Palm Sunday services last weekend included Bishop Nicholas Hudson joining parish priest Fr Clive Lee and parishioners from St Thomas More's Catholic church at Manor House in a procession to Finsbury Park with a donkey for a blessing of palms before returning to the church for Mass. Holy Week Services scheduled for this week included a Lenten Stations of the Cross Service on Wednesday at Farm Street Church, Central London, due to be sung by the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory. Walks of Witness on Good Friday include an ecumenical one in Birmingham starting at the Church at Carrs Lane and finishing at St Chad's Cathedral.
The Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols has saluted “the courage of the Princess of Wales” on speaking openly about her recent health issues. “Not only does she give encouragement to all who carry the burden of ill health, but she also speaks so movingly of the importance of her family life. Not only does she give encouragement to all who carry the burden of ill health, but she also speaks so movingly of the importance of her family life,” he said, adding that many people will be moved to pray for her and her full recovery, and he will certainly do so himself.
The Diocese of Clifton has undertaken a preliminary investigation into allegations raised against Canon Christopher Whitehead, whose episcopal ordination as the next Bishop of Plymouth was cancelled in February while a “canonical process” was set in train. The Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said in a statement last week, “At the conclusion of the aforementioned inquiry, it was determined that no canonical action was warranted. The diocese communicates that Canon Whitehead has resumed his duties as parish priest of Saint John the Evangelist in Bath.”
St George’s Cathedral in Southwark is among the churches using Palestinian olive oil for Chrism Masses this week. It was produced by a Christian family involved in Canaan Fair Trade, which works with family farms across 43 different villages in the Holy Land. St George’s cathedral dean, Canon Michael Branch, said the diocese wanted to support them “while their lives have been turned upside down by conflict”. Once blessed, the oil will be used throughout the Archdiocese of Southwark for such occasions as baptisms, confirmation, and consecrations. Pax Christi England and Wales reports that Palestinian olive oil is also being used in the Catholic Dioceses of Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Arundel and Brighton and in the Anglican Dioceses of Southwark, Coventry, Rochester, and Oxford.
Caritas Westminster has launched a free “tool kit” to help clergy and faith leaders identify potential signs of domestic abuse. Safe in Faith includes advice on how to provide a safe- trauma-informed response to anyone seeking help or advice from the Church. Also featured are resources to signpost to agencies helping people of other faiths. Nikki Dhillon Keane, director of Safe in Faith said: “It takes a whole community of individuals to support people who are subjected to domestic abuse. That is why the Church can play an important role in ensuring that victims can access safety and that their faith never hinders them from seeking help.” caritaswestminster.org.uk/safe-in-faith
On March 19, two Kenyan Sisters professed their final vows in west London. Joyce Chelangat and Mirriam Wangui Nduta became Sisters of Nazareth presided over by the former bishop of Lancaster, Michael Campbell OSA. The profession took place at Nazareth House, Hammersmith, west London. Nazareth House is the mother house of the Sisters of Nazareth, a congregation founded in 1861 by Mother Victoire Larmenier. It is occupied by a community of Sisters of Nazareth from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Australia.
A prominent broadcaster and trustee of Caritas Salford has been appointed High Sheriff of Greater Manchester. Eamonn O’Neal will take up the post, his second turn in the role which he held also in 2020, in April. O’Neal has been head of regional programmes at Granada Television, managing editor of the Manchester Evening News and a Sunday presenter with BBC Radio Manchester. He described the appointment as “a huge honour and quite humbling”.
Jon Cruddas MP has urged the Labour party to “reclaim its Catholic history”. On March 20, the former Labour Party policy co-ordinator said that Catholic Labour MPs had faced a “cold climate” in recent years because “utilitarianism” and “factionalism” had dominated the party. During a “pub talk” for the Catholic Union, Cruddas said that the atmosphere for young Catholics in the party was now “warming up”, with an influx of younger Catholic MPs and new parliamentary candidates. He also called for a return to purpose-based politics and a fresh vision of virtue and the common good for the 21st century. Cruddas, MP for Dagenham and Rainham since 2001, will stand down at the next general election. He is planning to write a book about the Catholic tradition within the Labour party.
Bishop John Arnold of Salford, bishops’ conference lead on the environment, has called for “a healthy balance in agricultural methods, reducing our consumption of meat, making more productive use of agricultural land and avoiding any further deforestation”. Also speaking at the webinar on animal rights from a faith perspective was Daniel Mascarenhas SJ, a Jesuit from the US, who addressed the Biblical imperative for caring for animal rights. Nearly 70 people attended the webinar, organised by Catholic Action for Animals in collaboration with the Diocese of Salford and the Laudato Si’ Action Platform.
The Anglican Diocese of Leeds has made a full divestment commitment, excluding future investment in companies with significant revenues derived from fossil fuels. It has become the 28th Church of England diocese to do so. The diocesan synod voted in favour of a motion presented by the Bishop of Ripon Anna Eltringham, who said, “We must not give up hope or effort that we can still limit warming and reach net zero carbon.”
Ecumenical accompaniers to be human rights monitors in the Holy Land in 2025 are being recruited by the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, an international programme coordinated by the World Council of Churches. Partners in the UK include Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Pax Christi, Justice and Peace Scotland, Cafod, Christian Aid and the Iona Community. After training, accompaniers spend three months monitoring human rights and supporting peace activists. When they return home they are encouraged to share their experiences and undertake advocacy for peace.
A group of MPs along with parents of children who were born at 22 and 23 weeks gestation delivered a petition to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street on 18 March. Organised by Right to Life UK and signed by 102,573 people, signatories urged prime minister Rishi Sunak “to do everything in his power to ensure that our abortion law is urgently updated to reduce the abortion time limit”. The parents want MPs to vote in support of the landmark amendment tabled by a cross-party group of more than 30 MPs, led by Caroline Ansell, that would lower the abortion time limit from 24 to 22 weeks in line with advances in medical science.
A church clock that chimed in a village for around 150 years and was silenced after a complaint that it was too loud is to return to telling the hour. A complainant, who was not named, argued the chimes, which rang out every 15 minutes, had been disturbing their sleep. However, when St John the Baptist church’s clock tower in Witheridge, Devon, fell silent it spurred local residents to set up a petition to save it that drew more than 350 signatures. Now the parish council has installed a £2000 silencer, meaning the clock will only chime between 7am and 11pm and only once an hour. The church’s vicar, Revd Adrian Wells, said, “It is lovely to have the chimes and bells back during the day; the clock is a real focal point for the village.”
Northern Ireland has “a long road ahead to find reconciliation and lasting peace”, Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin said at the annual Mass for the Families of the Disappeared in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. Commending the recently published Operation Kenova Interim Report, which highlights the failure to acknowledge properly the hurt caused to the families of those murdered during the Troubles as well as other serious issues, Archbishop Martin said the lack of disclosure about murder “wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere else”. He said the report makes clear that families coping with the legacy of the conflict “simply cannot find peace or trust until the truth emerges” and their losses “properly acknowledged”.
By declaring dogmas that must be held by all the faithful the Church “effectively stymied any possible development of thought and understanding”, censured Irish priest Fr Tony Flannery has said. Writing in the Irish Times ahead of his first public talk in six years, the Redemptorist, who was suspended from ministry in 2012 said, “We now recognise that the Bible is not a historical account as we understand it today, but more a statement of a belief system, using stories, allegories, symbols. These new understandings were never allowed to influence Church thinking, and so the world has, in a sense, passed us by.”
Fifty per cent of people in Northern Ireland describe themselves as practising Christians, higher than any other part of the UK. According to a survey carried out on behalf of the Evangelical Alliance Northern Ireland by Savanta ComRes, 23 per cent of people in Northern Ireland attend church services on a weekly basis and 35 per cent pray every week. In Britain, weekly church attendance is 9 per cent. The poll of 1,005 people also showed that 13 per cent of people in the region read the Bible weekly. According to the survey, Catholics in Northern Ireland are more likely than Protestants to attend church at least once a week.
Scotland’s Catholic Parliamentary Office is encouraging people to respond to the Scottish Government’s consultation on a ban on conversion practices, warning that loving parental guidance and pastoral work of churches could be criminalised under the new proposals. In a 46-page opinion, on the Parliamentary Office website, Aidan O’Neill KC says that no “gap” in the law has been evidenced by Scottish Ministers and has warned of the potential impact on the human rights of religious believers, parents, gender critical feminists and others. Mr O’Neill says that the proposals, if they become law, will have the “undoubted effect of criminalising much mainstream pastoral work of churches, mosques and synagogues and temples”. He said the proposed new law would also have a devastating impact on family life by criminalising parents who, lovingly and in good faith, and in accordance with their own best judgment and conscience, seek to caution and direct their children on matters relating to sexual orientation or gender identity.
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