Key Quotes for 2012

Showing page 24 of 25

1... 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Last update: Wednesday 25th March




The live broadcast of a 12-hour night of worship and prayer, which began at the ‘Cave Church’ in Cairo on 11/11/11 helped unify millions of Christians across the Middle East and North Africa at this time of critical change in the Arab world. Up to 70,000 Egyptians participated. SAT-7’s involvement allowed millions to witness the event as it was televised across the region.
Religion/Spirituality	Evangelicals Now, January 2012



A Christian worker at London’s Heathrow airport launched a landmark legal action in November. Nohad Halawi lost her job after she spoke about what she described as the bullying and intimidation of her and other Christians by Muslim colleagues. Despite working at World Duty Free in Heathrow’s Terminal 3 for 13 years, and having many friends among staff of all religions, Nohad Halawi was summarily fired following unsubstantiated complaints by five Muslims that she had insulted them.
Religious Persecution	Evangelicals Now, January 2012



The comedian Jo Brand is backing a new Church of England website to help people to find a Christmas service near them. Services will be listed by many of the CofE’s 16,000 places of worship. Ms Brand said that she was ‘not really a churchy person’ but that services could be ‘a great attraction for families at Christmas-time’.
Church	Salvationist, 17 December 2011



The National Secular Society’s bid to prevent a town council from including prayers at the beginning of its meetings reached the High Court. The NSS argued that the practice of conducting prayers at Bideford Town Council is unlawful because it amounts to indirect discrimination of people with no religion and is incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights. The council’s defence is being supported by the Christian Institute.
Religious Persecution	Salvationist, 17 December 2011



The Royal Family will mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by touring the globe in celebration, Buckingham Palace announced. Senior royals will visit the Queen’s 15 realms, nations where the sovereign is head of state, major Commonwealth countries, and other destinations with close links to the UK next year. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s trip to Malaysia, Singapore, the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu on behalf of the Queen is likely to attract the most interest.
Social Issues	The Sentinel, December 15, 2011



President Barack Obama saluted troops back from Iraq yesterday, applauding their “extraordinary achievement” and declaring the near nine-year conflict was ending “not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home”. Marking the conclusion of the war, at Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina, Mr Obama addressed the troops and their families. All U.S. troops are to be out of Iraq by December 31, although Mr Obama has pledged to continue to help Iraq.
World Issues	The Sentinel, December 15, 2011



The cost of diagnosing and treating cancer patients may rise by two thirds over the next decade, a report has found. Healthcare analysts Laing & Buisson warned cancer survival rates in the UK could fall behind other developed nations because diagnosis and treatment costs are likely to increase from £9.4 billion in 2010 to £15.3 billion by 2021. It will mean the average cost of treating someone diagnosed with cancer will go from £30,000 in 2010 to almost £40,000 in 2021.
Health	The Sentinel, December 12, 2011



‘The dying “must be given religious support”’ was the headline in the Daily Mail over a report on NHS guidelines which state that ‘dying patients should have access to religious or spiritual leaders, including NHS chaplains’. Simon Chapman of the National Council for Palliative Care said: ‘We only get one chance to get it right for people at the end of their lives.’
The Elderly	The War Cry, 10 December 2011



China has become the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy sources, said a senior environmental official on Dec 3 during a forum in Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The nation invested more than 300 billion yuan ($47.3 billion; 35.1 billion euros) in renewable energy sources last year, outranking every other country, said Wang Yuqing, deputy director of the Committee of Population, Resources and Environment of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee. Wang estimated that more than 3 trillion yuan would be poured into industries related to environmental protection from 2011 to 2015.
World Issues	China Daily European Weekly, December 9-15, 2011



The armed forces cannot be “immune” from further spending cuts as the Government pushes through the austerity programme, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond warned. Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Committee, he said the military faced further “very painful decisions” in the wake of Chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement last week. Mr Hammond, who took over at the Ministry of Defence just seven weeks ago, following the resignation of Liam Fox, said the department had to stop operating “hand-to-mouth” and learn to live within its budget.
Politics	The Sentinel, December 8, 2011



Careful reform of the “fiendishly difficult” murder law is needed to help stop a “sense of injustice” over life sentences, the most senior judge in England and Wales has said. The Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge said proposals for a U.S.-style system of first and second degree murder seven years ago were “provocative but very interesting”, but successive governments had failed to act. He stopped short of publicly backing the move, but said the law needed to “keep in step with public opinion.”
The Law	The Sentinel, December 7, 2011



The Government is not doing enough to avoid a repeat of the Southern Cross care homes crisis, an influential group of MPs have warned. Neither Whitehall nor local authorities are monitoring the financial health of providers, and some companies are racking up huge debts, according to the Public Accounts Committee. Southern Cross’s collapse in the summer caused turmoil for more than 30,000 elderly and vulnerable people in the UK.
The Elderly	The Sentinel, December 6, 2011



A new report ‘Legal Aid in welfare: the tool we can’t afford to lose’ by disability charity Scope exposes the serious consequences for disabled people if the Government goes ahead with massive Legal Aid cuts. The report, released last month, was commissioned by the Justice for All coalition of charities, legal and advice agencies, trade unions and community groups follows the route five typical claimants take as they negotiate red tape and bureaucracy with and without legal aid, and how the appeal and tribunal systems fall down when it is not present. It comes at a time when approximately 1.5 million people on Incapacity Benefit are being reassessed in a bid to create a more accurate system. But, by denying 78,000 disabled people access to legal advice each year the charity shows how the Government is set to create a much less efficient and accurate system, says Scope in their report.
The Law	Catholic South West, Dec & Jan 2012



A parliamentary enquiry has begun asking whether Christians are being marginalised in today’s society. It follows a new case where a Christian housing officer was demoted and had his pay cut for questioning gay marriage on his Facebook page. The Inquiry into Religious Discrimination will take evidence in hearings during November, and will produce a report in February next year. It follows a succession of cases where Christians claim to have been censured, or had difficulty in their jobs, for issues related to their faith. Often it is for not wanting to comply with equality legislation on homosexuality, but other problems have been wearing crucifixes in the workplace and expressing views about their faith.
Religious Persecution	Christianity, December 2011



Nearly three quarters of Christians in Britain believe that there is more discrimination against their religion than other faiths, according to a new report. The study into the marginalisation of Christianity found that secularism, Islam and apathy were identified as the greatest threats to the Christian faith. Peter Kerridge, of the Premier Christian Trust said: ‘It seems MPs are finally willing to hear the Christian voice, which is being increasingly marginalised in British public life.’
Religious Persecution	Salvationist, 26 November 2011

Showing page 24 of 25

1... 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25