A panel of Church of England bishops, chaired by a former civil
servant, has recommended that the Church should perform blessings of gay
marriages. The panel also repeatedly called on the Church to ‘repent’ of the
way that homosexuals had been treated in the past, and even suggested that the
Bible is inconclusive on the subject of homosexuality (though one bishop dissented from this statement) by warning against “attempting
to pronounce definitively on the implications of Scripture for homosexual practice”. While the report’s
accompanying statements are unlikely to promote unity on the report’s
conclusions, several Church of England clerics who were formerly strongly
opposed to gay marriage or same-sex relationships have moderated their public
statements recently; for example, the Archbishop of York has observed that “the
Church of England offers special prayers and services to bless sheep and even
trees but not committed same-sex couples.”
Survivors of a
three-week battle between Muslim rebels and Government forces in the southern
Philippines in September have been describing their experiences. The rebels
carefully selected Christians as hostages, freeing any Muslims they captured,
and used some of the hostages as human shields. In the three-week battle,
grenades and mortars were used; thousands of homes were destroyed; and 200
people died, including 166 rebels. One former hostage appeared resigned rather
than angry in an interview with Al Jazeera: “What good will hate bring me? So
best to just accept it. I was born here; we are used to armed conflict.”
In
the US state of Indiana, where abortion clinics are required to report any
abortions carried out on children of 13 and under so that the authorities can
investigate possible charges of statutory rape, an undercover investigation found that between 58% and 75%
of such abortions were not reported. A 13 year
old girl who approached one clinic found that the clinic actively helped her hide her proposed abortion
from the authorities; she was advised not to take the abortion pill at home
because “she might miscarry and it would be harder to conceal”, and she was
told which neighbouring U.S. states were allowed to carry out an abortion without
requiring reporting or parental consent.
The United States has
announced plans to re-locate its embassy in Vatican City to the grounds of the
U.S. Embassy to Italy. The reasons given are security concerns and cost
savings; however, critics see it as a significant downgrading of the
relationship between President Obama’s government and the Catholic church.
More details have
emerged about the Chinese authorities’ arrest of the pastor of a legally
registered church. The local government has been harassing church members by
requiring government institutions and schools to open on Sunday, forcing some
church members to work instead of attending church; by telling students to tell their parents not
to attend church or to petition higher authorities regarding the arrests; and by searching the church’s second largest
site and ordering all employees to vacate the premises. The pastor’s daughter,
who has fled the county and is in hiding, says she has received telephone calls
threatening death to her entire family if she keeps talking to international
media about the situation. However, church members who remain in the county
have hired a leading human rights lawyer.
In sport, six men have
been arrested as part of an enquiry into the ‘fixing’ of football matches in
England by betting syndicates. The investigation included an alleged fixer
correctly predicting to an undercover reporter the score of three matches involving the same
team. The team name has not yet been revealed because of ongoing enquiries, but
some UK bookmakers stopped taking bets on certain teams in the Conference
division earlier this year. The fixer added that it is more expensive to fix
matches in England than in other countries.
And finally, an 18 year old Pittsburgh man stole more than $8,000 worth of
cash, cigarettes, sweets and cheques from a shop – and then posted a picture on
Facebook of himself and his three teenage accomplices with their haul. He is in
jail awaiting trial, and his accomplices have been charged in juvenile court.
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