Bristol priest defends yoga ban
A BRISTOL priest has defended his decision not to allow yoga
classes to take place in his church. The Priest-in-Charge of St
Michael and All Angels, Bishopston, the Revd James Stevenson, said:
"We understand yoga is practised as a physical exercise and
discipline, but by its own definition it is a spiritual act whose
roots are not Christ-centred. We are confident we have acted
legally and fairly in handling this matter, but we understand why
the students are upset." The yoga teacher, Naomi Hayama, has been
using the church hall for nine years. She has been given until the
end of the month to find new premises. She told The Daily
Telegraph: "My students enjoyed coming to the church, and now
they are being told that they are not welcome."
Home Office relents on funeral visas
THE Home Office has granted visas to the relatives of a
five-year-old girl who had been barred from entering the UK for her
funeral (News, 30 January). Andrea Gada died in December, and her
grandparents and aunt, who live in Zimbabwe, had twice been refused
visas to visit, prompting an intervention by the Archbishop of York
and a petition signed by more than 120,000 people.
Climate-change campaigners complain
A CLIMATE-change campaign group is complaining that it must now
"pay to protest", after being told that it must hire a private firm
to oversee a march planned to take place next month. The
Guardian reported on Saturday that Campaign Against
Climate Change had been told that the police would no longer
facilitate the temporary closure of roads along the agreed route. A
police spokeswoman said that the climate-change march was expected
to be crime-free, so there was little requirement for it to provide
policing.
Lord Williams to be new Church Army
president
THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams has been
appointed president of Church Army, succeeding Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, it was announced last Friday. He said: "There can be few
organisations that have done as much as the Church Army to support
the highest quality of innovative ministry and outreach in our
Church, and to encourage lay and clergy alike in their calling to
speak and act the good news effectively and
imaginatively."
Corrections. An assertion that the Government
intended to abolish chancel-repair liability (News, 23 January) was
incorrect. Negotiations about the charge on property owners are
ongoing, and no such announcement has been made.
On 9 January, we quoted figures suggesting that the Keswick
Convention had no women speakers in 2014. The organisers say this
was wrong: they had several, among them Ruth Padilla DeBorst,
Rebecca Manley Pippert, Elaine Duncan, and Elizabeth McQuoid. We
apologise for these errors.