Ebola nurse no longer critically ill
Pauline Cafferkey, from Glasgow, was diagnosed with Ebola in December after returning from Sierra Leone. On 4 January it was announced she was in a critical condition. (See last week’s Prayer Alert.) The hospital has now said in a statement that she was ‘showing signs of improvement’. The 39-year-old had volunteered with other UK NHS staff for the charity Save the Children in West Africa. The full statement from the hospital said: ‘The Royal Free Hospital is pleased to announce that Pauline Cafferkey is showing signs of improvement and is no longer critically ill. she remains in isolation as she receives specialist care for the Ebola virus.’ Ms Cafferkey has been treated with experimental drugs and has received blood plasma from another British nurse, Will Pooley, who recovered from an Ebola infection last year.
The paradox of the rapid spread of Christianity in China
In China there are more Christians today than there are members of the 87 million-strong Communist Party. They grow by an average of 10% a year, which means there will be 250 million Christians by around 2030, making China’s Christian population the largest in the world. While in the 1980s the faith grew most quickly in the countryside, in recent years it has been burgeoning in cities. A new breed of educated, urban and socially and economically active Christians has emerged. This rapid growth of the Church is forcing an official re-think on religion. In fact, the Party is even asking Christians for their help.
Benin: Growing tolerance, reduced persecution
The 2015 World Watch List from Open Doors ranks 50 countries where persecution of Christians for religious reasons is most severe. The worst 10 are Muslim nations, yet Christians need to be aware that not all Muslim countries persecute Christians. Take the West African nation of Benin. It's one of 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the body which describes itself as ‘the collective voice of the Muslim world.’ Benin’s president, Boni Yayi, was born into a Muslim family. However, he is now a devout Evangelical Christian. He worships at his local Pentecostal church, where he sometimes also preaches the sermon, and has expressed a desire to ‘evangelise the world’ when his presidential term ends in 2016.
Women keep the faith as majority of men say they do not believe in God
Muslims have the strongest faith in modern Britain while only one in six who identify with Anglicanism or other mainstream protestant churches are convinced of the existence of God. Women are almost two-thirds more likely than men to believe in God, a major study of attitudes among middle-aged Britons has found. Atheism and agnosticism are now the majority creed among the male population but almost two thirds of women believe in Heaven or an afterlife. The findings also suggest that Muslims have by far the strongest faith , with Christians from smaller evangelical churches the only group coming close to the same levels of certainty. By contrast only one in six members of the main Protestant denominations say they believe without doubt in God. Just a third of Roman Catholics in the study said the same compared to 88 per cent of Muslims and 71 per cent of those categorised as evangelical Christians.
Pray for Parliament
2015 celebrates 800 years since the sealing of the Magna Carta, which paved the way for the House of Commons and democracy. This week, 20 January is the 750th anniversary of the birth of our parliament In 2015 sittings in both houses commence with Christian prayers. A well-established parliamentary prayer is as follows:- ‘Lord, the God of righteousness and truth, grant to our Queen and her government, to Members of Parliament and all in positions of responsibility, the guidance of your Spirit. May they never lead the nation wrongly through love of power, desire to please, or unworthy ideals but laying aside all private interests and prejudices keep in mind their responsibility to seek to improve the condition of all mankind; so may your kingdom come and your name be hallowed. Amen.’ In the months leading up to the general election we can use the helpful prayers at
Lord Chief Justice disciplines Christian magistrate
A Christian magistrate has been disciplined by a Tory Cabinet Minister for expressing the belief that children should be raised by both a mother and a father. Richard Page told colleagues behind closed doors during an adoption case that he thought it would be better for a child to be brought up in a traditional family rather than by a gay couple. He was shocked a week later when he found he had been reported to the judges’ watchdog for alleged prejudice and was suspended from sitting on family court cases. Mr Page, an experienced NHS manager, has now been found guilty of serious misconduct by Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling – who previously spoke in support of a Christian couple who turned away a gay couple from their B&B. He has also been ordered to go on an equality course before he is allowed back in the courtroom.
School for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender pupils
A special state school could open its doors in the centre of Manchester to specifically teach LGBT young people who are struggling in mainstream schools. It might also be open to young carers, young parents and those with mental health problems. Amelia Lee, strategic director for LGBT Youth North West, the youth work charity behind the plans, said that bullying of LGBT is incredibly common in schools and causes young people to feel isolated and alienated, which often leads to truanting. A £63,000 feasibility study into the plan is under way thanks to a grant from the Department for Communities and Local Government. The charity has also been involved in discussions with Manchester City Council about how it can provide more alternative education for LGBT children in the area and Ms Lee hoped the school would act as a trailblazer and inspiration for more.
Praying with a Muslim colleague ruined my career, says Christian NHS worker
It was intended, she says, as a simple but heartfelt gesture of comfort and support for a troubled colleague. Victoria Wasteney put her hand on her friend’s knee and, asking if she could pray for her, said simply: ‘God, I trust You will bring peace and You will bring healing.’ So when Miss Wasteney was later suspended by the NHS from her position as a senior occupational health therapist for having prayed with her colleague, she was left openly distraught and angry. East London NHS Foundation Trust suspended her for nine months on full pay, but, on Tuesday Miss Wasteney, who describes openly herself as a 'born-again Christian’, begins a legal challenge against the Trust, claiming it discriminated against her on grounds of religion and that it infringed her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. She says she also wants to challenge what she regards as the stifling of ordinary conversations about faith in the workplace.
Income inequality is the biggest problem in Britain say Archbishops
The Church of England issues a damning judgment of the state of Britain under the Coalition as a country in which the poor are being ‘left behind’ and entire cities ‘cast aside’ In a direct and unapologetically ‘political’ intervention timed for the beginning of the General Election campaign, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, warn politicians against selling a ‘lie’ that economic growth is the answer to Britain’s social problems.They condemn inequality between rich and poor as ‘evil’ and the assumption that the value of communities is in their economic output as a ‘fundamental sin’. Britain, they argue has been ‘dominated by rampant consumerism and individualism,’ while the Christian values of solidarity and selflessness have been supplanted by a new secular creed of ‘every person for themselves’. While London and the South East forge ahead, much of the rest of the country is still ‘trapped in apparently inevitable decline’.
Anti-Semitism across continents last year
In Argentina swastikas were etched on a Jewish community centre, a Jewish cemetery was desecrated while swastikas were painted on Rabbi’s homes, Synagogues and Israeli Cultural buildings. In Australia swastikas were painted on a Central Synagogue. Flyers were placed in mailboxes of Jewish neighbourhoods inviting people to join Squadron 88, a white supremacist group. In Antwerp, Belgium, a rabbi walking to Synagogue was stabbed in the throat and a Belgian doctor refused to treat a Jewish woman. In Brazil swastikas were painted on a Jewish cultural centre In Bulgaria ‘death to Jews’ and a swastika were painted on Sofia’s Synagogue. In Canada obscenities and swastikas were painted on bus shelters, playgrounds, schools and synagogues. In Holland a Holocaust monument was desecrated, an apartment displaying the Jewish flag was firebombed and the country's Chief Rabbi’s home was attacked. In Ireland Mexico, Morocco Russia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and New Zealand Jewish communities are being targeted.