Most babies outside marriage by 2016; New report calls for a CofE social action unit; Anglicans and Methodists: 10 years of journeying together
Most babies outside marriage by 2016
The majority of babies born in three years’ time will have parents who are not married, official figures suggest.
The proportion of children born out of wedlock rose in 2012 for the 40th consecutive year to 47.5%. By 2016 it is expected to rise to more than 50%.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics go back to 1938 when just 4% of babies had unmarried parents.
One former children’s minister called on the government to tackle family breakdown by supporting marriage.
Tim Loughton told the Daily Telegraph without marriage, people “drift in and out of relationships very easily”.
“In families where parents break up children do less well at school, are more likely to suffer mental health problems and are more likely to have substance abuse problems,” he said.
“The government needs to send a very clear message that it supports marriage. That’s why married tax breaks are so important.”
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23265810
New report calls for a C of E social action unit
ResPublica – Local government and churches should work together to fight deep-seated poverty and social dysfunction, urges a new report from ResPublica.
Holistic Mission: Social Action and the Church of England reveals that the Church drives social action, and calls for the Government to recognise and harness this power for the common good.
Launching on Wednesday 10th July in Lambeth Palace, with keynote remarks from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Justin Welby and the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd MP, the report will demonstrate that the Church has a truly unique place in English society, and is the key to unlocking a revolution in both voluntary and statutory public service provision. The report argues that we need new institutions for the 21st century, and that the Church is well-placed to become one.
Drawing on new survey data, specifically commissioned for this research, the report reveals the following about the social action of the Church:
• The Church promotes social action: 79% of Anglican congregations formally volunteer compared with only 49% of the general public. 90% of church congregations informally volunteer compared to 54% of the general public.
• The Church is hyper-local: 90% of Anglican volunteers are participating in social action within 2 miles of their home – and 88% travel under 2 miles to attend church.
• Belief drives volunteering, but volunteers don’t proselytise: 61% of Anglican volunteers strongly agreed they were motivated by their faith – but 88% are comfortable helping those with different beliefs or values.
• But the Church can’t do it alone: 89% of volunteers agreed that their work was needed to compensate for poor government services.
The report argues that the Church is not simply a source of willing volunteers, but also a vital motor of social cohesion and social action. Local churches have access to people on a direct human level and are connected to communities at a level more local and more personal than most government service providers. The report demonstrates that the beliefs of the church are central to its success in this and that the gigantic potential of the church must not be seen as independent from its foundational ethos.
Phillip Blond, Director of ResPublica, said: “Institutions are crucial to brokering the future of a country. Without both enabling and mediating institutions that leverage people into education, skills and shared prosperity, a nation cannot progress.
“This report argues the Church has the potential, the experience and the capacity to become one of the foundational enabling and mediating institutions that the country so desperately needs. The Church is a unique institution with enormous reservoirs of good will, education and capacity. As the established Church, it can broker in not just itself but all the other faiths and beliefs that constitute the nation and the moral vision of the country in the establishment of a renewed common good.”
Based on these powerful revelations about the Church’s role in civil society the report makes a series of powerful recommendations for both Church and Government:
• The Cabinet Office should create a Unit to help involve the church in public service delivery, and to help explore alternative models of delivery.
• The Cabinet Office should bring forward a new White Paper to investigate a holistic and personalised vision of public service.
• The Church should set up a Social Action Unit to co-ordinate social action across dioceses and between Church and government.
• This Social Action Unit should in turn oversee the creation of diocesan Social Action Teams to work with community groups and local government to tackle local problems and deliver services.
• The Church Commissioners, Church of England Pensions Board and CCLA should set aside a certain percentage of the returns on their investment to invest in church-based social ventures.
• Local Churches should make use of the ‘community right to buy’ and the Public Services (Social Value) Act to help communities retain and expand their assets.
The report highlights innovative examples of new and expanding church-based social ventures and the emerging social investors taking up the opportunity to create great social impact through them.
Anglicans and Methodists: 10 years of journeying together
It is 10 years this November since the Methodist Church and the Church of England signed a historic covenant formally committing them to exploring greater unity.
To mark the anniversary, two reports will be released in the autumn outlining the progress that has been made on the Anglican-Methodist Covenant in the last decade.
The Joint Implementation Commission (JIC) for the Anglican Methodist Covenant will publish its report with the working title ‘The Challenge of the Covenant’ electronically in September for anyone to read and respond.
A draft of a shorter report will consider the next steps for the two Churches in moving closer together in unity and mission. This report will also be released in September but with a more limited circulation.
Responses will be made to the reports by the Church of England House of Bishops, the Methodist Council and other bodies within the two Churches.
The Church bodies have until January 2014 to make their submissions after which a revised report will be brought to the Methodist Conference and the Church of England General Synod for consideration later in the year.
Professor Peter Howdle, Co-Chair of the JIC, said: “Bishop Christopher Cocksworth, my Anglican Co- Chair, and I are very pleased to offer the two reports which will be published this autumn.
“They are the result of a lot of reflection and discussion by the members of the JIC and provide much thoughtful material for our two churches, and our ecumenical partners, as we seek to discern the way towards the greater unity of our churches.
“The reports will ask some challenging questions of our churches about how they need to change and adapt for the unity and mission of the Church. I look forward to the feedback and debates next year in the Conference and the General Synod as our two churches respond and explore the next steps in our pilgrimage together.”
Leaders of both Churches have expressed their support for continuing the journey, with the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams speaking of his desire to see the Anglican and Methodist communities grow much closer together, and the former President of the Methodist Conference, the Reverend David Gamble, suggesting in 2010 that the two Churches explore how they can respond jointly to the challenges of the 21st century.
In an address to the Church of England’s General Synod in February 2010, Gamble went as far as to say Methodists were “prepared to be changed and even to cease having a separate existence as a Church if that will serve the needs of the Kingdom”.
A Pastoral Letter to Methodists the month before his address stated: “We have voted consistently over the years for unity schemes that are designed to increase the whole Church’s effectiveness in mission.
“This is not a death wish, but a desire to be obedient and a willingness to be transformed. We can countenance ceasing to exist as a separate Church because we know that we will still be the Methodist people within a wider Church.
“(This) will require not just us but other churches to be prepared to move forward together and to leave some things behind in the process for the sake of the Kingdom.
“So it is not a question of Methodists being submerged or absorbed in the Church of England or any of our other partners. It is not a matter of Methodists returning to the Anglican fold, but of seeing whether together we are prepared to become a ‘new fold’.”