British servicemen and women deployed over Christmas
According to available published official figures from the Defence Analytical Services Agency the UK has 173,020 regular trained and serving personnel in the Armed Forces. The total number of personnel serving on permanent postings abroad is approximately 23,570. At this Christmas season we are asked to remember the men and women away from their family and
homes. Their work doesn’t finish on Christmas Eve and their routine will continue as normal, even on Christmas Day. Please pray for a peaceful and quiet time for those deployed - for opportunities to attend Church and to be able to reflect on Christ this Christmas and for good communications home to loved ones. Pray also for the Military Chaplains who provide spiritual leadership, moral guidance and pastoral support irrespective of religion or belief, in order to meet their needs, over the Christmas season.
Pray: for those service families celebrating Christmas alone and for children missing their deployed mum or dad. (Lk.2:14)
More: http://www.militarychristians.org.uk/
Poland obstructed EU climate ambitions at Doha
Climate activists say Europe failed to deliver at the UN’s Doha conference on climate change. ‘This time Europe - usually seen as a leader on climate change - comes away with dirty hands,’ Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace international, said in a statement on Saturday. Poland demanded to keep its ‘hot air’ carbon credits awarded to them in the 1990s in opposition to developing countries, which wanted the surplus emissions scrapped altogether. The credits were handed out under the initial 1997 Kyoto protocol and allow Poland to emit far greater carbon into the atmosphere than its EU counterparts. European decision makers at the summit, says Greenpeace, sided with Poland to keep the surplus emission credits. A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change says current global carbon emissions may increase the world's temperature between 4 to 6 degrees Celsius. The Doha summit brought together almost 200 nations to extend, by seven years, the Kyoto Protocol.
Pray: for the EU decision makers that they will not keep procrastinating over decisions that affect our world. (Ge1:26)
More: http://euobserver.com/environment/118464
Poland obstructed EU climate ambitions at Doha
Climate activists say Europe failed to deliver at the UN’s Doha conference on climate change. ‘This time Europe - usually seen as a leader on climate change - comes away with dirty hands,’ Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace international, said in a statement on Saturday. Poland demanded to keep its ‘hot air’ carbon credits awarded to them in the 1990s in opposition to developing countries, which wanted the surplus emissions scrapped altogether. The credits were handed out under the initial 1997 Kyoto protocol and allow Poland to emit far greater carbon into the atmosphere than its EU counterparts. European decision makers at the summit, says Greenpeace, sided with Poland to keep the surplus emission credits. A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change says current global carbon emissions may increase the world's temperature between 4 to 6 degrees Celsius. The Doha summit brought together almost 200 nations to extend, by seven years, the Kyoto Protocol.
Pray: for the EU decision makers that they will not keep procrastinating over decisions that affect our world. (Ge1:26)
More: http://euobserver.com/environment/118464
Poland: Believing in God is same as killing and stealing
A Polish atheist billboard campaign compares believing in God to killing and stealing, in what observers call an open challenge to the Roman Catholic Church. ‘In a country considered to be Catholic it's hard to be an atheist. Contrary to popular belief there are many of us although not all of us have let our beliefs be known. The billboard action is not aimed at believers. It is to show people that in a country where the stereotypical Pole is a Catholic there is a large group of atheists,’ Jacek Tabisz, President of the Polish Association of Rationalists, explained to The Scotsman. Over 80% of the Polish country identify as Catholic. The controversial billboards have been put up in several Polish cities featuring three boxes labelled ‘Do Not Kill,’ ‘Do Not Steal,’ ‘Do Not Believe,’ with tick marks next to each one. Another billboard asks the question ‘Don't believe in God,’ following it by ‘You are not alone.’
Pray: that this billboard action will have the opposite effect to that intended by causing many non believers to discuss and seek out Christian values.
