Inquest held into the deaths Steve and Kathy Burch
AN INQUEST into the deaths last August of a retired priest in Coventry diocese, the Revd Steve Burch, and his wife, Kathy Burch (News, 6 September; Obituary, 25 October), concluded that they were killed after an 81-year-old Audi driver, John Pickering, “lost control” of the vehicle, colliding into the couple as they were walking near Beaumaris Pier, on the Isle of Anglesey, Coventry Live reports. Pickering, who also died within the crash, was found to have “applied the accelerator quite than the brake” as he took a pointy bend “well in excess” of the 20mph speed limit, having initially been attempting to get out of a good automobile parking space in order that his wife could get into the automotive. He was not wearing a seatbelt. The inquest heard that the couple had “no time to react”. All three were pronounced dead on the scene.
New board members for Churches Conservation Trust
THE Bishop of Ramsbury, Dr Andrew Rumsey, and the Canon for Congregational Discipleship and Nurture at York Minster, the Revd Timothy Goode, have been appointed to the Churches Conservation Trust’s board of trustees. The other recent trustees are: Dr Ingrid Samuel, a former civil servant; Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, a former political secretary to Prime Minister Theresa May; Michael Bithell, a former Group Finance Director of United Westminster and Grey Coat Foundation; and Vivienne King, the founding father of Impactful Places, an independent sustainability consultancy.
Scientists in Congregations awards presented
A TOTAL of £71,735 has been awarded to nine Christian organisations in England and on the Isle of Man to explore the connection between science and faith. The Scientists in Congregations awards, of as much as £10,000 each, were presented last week to Trinity Network, Bristol, for its science-and-faith video course; Food for Purpose CIC for its Healthy Church Initiative; Great St Mary’s, Cambridge, for its project “Communicating Hope: Science, faith, and sustainability”; St Clement’s, Cambridge, for “Stewarding God’s Creation within the Heart of Cambridge”; Knowle Parish Church, Solihull, for its project “Eco-Lent 26”; St German’s Cathedral, Peel, for its project “Mars – From imagination to science”; St Mary and Pope Kyrillos VI Coptic Orthodox Church, London, for its project “Give Joy to the Face of the Earth”; Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School, St Albans, for its “Science and Faith Symposium: Building a greater world with our parents, pupils and priests”; and St Cuthbert’s RC Church, Durham, for “Created and Called: Discovering God’s story through faith and science”.
Remote-control system helps tower clocks to maintain time
THE 1899 pendulum clock within the tower of St Mary Magdalene’s, Bridgnorth, in Shropshire (right), is now keeping time with a remote-control system that removes the necessity to scale the tower steps to regulate the time by hand. After seeing an elderly parishioner struggle to ascend the tower to finish the duty each week, the founding father of Axis Micro Systems, Mike Proudman suggested a low-cost solution connected to a five-relay programmable microcomputer, and controlled via a smartphone.
Jury deliberates on Chris Brain charges
THE trial of the founding father of the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS) on charges of rape and indecent assault entered its final stages on Tuesday, because the jury withdrew to think about its verdict. Chris Brain, 68, of Park Road, Wilmslow, founded and led the NOS in Sheffield within the Eighties and early ’90s before the “rave-church” movement collapsed amid claims of sexual and mental abuse.
