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  • 23 May 2013
    Responding rationally to the Woolwich murder

    In the streets of Woolwich, south-east London, a brutal murder took place yesterday (22 May). Pictures and eyewitness accounts suggest that a man was hacked to death in broad daylight and those responsible for this horrific crime were arrested shortly afterwards. While this was a tragedy for the victim, his family and friends and a shock to the local community, the reaction by some in government risks spreading unnecessary panic.

  • 23 May 2013
    Ekklesia daily e-briefing resumes

    We are pleased to announce that as of yesterday, 22 May 2013, Ekklesia's daily e-mail briefing service (covering news, events and comment) has resumed.

  • 22 May 2013
    The Armenian genocide: remembering sorrows, articulating hopes

    'The Armenian genocide: remembering our sorrows and articulating our hopes?' was the title of a talk given by Ekklesia associate Dr Harry Hagopian at St Werburgh's Church in Dublin, Ireland, at the end of last month, 29 April 2013.

  • 22 May 2013
    Syria through a lens: another future is possible

    All the news coming out of Syria at present seems negative, and bound up with remorseless cycles of violence and the huge refugee and internal displacement crisis, which is impacting millions of people.

  • 21 May 2013
    Work Capability Assessments have failed the test

    Last year I wrote about my friend Yvonne, who had undergone an Atos Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and been placed in the Work Related Activity Group, meaning she was expected to attend the Jobcentre and prepare for work.

  • 21 May 2013
    Only communicate: how the church addresses the world (or not)

    Given that the Church of Scotland, like all major Christian denominations, conducts a good chunk of its internal business in public these days (with the boundary between what is 'internal' and what is 'external' increasingly stretched), media and communications can no longer be thought of - if it ever could - as a specialist function alone.

  • 21 May 2013
    Church 'issues' are about people, not abstract ideas

    Ask anyone reporting or commenting on the 2013 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and they will tell you that proceedings this year are being dominated by two 'issues': the reception, or otherwise, of same-sex persons in the life and ministry of the Kirk; and later this week 'The inheritance of Abraham: A report on the promised land' (which has provoked a substantial preemptive assault by the pro-Israeli government lobby, on account of its advocacy of justice for Palestinians and Jews alike).

  • 17 May 2013
    Austerity damages public health as well as the economy

    Austerity measures are causing avoidable illness and death on a major scale, public health experts have shown. In the UK and internationally, harsh cuts in public services and social services are damaging child and adult health and hindering economic recovery, yet some governments are pressing ahead.

  • 13 May 2013
    We need to recognise our common humanity as the welfare changes hit

    On the miserable journey that is welfare reform, we have reached a very sad milestone: the first suicide to be attributed to the bedroom tax.

  • 10 May 2013
    Official rebuke to Iain Duncan Smith over statistics misuse

    UK statistics authority chair Andrew Dilnot has criticised work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s misleading claims on the impact of capping benefits. This is not the first time that he, and the department he heads, have been found to have misused statistics.