October 2014

Support for social action and social justice
It is very heartening to read this. Hopefully, more churches will come together to make our voice heard on the matter of poverty.
Lazylyn
 
 
How should churches mark the First World War?
Thank you for raising these issues - there is a great danger that with distance from the horrors of that conflict we lose our Christian perspective and compassion. Although they do not make comfortable reading the poems of Siegfried Sassoon or Wilfred Owen are a corrective to the dangerous tendency to forget the price that was paid by both those who died and those who survived e.g. "Dulce et Decorum Est...".
In reading these poets again I am reminded of the honesty of the psalms and that a commemoration of war is incomplete unless it involves remembrance of the suffering and an honest desire to ensure that we work even harder for all that makes for peace. I believe the Church should be strong enough to provide a corrective to any tendency to commemorate (or as I have heard slip, 'Celebrate', a war which saw so many casualties. The prophets from Moses to John the Baptist never flinched from telling their rulers that they were wrong.
Pax

Theresa May is wrong on extremism
An excellent, lucid and timely article.
That conference speech was one of the most disturbing ever made by a Home Secretary.
Thinly disguised authoritarianism. A charter for enforcement of Political Correctness under the cover of British Values. These values will be whatever those in power want them to be. And what they are one day may not be what they are the day after. For as we all know, in this age of moral relativism, equality under the law has somewhat variable consistency depending on who has suffered the so-called trauma of being "offended."
The authorities are already attempting to silence those they consider eccentric and heretical.
Street preachers are being regularly harassed and some prosecuted. If one no longer has the right to contend, irritate, provoke and sometimes offend, then freedom of speech, including evangelism and other forms of outreach are threatened. There must also be a risk that the proposed Extremist Banning Orders will be misused to suppress socially conservative beliefs, effectively outlawing defence of traditional family values, the right to life and even conservative theology.
We should all be very concerned about this development.
Jay Bee

New appointments in HEBA team
Congratulations to the new appointees, and a special congratulations to my cousin-in-law Alison Mackay!!!
Wes Bowers

Review: Love Beyond, the Musical
It was a fantastic experience. One to be wholeheartedly & thoroughly recommended.
Erica Walker