Welsh Camino gets £78k Lottery funding
THE North Wales Pilgrim’s Way, often known as the Welsh Camino, has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £78,000 for the development of its infrastructure along the 130-mile route from Basingwerk Abbey, Holywell, to Aberdaron and the Llyn Peninsula. The Welsh Camino was launched in 2011 and was the route taken by the celebrity pilgrims on last yr’s BBC2 series Pilgrimage (TV, 12 April 2024).
Issues on way out as Bishops rubber-stamp Synod decision
THE House of Bishops has formally agreed to remove the teaching document Issues in Human Sexuality from the discernment process, replacing it with a requirement that those in search of ordination adhere to the Guidelines for the Professional Conduct of the Clergy. This month, the General Synod voted almost unanimously to call for Issues to get replaced with the rules (News, 18 July). At a web-based meeting on Wednesday morning, the Bishops agreed. A press release said that the “tone, language, and among the assumptions” in Issues “are actually considered inappropriate and offensive to many individuals”. The move didn’t, the statement said, change the Church’s teaching on sex or marriage, but was “intended to make sure the discernment process is each theologically robust and pastorally sensitive”. Along with being dropped as a proper a part of discernment, the document can even be faraway from the House of Bishops website. On Wednesday, the Bishops also heard a presentation on the findings of a survey on giving, accomplished earlier this yr. It found that giving exceeded inflation throughout the past five years, and that three-quarters of C of E givers had been thanked prior to now six months, up from lower than one third five years ago. Letter
Date set for election of Archbishop of Wales
THE Electoral College of the Church in Wales will meet in Chepstow on 29 July to decide on the following Archbishop of Wales. Candidates for the fifteenth Archbishop are the present Welsh diocesans: Bishops Gregory Cameron (St Asaph), Cherry Vann (Monmouth), John Lomas (Swansea & Brecon), Mary Stallard (Llandaff), and Dorrien Davies (St Davids).
Pension providers deal with corporate governance
THE Church of England Pensions Board is one in all several providers which have jointly launched the Governance for Growth Investor Campaign. Together, they manage roughly £150 billion in assets and represent 11 million members. The Board’s chief executive, John Ball, said: “This campaign places good corporate governance at the guts of an agenda to support long-term sustainable growth within the UK. We are excited by the role we will play in joining with peer funds to support this vital agenda.”
Edinburgh chaplain to go Ripon College, Cuddesdon
THE latest Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, from January, is to be the Revd Dr Harriet Harris, University Chaplain and Head of Chaplaincy Services on the University of Edinburgh since 2010. She has taught theology at Oxford, Exeter, and Edinburgh, and will likely be returning to the diocese through which she was ordained. She will succeed the Rt Revd Humphrey Southern, who retires at the tip of the yr, after ten years in post (News, 17 April).
CEN pauses print publication
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND NEWSPAPER (CEN), founded in 1828, has announced this week that it should publish no more issues until further notice. A notice on its website says that the CEN has needed to “review its operations” after the death of its owner, Keith Young. “We are actually exploring all options to secure a future,” the Editor, Andrew Carey, writes. This week also brought the ultimate issue of Life And Work, the Church of Scotland’s magazine, after 146 years in print.
Immigrants failed by arrivals process, says Jesuit report
WIDESPREAD dysfunction and systematic failure across the immigration and asylum process has been revealed within the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) UK’s latest report, Accessing Legal Advice in Detention, based on evidence from Heathrow Immigration Removal Centre. Automatic representation has often been neglected and turn into a reason for serious mental-health issues, due to the drop in Legal Aid funding, it says. “This report confirms what JRS UK encounters again and again: people in immigration detention are being denied access to justice,” the service’s director, David Ryall, said.
Happisburgh can have to present up its dead
MORE than 100 sailors shipwrecked before they may join Nelson in 1801 and buried in a mass grave look set to be reinterred, along with a whole bunch of others of bodies buried within the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Happisburgh, in Norfolk, North Norfolk News reports. Coastal erosion implies that there are actually only 80 metres of land between the crumbling cliff edge and the churchyard. The diocese of Norwich, Happisburgh Parish Council, and North Norfolk District Council are working with the Coastwise scheme, which seeks to arrange coastal communities threatened by erosion and offer guidance on burial grounds in danger.
Children’s Society backs youth vote
THE move to enfranchise 16- and 17-year-olds at the following General Election has been welcomed by the Children’s Society. Its chief executive, Mark Russell, said: “Young people have a voice — and now they’ll finally have a vote. This is a landmark step in recognising that young people care deeply concerning the issues facing our country and should be heard not only on the ballot box, but throughout the political process.”
Church Army commissions evangelists
NINE latest Church Army evangelists were formally admitted and commissioned in Sheffield Cathedral on Saturday by the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, who’s the chair of the Church Army Board. Lawrence Bellew, Meg Borges, Sarah Clayton, Bing Liu, Anna Mansbergh, Rachel Marlow, Tracey Needham, Hannah O’Neill, and Jack Wright will deployed across the UK and Ireland. Letter, page 15
Salvationist to go Spring Harvest
THE latest Head of Spring Harvest, the Christian teaching holiday, is Major Jo Moir, a former midwife and hospital chaplain, who joins from the Salvation Army. She has managed events on the Royal Albert Hall and ICC Birmingham and Wales, and been a daily author and presenter of Sunday Worship on BBC Radio 4. She took up her post on Monday and succeeds Abby Guinness, who held the position for 11 years. Spring Harvest will likely be in Skegness (30 March-3 April) and Minehead (6-10 April).
Correction: In last week’s report of the General Synod’s assisted-dying debate, Dr Alan Dowen (Chester) said: “When my father was approaching his own end of life, it at all times concerned me that, in law, he was allowed to point out more love and compassion for his dog than he was for himself.” There was no suggestion that anyone should give you the option to “advance the deaths of their dying relatives”. We apologise for the error and for the inaccurate spelling of Dr Dowen’s name.
