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Religion and Society

  • 23 Jan 2013
    Questioning Demos: faith groups, social justice and public services

    This week (20 January 2013) the thinktank Demos (“ideas and action to promote the common good”) has published its report Faithful Providers, which argues that faith-based organisations should be used more as public service providers. Simon Barrow offers an initial response, highlighting some of the problematic assumptions and stances within the report, setting out the background to successive government's interest in co-opting faith providers, and pointing towards a more radical Christian stance which roots service in a tradition of modelling and advocating a different social order based on justice and equality.

  • 21 Jan 2013
    The use of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Bible by Barack Obama

    In a previous blog (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17832), I noted the significant coincidence of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States with the second inauguration of President Barack Obama ('Obama, MLK and the dream of a better world').

  • 21 Jan 2013
    Church must speak for human unity, says Greek Orthodox theologian

    “It is impossible to speak exclusively for the unity of the church and be indifferent about the unity of humankind,” says a senior Greek Orthodox theologian.

  • 21 Jan 2013
    Review: Dazzling Darkness - Gender, sexuality, illness and God

    Jill Segger reviews Rachel Mann's account of her journey through gender dysphoria, sexuality and chronic illness from "a false self and a false God" towards wholeness.

  • 21 Jan 2013
    C of E urged to match call for inclusive education with practical steps

    The Accord Coalition for inclusive schooling has welcomed the Church of England's call for inclusion in education, and urged it to take practical steps.

  • 21 Jan 2013
    Obama, MLK and the dream of a better world

    Many people know that today is an important day not only for the United States but also our world, since it is President Obama's second inauguration in Washington DC.

  • 20 Jan 2013
    A time of decision for Jerusalemite Armenians

    In a few days' time, we will learn the name of the new Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem. Four or five names have been see-sawing in the consciousness of those following these developments for many long weeks already. But the haze of speculation will finally be removed with the elections and actual votes of the members of the St James Brotherhood (36 in all).

  • 20 Jan 2013
    Why do we pray together? A reflection on Christian unity

    Today, there are serious fissures in our Christian faith, writes Dr Harry Hagopian. We seem to have lost the keen sense that we must be credible interpreters and loyal disciples of God's love to humankind. That, above all, is the nature of the prayer-in-action and action-in-prayer which animates the annual reminder of this continual calling: the global Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. What is required, perhaps, is a praxis not unlike that of the Early Church -- more basic, and therefore more grounded.

  • 20 Jan 2013
    British and Irish churches pray and work together for Christian unity

    Hundreds of thousands of Christians across Britain and Ireland are joining in the 2013 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in churches across these islands.

  • 19 Jan 2013
    WPCU: seeking unity through diversity and justice

    At least once a year, many Christians become aware of the great diversity of ways of honouring God. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbours' ways are not so strange - says the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches.