Civil rights group responds to UK Home Office ‘go home’ vans; Blessing for fundraising bikers; New Sydney Archbishop; Zimbabwean women forced to flee homes for refusing to reveal their vote; Chinese house church leader Samuel Lamb dies
Civil rights group responds to UK Home Office ‘go home’ vans
The civil liberties and human rights organisation Liberty responsed to the Home Office’s ‘Go home’ vans by putting its own van on the streets of London this week (6 August 2013).
The Home Office has recently sent vans bearing the slogan “In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest” to several of London’s multi-ethnic boroughs.
Liberty says the message has racist connotations and mirrors National Front slogans from the 1970s.
Blessing for fundraising bikers
Bikers from the North East received a blessing in celebration of their amazing fundraising efforts. Medwyn Parry and Dougie Bancroft are members of the Triumph Motorcycle club. They received the blessing from the Reverend Canon David Glover, Rector of Holy Trinity Church Washington and Chaplain to the Royal British Legion Washington branch.
More than 50 of their biker friends turned out for the blessing during their quest to visit each of the 51 “Thankful Villages”.
The Thankful Villages are those that were lucky enough to escape without a single fallen resident during World War One, although many of those who returned were physically or emotionally scarred.
Fourteen of the villages are “Double Thankful” because all of the residents who left to fight in the Second World War returned.
The blessing ceremony was held in front of the landmark Angel of the North statue.
The challenge started on 27 July and saw Parry and Bancroft travel some 2,500 miles in nine days.
They aimed to raise £51,000, with the money going to the Royal British Legion. If they surpass their target, the remainder will
The ride is to raise funds for the Royal British Legion – the target figure is £51,000. Anything above that will be divided between the Royal British Legion, the Fire Fighters Charity, and the Aberystwyth & District MAG.
Dougie Bancroft said: “This has been an amazing and very special week, the people we have met and the stories that we have shared has been truly awe inspiring.
“Along the way we have been met by other bikers and members of the general public all keen to support us and to donate to the charities, we have really enjoyed it and it means a lot for the villages that we have visited.
“Assembling here this morning and having a short blessing service underneath this icon Angel of The North was very moving, ‘very emotional’ indeed.”
The Revd Canon David Glover said: “I had never heard of the Thankful Villages before being asked to do this – but it is fantastic that we are able to celebrate the 51 villages that don’t have a physical war memorial in this way.
“As we approach the 100 year celebrations of the start of the First World War next year, it’s fantastic that churches can open themselves up to the wider community, to show the memorials and commemorations to those that fought in that War and others since.
“At Holy Trinity Washington, as with many other churches in the Diocese, we have close links with the Royal British Legion and we hope that we can help them in their efforts to reach out to the community, particularly through schools so the memory of the great sacrifices that were made in the First World War can live on for many generations to come.”
Primate congratulates new Sydney Archbishop
The Anglican Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, has congratulated Dr Glenn Davies on his election as Archbishop of Sydney and assured him of the prayers and support of Australian Anglicans.
The Primate passed on his personal congratulations to Dr Davies during a telephone call last night and by letter today.
Dr Davies will be installed as Sydney’s 12th Anglican Archbishop in St Andrew’s Cathedral on 23 August. Archbishop Aspinall will attend the service.
“I’ve known Glenn for many years,” Archbishop Aspinall said. “I am sure I join the leaders of Australia’s other Anglican dioceses in welcoming Glenn, in praying for his leadership and in offering any practical help we can as he assumes these new responsibilities.
“Glenn is a well known and regarded contributor to the life of the national Church, having served on both the General Synod Standing Committee and the national Doctrine Commission for many years. He has demonstrated a commitment to listen, discuss and reflect upon issues that are sometimes painful and difficult, and to do so in a conciliatory way while holding on to his personal convictions. I see that as a hopeful sign for the future.
“Those skills, underpinned by personal friendships, will be needed in the future, not just in Glenn but in all who hold senior positions in the Anglican Church.
“That some 3.6 million Australians call themselves Anglican places upon all Anglican leaders a heavy burden and obligation.”
Zimbabwean women forced to flee homes for refusing to reveal their vote
Women political activists in rural Zimbabwe have told Amnesty International they have been threatened with violence and forced to flee with their children for refusing to reveal their vote to supporters of Robert Mugabe’s party during harmonised elections.
The women said they resisted instructions from Zanu-PF supporters to feign illiteracy, blindness or physical injury, which would have meant someone else marking the ballot on their behalf.
Chinese house church leader Samuel Lamb dies
One of the most well-known Christian leaders in China, Pastor Samuel Lamb, died on 3 August in Guangzhou, aged 88.
He had been arrested during one of the first big waves of persecution in Mao’s China and was first imprisoned from 1955 to 1957, when estimates put the number of Christians in the country at a few million.
Lamb, also translated from the original Chinese as ‘Lam’, was targeted by the government because of his refusal to merge his illegal house church into the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the state-regulated Protestant Church. The Chinese authorities sentenced him a second time in 1958, when he spent 20 years in labour camps.
He saw his wife for the last time during the five months that he was on remand; she died in 1977, a year before Lamb’s sentence ended.
After his release, he again took up his work as a pastor, during which he was able to witness the exponential growth of the Chinese Church.
In 1979 he started his house church in 35 Da Ma Zhan in Guangzhou. Attendance grew quickly and he had to move his congregation to a bigger building in the same city. Today his urban house church is still unregistered, but tolerated by the authorities.
Simultaneously, he became an example for millions of believers in China, where today estimates say there are now about 80 million Christians – some estimates claim one tenth of the population is Christian.
His story of steadfast resolution and determination has also inspired and encouraged millions of Christians outside China; a book about him has been published in America.