eChurch Christian Blog

Another House Committee Bid to Protect Unborn in Health Bill Fails Friday

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – What was possibly the final bid to halt the Obama administration health care bill’s expansion of abortion in the House Energy and Commerce Committee failed early Friday.

Another pro-life amendment offered by Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Joe Pitts (R-PA) to halt the abortion mandate Friday was rejected 27-31. (A tally of the votes can be found here.)

The amendment states that “no funds authorized under this Act (or amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion,” although it makes exceptions in the case of danger to the mother’s life, or in cases of rape or incest.

“Once again the Democratic Majority has demonstrated it fully intends to fund or subsidize abortion services in their health care plan,” commented Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on this latest Committee action.

“With the majority of Americans, we believe that health care legislation should not cover abortion. The actions of the House Committee demonstrate beyond any doubt that it intends for the federal government to fund coverage of abortion on demand.”

Perkins applauded Stupak and the other committee Democrats who voted to keep abortion out of the health care bill.

“We will continue to work with members of both parties to remove abortion from the government health care plan when this legislation moves to the House floor,” he said.

Stupak and Pitts had made a similar, initially successful bid during committee mark-ups late last night, but met with failure hours later when Committee Chairman Henry Waxman invoked House rules that allowed him to bring the measure up for a second vote.  The amendment then failed 30-29.

Earlier Thursday evening, the House passed an amendment by pro-abortion California Democrat Rep. Lois Capps that allows for federal funding of abortion coverage in the government health care plan, permits taxpayer subsidies of private plans covering abortion, and mandates that every U.S. region have at least one health plan covering abortion.

Man wanted to be like God and God has let it play out and this ‘experiement’ is not looking too promising thus far I’d say….

World Hunger Hits Historic High of 1 Billion

The number of people going hungry every day has hit a historic high of 1 billion, or more precisely 1.02 billion, according to the U.N. World Food Program.

Millions of people who were on the brink of hunger have now been thrown into this category by the global economic crisis that resulted in lower incomes and job losses.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, about an additional 100 million people are in chronic hunger and poverty this year compared to last year.

And while the number of people with urgent food needs has increased, aid agencies are reporting lower donations and budget cuts.

WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said Wednesday the agency is facing “dangerous and unprecedented” funding shortfalls this year.

“Our budget for this year of assessed and approved needs is $6.7 billion and we expect from our projections and working with government to come in at $3.7 billion,” Sheeran said at a press briefing ahead of meetings at the White House.

Sheeran said the agency is working to cut $3 billion from its program by reducing rations and programs throughout the world.

Its goal is to feed 108 million people in 74 countries this year.

In addition to budget cuts, aid groups are also struggling with the impact of high food prices.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reports food prices are higher today than a year ago in more than 80 percent of developing countries.

Sheeran suggested that the food crisis is “not as dramatic at home” as in developed countries, resulting in less of a sense of urgency to help the world’s hungry.

But “one out of every six [people] today is on the official list of the urgently-hungry,” she said, according to RTTNews.com. “One-third of the world’s children in the developing world is stunted.”

The WFP official praised the United States – the world’s largest food aid donor – for being an advocate to finding solutions to long term needs as well as meeting immediate needs.

The United Sates provides about half of all food aid to needy people in the world.

Besides government agencies, Christian aid agencies such as Food for the Hungry, Food for the Poor, and Lutheran World Relief have also been a major contributor in helping to feed those vulnerable to hunger.

Since 1971, Food for the Hungry has responded to physical and spiritual hunger in more than 26 countries worldwide.

In response to the current food and economic crisis, the ministry calls on Christians to pray for the world’s poor and hungry and for long-term solutions to families at risk or on the brink of salvation, give financially to help the ministry respond to world hunger, and sponsor a child that will help to not only transform the child but also his/her family and community.

Classic

By Kathleen Gilbert

NEW YORK, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Center for Reproductive Rights has issued a report blaming pro-life activism and a growing “stigma” surrounding abortion for a steady decline in the procedure across the U.S., and is calling upon the U.S. government to help expand abortion by eradicating pro-life laws.

Nancy Northup, the center’s president, said physicians and clinics providing abortions have fallen by 25% since the 1990s – a decline it blamed on the pro-life presence outside the businesses of abortionists, whom the group upheld as “human rights defenders.” (To see the CRR document “Defending Human Rights,” click here.)

The report also targets legal restrictions on abortion, including the 24-hour waiting period and regulations for cleanliness in abortion clinics, and called upon federal, state, and local governments to abolish such laws as restricting the “constitutional right” to abortion.

“The Center for Reproductive Rights encourages the government at all levels to adopt and enforce measures to improve the safety of providers and to eliminate laws that impede their work,” stated the report.

In particular, the group called for the repeal of the Hyde amendment, which restricts Medicaid from funding abortions.  According to the Guttmacher Institute, such rules prohibiting public abortion funding save the lives of about one out of every three children who would have been aborted had public funds been available.

In response to the growing popularity of the pro-life movement – over half of participants in a recent Gallup poll considered themselves “pro-life” – the group called for active promotion of abortion as a mainstream health care procedure.

“Because abortion is not integrated into mainstream healthcare, it is marginalized and perceived as ‘dirty’ and outside of normal medical practice,” complained the group.

However, pro-life analysts believe the decline in physicians providing abortion can be traced to growing awareness of the repulsive nature of the procedure itself, rather than an imposed “stigma.”

“I think they [abortionists] have been diminishing in number for years because this is the type of trade that is contrary to the reason that people go to medical school,” Mary Spaulding Balch, state legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, told the Catholic News Agency.  After all, she noted, most medical students enter the profession with a desire to save life, not destroy it.

Because of advances in ultrasound technology and fetal surgery, Spaulding Balch said that younger doctors “are understanding the unborn child as the second patient.”

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, noted how the report’s timing coincided with the push on Capitol Hill to fund and provide insurance for abortion in President Obama’s vast health care overhaul.

“I can’t help but think it’s nothing more than an attempt to scare the American people away from being informed and concerned about the massive abortion mandates that are in the proposed health care reform bills and that will remain there unless explicitly excluded,” Culp told the Kansas City Star.

The first time I read Michael Green’s Evangelism in the Early Church in 1984, it was a required textbook for a course at seminary. My subsequent six readings since then have all been the result of my desire to be reminded of the passionate heart of evangelism of the early Church. Green’s book, published in 1970, looks at the Church from the time of the Apostle Paul to Origen in the middle of the third century.

One of the greatest appeals of the book is the deep commitment to both theology and evangelism, and the recognition that the two cannot be divorced. Green says it well in the preface: “Most evangelists are not very interested in theology. Most theologians are not interested in evangelism. I am deeply committed to both.”

An Emerging and Encouraging Trend

Though my observations are anecdotal at this point, I am greatly encouraged to see more young church leaders today with a passion for both theology and evangelism. They realize that true evangelism will not take place without a solid biblical and theological foundation. And they realize that theology is dead unless it is lived out passionately in ministry and evangelism.

Nearly four decades ago, Michael Green wrote about that reality in the early Church. And he rightly insisted that theology and evangelism must not be separated in the Church today.

Evangelistic Motives in the Early Church

Green noted some of the evangelistic motives of the early Church. Not surprisingly, each motive has deep theological and biblical roots.

A sense of gratitude. The early Christians were tireless and unselfish in their evangelistic zeal. They were prepared to sacrifice all, even their own lives, in order to share the gospel of Christ. One of their primary motives was their overwhelming gratitude for what Christ did for them. So many of the biblical truths affirm this reality. For example, “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10, HCSB). Similarly, we hear the Apostle Paul declare, “And I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

A sense of responsibility. The biblical mandate of evangelism is clear. We hear Great Commission passages such as Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8 repeated often. But the Bible is replete with passages that reflect this sense of responsibility. Paul, in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders, reported, “I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:21).

A sense of concern. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The simple but powerful truth is that there are really two categories of humanity: the saved and the lost. The saved will spend eternity with Christ; the lost will spend eternity separated from Christ in hell. We must proclaim with passionate concern that Jesus in the only way of salvation (John 14:6). Our hearts should break over the lostness of humanity, and our response should be obedient and urgent evangelism.

A Great Commission Resurgence: When Theology Meets Evangelism

Will the evangelical church in America experience a Great Commission resurgence? With the early Church as our pattern, we can have great hope that such a resurgence will take place.

But no great evangelistic move of God has ever taken place without the rightful wedding of theology and evangelism. When evangelism has no theology, it degenerates into human-made methods and manipulation. When theology has no evangelism, it degenerates into a dry and powerless academic exercise.

May we see a Great Commission resurgence like the early Church.

May our motives be deeply theological.

May our actions be passionately evangelistic.

And may God do a great work in our land.

Ecumenical News International

UN runs into flak for rejecting Christian group as NGO observer

Geneva (ENI). A United Nations group that vets non-governmental organizations applying for accreditation to observe the international body, has rejected an international Christian group after it refused to divulge members’ names in China, citing fears about religious freedom.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based advocacy and monitoring group, condemned the U.N.’s decision to reject the Dynamic Christian World Mission Foundation application as an NGO observer due to its refusal to accede to China’s demands that it disclose member addresses in the People’s Republic.

Russia, Egypt, Cuba, Pakistan, and Sudan had expressed concerns about “the organization’s ability to contribute” to the United Nations.

At a meeting in Geneva on 27 July, the 54-member of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, known as ECOSOC that vets which NGOs get observer status, endorsed a decision taken by a subsidiary committee earlier in 2009 to reject the group’s application.

It also rejected a U.S. initiative to keep the application open for the Christian foundation, a group registered in South Korea and California and which promotes Christianity through educational projects in Russia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan. The vote was lost by 23 to 22 at ECOSOC.

“Today’s vote is a setback for religious freedom, and could set a dangerous precedent at the U.N. for repressive regimes to launch frivolous objections, or demand sensitive information, in order to obstruct the important work of civil society organizations in the areas of religion, education, and human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch.

The advocacy group has frequently accused bodies such as the U.N. Commission of Human Rights of being controlled by countries like China and Russia, and states such as Libya and Vietnam which have poor rights’ records.

Those voting to reject the Christian group included Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, India, Indonesia, China, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, and Venezuela.

Those voting to support its application included the U.S., Brazil, Greece, Guatemala, Canada, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Germany, Japan, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, and Portugal.

“NGOs at the U.N. are routinely under assault,” said Neuer in a statement.

At the same time, Neuer welcomed two other votes initiated by Western nations that saw ECOSOC grant accreditation to two NGOs, overruling earlier decisions by a lower committee.

By a vote of 25 to 12, with 13 abstentions, the U.N. accredited the Brazilian Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Association. Those voting against included Algeria, Belarus, China, Indonesia, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan.

Egypt, an observer state on the 54-member body, suggested that the aim of the NGO and its supporters was to make homosexuality universal, and complained of “double standards” against Muslim charities that were rejected for ties to terrorism. In response, Brazil said the group merely represented a constituency of people.

Similarly, by a vote of 30 to 9, with 8 abstentions, the United Nations on 29 July accredited the Democracy Coalition Project, a Washington-based organization founded by George Soros’ Open Society Institute. Those voting against it included China, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela, Belarus, Bolivia, Malaysia, and Mozambique. China and Russia said the group “attacked countries specifically” and had “a political agenda”.

In another statement on 29 July, U.N. Watch expressed disappointment at the refusal by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, to answer whether she will receive the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, on his visit to Geneva in early August. The response is understood as a negative answer. Still, UN Watch welcomed her criticism of China’s “serious systemic violations of human rights” in Tibet, and her call for due process for detainees and access to international observers.

Ecumenical News International

Polish Lutheran heading EU body wants dialogue with faiths

Warsaw (ENI). Jerzy Buzek, a Polish Lutheran who has become the first president of the European Parliament from a post-communist eastern European country, says he wants to deepen dialogue with the continent’s Christian churches.

“The principles associated with the whole tradition, culture and, above all, faith of Christianity have fundamental importance for me, as well as for Europe’s future identity and development,” said Buzek, who was Poland’s prime minister from 1997 to 2001.

“A debate with churches and other religions on our continent’s problems is essential,” Buzek said in an interview with Poland’s Catholic information agency KAI. “I’ve no doubt Christian values should be very important at an individual level for each politician and leader, but also collectively since they define and show the key ways a politician can act.”

The 69-year-old politician was speaking after his election on 14 July to head the 736-seat parliament for the 27-nation European Union. He belongs to the parliament’s Christian Democratic European People’s Party grouping.

“Respect for others who think differently is also a special value for Christians. Such is my understanding of the presence of these values in social and political life,” Buzek stated. “I have never manifested my faith in a persistent manner. The best way of showing what we believe in is through our own actions and behaviour in daily life, and by acting publicly in a way which reflects our deep Christian faith.”

Buzek said he believed the “vision of Europe” promoted by the Pope John Paul II still indicated “the end to which we should strive”, and said he was concerned European politics had “somewhat renounced Christian values”.

Born in the Silesian town of Smilevice, now in the Czech Republic, Buzek has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004 for the Civic Platform. This is currently the biggest partner in Poland’s coalition government.

Buzek’s election was praised by the Rev. Thomas Wipf, president of the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe, which groups more than 100 Lutheran, United, Reformed, Methodist and other Protestant churches.

“It is good for the EU that for the first time a politician from the states which entered in 2004 will assume a key position,” said Wipf, who also heads the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches. “Moreover we are delighted that in future a committed Protestant and member of a minority church will take over the presidency of the European Parliament.”

The (Lutheran) Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland has 75 000 members in a country where Roman Catholics make up around 86 percent of the population of 38 million.

Speaking at a Lutheran service on 20 July in the southern town of Wisla, Buzek said he knew “how important prayer is”. He said he counted on “spiritual support and community” from fellow Lutherans in Poland, which will take over the European Union’s rotating presidency in June 2011.

As I sit here watching global Christian news feeds stream in front of me all day long, frankly, at times, it is hard not to get a little depressed.

I obviously select those news stories that fit my own particular theology and doctrinal stance.

One of the biggest news issues I never blog about, is the global persecution of Christians, because frankly there is so much it and it is so disturbing. If I started reporting on this, I would never be able to report on anything else and that’s why I am content to let dedicated websites like Persecution.org tackle this, as in truth, it needs dedicated websites to cope with the sheer depressing volume.

I do tackle some of the ‘persecution’ issues in the UK and have noted some criticisms on the Internet, as some folk don’t consider the negative Christian experiences in the west as ‘true’ persecution. I think from my own perspective I would argue that we are witnessing a ‘creeping’ towards ‘true’ persecution in the west, which is being powered via the law courts, legislative powers and liberal European governments.

All I see all day long, is the global push for government funded and politically sanctioned abortion en-masse, or the global acceptance for homosexual ‘marriages’ or the ‘right’ to commit suicide etc. These selfsame issues are ripping the established ‘visible’  church in two and there is no doubt in my mind that we are seeing a polarisation within the global visible church, to the point whereby we are witnessing schisms and new partnerships (old in some cases) being formed and re-formed.

Some say this is the Devil dividing the church, others that God is separating the ‘wheat’ from the ‘chaff’. I will not state about how I feel personally, but it is probably not too hard to detect if you look carefully through my Christian news selections.

So…I became a little ‘down’ tonight and went for an aimless drive and on the dashboard of the car was a bible and I came to this verse.

Proverbs 31:8 + 9

Open you mouth for the speechless,

In the cause of all who are appointed to die.

Open your mouth, judge righteousness,

And plead the cause of the poor and needy.

When I read that, I had a sense of peace, because I realised that it is right to stand up and speak (blog) for the cause of those appointed to die and who are speechless and that to me is the millions upon millions of aborted humans, sacrificed to the modern god of convenience.

I didn’t even bother earlier to put the recent abortion figures from China, which officially stands at 13m a year (and this is only the reported, official cases – and many are ‘enforced’). I have also stopped blogging about President Obama and his massive abortion expansion plans and the political and physical attacks on pro-lifers across the globe along with the political legislative maneuvering to enforce abortion as a ‘human right’ (Irony) in predominantly Catholic countries. I stopped because I was sick of it and had become depressed by reading it all and just had that sense that no-one really cared anyway.

That scripture from Proverbs, reminded me that God cares and so I care also…forgive me Lord…evil runs rampant when good men say/do nothing.

If you want the ‘right’ to end your own life then so be it, but you have no right to end the life of others…those that haven’t even been given a shot at life. Women’s emancipation I am told….what about all of the little baby girls who never got the chance to become a woman and make a choice?

I stand with the church that will not proclaim, that which is wicked, as a good thing…whatever church that may be….I stand with you in the Lord.

Amen

Webmaster

Associated Baptist Press

Baptists celebrate 400th anniversary near site of movement’s origin

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (ABP) — Baptists from around the world recalled the birth of their movement 400 years ago during a July 30 worship service held a few blocks from the site of what is generally recognized as the first Baptist congregation.

About 300 worshippers filled the main floor and double balconies of the Singelkerk, a Mennonite church on Amsterdam’s Singel Canal built in 1608, a year before the first Baptists met in a bakery on the Amstel River, a short distance west.

The bakery no longer exists, but leaders of the initial Baptist movement – including John Smyth and Thomas Helwys – forged close ties to the Mennonites, with whom they shared views on believers’ baptism and congregational governance. Both Smyth and Thomas are believed to have worshipped in the Singelkerk.

“Four hundred years have passed since the Baptist work began,” said Neville Callam, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, as the July 30 service began.  “Now we gather in the presence of representatives from around the world to worship the child of God.”

The BWA’s General Council held its annual gathering July 27-Aug. 1 in Amsterdam.

“We are here to celebrate God’s faithfulness during those first 400 years,” said Albrecht Boerrigter, general secretary of the Union of Baptist Churches in the Netherlands. “Take what you get here and carry it with you into the future.”

A wide array of languages highlighted the service, whose program was printed in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, German and Swahili. Scripture was read in Bangla and Dutch and verses of songs were sung in French, German and Spanish. The congregation recited the Lord’s Prayer simultaneously in their own language.

A litany of thanksgiving expressed gratitude to God for the “cloud of witnesses” who have enriched the Baptist movement, from Smyth, Helwys and Menno Simons, to Roger Williams and William Carey to John Leland and Martin Luther King Jr.

“They ran the race set before them,” the readers said.

In a sermon, the BWA’s general secretary emeritus highlighted “the freedom in Christ [that] has been the theme of the Baptist movement from our beginning to the present day.”

But Denton Lotz, who retired last year as the BWA’s top executive, warned that the defense of religious freedom must change if it is to be relevant in the 21st century.

“It is incumbent upon us as a people of faith to realize that our concerns today are very different from those of 400 years ago,” Lotz said. “If we fail to take seriously the 21st century and merely continue to defend religious freedom as though we were living under King James I, then we will become irrelevant and our defense of freedom irrelevant.”

The threat today is not directed at religious practice, Lotz said, “but rather whether or not religion will be granted a fair hearing or a hearing at all. Will the public expression of religion continue to be curtailed or even allowed? Our public and state education has promoted secularism as its own religion and has indoctrinated the younger generation to believe that man can live without God and can explain the universe and history and community without faith.”

“Our goal must not be religious freedom to practice or religious freedom to express our faith,” he added. “Our goal is to be on mission with Jesus Christ.… Therefore, today and in this 400th year we honor all those men and women who by faith followed the footsteps of their master.”

Christian Post

My first pastorate after seminary was in St. Petersburg, Florida. In my interviews with several of the lay leaders prior to my coming to the church, I noticed a recurring theme. When I would ask them about the health of the church, one word was repeated several times: stable.

I could not reconcile their perception of the church with the information they had sent me. The most recent year’s attendance was 118; seven years earlier the average attendance had been 191. In a relatively short period, attendance had declined 38 percent, but the common theme among the church members was that the church was “stable.”

The more I heard from the church, the greater my concern grew. The number of conversions in the congregation was almost nonexistent. Ministries had been discontinued. Biblical literacy and doctrinal awareness had declined. And the reputation of the church in the community had suffered. But the condition of the church, according to key laypersons, was “stable.”

A Common Plight

From an outsider’s perspective, this lack of awareness was inexplicable. But in subsequent years, I consulted with hundreds of churches. Much to my dismay, I discovered that this reality blindness was common. Many churches are unwilling to make needed changes because they fail to see the need for change.

The Manifestations of Reality Blindness

As my team consulted with churches over the next two decades, we not only discovered that reality blindness was common; we discovered that it often manifests itself in three ways.

First, the churches have no means of accountability. They don’t know if they are truly evangelistic, engaging the culture and the community. They fail to ask if their members are really growing spiritually and biblically. They don’t know if their ministries are really effective. They may continue some ministries because that’s the way it’s always been done. In simple terms, these churches refuse to ask the tough questions.

Second, the churches that have reality blindness often have members who have little doctrinal awareness. While the churches typically had a written doctrinal statement, most of the members had no idea what the statement contained. And the few members that might have had some awareness expressed theological positions in contradiction to the printed doctrinal statement.

Third, many of these church leaders were change resistant, even when needed change was clearly obvious to an outsider. Obviously, change is unlikely when leadership is unwilling to look reality in the face.

From Reality Blindness to Breakout

The bad news is that most churches in America will remain in a state of reality blindness. It’s easier to assume that all is well rather than confront the painful truth that serious change is necessary.

The good news is that a few churches will move from blindness to breakout. We have studied about and consulted with such churches over the past twenty years. The leaders of these churches have been willing to confront the brutal facts about the state of their congregations. And they have been willing to lead the churches to make the changes necessary to move from near death to greater health.

One pastor of a breakout church stated it well. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a place where we are playing church and not impacting our community. I know that change is painful. I know that many in the congregation both resist and resent change. But I can’t live a life of mediocrity. In God’s power, I have to lead my church to greatness for God’s glory.”

Reality blindness or breakout? One is a path of comfort, little conflict, and little impact. The other is a path of change, discomfort, and potential conflict. But it is the path where lives are changed and communities are impacted.

May we leaders do what it takes to see our churches become dynamic and vibrant. May we see that reality blindness is really not an option at all.

Daily Mail:-

We all pray for dignity in our own dying, and to be able to provide this comfort to our loved ones, should they pass away before us.

So it is almost impossible not to feel respect for the courage shown by multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy, who yesterday succeeded in convincing the Law Lords that it is a breach of her human rights not to know whether her husband will be prosecuted if he accompanies her to a Swiss clinic to end her life.

The problem, of course, is that Miss Purdy’s personal victory has profound moral and social consequences that stretch far beyond her own case.

For, following yesterday’s judgment, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, must now attempt to define the exact set of circumstances under which a person could be prosecuted for helping a relative to kill themselves.

But more significantly, by implication he must also indicate those circumstances under which a person will not be punished. It will be, in effect, nothing less than a legal guide to achieving immunity under the 1961 Suicide Act, which currently makes helping another person to die an imprisonable offence.

This challenge is exactly what Mr Starmer – who describes the existing suicide law as ‘workable’ – did not want. He understandably does not wish to have his hands tied by a black and white ruling.

It is eminently sensible for the DPP to decide prosecutions on a case-by-case basis, and so far he has significantly decided not to prosecute in any of the 115 instances in which a relative has helped a Briton to die at the Dignitas clinic, in Switzerland. That is how the Law Lords should have left matters.

What seems indisputable, however, is that yesterday’s ruling has opened the door to aggressive demands for a new law to permit assisted dying in the UK, without the need to travel overseas.

The Mail recognises this is a profoundly difficult issue, in which there is no room for dogma or glib certainties. But it equally recognises that formulating any new law is fraught with danger, given the propensity for loopholes, legal challenges and abuse.

Codifying legal killing is even more perilous. What if the right to die becomes a duty to die, with vulnerable people feeling under pressure to end their lives rather than burden the cash-strapped NHS, or relatives paying for nursing home care.

There is a grave danger that it could become a cheap and preferred alternative to palliative care, favourable both to the health service and any cold-blooded relative worried by the prospect of their inheritance draining away.

Of course, supporters of assisted suicide pour scorn upon this ’slippery slope’ argument, insisting cast-iron safeguards could be written into the law.

But the history of social legislation offers a stark warning about unintended consequences. The 1967 Abortion Act, remember, was supposed to apply only to pregnancies which placed either the mother or unborn child at risk. Today, abortion is all too often used as an alternative to contraception.

Yes, we recognise that assisted suicide is a hugely complex issue, but worry that centuries of wisdom are being renounced by a liberal establishment for which legalising euthanasia has become an almost totemic issue.

The fact is that overturning the principle of the sanctity of life is too important to be left to bien pensant opinion, lawyers and judges. It demands a national debate.

How depressing, then, that the Church of England – so quick to pronounce on homosexual rights – has yet to stand up and be counted on an issue that fundamentally defines our humanity.

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

LISBON, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Portugal’s Constitutional Court today reaffirmed the country’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.

Judges ruled 3-2 against two lesbians who attempted to use a constitutional loophole to challenge the law.

Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, both of whom have children and are divorced, were turned away from a registry office in Lisbon in 2006 when they attempted to “marry” and were told the law stipulates that marriage is between people of different genders.

The lesbians filed a complaint in a Lisbon court in 2006 but the case was rejected.

The two then challenged that ruling on the grounds that Portugal’s constitution forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation.

However, after considering their appeal, the Constitutional Court also rejected the case and said in a statement posted on its website that the constitution does not state that same-sex “marriages” must be permitted.

AP reports that the lesbians intend to take their legal battle to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Acceptance of same-sex “marriage” and homosexual “rights” has met with resistance from religious groups and conservative politicians in this predominantly Roman Catholic country.

A recent Eurobarometer survey shows that 70% of Portuguese surveyed reject same-sex “marriage” and 80% disapprove the idea of homosexual couples adopting children.

Earlier this year, the leader of Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party, Jose Socrates, announced his support for homosexual “marriage,” sparking controversy and protest throughout the country and within the Socialist Party (PS) itself.

“This is the moment for the PS, in its national congress, to affirm its desire to propose to Portuguese society the right to civil marriage for people of the same sex,” said Socrates in a political speech at the Belem Cultural Center in January.

Mario Soares, former President of Portugal and a founder of the Socialist Party, reacted negatively to Socrates’ comments, stating that “homosexual marriages are complicated questions of conscience … but there are certain radicals who want to move forward [with it] to show that they are leftist.”

Portugal’s Parliament, however, voted by a large majority last year against proposals tabled by smaller parties to allow same-sex “marriages.” The Socialist Party said at the time the issue needed further study.

By Thaddeus M. Baklinski

Albania Considers Legalizing Same-Sex “Marriage”

TIRANA, Albania, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Albania’s recently re-elected Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced yesterday that his government is preparing a bill to legalize homosexual “marriage,” despite hostility to the idea from many quarters in the small Balkan country.

“A law that could provoke debates and reactions aims to put an end to discrimination and will allow civil unions between same-sex persons,” Berisha said in a government statement. He added that there is “a certain hostility towards minorities” in Albania and called on citizens to respect “the standards of other European countries.”

The plan to introduce the legislation is seen by critics as an attempt by Berisha to bring the country closer to the European Union. The former Communist country joined NATO in April, and has applied to be considered for joining the EU.

From 1944 to April 1985, Albania was dominated by Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who enforced a severe policy of isolation and atheism. After Hoxha’s death in 1985, the country slowly reengaged with the outside world, and reformed its government structures after the fall of Communism.

The proposed bill will most likely provoke controversy and debate in a country where the majority of the population are Muslims, with large Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic minorities.

Opposition to the legislation by Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox leaders has been “vehement,” according to a BBC report.

A spokesman of the Catholic Church in Tirana said: “We cannot accept that law, we are categorically against it.”

“We will firmly oppose that law,” Islamic leader Selim Muca told AFP.

Berisha, who leads the right-wing Democratic Party that won the June 28 election and controls 74 of Parliament’s 140 seats, is regarded as a conservative leader of one of Europe’s most conservative countries, where homosexuality was illegal until 1995. The unexpected move toward recognizing same-sex unions caught many legislators by surprise.

Media reported that as Berisha presented the bill before the assembly, some members of the parliament laughed.

The Lutheran World Federation

MONTREUX, Switzerland/GENEVA, 31 July 2009 (LWI) – The changing contexts of humanitarian crises today provided a common ground for joint reflection on the future of church-based humanitarian and development initiatives at this year’s Annual Forum of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS).

“The understanding of humanitarian crises has changed in recent decades,” said Rev. Eberhard Hitzler, LWF/DWS director. “Failed states, recurring drought and climate change have turned disasters from exceptional events to chronic crises. In this context, the role and identity of faith and church-based humanitarian organizations has to be reassessed.”

The 2009 Annual Forum, held 4-6 May, in Montreux, Switzerland, brought together over 50 participants from churches and church-based development and humanitarian agencies. Case studies on DWS field program work in various countries offered perspectives on localization and partnership, and the role of the Lutheran communion in humanitarian aid.

DWS is the internationally recognized humanitarian arm of the LWF, with field programs in 36 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe.

Localization

Localization is a key element in the DWS strategy, since the engagement of an international humanitarian and development organization is inherently time-limited. The LWF department works actively toward sustainable local solutions for country programs, transferring them to local ownership wherever circumstances permit.

The Tanzanian program, Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (TCRS), was cited as one of the positive examples of transition from a DWS country program to a locally-managed organization. TCRS started providing assistance to refugees in the 1960s as a DWS country program. It gained national non-governmental organization (NGO) status, becoming a DWS associate program in 2006. The program is governed by a national board of trustees, of which the majority of members are appointed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

This allows the program to continue and empowers the church to share Lutheran values in its diaconal work. “TCRS, under the guidance and leadership of the church, maintains its historical reputation as a major and long-standing partner of the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] in refugee operations,” TCRS director Mr Mark Leveri told the forum.

Emergencies

Emergency response was the subject of a case study from Brazil.

In November 2008 over 400,000 people lost their homes after devastating floods covered the Itajaí valley in eastern Brazil. The Lutheran communion raised national and international awareness about the emergency. Through the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) it distributed 140 tons of food, clothing, health and hygiene products in the main towns affected. Working through local parishes and congregations, it also reconstructed 200 homes for affected families.

“The churches acted on immediate social assistance, spiritual assistance and personal needs,” said IECLB synodal pastor Rev. Mariane Beyer Ehrat. “The state responded to the macro problems—infrastructure, rehabilitation of roads, emergency healthcare and food distribution, as well as restoring water, electricity and telephone services.”

Refugee Camp Management

Ms Sofia Malmqvist, who coordinates the DWS Kenya Somali refugee program, gave a presentation on managing refugee camps in partnership with the UN.

The camps receive refugees from Somalia, distribute food and water, and serve as transit centers. They also provide training opportunities within community development, including peace-building and conflict resolution, gender equity and human rights, child development and empowerment, and youth protection and development.

Malmqvist is one of five Church of Sweden workers seconded to DWS field programs in a two-year initiative. “In the various protection and operational management training materials, it is clear there is a need to build effective partnerships,” she said, “but projects need their independence.”

Christian Concern for our Nation

The Proposed EU Equal Treatment Directive

Freedom at Risk by Prof. William Wagner

“Discrimination” and “Equality” laws may well force Christians into silence, to act against their conscience or risk being on the wrong side of the law. Thus, many Christians around the world are paying close attention to the E.U.’s so-called “Equal Treatment” Directive. This Directive extends “discrimination” law based on sexual orientation, religion or belief, to the provision of goods, facilities and services. Included within the parameters of discrimination is something the directive calls harassment.

Unfortunately, the Equality and Human Rights Commission recently endorsed the harassment provision of the proposed Directive. In doing so, the EHRC gravely threatens freedom of speech and the free exercise of religious conscience in the United Kingdom. “Harassment,” as vaguely defined in the Directive, allows an individual to accuse someone of discrimination merely for expressing something the individual allegedly perceives as creating an offensive environment. For example, once someone decides to perceive an offer of prayers or words of comfort by a hospital chaplain based on his faith as offensive, that person can bring legal action against the chaplain and the hospital, even if the chaplain at the hospital intended no offense. To further chill fundamental freedoms, the burden of proof then shifts to the chaplain to prove that the accuser was not offended.

Discussions about faith or sexual ethics, during the provision of a service to the public or commercial service, provide endless opportunities for individuals to allege offence – and to silence those whose views are informed by ancient sacred tenets. Censuring an idea simply because the idea is informed by a religious worldview, prevents thousands of years of wisdom from informing the civic ethic. A citizen who attempts to inform the civic ethic should not be punished or persecuted simply because the citizen’s ideas are informed by sincerely held Christian truths.

In a democracy, freedom of expression is not needed to protect the ideas of people with whom those in power agree – it is needed to protect people who express ideas with which those in power do not agree. Thus, the test of a functioning moral democracy is not whether the government protects speech with which it agrees – it is whether it will protect expression which is against its own viewpoint. Instead of censuring or punishing speech, good governance always allows more speech. Selective enforcement and punishment of expression sends a bitter chill throughout the citizenry in a democracy. Institutional integrity cannot exist without personal virtue. Good governance and civic institutional integrity rest on the virtue of its citizens. Christian ideas support and nurture this virtue and should, therefore, always be permitted within the marketplace of ideas.

Professor William Wagner teaches Ethics and Constitutional Law at the Cooley Law School. Before joining academia, he served as a federal judge in the United States Courts.

To view the EHRC response to the GEO Consultation which endorses the harassment provision in the Directive (which CCFON and CLC oppose), click here.

Please see the CCFON and CLC main response to the GEO consultation on the EU Equal Treatment Directive by clicking here.

Please also see the CCFON and CLC Appendix to our Main Response to the GEO with commentary on the EHRC response to the GEO consultation by clicking here.

Irish Pro-Life Crisis Pregnancy Centers under Attack by Health Minister

By Hilary White

DUBLIN, July 31, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ireland’s health minister and the government-sponsored abortion referral service she helped to create have attacked pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, despite the country’s constitutional guarantee of legal protection for the unborn. Calling the pro-life groups “disingenuous,” the Crisis Pregnancy Agency (CPA) accused them of manipulating vulnerable pregnant women into making a decision against abortion.

The CPA, the brainchild of Health Minister Mary Harney, said it is “launching a campaign” against the “rogue” pro-life agencies which it accuses of a “bias” against abortion in favor of life and motherhood. At the same time, CPA sponsors several of the country’s leading abortionist organizations and openly refers women for abortions overseas, including to the Irish Family Planning Association, an affiliate of Planned Parenthood International.

“The agency is aware of the existence of organizations that provide services which can involve a hidden agenda and who attempt to manipulate the decision a woman might make. The agency is strongly encouraging women to use services that provide high-quality counseling,” said Katharine Bulbulia, chairman of the agency.

Mary Harney called efforts to convince women not to abort their children “quite appalling.” She said, “The traits common to these organizations are that they misrepresent their services, they try to delay the appointment, they expose these women to highly upsetting images of late-term abortions or they may give misinformation about health issues. Some have even breached client confidentiality by phoning members of the women’s families.”

But Pat Buckley, the Dublin-based European affairs officer for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, told LifeSiteNews.com that he is appalled that pro-life counseling services have been denounced and attacked by the government of an officially pro-life country. The Eighth Amendment of Ireland’s constitution says “The state acknowledges the right to life of the unborn, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.”

Despite the constitution’s right-to-life clause, Harney set up the CPA that says it aims to reduce the number of crisis pregnancies by, in part, providing “contraceptive services” and facilitating referrals for women to abortion facilities in the UK. Buckley confirmed that Mary Harney has been “very supportive” of the idea that “women’s rights” must include the “right to abortion.”

“In my opinion,” he said, “it is improper for a government minister to be acting contrary to the Irish constitution.”

Buckley called Harney’s statements “outrageous” saying, “She should retract, and if she’s not prepared to retract she should resign.”

Buckley said that when Harney was setting up the CPA, the pro-life group Human Life International (HLI) had written asking for a meeting, but this was never granted. HLI also formally objected to being excluded from the planning and funding of CPA.

“Unless there is some other agenda at work,” he said, “why is the Irish government doing this?”

The CPA announced the launching of a tax-funded outdoor advertising campaign, featuring an image of a woman being controlled like a puppet and the caption “Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated. Certain crisis pregnancy counselling information services want to influence your decision.”

According to CPA’s website “Positive Options”, only those services that quickly refer a woman to a pro-abortion agency for “medical services” are “trustworthy” and “non-judgemental.” The “rogue” agencies, it warns, will show “inappropriate images, videos or DVDs as part of a counselling session, which are designed to influence a woman’s decision.”

Although Harney and CPA declined to mention names, it is likely they were aiming at groups not directly funded and controlled by CPA, such as Abbey Women’s Centre Dublin and Ask Majella Pregnancy Advisory Services. These advertise in the Dublin telephone directory under the category of “pregnancy testing and counseling.” Life Pregnancy Care Service and Cura, the crisis pregnancy service run by the Irish Catholic bishops, are both funded and recognized as legitimate by CPA and also advertise under the same category.

Also advertising under that category, but omitting any wording revealing their strongly pro-abortion position, are CPA-approved Positive Options Crisis Pregnancy Services, Dublin Well Woman and the Irish Family Planning Association, which not only refers women for abortions overseas but is Ireland’s leading pro-abortion political lobby group, pressing for the removal of the constitutional clause protecting the unborn.

CPA’s pro-abortion bias was revealed in 2004 when Cura came under heavy criticism when it agreed to distribute pamphlets produced by the CPA that gave information referring women to overseas abortion facilities.

A group of Cura volunteers was dismissed in May 2005 when they refused to distribute the pamphlets and went public with their complaint in the Irish Catholic newspaper. The three volunteers, Phil Murray, Mary Kelly and Ann Farren, later received an apology from the CPA and were reinstated. The bishops later conceded that the volunteers had been right and began lengthy negotiations with CPA for the withdrawal of pro-abortion “Positive Options” material from all CURA centers.

George Pitcher is Religion Editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph. He was ordained priest in the Church of England in 2006 and is Associate Priest at St Bride’s, Fleet Street, in London – the “journalists’ church”.

The Christian Institute

Children are this week attending the UK’s first atheist summer camp, set up to rival traditional camps led by the Scouts and Christian organisations.

The organisers of Camp Quest UK claim that children attending are encouraged to “think for themselves and to evaluate the world critically”, but critics have accused the camp of bashing religion.

The five day camp, attended by 24 children aged eight to 17, is being held in Somerset. Besides outdoor activities, children are taught about evolution, philosophy, and ‘pseudoscience’.

Campers are also offered a prize if they can disprove the existence of ‘unicorns’ they have been told inhabit the camp.

Because these unicorns cannot be seen or touched, and their presence is only recorded in an ancient book, Camp Quest’s critics say they are an unsubtle metaphor for God.

Camp Quest is intended to cater “specifically for irreligious children or the children of nontheistic parents” and “all those who embrace a naturalistic rather than supernatural world view”.

The Camp Quest motto is “It’s Beyond belief” and its website says it offers “a godless alternative to traditional religious summer camps, such as vacation Bible schools”.

Camp director Samantha Stein said: “There is very little that attacks religion, we are not a rival to religious camps. We exist as a secular alternative open to children from parents of all faiths and none.”

She added: “We are not trying to bash religion, but it encourages people to believe in a lot of things for which there is no evidence.”

Camp Quest was founded in America in 1996 by atheist lawyer Edwin Kagin. Miss Stein was inspired to launch the UK version when she read about it in Professor Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion.

Prof Dawkins’ Foundation for Reason and Science is listed on the Camp Quest website as an organisation supporter, together with the British Humanist Association.

Simon Calvert of The Christian Institute said: “One of the problems that parents will have with these camps is that the organisations behind them have a quite particular agenda about undermining religion, not just in the minds of children, but also in the public square.”

A spokesman for the Church of England said: “We would defend the right for anyone to set up an event like this, as long as the young people are happy to attend”.

“But in his imitation of the type of youth events that religious groups have been running for years, Dawkins makes atheism look even more like the thing he is rallying against.”

Religious Intelligence

By: Paul Richardson.

For the time being the hardliners appear to have won in Iran but it is likely to prove a hollow victory. Forces have been unleashed that could prove fatal not just to the Islamic Republic but to political extremism of a religious nature elsewhere in the Muslim world.

There are reasons for caution in coming to a final verdict. As Newsweek columnist, Fareed Zakaria, has pointed out, the revolutions which toppled communism in Eastern Europe were inspired by the three most important forces in the modern world: democracy, nationalism, and religion. Only democracy worked clearly against the regime in Teheran. The hardliners could play the nationalist card when they accused the British Embassy and the BBC of being behind the disturbances.

But the religious factor is complicated. An important strand of opinion is moving against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even though most Iranians may well remain devout Muslims. There are cracks in the governing religious establishment and signs that popular opinion has shifted against rule by Mullahs.

Outsiders forget how radical Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolution was. His idea that Iran should be guided by a supreme leader (velayat-efaqih) who would ensure that laws were always in conformity with the teaching of Islam gave clergy a veto over the democratic process. Many Shi’ite clerics do not consider this to be in accordance with the traditions of their religion. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani takes this view, fearing that Islam will be discredited if it is closely involved in politics. Sistani has refused to meet Ahmadinejad and under his influence Iraq is providing the Shi’ite world with an alternative model to the Iranian system of clerical control, not the outcome expected by opponents of the Iraq War who warned it would propel Baghdad into Tehran’s sphere of influence.

Doubts are spreading amongst Iranian clerics who have hitherto accepted the system put in place by Khomeini. The Association of Teachers and Researchers of the holy city of Qom has called the disputed election into question and labelled the new government illegitimate. Experts have labelled this the most historic crack in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic. In their statement the clerics criticised the Guardian Council for failing to study complaints of vote rigging. Another group, the Society of Scholars of Qom, congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election after initially refusing to do so.

Discontent in Iran is being fuelled by economic problems. In some ways, the protests against the election can be seen as a response to the crisis in the global economy. There may well be more such protests in other countries where governments fail to command popular respect. Although oil prices have been rising, recession has combined with sanctions to reduce demand. Iran’s oil and gas revenues look set to fall to $33 billion this year from a high of $82 billion in 2007. The country is running a deficit, unemployment is high, and inflation has reached 20 per cent. The Iranian economy is not predicted to grow in 2009 or 2010.

No wonder the students and the middle class of Tehran are discontented. They are suffering under restrictions and curbs on their personal freedom issued by a theocratic regime that has proved incompetent at managing the economy. Ahmadinejad may appeal to a section of the masses when he attacks corruption and elitism but he appears a fool to educated citizens when he denies the Holocaust or tells the UN General Assembly he senses the hidden imam expected by devout Shi’ites may soon be going to appear.

Most Iranians probably do remain devout Muslims but I have been struck by how many exiles in the West are turning to Christianity, probably in disillusion with the course Islam has taken in their own country. When the number of dissidents within the ruling establishment at Qom and elsewhere is added to those who have rejected Islam altogether (if only in secret) and to those who take Sistani’s view about the relationship between faith and politics, it probably adds up to a sizeable total who are opposed to the current regime on religious as well as economic grounds.

The consequences of what is happening in Iran are likely to be profound for the whole Muslim world. Although radical Shi’ites and al-Qaeda hate each other, the rise of radical Islam in Teheran and the 1979 revolution did much to encourage religious extremism throughout the Middle East. The sight of the regime hanging on to power by shooting demonstrators in the streets has undermined its legitimacy. Already elections held over the past two years in Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kuwait and Lebanon have seen extremist religious parties lose votes.

In each case, local factors were important but it is impossible to dismiss a general trend which points to diminished support for radical Islam. The Egyptian intellectual, Saad Ibrahim has even said he hopes to see Islamist parties evolve into ‘Muslim democratic parties akin to the Christian Democrats in Europe’.

Faced by such a development the West needs to be careful. We cannot accept an Iranian bomb or the abuse of our diplomatic staff but we must not by our interference give the Mullahs a chance to beat the nationalist drum.

Religious Intelligence

Friday, 31st July 2009. 3:56pm

By: George Conger.

US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has decried the press coverage of the 76th General Convention, writing to the Episcopal Church the media has misinterpreted the key votes of the Convention in search of scintillating headlines.

However, the ACNA’s Archbishop Robert Duncan has claimed the votes to repudiate the communion’s moratoria on gay bishops and blessings and Bishop Jeffert Schori’s statement that it was heretical to believe “that we can be saved as individuals,” was further evidence of the Episcopal Church’s moral collapse.

In a letter dated July 22, Bishop Jefferts Schori lauded the legislative accomplishments of the July 8-17 General Convention in Anaheim, California. She noted the reduced national budget recognized the difficult “economic realities of many dioceses and church endowments” but stated the church “will continue to serve God’s mission.” “Times of leanness,” the presiding bishop noted “are opportunities for strengthened faith and creativity.”

At General Convention, the Episcopal Church “deepened our commitments to mission and ministry” through its commitment to the Millennium Development Goals; initiated a domestic poverty programme for Indian reservations; updated the church’s disciplinary canons; adopted national health plan and lay pension plan; and updated the liturgical calendar.

However, what “captured the headlines” were the votes on resolutions D025 and C056. The “consequences” of these votes had been “misinterpreted or exaggerated,” she said, urging Episcopalians to “read them for yourself.”

“Some” had “insisted that these resolutions repudiate our relationships with other members of the Anglican Communion,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said. However she believed “we have been very clear that we value our relationships within and around the Communion, and seek to deepen them. My sense as well is that we cannot do that without being honest about who and where we are.”

For Archbishop Duncan, General Convention “blessed the values and behaviours of a re-defined Christianity,” that enabled a “revisionist” Christian anthropology, “budgeting litigation rather than evangelism, and confusing received understandings of Scriptural truth, not least concerning the necessity of individual salvation in Christ Jesus.”

General Convention clearly showed that “there is a choice to be made,” he said on July 21.

“The choice is between two religions, two roads, two cities, two sets of conflicting values and behaviors,” Archbishop Duncan said. In Deuteronomy, Moses “sets the choice as between blessing and curse, life and death.”

“For contemporary Anglicanism the present choice is this stark,” Archbishop Duncan said, urging Episcopalians to choose life.

Quaker news release 31-07-09

Quakers consider committed relationships

The minute recording their decision is as follows:

Minute 25 Britain Yearly Meeting 31 July 2009

Further to minute 17, a session was held on Tuesday afternoon at which speakers shared personal experiences of the celebration and recognition of their committed relationships. These Friends had felt upheld by their meetings in these relationships but regretted that whereas there was a clear, visible path to celebration and recognition for opposite sex couples, the options available for couples of the same sex were not clear and could vary widely between meetings. Friends who feel theirs to be an ordinary and private rather than an exotic and public relationship have had to be visible pioneers to get their relationship acknowledged and recorded.

This open sharing of personal experience has moved us and added to our clear sense that, 22 years after the prospect was first raised at Meeting for Sufferings we are being led to treat same sex committed relationships in the same way as opposite sex marriages, reaffirming our central insight that marriage is the Lord’s work and we are but witnesses. The question of legal recognition by the state is secondary.

We therefore ask Meeting for Sufferings to take steps to put this leading into practice and to arrange for a draft revision of the relevant sections of Quaker faith and practice, so that same sex marriages can be prepared, celebrated, witnessed, recorded and reported to the state, as opposite sex marriages are. We also ask Meeting for Sufferings to engage with our governments to seek a change in the relevant laws so that same sex marriages notified in this way can be recognised as legally valid, without further process, in the same way as opposite sex marriages celebrated in our meetings. We will not at this time require our registering officers to act contrary to the law, but understand that the law does not preclude them from playing a central role in the celebration and recording of same sex marriages.

We have heard dissenting voices during the threshing process which has led to us this decision, and we have been reminded of the need for tenderness to those who are not with us who will find this change difficult. We also need to remember, including in our revision of Quaker faith and practice, those Friends who live singly, whether or not by choice.

We will need to explain our decision to other Christian bodies, other faith communities, and, indeed to other Yearly Meetings, and pray for a continuing loving dialogue, even with those who might disagree strongly with what we affirm as our discernment of God’s will for us at this time.

Following the decision, Martin Ward, clerk of Quakers Yearly Meeting said: “This minute is the result of a long period of consultation and what we call “threshing” in our local meetings, culminating in two gathered sessions of our Yearly Meeting. At these sessions, according to practice, we heard ministry arising out of silent worship which led us to discern the will of God for the Religious Society and record it in this minute.”

If you have stumbled onto this blog and are not a Christian, get yourself a hot drink, pull up a comfy chair and then tuck into the following article written by one of the best in the business:- All Of Grace by Charles Spurgeon