In this issue
In this issue
- United Reformed Church votes to allow same-sex marriage
- New Methodist President and Vice-President elected for 2017/18
- MPs to debate new conscientious objection law
- MPs condemn government secrecy on overseas police training
- The consequences of conflict: a personal response to Chilcot
- Prepaid benefit cards
- Post-Brexit: division, flux and mutual responsibility
- WCC condemns escalating racial violence in the USA
Monday 11 July 2016
10 Jul 2016
United Reformed Church votes to allow same-sex marriage
The General Assembly of the United Reformed Church (URC) has voted in favour of allowing its local churches to conduct and register marriages for same-sex couples. This means that the URC is now the largest UK denomination to freely permit the celebration and registration of marriages of same-sex couple in its churches.
11 Jul 2016
New Methodist President and Vice-President elected for 2017/18
The Methodist Conference has elected the Rev Loraine N Mellor to be President and Jill Baker to be Vice-President. Both will start their year of office when the Representative Session of the Methodist Conference meets in Birmingham on 24 June 2017.
8 Jul 2016
MPs to debate new conscientious objection law
One hundred years after the British Government was the first in the world to legalise the right of conscientious objection to military service, a Bill to extend this right into the tax system is being introduced to Parliament by Ruth Cadbury MP, herself a descendent of WW1 conscientious objectors affected by the 1916 clause.
9 Jul 2016
MPs condemn government secrecy on overseas police training
Parliament’s Home Affairs Committee has condemned the Government for the secrecy surrounding the approval of overseas police training, saying the current policy to guard against the human rights risks of such training may not be “fit for purpose.”
8 Jul 2016
Prepaid benefit cards
The idea of paying social security benefits via a prepaid card has been popular in certain political circles for some time.
7 Jul 2016
Post-Brexit: division, flux and mutual responsibility
Referendums should only be used in the most exceptional of circumstances and certainly never as a remedy for a prime minister’s insecurities with his own
11 Jul 2016
WCC condemns escalating racial violence in the USA
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has offered prayers for peace in the USA while condemning acts of violence in recent days that have shocked the nation and people around the world.