THE Methodist Church has called on the Government to exert
pressure on the United States to ban its drone attacks on terrorist
targets.
A report to the Methodist Conference last week, in Plymouth,
said that between 1717 and 2680 people had been killed by US drone
attacks since 2004. It is not known how many of these were innocent
civilians.
Drones - unmanned aircraft - are used to carry out targeted
attacks on terrorist suspects, most frequently in north
Pakistan.
A Methodist policy adviser, Steve Hucklesby, who is a member of
the working group that put together the report debated at
Conference, said: "If there is a legitimate use for this
technology, we need a much clearer idea of the boundaries for its
use. Terrorists function outside the law. It is vitally important
that the UK and its allies do not do so as well. The targeted
killings carried out by the CIA in northern Pakistan de- monstrate
only too clearly the ethical challenges that will face us as this
technology proliferates more widely."
The Conference also debated a report on the number of Fresh
Expressions. Latest figures say that more than 40,000 people attend
some form of Fresh Expression once a month.
Fresh Expressions is a joint initiative with the Church of
England.
THE President of the Methodist Conference was granted
permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against a decision of the
Court of Appeal last December, that Haley Anne Preston (née Moore),
an ordained minister of the Methodist Church, was an "employee" of
the Church, writes Shiranikha Herbert, Legal
Correspondent.
In June 2009, Mrs Preston resigned from her post of
Superintendent Minister to the Redruth Circuit in Cornwall, and in
2009 she began proceedings against the Church for unfair
constructive dismissal.
The Employment Tribunal ruled that it had no
jurisdiction to hear her complaint, because she was not an
"employee" for the purposes of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Mrs
Preston appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which held that
she was an "employee". The Court of Appeal agreed with the
Employment Appeal Tribunal.
The Supreme Court is the final appeal court in the UK;
and its decision on whether Mrs Preston is an employee of the
Methodist Church will have repercussions for other
denominations.