News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Nichols welcomes May
Cardinal Vincent Nichols welcomed the announcement that Theresa May was due to become Prime Minister. The two have worked closely together on anti-trafficking initiatives, and Mrs May attended the first meeting of the Santa Marta Group, an anti-slavery collaboration between police chiefs and church leaders, at the Vatican in 2014. In his letter the cardinal praised Mrs May’s “maturity of judgement, steely resolve, sense of justice and the personal integrity and warmth you have always shown”. He assured her of his prayers.

Confirmation classes and church-run youth groups are to be exempt from anti-terrorist legislation that would have forced them to register with their local councils. The move comes after an intervention by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who met with ministers to convince them that church groups should not be caught up in the legislation. Under the draft proposals “out of school” organisations that cared for children for more than six hours a week would have had to register with councils and could be subject to on the spot inspections. This proposal has been dropped.

At the Church of England’s General Synod in York, which ran from Friday 8 July to Tuesday 12 July, members held private discussions about same-sex relationships over the course of two days. Some conservatives were understood to have boycotted the closed talks. Meanwhile Archbishop Welby rejected calls for a second Brexit referendum. Revd Paul Hutchinson appealed for the wording of an official motion before Synod to be changed so that the Church was “mindful of” the result instead of recognising it. His request was rejected and the motion passed.

Krakow bound
More than 3,000 Catholics from Great Britain are preparing to visit Poland for World Youth Day (WYD) later this month. The festival that celebrates Catholic young people from around the globe will be held this year from 25 to 31 July in Krakow. Pope Francis arrives in Poland on Wednesday 27 July, and he joins the pilgrims on Thursday, when he will deliver his welcome address.

The theme of this year’s festival is “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). Fr Christopher Jamison, World Youth Day co-ordinator, said vocations are an important part of the week. He said one quarter of seminarians studying for the priesthood cite WYD as a seminal part of their journey to confirming their vocation. Fr Jamison also said it was a good way for young Catholics to meet their future spouses.

One thousand bishops are expected including Cardinal Nichols and 17 other bishops from England and Wales. Organisers predict that 1.5 million pilgrims will attend the Mass with the Pope on 31 July.

Vision for schools
The Church of England’s Vision for Education was revealed at General Synod, with the unveiling of plans to open another 125 schools over the next five years. The Anglican lead bishop for education, Stephen Conway, the Bishop of Ely, said the plans would provide “radically new approaches” to how the Church functioned as a movement for education. The 125 schools are to be opened under the Government’s free schools programme. Currently the Church of England runs 10 free schools. The Catholic Church has been reluctant to start new free schools, a type of academy, because government rules say only half of students can be selected on the basis of faith.

Egan on the exhortation
The Bishop of Portsmouth, Philip Egan, has announced plans to “review pastoral practice” in his diocese following the publication of Pope Francis’ exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia. He said that despite controversy over the document’s stance on Communion for divorced and remarried people, Pope Francis “does not change Church discipline”. In a pastoral letter read out in churches on Sunday, entitled “Getting Married”, Bishop Egan explained that he had asked his schools department to review what the curriculum said about what constituted a valid marriage. He added that, after consultation, anyone resident in the diocese who wanted to get married should give their priest a minimum of 12 months’ notice. “This diocesan norm makes clear the desire of the Christian community to assist couples from the earliest opportunity,” he said. This allowed for a fuller marriage preparation course.

The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle has been accredited as a Living Wage employer, which means that everyone employed by the diocese will be paid more than the minimum wage (£7.20 per hour), regardless of whether they are full-time employees or third-party contractors. The Living Wage is an hourly rate calculated according to the basic cost of living using the “Minimum Income Standard” for the UK. Séamus Cunningham, the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, said the commitment was part of the diocese’s efforts to embody Catholic Social Teaching.

Walsingham pilgrims
Thousands of parishioners from Westminster Diocese have joined Cardinal Vincent Nichols on the first diocesan pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, in Norfolk, in 30 years. The pilgrims travelled with an image of the Black Madonna of Willesden, which had never previously left London. According to the cardinal, the last time the statue of Our Lady of Willesden was united with the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was in 1538 when they were burned in a bonfire in the garden of the house of St Thomas More.

Bible Society drops trade show
The Bible Society has announced it will no longer manage the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) after its next show in October. The CRE, a trade show for churches and charities, attracts thousands of people and has run for 30 years. The decision to drop the CRE was taken as part of a re-evaluation of Bible Society’s global strategy.  

St Mary’s University in Twickenham has entered into a formal partnership with Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. The two universities will collaborate on academic programmes, have a joint School for International Relations and run exchange programmes. Collaboration includes an academic partnership with Sichuan International Studies University (SISU), in Chongqing.

A joint Masters programme in pedagogy run by SISU and St Mary’s will see Chinese Maths graduates visit London to teach Mandarin in schools.