Next Bishop to HM Prisons announced
THE Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Revd James Langstaff, is to be
the next Bishop to HM Prisons, the senior Church advocate in the
criminal-justice system in England and Wales, it was announced on
Monday. He succeeds the Rt Revd James Jones, who retired in August.
Bishop Langstaff said: "Criminal-justice issues have a high profile
within our society and, with others, I will be seeking to offer a
Christian perspective within those discussions. The treatment of
prisoners has been a Christian concern for centuries. . . It is
important that we continue to engage clearly with these
issues."
Bishop of London: 'We need cyber friars'
THE Church too often fails to recognise its internet presence,
the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, told the
Christian New Media Conference a fortnight ago. "We have found it
hard to relocate resources and redesign the training of those in
ministry to recognise the fact," he said. "Cyberspace is the new
town square, and we need dedicated cyber friars to ensure that the
Christian voice is represented not only by the deeply weird and
furiously judgemental, but that we are able to engage aptly in the
fundamentally theological debates which are happening well outside
any of our churches."
New Dean of Chelmsford; Yorkshire merger
THE Revd Nicholas Henshall (right), Vicar of Christ
Church, Harrogate, and Acting Archdeacon of Richmond, is to become
the next Dean of Chelmsford, it was announced last week. He will
succeed the Very Revd Peter Judd, who retired last month, in the
New Year.
The next Archdeacon of the Richmond area will be the Ven. Paul
Slater, Archdeacon of Craven, in Bradford diocese. He will be
appointed as Archdeacon of Richmond early next year, before
becoming Archdeacon of Richmond and Craven after the creation of
the diocese of West Yorkshire & the Dales on Easter Day, 20
April 2014.
Publishing CEO to retire
THE general secretary and chief executive officer of the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), Simon Kingston, is to
retire on 31 December 2013, it was announced earlier this month.
Making the announcement, the Bishop of Oxford and chair of SPCK's
trustees, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, said: "Simon has done a very
fine job in fast-moving times." The SPCK publishing director,
Joanna Moriarty, will take over in January while the trustees
consider a successor.
Premier advert ban upheld
THE Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday to uphold a decision to ban
a radio advertisement asking Christians to report their experience
of marginalisation in the workplace. London Christian Radio Ltd and
Christian Communications Partnership Ltd objected, in 2011, to the
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport's decision to
prohibit the advertisement, after the Radio Advertising Clearance
Centre claimed that it had a political objective. Premier Christian
Radio placed an advertisement in the national press
(right) protesting at the judgement.
Interfaith singers welcome in new choir
THE Three Faiths Foundation has founded an interfaith choir, as
part of its Urban Dialogues programme. The choir's conductor,
Jeremy
Haneman, said that "Mixed Up Chorus" is open to "people who
believe that, wherever you were born, whatever your beliefs,
whether you're a smoked salmon bagel or a chicken balti, the more
we do together, the more we understand and benefit from being with
each other".
www.3ff.org.uk/mixed-up-chorus
Corrections. The photo accompanying our review
of Sheila Rowe's book Clergy Wives' Stories: Fifteen oral
histories from the 1950s to the present day (Reviews, 15
November), did not depict the author, as stated. The caption should
have read: "Sue Howden with her husband, John, in 1997". Our
apologies. Also, the village of Odell, mentioned in our story about
thefuture location of the Greenbelt Festival, is in Bedfordshire,
not Northamptonshire.