THE House of Bishops has no intention of calling for a national day of prayer and repentance about the current financial crisis, the Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu, said. He was replying to a question from Clive Scowen (London), who had asked if the Bishops would consider such a call for Ash Wednesday and during Lent.
Dr Sentamu said that faithful Christians were called to pray, fast, and repent regularly. Lent provided an opportunity for this, and to pray for those most directly affected by the recession. But he believed that a wider vision was needed than one that simply cured the economic ills of the world, “grave as they may be”. He intended to say more about that in the debate on Thursday. As for a call to the nation: “We could call, but would the nation go along with it?” Asked in a supplementary question whether the House of Bishops would ever call for a day of prayer about anything, the Archbishop replied that he was not a prophet and could not foretell the future.
THE Church of England’s Mission and Public Affairs Council has welcomed the provision by the Government of an additional £2 million for research into the drop in the bee population. “The problems affecting UK bees are not widely appreciated, particularly with regard to the impact on pollination,” the chairman, Dr Philip Giddings, told the Synod in answer to a question from Gordon Simmonds (Chelmsford).
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