The Joint Public Issues Team – a partnership between the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church – has welcomed an initiative to give more than 400,000 frontline workers Coronation medals “to recognise their important work”. Writing on social media on 6 May, the group said: “God, we thank you that this vital work, which so often goes unrecognised, is being celebrated this weekend.”
Made of nickel silver, the medal has the royal cypher and the date of the Coronation on one side, with images of King Charles and the Queen Consort on the other. Its accompanying ribbon has red, white and blue vertical stripes.
Recipients include police, ambulance workers, choristers and military personnel working at the Coronation. It will also be given to emergency service workers, St John Ambulance personnel, prison staff and members of the armed forces with more than five years of full service. Living recipients of the George Cross or Victoria Cross will receive the medal.
The first Coronation medal was awarded to mark the accession to the English throne of James I in 1603. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said the medal is a gift from the nation to commemorate the Coronation for the people who made the service happen.
Christian Aid suggested the King could mark his Coronation by helping Commonwealth countries address the climate crisis. A report published by the charity on 1 May referred to the King’s 2023 Commonwealth Day Message where he said, “the Commonwealth can play an indispensable role in the most pressing issues of our time” and “ours is an association not just of shared values, but of common purpose and joint action.”
The 25-page report, with a foreword by Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, examines the impact that climate change will have on the GDP of Commonwealth nations over the coming decades.
If the Commonwealth is going to live up to its claim to be “a family”, says Christian Aid, then the rich polluting members, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and UK need to reduce their emissions, which are causing climate misery in many parts of the Commonwealth, and contribute to the Loss and Damage Fund agreed at COP27 to financially support the most vulnerable communities.
Caritas Westminster appealed for long-term solutions for those sleeping rough or in poor housing ahead of the Coronation, saying that “as the country comes together to celebrate the Coronation of our new monarch, so we can come together to demand that those in authority do more to ensure everyone has a decent home”.
At a time when homelessness in the UK has reached record levels, the agency urged authorities “to work closely with homeless services to ensure that those experiencing street homelessness are not simply asked to move on, as part of a ‘clean-up’”.
Caritas Westminster recommended that they are instead provided with longer term support to help them to move off the streets, as happened with the “Everyone-In” campaign during the pandemic.
The funeral of the Bishop Emeritus of Plymouth, Christopher Budd, took place on 5 May at Buckfast Abbey. The celebrants included Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark and Bishop Budd's successor in Plymouth, Archbishop Mark O'Toole of Cardiff.
Bishop Budd died on 1 April, aged 85. Mgr John Allen, a close friend who gave the homily at his funeral, spoke of Bishop Budd's love of family, his concern to support the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, his dedication to the training and care of priests, his friendships with fellow Christians in Cornwall and his commitment to social concern and outreach.
He was a former Director of the Catholic Agency for Social Concern. Cafod in Plymouth said it was “moved” that it was chosen as Bishop Budd's charity for in memory donations, adding that his support for Cafod’s work “was truly inspirational.”
Catholic education still has a “vital” place in the Irish educational system and will continue to serve the needs of those who wish for a Catholic education for their children, Archbishop Dermot Farrell has said.
The Archbishop of Dublin said the recent pilot reconfiguration process demonstrated a continuing demand for Catholic education in many communities in the midst of plurality.
He and other Catholic patrons were committed to working with the Department of Education to address the needs of an increasingly pluralistic society, he said, speaking at the 200th anniversary of the establishment in 1823 of Loreto Primary School in Rathfarnham, Dublin by Mother Teresa Ball of the Loreto Sisters, eight years before the act establishing primary education in Ireland.
St Mary’s Church in Manchester, an elaborate Victorian church known as the “Hidden Gem”, has received grants worth £36,000 to fund urgent roof repairs.
The Grade II* listed city-centre church, which opened in 1848, blends Norman, Gothic and Byzantine design and houses a celebrated modern set of Stations of the Cross by the artist Norman Adams, commissioned with advice from Sr Wendy Beckett.
The funding from the National Churches Trust and the Wolfson Foundation will address water ingress which threatens the fabric of the building. A spokesperson for the parish said: “This funding will allow us to make vital repairs to our listed church, safeguarding it, and the precious Norman Adam artworks within, for future generations.”
One of the challenges facing the Church in Ireland at the moment is the future of ordained ministry, Bishop Kevin Doran has said.
Noting the hundreds of boys and girls in the Diocese of Elphin waiting to celebrate their first Holy Communion, he asked, “Who will celebrate Mass for them when they come back to be married, or when they bring their own children for first Holy Communion?” He added: “We are in the middle of a massive cultural shift in Western Europe.”
Separately, Archbishop Eamon Martin on Sunday at an ordination in Armagh Cathedral appealed to school leavers to consider priesthood or religious life.
Local councillors have voted to put the four Catholic schools of Pembrokeshire forwards for federation after long-term problems with recruitment led to vacancies at several schools not being filled.
The Diocese of Menevia is understood to be in support of the measures, which follow a six-month period of two schools, St Francis Catholic School in Milford Haven and Holy Name Catholic School in Fishguard, sharing one headteacher. Mary Immaculate Catholic School in Haverfordwest and St Teilo’s Catholic School in Tenby make up the other schools of the proposed federation.
The council said the four schools would retain their separate identity under the new plans, which are not, one councillor emphasised, “an amalgamation, a takeover, or a route to school closure”.
Despite Ireland's economic, social, multi-religious and multicultural development, more is needed to ensure fair and equitable access to education, housing and medical care, Bishop Niall Coll has said.
The Bishop of Ossory was speaking at the annual state commemoration ceremony for the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.
He said the scaled back twenty-fifth celebrations to mark the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 were testimony to the “agony and the ecstasy” of relationships on the island of Ireland and between Ireland and Britain in the century since the Rising.
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