Divorce concerns soar in kids’ ChildLine calls
The number of Children worrying about their parents’ divorce or separation dramatically increased last year, according to ChildLine in Scotland. NSPCC Scotland, which runs the ChildLine service, reported that they gave almost 600 counselling sessions to children about the issue in 2012-13, – a rise of 171 per cent. A child affected said she felt ‘stuck in the middle’ and as if she had to ‘make everyone else happy all the time’. NSPCC Scotland said the figures revealed the ‘huge impact’ of difficult family relationships. ChildLine Service Manager, Susan Dobson, said there were many family issues raised by children: ‘Some of these children need somewhere to vent, but for many they’re facing a really difficult time at home and are desperate for reassurance and a safe space to share their fears.’
Carey is wrong on assisted dying, says Archbishop
The most senior figure in the Church of Ireland has strongly rejected a former Archbishop of Canterbury’s arguments in favour of ‘assisted dying’. Archbishop of Armagh Richard Clarke said that he found Lord Carey’s comments in support of allowing the terminally ill to have help to end their own lives ‘perplexing’. Writing in a News Letter on Friday, the Primate of All Ireland, whose wife died from cancer five years ago, said that support for helping the terminally ill to end their lives was neither in keeping with Christian teaching nor even some secular understandings of the sanctity of life. Last month the generally conservative Lord Carey stunned Anglicanism when he said that he had changed his mind on the issue and would support a bill brought forward by former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer which would allow mentally-capable adults with less than six months to live to get help to end their lives. (See also Prayer Alert 27-2014
Strategic Development Funding announced
The Spending Plans Task Group of the Church Commissioners and Archbishops' Council has awarded £4.6m to projects from five dioceses from the new stream of Strategic Development Funding. Birmingham, Chelmsford, Leicester, Liverpool and Sheffield have all received grants for growth and change projects in their diocese. The funding is being awarded in several stages: the first applications for a pot of £7.5m were restricted to the poorest dioceses in the Church of England. The aim of the funding is to sit alongside existing funding distributed to dioceses each year, so they can benefit from a one-off injection of money to make a significant difference to their long-term mission and financial strength, by supporting major projects. The funding was awarded after a competitive process, in which dioceses were invited to put forward initial applications to the Task Group. Those proposals which met the criteria most strongly were then invited to submit detailed project plans.
Advert mocking Jesus is banned
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an offensive advert featuring a digitally altered image of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil. The image depicted Jesus with his arm around a bikini-clad woman, holding a champagne bottle and celebrating a gambling win. The advert was placed by Sporting Index Ltd in the City AM newspaper. The ASA received 25 complaints - including one from the Evangelical Alliance - and found the advert ‘was likely to cause offence to a significant number of Christians, regardless of this humorous intention... because it depicted the person of Jesus in a context at odds with commonly held beliefs about the nature of Christ’. The ASA ordered Sporting Index Ltd not to use the image again and not to use ads in future which link gambling to sex.
