New Bishop of Derry & Raphoe elected

THE next Bishop of Derry and Raphoe will be the Archdeacon of Ardboe, the Ven. Andrew Forster, the Church of Ireland announced this week. He has been Rector of Drumglass (Dungannon), in the diocese of Armagh, since 2007. Previous posts include Chaplain and Dean of Residence at Queen’s University Belfast (1995-2002).

Pensions Board issues lobbying challenge to mining giant

A RESOLUTION requiring the world’s largest mining company, BHP, to suspend membership of trade associations not lobbying in line with the Paris Climate agreement has been co-filed by the Church of England Pensions Board. The director of ethics and engagement for the Board, Adam Matthews, said: “It is essential that lobbying be used as a constructive force and not one designed to delay, divert, and disrupt. We want BHP and other firms to succeed in using positive lobbying to enable and support a regulatory environment, consistent with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.”

Online bullying highlighted by UN poll

ONE third of 170,000 13- to 24-year-olds across 30 countries surveyed for a United Nations report said that they had been victims of online bullying. One in five said that they had skipped school because of it. “Connected classrooms mean school no longer ends once a student leaves class, and, unfortunately, neither does schoolyard bullying,” the executive director of UNICEF, Henrietta Fore, said. “Improving young people’s education experience means accounting for the environment they encounter online as well as offline.”

Commission calls for improvements in Birmingham

A CHARITY COMMISSION investigation into the Birmingham Diocesan Trust, the charity that oversees the RC diocese of Birmingham, has highlighted “serious shortcomings” in the charity’s safeguarding governance in the past, of which the trustees “appeared to be either insufficiently aware” or which they “did not adequately address with the pace or in the way expected”. The diocese was a case study in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which found that it was “driven by a determination to protect the reputation of the Church” (News, 21 June). While “significant action” had been taken to improve safeguarding, further improvements were required, the Commission said.