with a group of six LGBT+ people at St Bride’s Anglican Church in Liverpool in 2008.

Continue Reading on opentable.lgbt »

Tom McLeish 1962-2023

PCN remembers, with gratitude, the great contribution of Thomas Charles Muckland McLeish, and extends our condolences to all who knew him.

The news of the death of Prof Tom McLeish FRS, theoretical physicist, interdisciplinary academic, Church of England Reader and widely respected writer came as something of a shock, when it was announced, to many of his friends and admirers – among them plenty of PCN members. In fact, though, Prof McLeish had revealed last summer that he had been diagnosed with inoperable Pancreatic cancer, and knew that his days were limited.

SCM asks churches to be honest about LGBTQ+

A lot of churches don’t let on whether they are affirming and welcoming of LGBTQ+ people. Some churches say everyone is welcome, but then turn out to have hostile theology that comes as a surprise.

Some churches are largely affirming but don’t feel they are doing enough to warrant putting a rainbow on their website, so they might get overlooked. LGBTQ+ people and their staunch allies exist in churches of all kinds, but everyone needs to be able to find the right place to worship and grow as a Christian in safety. Honesty is the beginning of being able to do that.

Continue Reading on honestchurch.org.uk »

URC apologises for its role in the transatlantic slave trade

The United Reformed Church (URC) has made a confession and apology for the role of its antecedents in transatlantic slavery and its continuing complicity in the legacies of the trade today.

At its General Assembly, held from 8-11 July at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, the URC passed two resolutions pertaining to the topic.

In addition to the apology, the Church made a commitment to undertake practical actions to address “the continuing negative impacts of the legacies of transatlantic slavery on black communities in the UK, the Caribbean and Africa”.

Yemen - still suffering seven years on

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?". - (Act III, scene I).” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

As Christians are we not challenged to be just as concerned for our Muslim neighbours as we are for Roman and Orthodox Christians in then Ukraine? Why the discrepancy between our concerns for the suffering in Yemen and the suffering in the Ukraine?

Amid all the bombs and suffering Medicins san Frontiers and Unicef among others strive to bring food and medical care to a forgotten people. The shame is that the bombs and missiles used against Yemen come from the nominally Christian countries of the U.S.A & the U.K.

Bishops’ unanimity is shameful | Angela Tilby

Church Times Published by Save The Parish on 4 March 2022

“It is a part of wider changes in ecclesiology: the elevation of the diocese over the parish, the loss of local connection, the attempts to turn bishops into enforcers of top-down polity, and the subsequent current moves to coerce parishes into diocesan schemes that will rid them of their agency and reduce the clergy to puppets."

Continue Reading on savetheparish.com »

FUEL POVERTY ACTION CALL

Everyone has a right to the energy needed for heating, cooking, and light

by Diane Skidmore

Energy bills have risen dramatically in the last year – and the price cap is now to increase by 54% in April. This rise will leave millions of people like me struggling with cold homes. Many of us are facing damp, ill health, darkness, hunger and misery. Before the pandemic and the price increase around 10,000 people died each winter in the UK’s cold homes. Now even more will die.

I’m a pensioner living on a council estate in south London, and even before the recent price increases it was a struggle for me and my neighbours to keep warm. I am asthmatic, and many of us have health problems, as well as problems with our housing conditions. My grandchildren don’t even visit me because my house is too cold. I’ve been working with Fuel Poverty Action for more than ten years now. There are too many people who cannot afford or struggle to keep warm.

To end this outrage, Fuel Poverty Action is calling for #EnergyForAll.

Continue Reading on change.org »

CALL FOR A FULL BAN ON ‘CONVERSION THERAPY

OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FROM CHRISTIAN LEADERS TO ENSURE A FULL BAN ON ‘CONVERSION THERAPY’

In just 24 hours after publishing, over 1,500 signatures from Christian leaders had been added to a letter in support of a full ban on ‘conversion therapy’.

So far 2,557have signed the letter and the number continues to grow. This letter was written by Christian groups who believe that the only meaningful ban on ‘conversion therapy’ is one which comprehensively prohibits the practice in all its forms. It was a direct counter to the harm caused by the ‘Ministers Consultation Response.’ These Christian groups sought to care for those who were negatively impacted by the original letter, and to offer a loving, inclusive Christian alternative.

Representing a breadth of traditions and denominations, the signatories range from Anglican parish priests and Baptist church senior ministers to household names including Revd Kate Bottley and Revd Richard Coles.

The Independent Learning Lessons Case Review – Graham Gregory. Some comments

The expression ‘lessons learned’ in a review of some poorly managed safeguarding episode, always fills the reader with a sense of déjà vu. We ask ourselves the disrespectful question, how many more lessons learned reviews do we need before the Church gets the central point of how and why things can go so disastrously wrong in safeguarding events?

Continue Reading on survivingchurch.org »

The Christ Church Papers: Exoneration of Dean revealed

Pieter Garicano, Charlie Hancock, and Estelle Atkinson report.

Cherwell has obtained a copy of the decision on the allegation of sexual misconduct against the Very Rev Martyn Percy, Dean of Christ Church. Dame Sarah Asplin, judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, concluded: “it is entirely disproportionate that this matter should be referred to a tribunal.” The decision – which was never made publicly available – cleared the Dean on the 28th of May last year.

The Dean had been accused of sexual misconduct, after an incident which occured at approximately midday on the 4th of October, 2020. It was alleged that the Dean briefly stroked and commented on the hair of an unidentified woman, an allegation Percy denies.

Initially, the incident was examined by an internal college investigator, until Canon Graham Ward, Professor of Divinity at Christ Church College, reported the allegation on the 5th of November 2020 – over a month later. The complaint was made under the Clergy Discipline Measure – a separate system of adjudication unique to the Church of England. An investigation was triggered, leading to this decision, which examines whether or not the case was worthy of consideration by a full disciplinary tribunal.

The judge in this case, Dame Sarah Asplin, has served on the Court of Appeal since 2017. Appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2013, she also serves as the Chair of the Church of England’s Clergy Discipline Commission and President of its Tribunal. It is in the latter capacities that she prepared this decision.

Continue Reading on cherwell.org »

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