Church Army pays tribute to wife of murdered church organist
Church Army has praised the wife of murdered church organist Alan Greaves following the trial of Ashley Foster at Sheffield Crown Court.
Foster, 22, was cleared of murder but found guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Greaves, who died after being attacked with a pick axe on his way to midnight mass at St Saviour’s Church, in High Green, Sheffield last Christmas Eve.
Jonathan Bowling, also 22, earlier admitted murdering Mr Greaves. Both men are to be sentenced on Friday.
Mr Greaves’ wife, Maureen, is a Church Army Evangelist at St Saviours and has worked for Church Army since 2008.
Church Army Chief Executive, Mark Russell, said: “All of us here at Church Army have been shocked and devastated since finding out about Alan’s murder on Christmas Eve.
“However, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Maureen, who over the past months has shown such enormous courage and faith through a really dreadful time. She has been an inspiration to the whole world and everyone at Church Army loves her and is so proud of her.
“It has been a privilege to be with her and support her during the trial. I’d also like to thank South Yorkshire Police for the way they’ve helped Maureen through this complicated legal process.”
Christians commit to anti-radicalism initiatives among black youths
Christian agencies and church leaders have committed to working together on strategies to address the number of young black Christians being radicalised after conversion to Islam.
A seminar organised by Churches Together in England heard that a significant number of young black people are abandoning the Christian faith in favour of Islam and that some converts are being radicalised.
Richard Reddie, author of Black Muslims in Britain, said the journey from Christianity to Islam among British blacks was an expression of their search for an identity and certitude that they have not been able to find within “eurocentric Christianity”, including black-majority churches.
The seminar was attended by around 70 people, including Muslims. They heard that converts to Islam tend to be more zealous and that the number of converts was growing.
“Time is not on the Christian church’s side,” said Reddie.
The Reverend Ade Omooba, co-chair of the National Church Leaders Forum, said the recent murder in Woolwich of Drummer Lee Rigby was symptomatic of people being radicalised and losing respect for life.
He said the starting point for the church’s work with young black people had to be seeing them primarily as human beings, not as good or bad, Christian or Muslim. He encouraged the church to see “God in everyone”.
The seminar heard that prisons were becoming a key recruiting ground for radicalisation. Dr R David Muir, fellow co-chair of the National Church Leaders Forum, criticised the “mass incarceration” of black people in the UK, as he warned that five times as many black people as white people were in prison.
Mr Muir told of one prison he visited where half of the black prisoners were from church backgrounds, with 12% coming from the families of Christian pastors.
“What has been going wrong?” he asked.
Taalib Alexander, a convert to Islam from Roman Catholicism, said groups of Muslims were now meeting in homes beyond the mainstream mosque networks.
He said a particular experience, friendship or trauma could be a “trigger” for radicalisation, and that social and ideological factors could be reinterpreted as theological justification for terror attacks, although he added that this was only within a very small minority of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims.
He described a three-stage process to radicalisation, from dissatisfaction to renunciation and terrorism.
The Methodist Church’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisor, Jennifer Crook, said there should be zero tolerance towards the “blasphemy” of racism in British churches, which she said alienates black youths and makes them vulnerable to radicalisation. Churches could also do more to shelter people from socio-economic and political storms, she suggested. The seminar heard how churches are already running projects and courses to promote mutual respect and tolerance, counter propaganda, and help young people understand and embrace their cultural and spiritual identity.
Churches were also encouraged to see conversion to Islam not as a disaster but as a challenge, and ensure Christian ministers and lay people were trained in explaining their faith well.
Recommendations from participants included encouraging more inter-faith dialogue and putting pressure on government and educational authorities to ensure an inclusive and affirming curriculum.
Government condemned after shelving plans on minimum alcohol pricing
The Government has broken its pledge to introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol. The Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, the Salvation Army and Quaker Action on Alcohol & Drugs are deeply disappointed that the Government has abandoned this vital policy.
Jeremy Browne, the Minister for Crime Prevention, has said minimum unit pricing will remain ‘under consideration’. But his claim that there is not enough ‘concrete evidence’ to implement it flies in the face of five years of medical research.
There were over 1.2 million alcohol-related hospital admissions in 2011-12 in England, and the cost to the NHS was £3.5 billion. The total bill to the taxpayer caused by alcohol misuse, including crime and lost productivity, is currently £21 billion.
Research has shown that the main driver of problem drinking in the United Kingdom is the increased availability of cheap, strong alcohol. A minimum unit price of 50p could save around 3,000 lives a year. Critics have expressed concerns that a minimum price would penalise ordinary drinkers, but on current prices it would cost moderate drinkers 28p a week, with substantial benefits to public health and reduced burdens on frontline services.
The Government has also refused to legislate on multibuy sales, which encourage irresponsible selling and consumption of alcohol. Instead it has reverted to its 2011 commitment to ban the below-cost sale of alcohol, defined as duty + VAT. Jeremy Browne has said that under these rules a can of lager cannot be sold for less than 40p. Other prices for common drinks include a can of cider for 21p, a bottle of wine for £2.40 and a litre of vodka for £12.70. But hardly any alcohol is this cheap at retail, so a ban on below-cost sales is unnecessary, and the limit far too low to make a real difference. This back down follows several years of prevarication by successive Governments, which has resulted in a weak and inconsistent alcohol strategy.
James North, Policy Advisor for the Methodist Church, said: “The Government’s failure to introduce minimum unit pricing for alcohol will cost lives. As Churches we are deeply concerned at the effect of alcohol misuse on problem drinkers, families and communities. With nearly 9000 deaths directly related to alcohol in 2011, this is no time for inaction. We look forward to the Government rectifying this decision and putting public health back at the top of its agenda.”
Churches will continue to work alongside medical experts and health charities to campaign for minimum unit pricing as part of a range of measures aiming to address problem drinking in the UK.
Alcohol deaths ‘up’ in young women
BBC News – Deaths from alcohol-related disease in women born in the 1970s are rising, contrary to the overall trend, a study suggests.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23358078
Cathedral details Richard III tomb
BBC News – Richard III will be laid to rest beneath a raised tomb inside a remodelled Leicester Cathedral as part of a £1m commemoration.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23355604