Parents campaign to protect children from sex on TV; LGCM annual meeting; Beethoven hymn discovered; Swansea and Brecon Anglicans focus on safeguarding; Women bishops: a new website; Benefits encourage problem families, says Iain Duncan Smith; Banana farmer joins Church campaign for fair trade; Church of Scientology launches marriage rights bid
Parents campaign to protect children from sex on TV
Parents are being urged to protest against unsuitable pre-watershed programmes in a campaign launched in Wales this week.
They are being asked to send bilingual postcards to the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom to complain about sexualised content and swearing on television and radio programmes that young children watch or listen to.
The campaign is being led by the Welsh branch of the Mothers’ Union and the launch will take place at the Senedd, the National Assembly for Wales. It is part of the Mothers’ Union’s UK-wide campaign called Bye Buy Childhood.
Sheila Jones, a social policy officer for the charity, said, “Having gone around Wales talking to people about the Bye Buy Childhood campaign, we met lots of people who were appalled at the amount of material on television before 9pm which they felt was inappropriate for children. They were unhappy with suggestive moves and songs in staged dances, for example, the dress code of some young presenters and the amount of bad language. Many of them were people who would not naturally turn go online to voice their concerns so we thought a bilingual postcard they could fill in would be the most effective way for them to protest.”
More than 10,000 postcards will be distributed to members of the Mothers’ Union in Wales to start the campaign
LGCM annual meeting
The annual meeting of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement takes place in London today,Saturday 27 October.
The keynote speaker is Ekklesia co-director Simon Barrow, who will give a talk on ‘Redeeming Christianity from the Margins’.
The word ‘mission’ is threatening and off-putting for many pushed to the margins of church and society. Simon Barrow explores competing understandings of “going into all the world” for Christians in the C21st. He argues that imperial religion is destroying the authentic basis of Christlike community, and that effective Christian engagement with a plural and changing world is impossible without the witness of those a deformed “church of power” has wrongly learned to exclude.
Simon is co-director of the religion and society think-tank Ekklesia. He has been a supporter of LGCM for nearly 30 years. He was previously assistant general secretary and global mission secretary of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). His books include Christian Mission in Western Society (2001) and Fear or freedom? Why a warring church must change (2008).
http://www.lgcm.org.uk/2012/10/2012-annual-conference-keynote-speaker-and-workshops/
Beethoven hymn discovered
A professor at the University of Manchester has discovered a Beethoven arrangement for an old hymn.
His version of Pange Lingua was noticed by Professor Barry Cooper written inside a sketchbook.
It is believed to have been written by Beethoven around 1820, according to the BBC, but Prof Cooper was the first to recognise its significance as a previously unknown work by the composer.
“I was very surprised when I found this – I didn’t think he’d written anything like this,” Prof Cooper said.
He speculated that it may have been played at the 1820 ceremony in which Beethoven’s patron, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, became Archbishop of Olmutz.
It may have been overlooked until now because “it just looked like a series of notes”, he said, according to the BBC.
He added: “He never composed any functional music at all – the only liturgical music he wrote was for the two great masses.
“So to find him writing simple functional music for an ordinary church service is extraordinary.”
Swansea and Brecon Anglicans focus on safeguarding
The Diocese of Swansea and Brecon held a safeguarding conference to support clergy and church people working with children and vulnerable adults.
The conference at Brecon Cathedral this week provided information and practical advice on child and elder abuse, domestic violence, e-safety, and sham and forced marriages.
There was a presentation from the Powys youth movement ‘Eat Carrots and be Safe from Elephants’. A drama called ‘Masks’ presented by the youth of the Diocese touched on internet bullying, domestic abuse and life in homes where the consumption of alcohol and illegal drugs is a problem. Dr Gill Todd, Chair of the Diocesan Safeguarding Committee said: “Church members come into regular contact with children and vulnerable adults through church activities, work with schools and youth organisations, and through work with families across the diocese which stretches from Rhossili on the Gower peninsula diagonally across Wales to Beguildy in Powys.
“This conference is demonstrating that the Church is taking very seriously the pastoral care which its churches offer and provide through their contact with people with specific needs”.
The conference was opened by the Bishop of Swansea and Brecon, the Right Reverend John Davies, who said, “The Church needs to address all the difficult issues which exist in society and to do everything possible keep everyone safe and sound.”
Women bishops: a new website
Contributors to this site include members of General Synod, and Anglicans from around the Church of England, who are united in their desire to hold together both those in favour and those opposed to the ordination and consecration of women.
The organisers state: “On this website we will be posting a number of papers, links and comments about the Draft Bishops and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure which is due to be debated by the General Synod of the Church of England on 20 November 2012.
“We will show that the Measure as it stands is not fit for purpose, because of its unjust treatment of significant minorities within the Church of England. It must be stopped before it damages the Church irreparably, and replaced with a new, fairer Measure which enables us all to go forward together.”
http://fairmeasure2012.wordpress.com/
Benefits encourage problem families, says Iain Duncan Smith
Telegraph – The welfare system is “promoting destructive behaviour” by encouraging poorer families to have more children and denying them the incentive to get a job, the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith will warn.
Iain Duncan Smith will say that the current payment of benefits is supporting “dysfunctional behaviour” and that for some families “the notion of taking a job is a mug’s game”.
In his first major speech since publicly agreeing to draw up another £10 billion of benefits savings, the Work and Pensions Secretary will insist that the system must return to the principles of William Beveridge, the founder of the modern welfare state.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9631820/Benefits-encourage-problem-families-says-Iain-Duncan-Smith.html#
Banana farmer joins Church campaign for fair trade
A banana farmer from Cameroon visited a farm in Usk at Harvest time to promote the use of Fair Trade products in Welsh churches.
Trade Unionist Mbide Charles Kude met farming parishioners at a mixed farm and then join them for a home-cooked lunch made with local produce.
The Church in Wales is working towards Fair Trade Province status which means 70% of its churches committing themselves to using Fair Trade tea, coffee and other products where they can and to learning more about fair trade issues.
Revd Carol Wardman, Bishops’ adviser for Church and Society, invited Mbide to the farm to meet local farmers and discuss fair practices during his visit to Wales, which was organised by Fair Trade Wales.
Mrs Wardman said, “It’s particularly good that Mbide’s visit took place during the time when many churches were celebrating their harvest festivals, and thinking about where their food comes from, and what is fair treatment for farmers, producers, and consumers – at home and abroad.
“There is very little likelihood of competition between imported Fair Trade items like tea, coffee, chocolate, or bananas, and home-grown meat, vegetables and dairy produce – and I am sure farmers from different parts of the world will nonetheless have much in common and many interesting ideas to share.”
Mbide is Deputy Secretary of the Fako Agricultural Workers Union (FAWU), and was visiting the UK as part of the Europe-wide Make Fruit Fair campaign. He was calling on supermarkets and fruit companies to accept responsibility for, and to improve, the conditions facing workers on banana plantations in the South West province of Cameroon.
Church of Scientology launches marriage rights bid
Telegraph – Outside court, their solicitor, Paul Hewitt, said: “At present, members of the church are not allowed to marry in accordance with their religion in England and Wales and have their marriage given legal recognition, even though they are currently …
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9631211/Church-of-Scientology-launches-marriage-rights-bid.html