Increase support to Palestinians, UK urged

THE British Government must step up its support to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after the announcement that the United States will end all funding to it, 14 charities said last week. Embrace the Middle East, Cafod, and Christian Aid were among the signatories to a statement that described the cuts — amounting to nearly a third of UNRWA’s budget — as “a dangerous politicisation of aid”, and “part of an unprecedented attempt to undermine the international legal consensus on the protected status of Palestinian refugees”. They called on the Government, which has already announced additional funding, to “show principled leadership”, and to expand this further.

India RC bishops respond to decriminalisation of gay sex

INDIA’s Supreme Court ruled last week that gay sex is no longer a criminal offence, overturning a colonial-era law under which gay sex is categorised as an “unnatural offence”. In a statement, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said: “What is legal is not equal to moral acceptability.” The Church “respects the dignity of homosexuals as persons and human rights flowing from human dignity and personhood, just as the Church stands for the same for all without exclusion or discrimination.”

reutersA priest takes part in a demonstration, on Saturday, against an agreement reached by Greece and Macedonia, the former Yugoslav state, over the latter country’s name. It has been agreed that Macedonia can be called the Republic of North Macedonia. Many Greeks say that only the northern Greek region of Macedonia should use the name, and not the former Yugoslav state

ACC votes for new Province of Chile

THE Anglican Diocese of Chile, currently part of the Province of the Anglican Church of South America, should become a province in its own right, the Standing Committee of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) concluded this month. The decision follows a fact-finding mission by a working group last month (News 24 August), which found that the diocese “clearly takes very seriously the need to develop church leaders with strong biblical and theological knowledge”. The next stage is to collect the assent of two-thirds of Anglican Primates.

CBMWaiting: Desire, 28 (shown here with his youngest son, Parfait at home in Central Cameroon) will under-go a sight-restoring operation to remove congenital bilateral cataracts on Wednesday. The story can be followed live on CBM UK’s Facebook www.facebook/cbmuk.org

ACC to increase representation of small provinces

THE ACC’s standing committee has adopted changes to the membership schedule to increase representatives from smaller provinces, ACNS reports. Currently, larger provinces are entitled to three members; medium-sized provinces to two members; and smaller provinces to one member. The medium and smaller category will be combined, and both will be entitled to two members: one ordained and one lay. It also proposed a new category of member: two youth members for each of the five Anglican regions, one male and one female. The changes will take the maximum membership of the ACC to 111 people.

PAA service is held in the Collegiate Church in Landau, Germany, after a migrant, Abdul D, was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison for the murder, in December, of his 15-year-old ex-girlfirend, Mia V