Non-violent direct action urged against arms fair
SIX Christian groups issued a joint statement on Wednesday
encouraging Christians to take part in "non-violent direct action"
to disrupt an arms fair scheduled to take place at the Excel Centre
in London from 10 to 13 September. The groups, who include Ekklesia
and Christianity Uncut, say that non-violent direct action would be
a "moral response to the evil of the arms trade".
Bishop asks women priests to attend PEV's consecration
THE Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt Revd Michael Perham, has
encouraged female clergy in his diocese to attend the consecrations
of the next Bishop of Tewkesbury, the Ven. Martyn Snow, and the
next Bishop of Ebbsfleet, Canon Jonathan Goodall (
News, 9 August), at the same service next month in Westminster
Abbey. Writing to clergy earlier this month, Bishop Perham said
that "quite a large gathering of traditionalist male clergy" would
be in attendance. "It does seem to me all the more important that
women clergy in the diocese of Gloucester, in their most gracious
mood, will be in the Abbey in greater numbers to ensure a degree of
gender balance!"
Memorial to murdered boy
A MEMORIAL to the murdered four-year-old Daniel Pelka has been
constructed in the ruins of the old cathderal at Coventry. The Dean
of Coventry, the Very Revd John Witcombe, said that the ruins were
the "ideal place" to remember Daniel. "They are a place for
recognising the brokenness of the world and a place to gather to
commit ourselves to God and one another for a better future for
all." Daniel was beaten and starved by his mother and stepfather
before his death last year.
Hemel Hempstead finds a champion
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, voted the country's ugliest town in an online
poll run by the compilers of the Crap Towns books, has
been defended by the Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith. "It's
clear to me the people who voted don't really know the communities
who live in Hemel Hempstead," he told The Gazette. "Its
true beauty lies in the people, especially those who work with the
churches, charities and voluntary bodies which make such a
difference."
