Bishop Foster condemns Trump
THE Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Revd Christopher Foster, has accused the United States Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, of “sexism, racism, and contempt for the disabled” in an article for The News Portsmouth. The election campaign has proved that “few politicians are squeaky clean”, he wrote last Thursday, but Mr Trump was viewed as “a bully of the most blatant kind”, both in the UK and the US. Bishop Foster later told Premier Radio: “My prayer is that each voter needs to pray hard, to think hard, to consider hard — and particularly for Christians it’s important to weigh seriously issues about human dignity and respect.”
Practise what you preach, Archbishop tells regulators
THE Archbishop of Canterbury has urged financial watchdogs in the UK to “practise what they preach” after concerns were expressed this week that regulations imposed to prevent another financial crisis were faltering, The Financial Times reported. Archbishop Welby, who is on the advisory board of the financial think-tank New City Agenda, is backing a report by the organisation outlining the need to improve the regulatory culture of the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Prudential Regulation Authority. It comes after a consortium of private-equity firms and the Church of England received at least £180 million in interest from the Royal Bank of Scotland after backing its failed attempt to float 300 of its branches on the stock market under the Williams & Glyn brand, at a cost of £1.5 billion, The Guardian reported.
Deal with tax corruption at home, Christian Aid urges
THE Government has “much more to do” to address tax corruption in the UK, Christian Aid has said, as MPs debated the Criminal Finances Bill for the first time, on Tuesday. “The UK’s tax havens have been implicated in many of the worst corruption and tax-dodging scandals; yet this Bill designed to stop corruption says nothing about them,” Simon Kirkland, the political adviser for the charity, said. The Prime Minister risks “missing a major opportunity” to stamp out tax crime, particularly in Overseas Territories, he said.
Bishop Huw Jones dies, aged 82
A FORMER Bishop of St Davids, Bishop Huw Jones, died last week, aged 82. He served as a curate in Aberdare, before serving as Vicar of Crynant, and later Cwmafan, in the 1960s and ’70s. He was made Dean of Brecon in 1982, before his consecration as Assistant Bishop of St Asaph in 1993, and translation to St Davids in 1996, where he served until 2001. The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said that prayers were being said for Bishop Jones’s wife, Gwyneth, and their daughters Lynwen and Gaenor.
One cleric charged, another arrested, over historic abuse
THE former Vicar of St Mary’s in Oxted, Surrey, Guy Bennett, has been charged with 22 counts of indecent assault, and one count of outraging public decency, a Surrey Police spokesman confirmed to local media last week. The alleged offences, against nine girls under the age of 16,are said to have taken place over 15 years to 1992. Mr Bennett, 83, was previously sentenced in 1999 for indecently assaulting three girls. He has been released on bail, and is due to appear at Redhill Magistrates Court on 21 November. Meanwhile, a vicar, who has not been named, was arrested in North Yorkshire last week in connection with historical sexual abuse. The man, aged 51, is currently on bail, but has been suspended for the duration of the investigation by the Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, a diocesan statement said.