Druids turned down by Inter Faith Network
THE
chairman of the Druid Network said this week that an application to
join the Inter Faith Network (IFN) in the UK had not been accepted.
Phil Ryder told The Times, on Saturday, that
he had applied to join in April, and been invited to take part in a
review of the IFN's membership policy. The director of the IFN, Dr
Harriet Crabtree, told The Times: "It is important
for charities to develop fully and to take account of all the
factors which can affect their ability to take forward their
charitable aims appropriately and effectively."
Christian B&B owner to appeal
A CHRISTIAN B&B owner who was
ordered to pay £3600 damages for refusing to allow a gay couple
access to a double room is to appeal (News, 19
October). A judge ruled in October that the owner, Susanne
Wilkinson, had breached equality legislation by refusing to let a
double room to Michael Black and John Morgan. Mrs Wilkinson said
that she believed that "a person should be free to act upon their
sincere beliefs about marriage under their own roof without living
in fear of the law."
Judge's marriage work 'not incompatible'
THE Office for Judicial Complaints
(OJC) has concluded that the work of Sir Paul Coleridge, a High
Court judge (
Interview, 20 July), in promoting marriage does not conflict
with his responsibilities as a judge. A spokesperson for the OJC
said that it did "not consider Mr Justice Coleridge's involvement
with the Marriage Foundation [News,
4 May] to be incompatible with his judicial responsibilities
and therefore does not amount to judicial misconduct".
Grieving man sectioned after attack on parishioners
A COURT heard this week of how a man
grieving after the death of his wife attacked parishioners in the
church hall of St Barnabas's, St Paul's Cray, near Orpington, with
a meat cleaver and a lock knife, in July (News, 10 August).
The attack was foiled by the intervention of Steven Izegbu, who had
become a British citizen only hours earlier. A judge decided to
section Malcolm Holland, aged 56, of Barnfield Road, St Paul's
Cray, under the Mental Health Act, instead of sending him to
prison.
Correction: the
Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies, in Llandaff, is jointly
sponsored by St Michael's Theological College (of which it is
part), and Cardiff University, not the University of Wales, as we
said last month (Real Life, 23 November).