Turning hearts of fathers and children
Malachi 4:6 says, ‘He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers’. We pray for this to happen in these days. May fathers and mothers rediscover their roles and lead their families with God’s wisdom, love, peace and righteous values. We pray that parents will raise their children with loving discipline and counsel that reflect Christian values. Father in heaven please help the fathers in this nation to re-discover the power of strong love, the kindness of Godly discipline and the blessing of patient encouragement, raising a generation of children fully equipped for their future. We cry out for the children across this nation to experience Godly discipline from fathers balanced with the nurture of mothers. Father, please heal the hearts of parents where regret and failure have caused them to feel guilty, and will you help those living in poverty, particularly single parent families.
Covid: hard months to come
England's deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, predicted that there are hard months to come in the winter because Covid levels are running very high. Too many people believed the pandemic was now over, and winter could ‘potentially be problematic’. He also said there were signs that infections were starting to ‘penetrate’ older age groups, and how Christmas is affected would depend on a whole range of behaviours. We can pray for the nation to recognise that caution is still needed around the elderly, and face coverings should continue to be worn in appropriate places along with social distancing. Meanwhile the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, which provides advice to the Government, said that while the infection rate is high, the current case numbers are not ‘out of control’ although we are at a ‘relatively important crux point’. The total of UK infections recorded on 3 November was 41,299, higher than most of Europe.
Northern Ireland: DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson
After Arlene Foster stood down from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), her replacement only lasted three weeks. Then Sir Jeffrey Donaldson took over the leadership at a significant moment for NI, as it has come to terms with the effects of Covid and battled the repercussions of Brexit. There have been significant changes on things like abortion and same sex marriage. Although the Church spoke out against changing legislation, Donaldson is concerned over the diminishing church voice. He said that church leaders now find it difficult to speak out in public to give a faith-based perspective on social issues and are not being salt and light in our society. He also believes prayer is the most important thing that the church has available to it: ‘I often encourage Christians to intercede and to give prayerful support to those of us who are involved as Christians in the political process’.
Opposition to Tories’ attempt to change the standards system
Sir Keir Starmer accused Tories of ‘wallowing in sleaze’ after they voted to protect the Conservative MP Owen Paterson from suspension over lobbying claims. Starmer said the Labour party would not have anything to do with a complete and utter sham process and will boycott the commission set up to overhaul the parliamentary sleaze system. Boris Johnson initially threw his weight behind an amendment tabled by Andrea Leadsom which will halt Paterson’s punishment until a new cross-party committee, chaired by John Whittingdale, has examined the standards system. But now, the level of cross-part opposition has forced Boris Johnson to withdraw this plan, and Owen Paterson has resigned as an MP.
