Christian Aid calls for sanctions against Israel

CHRISTIAN AID has described the Israeli Security Cabinet’s new property controls in the occupied West Bank as “another nail in the coffin” for the Palestinian state proposal and has called for UK sanctions. “As a start, the Government could announce a ban on all goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank being sold in the UK tomorrow,” the head of Middle East Policy and Advocacy at Christian Aid, William Bell, said. “Such a move would send a clear signal that Israel’s continued and expanding illegal occupation is the main obstacle to a just peace.”

Head of Virginia seminary to retire after 21 years

THE Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary, in the United States, the Very Revd Dr Ian Markham, has announced that he will retire at the end of academic year 2027-28. An Englishman and a systematic and moral theologian who has written several books, Dr Markham has degrees from the universities of London, Cambridge, and Exeter. He was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 2007. The chair of the seminary’s board of trustees, Dr David Charlton, described him as “an extraordinary leader, scholar, teacher, and pastor. . . I offer our profound gratitude for what he has contributed to theological education, to the Episcopal Church, and to the Anglican Communion.”

Filipinos campaign against ‘mining plunder’

ECUMENICAL and human-rights groups have joined church leaders in the Philippines advocating justice and accountability after the violent dispersal of communities in Dupax del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya, who are defending their ancestral and agricultural lands against large-scale mining operations. “If we, as church people, do not stand with communities defending land, life, and resources against mining plunder, we fail God’s mission,” the Revd Jixy Bumatang, a deacon in the diocese of Santiago, in the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, said.

Fresh attacks and abductions in Nigeria

TERRORIST attacks and abductions in Nigeria have continued to engulf Christians in the region. Three people were killed and 11 others, including a Roman Catholic parish priest, Fr Nathaniel Asuwaye, were abducted from Karku, Kaduna State, on Saturday. At least 170 people were killed in Kwara State, including Christians, according to a local administrator. The 166 Christians abducted from the Kurmin Wali community in Kaduna State last month were released. “It is with sorrow and concern that I learned of the recent attacks against various communities in Nigeria leading to a heavy loss of life,” the Pope said on Sunday.

Children write prayers for flood-hit Solomon Islanders

PUPILS at Tipton St John C of E Primary School, in Devon, have expressed solidarity with their link schools in the Solomon Islands as they cope with the aftermath of flooding and heavy rains. Prayers written by the children to express “hope, comfort, friendship” have been sent, the Melanesian Mission reports, to places where schools, food gardens, and religious communities have been badly affected. The Mission has also written its own prayer for the disaster-hit region. mmuk.net