BRIEFING
What the nuclear weapons ban means for Britain
ONE YEAR AFTER the UN's multilateral Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) entered into force, CND has launched a substantive report on the new treaty and its implications for British nuclear policies. The report, Nuclear weapons are banned! What does...
Religious leaders reiterate calls to close Guantánamo Bay
THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES (WCC) has supported a renewed call issued by interreligious leaders from the United States for the prison at Guantánamo Bay to be closed, and for justice for those being held. In a letter from, among more than two dozen others, the...
UK government failing to deliver on Female Offender Strategy
THE UK MINISTRY OF JUSTICE has made limited progress on its Female Offender Strategy to improve outcomes for women in the criminal justice systemic England because it has not prioritised investment in this work, according to a report from the National Audit Office...
New report on the economic insecurity of young people
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS (RSA) has published the findings of a survey looking at the economic security of young people aged 16-24 in the United Kingdom. It forms part of the RSA’s Young people’s future health and economic security project, supported by the Health...
Millions of UK children sinking deeper into poverty
NEW ANALYSIS from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds households on low incomes will be spending on average 18 per cent of their income after housing costs on energy bills after April. For single adult households on low incomes this rises to a shocking 54 per cent,...
COMMENTARY
Tackling corruption, upholding justice and defending rights
THE LATEST SCANDALS surrounding the UK government have raised serious questions about how, and in whose interests, key decisions are made. Laws are being changed so that future critics of state abuse of power can be silenced or ignored. Poverty and lack of access to...
Reindeer cyclones and the UK’s Covid response
REINDEER CYCLONES: the term was strange to me when I came across it recently, but it describes a beautiful and rather moving natural phenomenon. A reindeer cyclone occurs when a herd feels under threat. The reindeer gather together in a tight circular group, and begin...
Christmas: How subversive hope is born
THE CHRISTMAS we celebrate in the western world in the first quarter of the C21st is an unwieldy mish-mash of sentimentality, rampant commercialism, tempered religiosity, honest paganism, the mass slaughter of animals, family hospitality and seasonal goodwill. It is...
Welcoming the stranger: resources for the churches
IF THE GOVERNMENT of the United Kingdom decides to follow the Australian policy of offshore processing refugees offshore, a strong theological response will be needed to underpin sustained practical resistance to such a policy. Fortunately, churches don’t have to...
Offshoring refugees: lessons from Australia
THE UK GOVERNMENT is reported to be wanting to move refugees and asylum seekers offshore. Following the Australian model apparently. So, do you want to know what the Australian model of offshore detention looks like? Let’s start with the annual financial costs of the...
MEDIA
UPDATES
An evening with Laurence Freeman OSB
'UNIFIED CONSCIOUSNESS: One Mind, One Heart' is the theme of an online evening with Fr Laurence Freeman from 6.30pm-8.30pm (GMT) on Thursday 9 December 2021. The Zoom meeting will be chaired by Simon Barrow, director of the change network and think-tank Ekklesia....
Forthcoming book: Exchange of Gifts
EKKLESIA PUBLISHING, which has produced ten titles since 2016, is pleased to announce the first of three new books which will appear in 2022. Exchange of Gifts: The Vision of Simon Barrington-Ward, edited by Graham Kings and Ian Randall, with a foreword from the...
COP26 in focus with Ekklesia
THE ROAD TO #COP26 has been a long one for Ekklesia. Environmental action was integral to our vision when we were first established nearly 20 years ago, and continues to be so. We were early backers of a Green New Deal, a fundamental re-orientation of the economy away...
