Bishop of Liverpool challenges ‘unfair’ government cuts; Bishop of Carlisle: Care crisis hinders disabled contributing to society; Churches encouraged to offer placements to young people; The corruption of a generation; Housing costs cause stress and depression for millions, says charity
Bishop of Liverpool challenges ‘unfair’ government cuts
Ekklesia – The Anglican Bishop of Liverpool is asking the government to review and re-examine the criteria upon which their current public spending cuts are based.
Speaking at a summit he hosted alongside the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, the Rt Rev James Jones said: “We do best as a society when we provide for others out of our sense of humanity what we provide for our families out of a sense of affection.”
Leaving little doubt about his personal concern for the way the most vulnerable appear to be suffering most under the weight of austerity and cutbacks, Bishop Jones, who has been high profile in the struggle of the Hillsborough families for justice, warned that some of Britain’s major cities risk “atrophy and death” as a result of present policies.
In his keynote address to a summit which include political and faith leaders from Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Sheffield, the bishop spoke out of a pastoral concern for the city citing the stories that are coming from our churches’ experience at the front line of social welfare.
Speaking on BBC radio on Saturday 19 January 2013, Bishop Jones declared: “When society goes through difficult stages and experiences trauma there is a need for a sort of social triage which involves the pastor, the prophet and the politician. Pastors must come alongside and hear the cry, prophets must speak clearly about their diagnosis and politicians must prescribe solutions. Society needs all three.”
He added that “faith communities through our different sacred texts have an acute sense of justice,” and said that “out of their pastoral experience often speak prophetically about the need to share fairly the wealth we have”.
Bishop Jones commented that some of the poorest areas in the country were having to sustain cuts that “do not feel fair” to those on the receiving end and those working with the most marginalised.
He said: “The cities here represented today know that it is within their boundaries that the severest cuts are being endured with figures of £200 to £300 being cut per person. This compares with other parts of the country where the cuts are a third of these being sustained in some of the most challenging areas.”
More at:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17830
Bishop of Carlisle: Care crisis hinders disabled contributing to society
“The social care system is failing to meet the needs of disabled people of working age,” says the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Revd James Newcome, in support of the report The Other Care Crisis, published this week by Scope, Mencap, The National Autistic Society, Sense and Leonard Cheshire Disability – available online at http://www.scope.org.uk/sites/default/files/The_Other_Care_Crisis.pdf.
The Bishop said: “The report The Other Care Crisis published by five disability charities demonstrates how the social care system is failing to meet the needs of disabled people of working age. To date much of the debate on social care has centred on older people and the needs of an ageing population. But one-third of those who need care and support are under the age of 65, and the report shows how their lives have been affected by the care crisis. Without support, disabled people find themselves unable to wash, dress, leave their house or communicate with others. This can leave them unable to work, study and contribute to society. Any solution to the current crisis must address their needs as well.”
Churches encouraged to offer placements to young people
An initiative of the Methodist Church is helping young people gain vital life and work experience.
The One Programme is a paid year out for young people between the ages of 16 and 23. Participants are paid to work 15 hours a week, with nine hours in a local project and six hours for training and other Connexional work.
One of last year’s participants, Matt Parker brought a fresh perspective to Hart Foodbank, run by Fleet Methodist Church, where he was one of the few young volunteers within a team of mainly over-fifties.
Churches and youth leaders are being encouraged to support young people by offering them a placement through the programme.
Hayley Moss, Methodist Youth President, said: “The One Programme is an excellent opportunity both for the young people and the projects hosting them.
“Young people get stuck in to an exciting local project and participate in an excellent training programme alongside other young people from across the UK. Churches benefit from having an enthusiastic, dedicated young person involved in their work. I loved my year on The One Programme.
“I think it is a fantastic, challenging, worthwhile experience both for young people and their host projects. Everybody wins.”
The corruption of a generation
by Steve Biddulph, – In a major Daily Mail series, a renowned psychologist argues that our daughters are facing an unprecedented crisis… sexualisation from primary school age.
These days, there’s a new grumble among women who ply the so-called oldest profession in the world. Their clients, they say, are finding it increasingly hard to identify them. Why? Because ordinary 17-year-old girls are dressing just like prostitutes.
The streetwalkers aren’t the only ones complaining, of course. Many middle-class parents watch with horror as their little darlings succumb to today’s hyper-sexualised culture, with its sinister diktats on how ordinary teenagers should look and behave.
Sexualisation — the forcing of a sexual identity onto a child — was a term originally applied in cases of child sex abuse. Today, it’s a problem that’s seen in every primary school, and few girls escape it.
At one end of the spectrum, it means dressing in the wildly inappropriate clothes of streetwalkers.
At the other, it means girls having sex with numerous boys while still at school — not because they want to, but because they feel that they should.
Consider the alarming result of a large-scale survey of teenage girls, first undertaken in 2002 and repeated in 2008. Researchers found that the percentage of girls who had sex with multiple partners had doubled in six years. Doubled!
Housing costs cause stress and depression for millions, says charity
A new YouGov survey from the housing and homelessness charity Shelter has revealed the emotional strain faced by millions of families as they struggle to meet their housing costs.
According to the research:
– almost one in three adults (equivalent to 15 million people) say housing costs are causing stress and depression in their family
- one in four (equivalent to 12.2 million people) are kept awake at night by the stress of paying their rent or mortgage
- one in four say housing costs are causing arguments with their partner and other family members.
The findings follow on from Shelter’s research earlier this month, which showed 7.8 million people are constantly struggling to keep up with their rent or mortgage, an increase of 44 per cent from the same time last year.
More at:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/17818