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| The excessive sedation of dying patients should be avoided because it denies them the opportunity of a “good death”, said a draft document issued by the Catholic bishops of England and Wales. The document – A Practical Guide to the Spiritual Care of the Dying Person- said it was wrong to render patients in the last days of their lives either unconscious or semi-conscious if it is not necessary for “effective symptom relief”. “This could deprive people of the opportunity to make a good death, setting things right as much as they can, making peace and saying their goodbyes,” said the 29-page document designed to guide healthcare professionals and hospital chaplains. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Universe – February 14th 2010-02-25 |
| Global warming is the new faith of the Church of England, a Tory MEP declared last week. Writing in the Leicester Mercury on Nov 16, East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer stated the “Church of England seems to have abandoned religious faith entirely and taken up the new religion of climate alarmism instead.” Former Anglican priest GP Taylor, that “many bishops spend more time preaching about climate change than preaching a gospel of salvation” and that the Church of England had become the “spiritual arm of New Labour.” The Bishop of Leicester told the Independent he was “surprised and saddened” by Mr Helmer’s remarks. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Church of England Newspaper – 27th November 2009 |
| Assisted suicide must never be deemed to be acceptable or commendable, but sometimes those involved should not be prosecuted, the Church has said in its response to the Director of Public Prosecutions’ Consultation. Kier Starmer QC issued his interim policy on assisted suicide in September, and invited the public to respond before finalising the policy on which factors would be involved when deciding whether people involved in assisting another to commit suicide should be prosecuted. The Church responded: “We recognise that some people will believe that they may best express genuine compassion by assisting a loved one to commit suicide. As we have stated, we do not agree that compassion is best expressed in this way but neither do we believe that prosecution is appropriate in all cases. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Church of England Newspaper – 27th November 2009 |
| Catholic leaders in Scandinavia have condemned a vote by the Lutheran Church in Sweden to begin conducting gay ‘weddings’ six months after homosexual marriages became legal in the country. “This decision expresses a vision of marriage radically different from how it is conceived by the Church and Christianity,” the Swedish Catholic Church’s ecumenical officer, Fr Fredrick Emanuelson, Said in a joint statement with the Orthodox Church’s spokesman, Fr Misha Jaksic. “It represents a swing not only away from Christian tradition, but also from ideas about the nature of marriage which are common to all religions.” Meanwhile, the Lutheran bishop of Stockholm, Eva Brunne, who lives in a lesbian partnership, said local parishes would have lost congregation members if gay ‘weddings’ had been rejected. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Universe – November 1st 2009 |
| The Church must do much more to promote the dignity of women and ensure they are given their rightful place within its own ranks and in society at large, according to several bishops at the African synod meeting in the Vatican until October 25. “At least 50 per cent of the already marginalised population know as women is systematically excluded from any meaningful development,” the Archbishop of Lusaka Telesphore, George Mpundum, told the synod. “Unless there is equality and justice between men and women, development remains only a pipedream, simply a dangerous mirage,” the Zambian archbishop stated. In Zambia, “women are too often the victims of abuse, domestic violence sometimes leading to death, discriminatory cultural or customary practices, and statutory laws clearly biased against them,” he said. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Universe – October 18th 2009 |
| Islamic law has been officially adopted in Britain. The Times reported in September. The Government has quietly sanctioned power for judges of Shari’ a law to rule on cases ranging from financial disputes to domestic violence and divorce. Rulings of Muslim courts in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester, with headquarters in Nuneaton, can be enforced by county courts or the High Court. Further courts are planned for Scotland. Concerns have been raised that there will be paralegal legal systems. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | Evangelicals Now – November 2009 |
| The Times reported of the Pope’s comments during his first visit to the Czech Republic. The pontiff warned that societies risk potential problems if they decide to exclude God. He said: ‘History has demonstrated the absurdities to which man descends when he excludes God from the horizon of his choices and actions.’ He added that technical progress was not enough to ‘guarantee the moral welfare of society’. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The War Cry - 10 October 2009 |
| More students are signing up to Christian Unions on arriving at university than in previous years, according to the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF). | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Church of England - 9 October 2009 |
| The majority of people in Britain want to keep Christ in Christmas, a poll has shown. A survey of more than 1,000 adults, published by Theos, found that 84% of those interviewed disagreed with the statement that ‘Christmas should be re-named to reflect our multi-cultural society’. Some 85% agreed that ‘Christmas should be called Christmas because we are still a Christian country’. Commenting on the results of the poll, Nick Spencer, Director of Studies at Theos, said: “The results of this research underline what most people instinctively know. There remains enormous and genuine affection for both the Christian affection for both the Christian festival of Christmas and the values underpinning it.” | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Church of England - 9 October 2009 |
| The World Council of Churches in September called on Pakistan to repeal the mandatory death penalty for blasphemy in the country’s penal code. The WCC’s governing body, which met in Geneva from August 26 to September 2, issued a statement on September 1 urging Pakistan to ‘guarantee the rights of all religious minorities in the country’. The church council said the law has become a ‘major source of victimisation and persecution’ of religious minorities. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | Evangelicals Now - October 2009 |
| A human rights group is fighting an Islamic council after the council issued a fatwa (Islamic edict) declaring that building a church is ‘a sin against God’, it was reported at the beginning of September. According to the Egyptian Union Human Rights Organisation President Dr. Naguib Gabraeel, the controversy began after his group found a troubling passage in a Cairo University textbook. The passage, dealing with inheritance and execution of wills, said: ‘It is forbidden for a person to donate money for what would lead to sin, such as donating in his will money towards building a church, a nightclub, a gambling casino…’. When asked, the Fatwa Council upheld the passage, even though it contradicts Egypt’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | Evangelicals Now - October 2009 |
| A top Italian hospital has agreed to allow a ‘chaplain’ from the local Union of Atheists and Agnostic-Rationalists to enter its wards and offer comfort to sick and dying patients. “I intend above all to listen, since no-one has ready-made answers to life’s great questions,” the 38-year-old volunteer told the Corriere della Sera daily. “From a legal point of view, non-confessional moral care can be compared to spiritual care, which is what I’ve been trained for.” | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Universe - 27 September 2009 |
| Catholics are “filled with joy” at the prospect of the first official papal visit to the UK. The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, said he was “encouraged and pleased” at the news pontiff Benedict XVI was set to accept a number of government invitations. Downing Street would not officially confirm reports of a visit next year. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Sentinel - 24 September 2009 |
| Religion could have the answer to climate change after all, a distinguished scientist has said. Lord May, president of the British Science Association (BSA), said that evolutionary theory suggested that the concept of a ‘supernatural punisher’ had kept society civilized and helped hold it together in the past. Speaking just before the BSA’s annual conference, Lord May – a devout atheist – said religion could possibly fill that gap again. “Given that punishment is a useful mechanism, how much more effective it would be if you invested that power not in an individual you don’t like, but in an all-seeing, all-powerful deity that control the world,” he said. The scientist, who is a zoologist at Oxford University, added: “It makes for rigid, doctrinaire societies, but it tends to bind them.” This solution would be, “immensely stabilising in individual human cultures and societies, but unusually resistant to change,” he pointed out. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Church of England - 11 September 2009 |
| Supernatural belief is perfectly natural, a University of Bristol scientist has found, in new research that is being seized upon as a scientific riposte to Richard Dawkins. Professor Bruce Hood gave a talk on his new book Supersense: The brain science of belief, on Wednesday at the British Science Festival. He said: “The new idea is that the human mind spontaneously assumes the presence of hidden mechanisms, forces, energies and identifies patterns that are apparent rather than real. This begins early in development so I am arguing that the propensity to generate and accept supernatural beliefs is natural”. | |
| Religion/Spirituality | The Church of England - 11 September 2009 |
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