Big business turns to the Church in attempt to repair its reputation; C of E Revamps Church Care Website; Press review – Occupy Wall Street anniversary; Gay couple sue; London church suspends professional choir
Big business turns to the Church in attempt to repair its reputation
London Evening Standard – Company chiefs will today turn to the Church in a bid to repair business’s reputation following the financial crisis.
Bosses from firms including Tesco and Vodafone were joining the Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to discuss ways to put moral principles at the heart of business behaviour.
The move to focus on the good that big business can do in society has also won the support of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks.
It comes after a series of scandals involving banks, including the attempted manipulation of the Libor borrowing rate. About 200 other executives, from companies including Unilever, BAE Systems and Centrica, were joining today’s conference.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph’s website today Archbishop Nichols, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said churches could help companies because they have “no political agenda”. He said: “We have detected a tendency for business people to feel they need to adopt a different set of values in business from those which they apply in the rest of their lives.”
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/big-business-turns-to-the-church-in-attempt-to-repair-its-reputation-8152547.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/533a750c-00a3-11e2-8197-00144feabdc0.html#axzz26nsodHbf
C of E Revamps Church Care Website
England’s 16,000 parishes have an improved website to call on to help maintain their buildings, the central hub of information for everyone managing a church building, has received a ‘make over’ by the Church of England.
The redesign was supported by the financial and professional help of specialist church and heritage insurer Ecclesiastical. The refreshed site now includes easier navigation, enhanced functionality and increased content and resources for anyone responsible for the upkeep of church buildings.
Janet Gough, Director of the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, Archbishops’ Council says, “ChurchCare is the principal source of information and resource for all those caring for the Church of England’s 16,000 parish churches and 42 cathedrals, 12,500 of which are listed of special architectural or historic interest.”
“The site is a one-stop-shop for guidance, news, campaign information and examples of best practice. It also is home for “Shrinking the Footprint”, the Church’s environmental campaign, which aims to reduce the Church’s carbon footprint by 80% by 2050.”
John Coates, Church Insurance Director at Ecclesiastical, commented, “Ecclesiastical has been protecting churches and church communities since 1887. This year, in our 125th Anniversary year, we wanted to extend the support we give to the Church beyond what we normally do and help create an easy-to-use sustainable knowledge hub for church buildings’ managers.
“The not-for-profit organisations we work with tell us that it’s no longer only financial support that they need, but also more practical hands-on help. So, in addition to funding the redevelopment of the website, our web development and digital marketing experts also offered professional advice and guidance during the project. I believe this teamwork has led to the creation of an excellent website, which will serve the Church community extremely well in the years to come.”
The site is managed entirely in-house by the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division at Church House, Westminster. This means that is can respond quickly to new developments.
Rolled out in May 2012, the new ChurchCare website will be officially launched at the Diocesan Advisory Committee Conference in Hull on 25-26 September. The site has already seen a marked increase in visitor numbers. More than 15,000 people visited it the site between 1 June and 31 July an increase of 150% compared to spring 2012.
www.churchcare.co.uk
Press review
Reports and commentary on the first anniversary of the Occupy protest on Wall Street. City AM p14, Guard (G2) p5, BBC News online
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19630700
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/17/occupy-year-old-critics-wrong
Reports of the court case in which a gay couple are suing the owner of a B&B hotel for refusing them a room, “because it offended the owner’s religious views”. Tel p5, Mail p21, Sun p24, Guard online, BBC News Online
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/17/gay-couple-sue-bed-breakfast?newsfeed=true
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/17/gay-couple-sue-bed-breakfast?newsfeed=true
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19626936
Reports that parishioners at a catholic church in London are “boycotting” the church after the priest “suspended its professional choir” – Evening Standard