Export bar on Botticelli’s Virgin painting
THE Government has placed a brief export bar on The Virgin and Child Enthroned by the Fifteenth-century Italian painter Sandro Botticelli. A government press release last Friday said that this could allow time for a UK gallery or institution to “acquire the painting for the nation”. The work, dated 1470s, has been valued at £10.2 million. “If saved by a cultural institution, the painting would represent a major addition to the body of labor by Botticelli in UK collections,” the discharge said. Very few early Botticelli’s works remain within the UK.
Diversity not uniformity, Church of Ireland Synod hears
DIVERSITY, not uniformity, is important for a healthy Church, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross, Dr Paul Colton, suggested in a sermon delivered in Our Lady and St David, Naas, on the opening of the Church of Ireland’s General Synod, meeting in Naas, Co. Kildare, last Friday and Saturday. “Has there ever been a time when dispute has not been a dynamic of discipleship and pilgrimage?” he asked. “I’ve never known a Synod where there was not some hot topic, sometimes very heated and politicised. “It seems that our calling as Christian disciples and our ministry and mission as church — set out amply and clearly within the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion — are inescapably tied up with dynamics of disagreement, argument, and controversy.” The VE Day anniversary celebrations, he suggested, had been a reminder of “the hell the world went through recently — a world of warped ideologies, genocide, inhumanity, indescribable suffering, which have left indelible scars on humanity that also shape us and our geopolitics”. He concluded: “Anniversaries like these beg the query ‘What lessons have been learned?’ And here still, today, is a time of conflict, ideological turmoil, suffering, uncertainty, broken-heartedness, and we’re on the mercy, it seems, of what one commentator has called ‘whiplash policymaking’.”
Bradford faith leaders caution against division
FAITH leaders in Bradford, including the Bishop, Dr Toby Howarth, have released a joint statement, urging communities to “reject division and to avoid provocation” in light of the increased tension between India and Pakistan. Before the weekend, a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 people. India blamed a Pakistan-based group. Islamabad has strongly denied backing the group in query. The US-brokered ceasefire agreed between the neighbouring countries on the weekend was holding when the Church Times went to press. “We are deeply saddened and troubled by the lack of lives, property and livelihoods. Our hearts exit to all those that have been injured, those that are grieving and those that live in fear of further attacks,” the statement said. “We is not going to let these tensions disrupt the peace we cherish in our neighbourhoods and communities.”
First Church Hong Kong enabler appointed
THE Church of England’s first National Church Hong Kong Communities Enabler is to be Katie Woo, it was announced last week. Ms Woo was born in Hong Kong and moved to the UK, aged 17. A protracted-term church volunteer and qualified accountant, she has previously worked in project finance for the Church’s Education and Growing Faith project. The latest position is predicated in Berkshire and can serve each the diocese of Oxford and the broader Church. “In the primary 100 days I can be seeking to make connections and networking to grasp the challenges Berkshire Hong Kongers face,” she said. The Vicar of St John’s, Woodley, the Revd Mark Nam, founded the Teahouse, which supports Chinese-heritage clergy and laity. He posted on X that he had first suggested the enabler role in an op-ed for the Church Times (Comment, 27 August 2021), and that, in 2023, the case was presented to the Archbishops’ Racial Justice Commission.
Methodist offices reopen after sustainable refurb
THE offices of the Methodist Church in Britain, in Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury, in central London, have been reopened after a two-year sustainable refurbishment which has elevated the late-Twenties constructing from an energy rating of E to an A, the very best category. Led by the architects Manalo and White, the refit included latest windows with higher insulation and fewer heat loss. A heat pump and 30 solar panels have been installed. The Connexional Secretary of the Methodist Church in Britain, Doug Godfrey-Swanney, said: “I’m delighted we’ve been in a position to achieve this much to contribute to our net zero commitment.”
Oasis adds online platform to mark its 40 years
TO MARK its fortieth anniversary, the charity Oasis, founded by the Revd Steve Chalke, has launched an internet learning platform, the Academy for Hope. It is designed to equip individuals, organisations, and policymakers with practical tools to remodel communities through inclusivity and equality — “principles which have shaped Oasis’ work in education, housing, and youth services over the past 4 many years”, a press release on Tuesday said. Modules, which take two to a few hours to finish, are being led by, amongst others, Sir Paul Grant, Lord Rees of Easton, Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick, and Carrie and David Grant. Dr Chalke said: “When we spend money on children, they go on to turn out to be lifelong contributors to society. When we fail to take a position, they turn out to be a lifetime cost, as do their children and sometimes their children’s children.” academyforhope.org
Clarification: Winchester Cathedral was the topic of a Bishop’s Review, commissioned by the Rt Revd Philip Mounstephen, not a Visitation, as suggested in our news story on Bangor Cathedal, last week.
