Make it a Fairtrade Fortnight on Twitter; Watch Les Miserables to learn of God’s grace and redemption; Ethical investment policy on GMOs adopted; Media review
Make it a Fairtrade Fortnight on Twitter
A Birmingham curate is launching a twitter campaign to encourage churchgoers to “snap up” fairtrade items being sold in their area and share on twitter during Fairtrade Fortnight.
The Rev David Edgerton, @knowlecurate, has been trying a different fairtrade chocolate bar every day throughout Lent. He is using the Fortnight to tweet about his local fairtrade discoveries and is encouraging others to do the same using the hashtag #fairtradefortnight
“I’ve been working in partnership with local shops to encourage them to offer a wider choice of Fairtrade products. If we all started tweeting during Fairtrade fortnight when we spotted fairtrade goods, this would encourage more goods on the shelves.”
David is also running an awareness evening at Knowle parish church with speakers from Cadbury, based in the diocese, explaining why the company support fairtrade and what it means in practice.
Fairtrade Fortnight initiatives will be held across the CofE’s 16,000 churches and 44 dioceses.
The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said:’I’m proud to be supporting this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight to plead with the government to do more for small hold farmers. I’m delighted to be sending my paper avatar to join thousands of others for Fairtrade’s march on Parliament during Fairtrade Fortnight.’
Other events
St Paul’s Cathedral in London is marking the Fortnight with a display of a model of the Cathedral made from Faitrade products and packaging, on display at the West end of the building.
Exeter diocese is launching Heavenly Recipes an ebook of fairtrade recipes from Devon using locally produced food to celebrate the Fortnight.
Manchester diocese is hosting its first Sustainability Exhibition with a range of of stalls, seminars, networking and ideas to mark the Fortnight while Oxford diocese has a dedicated fairtrade section on its website with a parish pledge form and easy to follow instructions on becoming a fairtrade church.
The Bishop of Burnley and Acting Bishop of Blackburn, Rt Revd John Goddard, is calling on Lancashire to support The Real Easter Egg campaign for 2013 and help change a life to mark Fairtrade fortnight.
Watch Les Miserables to learn of God’s grace and redemption
Watching three times Academy Award-winner Les Miserables is an ideal way to learn of God’s grace, redemption and mercy, says the priest-in-charge of St Mary the Virgin, Ewelme, in Oxfordshire, where one of the film’s most important scenes was filmed.
The Revd Jonathan Meyer, who is running a Lent course based on the film’s powerful themes, said: “It was almost a year ago that I was approached and asked about filming part of Les Miserables in the church at Ewelme. Filming took place on March 21st towards the end of Lent. Permission had to be granted by the Diocese and it was the nature of the film the Victor Hugo’s powerful narrative that attracted me and made me feel it would be highly appropriate in the days leading up to Passion Sunday. It is perhaps the most significant part of the story that was to be represented at Ewelme. The south porch was transformed into the residence of the Bishop of Digne. The convict Jean Valjean emerges from that very door, singing the words ‘and now let the story begin’. We saw this on a crisp March day repeated over and over again with numerous cameras, film crews, lights, gantries and a churchyard full of sound technicians lurking in temporary shelters. On screen we saw the contorted face of Valjean rushing forward and the camera showing us our church digitised on to a promontory in Provence. What we saw was transformed, just as the story itself is about transformation.
“Most important to me was the knowledge that this is the nub of the film. The Bishop’s act of kindness like the grace of God is poured out, in such a way that Valjean’s life is transformed and transforms others.
“We have been inspired to run our Lent meetings on Les Miserables reflecting on different characters: The Bishop of Digne, Jean Valjean, Cosette and Fantine, played by award-winner Anne Hathaway, and of course Javert. There is so much richness, themes of grace and redemption and how that can be truly gained, themes of social justice and the overarching and apparent conflict between the justice and mercy of God. I await with interest to find out whether people feel that Javert is irredeemable or bound to be damned.
“Here is a tale that tells of the great challenges of life, that speaks of God, infinite and personal, that encourages us to ponder on our lives and to wonder how to offer ourselves in the way that Jean Valjean does. And much of the media would have us believe that such thoughts are meaningless in the modern world.”
The Church House Publishing Confirmation course Moving Images, Changing Lives uses popular films to engage young people creatively with the themes and ideas associated with Confirmation and discipleship. It focuses on suggested clips from more than 30 films, including Star Wars: A New Hope, Bruce Almighty, The Matrix, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and The Passion of the Christ. For more details, visit http://www.chpublishing.co.uk/product.asp?id=2396569.
Ethical investment policy on GMOs adopted
The Church of England national investing bodies will actively use their position as investors to encourage a precautionary approach to genetic modification (GM), having adopted an updated and more detailed ethical investment policy on genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The policy, on the advice of the Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG), allows for investment in companies developing and marketing GMOs where there is satisfactory assurance on, and confidence in, ethical standards. Agricultural land and timberland will have to pass GM due diligence tests to be included in investments. The conduct of GM field trials on land owned by the national investing bodies would be inconsistent with the policy.
James Featherby, Chair of the EIAG, said: “There is no single Christian perspective on genetic modification. The EIAG recognises the potential benefits of responsibly conducted GM such as pest resistance, vitamin supply, and improved resilience to drought, frost and saline conditions.
“We are also conscious that genetic modification represents a paradigm shift in plant and animal breeding and that there remain uncertainties about the effects of the application of the technology.
“The EIAG concluded that it is important that the investment practice of the national investing bodies should be consistent with a careful and precautionary approach to genetic modification.”
The policy sets down detailed guidelines on how the investing bodies should judge whether a company developing and marketing GMOs is operating in an ethically appropriate and duly precautionary way.
It also sets out detailed guidelines for decision-making on exposure to GMOs through agricultural land and timberland.
The Church Commissioners are significant landowners in the UK. However, the European Union and its member states continue to take a restrictive approach to genetic modification, and there is no commercial planting of genetically modified crops in the UK.
In 2000, the EIAG advised the Commissioners (and other Church landowners, such as dioceses) against approving GM trials on their farmland. The updated policy announced today advises that the cultivation of GM crops on land owned by the national investing bodies should be restricted to ‘well established GMOs that are broadly accepted in the country concerned’.
MEDIA REVIEW
Daily Mail p33
News report “Is marriage now just a middle class institution” with quote from www.yourchurchwedding.org
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283727/Less-half-working-class-people-wed-marriage-rates-rise-high-income-earners.html
Tel p2, I p2 &18, Ind p6, Times p11 Reports that the chairman of David Cameron’s local Conservative association has resigned in protest at his support of same-sex marriage.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9891007/Local-chairman-in-David-Camerons-constituency-resigns-over-gay-marriage-plans.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/head-of-camerons-local-tory-branch-resigns-over-gay-marriage-8508661.html
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3698425.ece
Mail p12 Reports that Lord Ashcroft has stopped funding the Conservative party over same-sex marriage bill. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283926/Lord-Ashcroft-Drops-support-Tories-David-Camerons-gay-marriage-obsession.html
Times p12, Mail online Reports that nine family descendants of Richard III have ‘demanded’ that his remains should be reburied in York.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283982/Richard-IIIs-ancestors-demand-York-burial-Nine-descendants-oppose-plans-bury-Leicester-Cathedral-year.html
Times p13, Sun p18, I p6, Tel p8, Exp p15, Guard p1, FT p4, Ind p12, Mail p20, Mirror p6, Metro p5 Reports of ‘inappropriate act’ allegations against Cardinal Keith O’Brien.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283536/Britains-Catholic-cleric-accused-inappropriate-acts-FOUR-priests-just-days-helps-choose-new-Pope.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/24/pope-office-received-cardinal-allegations
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/vatican-to-investigate-top-catholic-cleric-obrien-over-inappropriate-acts-8508637.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4810967/Scandal-hit-Cardinal-Keith-OBrien-should-be-allowed-to-help-choose-the-next-Pope.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1a40f122-7e9d-11e2-9080-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2LtmOX8GZ
Times p13, Guard p9, Sun p18, Tel p8, Exp p15, I p6, Ind p12, Mirror p6, Metro p5 Reports of the Pope final Sunday blessing of the crowds in St Peter’s Square, Rome.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/24/benedict-xvi-flock-humble-pope
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9890760/Pope-Benedict-XVI-delivers-final-Angelus-blessing-in-St.-Peters-Square.html
Tel p18 Commentary (Damien Thompson): “Are married priests a recipe for salvation?” http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100204046/the-next-pope-must-think-seriously-about-married-priests-because-the-celibacy-rule-isnt-working/
Ind p17 Commentary (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown): “How did modern Islam become so intolerant?” http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/how-did-modern-islam-become-so-intolerant-8508732.html
3. Top Weekend Stories
Sunday
Sunday Telegraph p16
News report “Christian group challenges ban on gay poster campaign” with ref to London bus advert and ban by Mayor of London
Mail on Sunday p29 (scroll down) Peter Hitchens on “Try solving some real problems, Archbishop” with ref to new Archbishop of Canterbury http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2283568/PETER-HITCHENS-Only-Left-wingers-think-killing-maiming-giggle.html
Observer p1 News report “UK’s top cardinal accused of ‘inappropriate acts’ by priests” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/cardinal-keith-o-brien-accused-inappropriate
Independent on Sunday p18
News report “Priests claim cardinal was ‘inappropriate’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/priests-claim-cardinal-was-inappropriate-8508378.html
Sunday Times p.3 News report “Top cardinal accused of ‘inappropriate acts’ by priests” Plus BBC online http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21565750
Sun, p.16 News report “Vatican hits out at claims Pope quit over explosive dossier on gay sex scandal” http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4809410/Vatican-denies-gay-sex-scandal-behind-Popes-retirement.html#ixzz2LoqaC0l0
Sunday Times p27 News report “Italian cardinals plot to fix papal vote” http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/world_news/article1220054.ece
Observer p6 News report “The difficult path to papal conclave as Rome prepares for a new era” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/23/papal-conclave-vatican-controversy
Saturday
Guardian p45 Giles Fraser on “the pope’s resignation has finally revealed that the papacy is simply a job, an office” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2013/feb/22/popes-resignation-revealed-papacy-simply-job
Times p78 Credo: Jonathan Sacks on “Without Go we tend to start worshipping ourselves” http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/article3696670.ece
Various news reports on calls to let Roman Catholic priests marry Telegraph p1, Daily Mail p12, Independent p32, Times p29, Guardian p12,Mirror p20, Sun p4
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9889115/New-Pope-should-allow-priests-to-marry-says-Cardinal-OBrien.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priests-should-be-allowed-to-marry-and-have-sex-says-britains-top-catholic-8507564.html?origin=internalSearch
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283200/Keith-O-Brien-Let-priests-wed-says-UKs-senior-Catholic-overturn-centuries-tradition.html
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article3697280.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/22/marriage-ban-priest-pope-cardinal?INTCMP=SRCH
Independent p20 News report “Friday prayers shut down after Islamic students refuse vetting of sermons” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/muslim-students-take-legal-advice-after-city-university-shuts-down-friday-prayer-meeting-8507166.html?origin=internalSearch
Daily Telegraph p.29, Sacred Mysteries: Christopher Howse on “Why we won’t get a bearded pope” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9889139/Why-we-wont-get-a-bearded-pope.html
Times p36 News report “Who’ll be next? Men of the cloth size up” http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/faith/article3696935.ece