Household Support Fund must be extended, councils say
THE Household Support Fund, which was established to help people struggling to buy food, pay bills, and cover other essentials, must be continued beyond next month when it is due to expire, the Children’s Society has said. A survey of councils by the Local Government Association, reported last week, found that nearly 60 per cent said that they would be unable to provide any additional funding for welfare assistance if the fund came to an end in September; and 84 per cent expected demand for welfare assistance to increase over the winter months. The Children’s Society’s chief executive, Mark Russell, said last week that the fund had enabled councils to “maintain an essential lifeline to families to keep their heads above water”.
Mark Santer, former ARCIC co-chair, dies
THE Rt Revd Mark Santer, a former Bishop of Birmingham and co-chair of the Second Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC II), died on Wednesday of last week. Born in 1936, he served as a tutor at Cuddesdon College, and was Dean of Clare College, Cambridge, and Principal of Westcott House, before being appointed Bishop of Kensington in 1981, and Bishop of Birmingham in 1987, where he served until his retirement in 2002. The Bishop of Kirkstall, the Rt Revd Arun Arora, praised his “wisdom, laughter, and generosity of spirit”. Obituary to follow
Bishop Dyer’s tribunal is postponed
THE Clergy Discipline Tribunal hearing concerning allegations against the suspended Bishop of Aberdeen & Orkney, the Rt Revd Anne Dyer, has been postponed after an application was made on behalf of the Bishop for more preparation time (News, 21 May). The hearing was scheduled to begin on 10 September in Edinburgh. Work is now under way to identify other dates. It was announced in May that the Procurator, Paul Reid KC, had decided to take three complaints against the Bishop to the tribunal. Bishop Dyer entered pleas of not guilty to each complaint.
Gloucester Cathedral slave-trade links explored
GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL will use QR codes to explain how some of the people memorialised in the cathedral were connected to the slave trade, The Daily Telegraph reported last week. As part of the Connected Lives project, leaflets will be provided “to inform visitors about the slave profiteering of prominent Gloucester locals honoured in the cathedral”. The Chapter said that the project would be conducted “in keeping with our principles of social justice”. Figures include the 18th-century landowner Samuel Hayward, whose family had plantation holdings in the Caribbean. The project follows the publication of guidance by the Church Buildings Council, Contested Heritage in Cathedrals and Churches, in 2021 (News, 14 May 2021).
Worcester’s former Vollers sought for sequicentenary
FORMER members of Worcester Cathedral’s voluntary choir — Vollers — are being sought to participate in the choir’s 150th-anniversary celebrations. A press release describes how the choir has been “a key part of the city’s musical and cultural life”. A special sung eucharist — in which former Vollers are invited to participate — will take place on Sunday 13 October at 10.30 a.m. The cathedral has commissioned Paul Trepte, a former director of the choir, to write a new anthem for the occasion. worcestercathedral.org.uk/vollers150
Does God care about my work, films ask
A NEW film series, Does God Care about my Work?, has been launched by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, designed to “help Christians discover why their work matters to God, and how they can make a difference with him through their regular tasks”. It is available now on the RightNow Media platform. licc.org.uk/ourresources
Man arrested after Baldock church damage
A 25-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested in relation to offences committed in and around the churchyard of St Mary’s, Baldock, last month. It was reported that overnight, from Thursday 18 July to Friday 19 July, damage was caused to gravestones, the windows of the community hall, several car windscreens, and a brick wall, and offensive graffiti was sprayed on a footpath.
Correction: in a news story last week, we suggested that canon law “requires that baptisms be done ‘within the church’ on a Sunday”. Canon Neil Patterson, a trustee of the Ecclesiastical Law Society, reminds us that Canon B12 requires merely that baptisms happen “at public worship when the most number of people gather together”. Our apologies.