Trust helps bishops to get to Lambeth 2020
THE 2020 Lambeth Conference has received a £750,000 grant from the Allchurches Trust, it was announced on Monday. The grant from the owners of the Ecclesiastical insurance group will go towards a bursary fund being established by the Lambeth Conference Company. The Allchurches Trust’s chairman, Sir Philip Mawer, said: “Our bursary support will enable bishops from some of the poorest countries in the world — many of whom serve dioceses torn apart by conflict and persecution — to attend Lambeth 2020.”
Children’s Society awarded lottery grant
THE Church of England Children’s Society has secured a grant of £2.1 million from the National Lottery on Monday to fund a programme to tackle child exploitation across Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, and London. The programme “will use multi-disciplinary teams to run child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and labour exploitation services over three years”.
C of E accused of ‘monetising the steeple’
VODAFONE, the phone network, is among companies complaining that PCCs are demanding too much money for hosting mobile-phone masts on churches. Kye Prigg, head of networks at Vodafone UK, told the Financial Times on Friday: “It looked like they were trying to help the community, but really it has been about monetising the steeple.” It was announced in February that church spires would be used to improve broadband and mobile-phone signals in rural areas (News, 18 February).
More churchpeople in the Birthday Honours
THE Bishop of Birmingham, the Rt Revd David Urquhart, was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, for services to international relations, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. He is the prelate of the order. Richard Frost, a Reader in the Totnes Team, in Exeter diocese, was appointed MBE for services to mental health in his work for the NHS. His wife, the Revd Jane Frost, is an assistant curate there. Mary Brennan was awarded the BEM for services to the community. Mrs Brennan volunteers at St Hilda’s, Leeds, and runs a foodbank in her cellar. Sheila Saunders was awarded the BEM for services to the community in Ketton and Barrowden, Rutland. Among her activities, Mrs Saunders has represented Peterborough laity on the General Synod, co-ordinated a Millennium Map project, and been involved in the WI and opening a community store.
Proof Bakery and Healthy Church win competition
TWO community projects won the Cinnamon Network Project Lab 2018 Final on Monday, and received £30,000 in a development grant each from the Mercers’ Company. Proof Bakery is a Coventry project aimed at helping refugee women into work, with the help of churches, and the Healthy Church Initiative is a course that “educates and transforms nutritional health”, particularly in African-Caribbean churches and communities. Both entries fitted the aim of the competition to respond to social needs in BME communities.
DIOCESE OF SALISBURYRural ministry: Canon Jill Hopkinson
Sarum college appoints new rural minister
THE C of E’s National Rural Officer, Canon Jill Hopkinson, is to be the new Rural Ministry Tutor at Sarum College, Salisbury, where she will will teach and develop the Rural Training Pathway. She said: “I could not pass up an opportunity to contribute to training people across the country for ministry in rural contexts.”
Windrush Day to be annual observance
THE Government has announced that a Windrush Day is to be held annually on 22 June, marking the MV Empire Windrush’s arrival in Britain in 1948. A report of today’s 70th-anniversary service in Westminster Abbey can be found here.