Aid agencies call for Yemen ceasefire

NINE aid agencies, including Christian Aid and CAFOD, have written an open letter to the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, asking for the UK to take the lead in tabling a new UN Security Council Resolution, to bring about a ceasefire. “This should start with a call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a comprehensive ceasefire across the whole of Yemen.”

New Zealand Church rejects Sydney proposal

THE leaders of the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia (ANZP) have rejected the idea of an overlapping diocese to cater for opponents of same-sex marriage. The idea was proposed by the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Glenn Davies. In May, the ANZP General Synod passed a motion that allowed for the blessing of same-sex couples (News, 11 May). Archbishop Davies proposed a solution that he described as “distinctive co-existence”, because “the proposition that same-sex relationships are a legitimate expression of Christian discipleship is something that will never be accepted by a large number of Anglicans throughout the world.” In their response, published on Tuesday, the Co-Archbishops of New Zealand, the Most Revd Donald Tamihere and the Most Revd Philip Richardson, said that their rejection was “carefully prepared in a respectful consideration of [the] proposal — and has been unanimously agreed to by the General Synod Standing Committee of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.”

Cameroonian refugees into Nigeria pass 30,000 mark

MORE than 30,000 refugees have fled Cameroon for neighbouring Nigeria because of violence in their country, the UNHCR has said. “People are telling us they were ordered to leave their houses due to increasing violence in their home areas,” a spokesman for the UN’s refugee agency, Babar Baloch, said last week. The violence is mostly concentrated in Cameroon’s anglophone areas, where security forces have cracked down on the population.