Lottery money given for Buddhist healing therapies
The National Lottery has given £205,000 to fund a two year research project which will make spiritual ‘healing therapies’ available on the NHS. The project, led by charity Fresh Winds, is designed to identify the effectiveness of a Buddhist ‘healing’ technique (called Reiki) by testing the method on 200 patients suffering from bowel disorders at NHS Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield. The National Lottery will brief the NHS on the research findings next year ‘to inform their decision whether to introduce elements of complementary therapy into the management of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.’ The controversial therapy, which has been termed by critics as another form of ‘voodoo’ involves the running of hands over the patient’s body (without touching) to radiate ‘healing energy’ which allegedly works ‘like a gentle set of jump leads’ and relieves symptoms of pain.
Pray: that the healing power of the Holy Spirit would be recognised as superior to alternative therapies. (Act.10:38: Mt.10:1)
Christian chemists 'will be forced out' under new rules
Christian pharmacists fear they could face the sack if they refuse to hand out morning-after pills, under new guidelines issued by a medical regulator. Many pharmacists have conscientious moral objections to dispensing emergency contraception and have in the past refused to do so because the drugs work by preventing a fertilised egg from implanting in the womb. Some chemists and lawyers say the guidance circulated last week by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) effectively strips them of their right to object on religious grounds to handling such drugs. Many Christian, Jewish and Muslim pharmacists object to the drugs. The guidance will also compel pharmacists to make drugs available for IVF, to which some object because of the high numbers of embryos created then destroyed in the process. For the first time under the guidelines, pharmacists are told that their right to conscientious objection on religious grounds is secondary to the contractual demands of employers, such as the NHS.
Pray: for all those who stand up for their faith that God would give them the ability to stand firm. (2Cor.1:21)
Atheist clergy in Dutch Churches
According to a recent news report, one in six clergy in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) and six other denominations is either an atheist or agnostic, reports Christian Concern for our Nation. Klaas Hendrikse, who leads a PNK church in Gorinchem, wrote a book called Believing in a Non-Existent God which prompted the denomination to consider removing him. However, having found that his views were so widely shared amongst clergy in the denomination they decided not to single him out. He also stated that God is ‘a word for experience, or human experience’ and that Jesus may never have existed. Sytse de Jong, who is Deputy Mayor of Staphorst, said: ‘When we get people into the Church by throwing Jesus Christ out of the Church, then we lose the core of Christianity. Then we are not reforming the institutions and attitudes but the core of our messagthee.’
Pray: for leaders of the church in the Netherlands that God would bring life where there is death and renew their faith revealing Jesus as Lord. (Rom.10:9)
Christians are Europe’s ‘reservoir’ of values
The vice-president of the Italian Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies has called on Christian politicians to ‘make sacrifices’ and value their conscience more than their position. In an interview with Catholic News Agency published last Thursday, Professor Rocco Buttiglione, a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, said that Christian people must enter politics to play an active role forming ‘the future of the land. I think the great reservoir of values today is in the Christian people and we must tell them, you must make politics, you must enter into politics, you must make with your hands the future of the land,’ said the politician and academic. As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, Buttiglione became the focus of controversy in 2004 after critics blocked his appointment to the European Union Commission for his statements that homosexual acts are morally wrong.
Pray: for God’s people to take up the challenge and sacrifice position and value their conscience.(2Pet.3:17)
