BRIEFING
New centre for young women’s economic justice
THE YOUNG WOMEN'S TRUST has launched a new Research Centre for Young Women’s Economic Justice, which will run a training programme to empower young women to become paid peer researchers into the economic injustices faced by young women struggling to live on low or no...
Majority in G7 want vaccine technology to be shared
THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN G7 countries believe their governments should ensure pharmaceutical companies share vaccine research and technology, according to a major new poll. The poll carried out by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, which includes Amnesty International,...
Masks still needed in schools, say scientists
SCIENTISTS AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS have joined with education unions, parents, and students to write to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, expressing their concern at reported Government plans to stop requiring children to wear face coverings in secondary school...
Pandemic has led to housing ‘race for space’
HOUSE PRICES in the least densely populated areas of the UK have risen almost twice as much as those in the most densely populated areas over the past year, which reflects both the pandemic prompting people to choose to live and work outside of busy cities, and the...
Anti-trafficking short film competition announced
YOUNG PEOPLE IN EUROPE AGED 16-24 are being invited to take part in a film competition on the subject of human trafficking. The winning film will be shown at BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and all three winning entries will be shown at the Royal...
COMMENTARY
Transformatory politics beyond the elections
WITH THE POLLS shortly set to close on national, regional and local elections in Scotland, Wales and England (plus the Hartlepool by-election, and voting for police and crime commissioners in England and Wales), most will either have cast their ballot or made up their...
Church action on racism: what is at stake?
THERE IS A NEW REPORT in the Church of England concerning how to address racism: From Lament to Action. It was published almost simultaneously with the guilty verdict on the killer of George Floyd, which has been met with strong assent from many Christians. It will be...
The UK Government, disabled people, and the pandemic
LAST MONTH, a year after the UK went into lockdown and on the very morning that a judicial review on the matter was about to begin, Matt Hancock’s department agreed, “To consider how information on shielding can be given in an accessible format to disabled people...
‘A gentle discipline’ or Williamson’s whip?
'EXERCISE A GENTLE DISCIPLINE’ is a phrase often heard amongst Quakers. It may be used in reference to matters as diverse as the conduct of our Business Meetings or the wording of funeral notices. It works, perhaps one might say, because we are raised to it. But note...
C of E: siding with power or choosing resurrection?
TWO DISTURBING REPORTS have recently been published on serious failings in dealing with abuse in Christian circles. These describe how worldly imbalances of power and privilege were embraced within sections of the church and wielded, sometimes brutally. Despite...
MEDIA
UPDATES
Introducing the Good Conversation podcast
WE ARE PLEASED to announce the launch of the Good Conversation podcast by independent scholar, author, Church in Wales priest and Ekklesia associate, the Rev Dr John Gillibrand. The podcast debuts on Sunday 28 March 2021. The link is being shared on social media here....
Redemptive Justice? Survivors of church-related abuse
THIS new paper from the Rev Dr David Atkinson (retired Anglican Bishop of Thetford) and Dr Sue Atkinson (survivor of childood abuse, with a PhD in professional development and how groups learn to change) proposes a framework for the Church of England's on-going...
Welcome to the new Ekklesia website
EKKLESIA IS PLEASED to be launching its new website for a new year – our twentieth in operation as a pioneering think-tank (and now change network) on beliefs, ethics and politics. This is the fourth redesign since we appeared on the web in 2002. It also marks a...
