BRIEFING
TUC publishes plan for action on cost of living crisis
NEW ANALYSIS BY THE TUC shows that energy bills are now expected to cost more than two months of average take-home pay in 2023 – unless the government intervenes. Average take-home pay (after tax) will be £2,054 per month in 2023 based on Bank of England forecasts,...
Quakers address the legacy of church colonialism
QUAKERS ARE DRAWING CHURCH ATTENTION to work by an Oxford museum and a Naga research team to return human remains to the mountainous border area between Myanmar and India. The on-going decolonisation work at the Pitt Rivers Museum will see the return of more than 200...
New measures needed to help wildlife cope with water shortages
THE DRIEST WEEKS FOR PARTS OF ENGLAND since 1935 have left nature under pressure with wildfires devastating landscapes, habitats left parched, and wildlife endangered by concentrated levels of pollutants in low-flowing rivers. The Wildlife Trusts are extremely...
Girls in Afghanistan ‘hungry, isolated, and sad’
ONE YEAR SINCE THE TALIBAN TOOK CONTROL of Afghanistan, an economic crisis, crippling drought and new restrictions have shattered girls’ lives, excluding them from society and leaving them hungry, with a quarter showing signs of depression, according to a new report...
Four in five Scots support a minimum income guarantee
AHEAD OF THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT'S Programme for Government, expected to be published at the start of September, IPPR Scotland has revealed that four in five Scots (79 per cent) would support a minimum income guarantee. A minimum income guarantee is a safety net to...
COMMENTARY
Abuse, institutional self-preservation and exiting Christendom
LAMENT BY CHRISTIANS in response to the emerging reality of post-Christendom in Australia has extended along a spectrum from doom laden invocations of the imminent arrival of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, to a grouchy stoic muttering of “we’ll all be rooned.”...
Conservatives and the NHS: small state, big problems
. PEOPLE ON THE RIGHT OF POLITICS often say that for the UK, the NHS is like a religion - by which they mean that the NHS is something in which the population has an irrational and outdated belief. They may not openly call for the privatisation or abolition of the...
Cloaking prejudice in the guise of anti-racism
FAITH COMMUNITIES often make a valuable contribution to society. And opposing racism is an important aspect of acting justly. However it is important to be on guard against attempts – under the guise of respecting religious belief and opposing racism – to block the...
A peg-in-the-ground marker for a better politics?
COMMENT CAN HAVE A VERY SHORT SHELF LIFE. When change begins in politics, it has a way of accelerating very quickly and what began as a small trickle may rapidly turn into a torrent. The upheaval in Westminster which began four days ago is a reminder that those of us...
The cost of living: a dire warning from an unlikely source
AMIDST ALL THE WESTMINSTER DRAMA, a brief but extraordinary interview may go largely unnoticed and unremarked. But it contained a dire warning which should be heard and acted upon urgently. Paul Drechsler is a former Chair of the CBI, and now Chair of the...
MEDIA
UPDATES
‘What’s Next?’ Solas Festival is back
EKKLESIA is delighted to be co-sponsoring the imaginative and energetic Solas Festival for the fifth year in 2022... and it's all happening this weekend. Scotland's midsummer events jamboree is a feast of music, performance, discussion, culture, education and fun....
Eastertide reflections from Ekklesia
IN THE PAST we have maintained a tradition on Ekklesia of publishing reflections or articles to mark the darkness and hope of Easter. That has happened on many years, though not all. This time we kick off with a longer thought piece on the troubled texts of Holy Week...
Launch: Exchange of Gifts
WE ARE DELIGHTED that our latest book, Exchange of Gifts: The Vision of Simon Barrington-Ward, edited by Graham Kings and Ian Randall, has been launched officially today. The launch was at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Over 50 people were present in person, and...