News Briefing: from Britain and Ireland

Assisted dying challenge
A terminally ill man has launched a campaign to change the law on assisted dying in the first legal challenge since MPs rejected proposals to allow euthanasia in September 2015.

Noel Conway, 67, from Shrewsbury, who has motor neurone disease, hopes to win the right to a medically assisted suicide through a judicial review. “Current law means that I will have no control of how my life ends and I will have to endure this nightmare for as long as it takes,” he said. The challenge is due to be heard at the High Court this year.

The Church has campaigned against changing the law on assisted dying and Christian anti-euthanasia campaigner James Mildred told Premier Christian Radio that changing the law could have devastating consequences for vulnerable people. “As a society we should care for people who suffer from disabilities and terminal conditions, and rapid advance in medicine makes that more and more possible, and it is far better to devote more resources to facilitate quality end-of-life care, rather than legalising assisted suicide,” he said.

A majority of Scots believe that religious observance should not be compulsory in schools, according to a new YouGov survey. The poll found that 38 per cent of adults think that education should be entirely secular, with a further 17 per cent arguing that observance should be optional and that students should be allowed to opt out without parental consent. Only 11 per cent of Scots now believe that religious observance should be compulsory in schools.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Catholic Education Service said that the figures still showed that a majority of Scots considered religious observance to be a valuable component of education.

Taizé UK gathering
The ecumenical monastic order Taizé is to hold a gathering for young people in Birmingham for those of all faiths and none in an effort to counter divisions in society. To be held over the last weekend of April, it will explore the theme of “hidden treasure; celebrating the commitment lived out by many Christians and others of goodwill in order to build trust and community”.

The joint presidents of Birmingham Churches Together, including the Archbishop of Birmingham Bernard Longley, welcomed the announcement, saying: “I know that in the Churches in Birmingham, we try to work together, to witness together, to do as much as we can together, but I know that we will benefit tremendously from this wonderful gathering of prayer.”

Jill Saward (above), a prominent campaigner on behalf of victims of sexual assault, has died of a stroke aged 51. Ms Saward became the first rape victim in the United Kingdom to waive her right to anonymity after she was assaulted at her father’s vicarage in Ealing, west London, aged 21. She credited her Christian faith with helping her to overcome the rape. The Revd Arun Arora, director of communications for the Church of England, said: “Jill was a truly brave woman who campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of sexual violence. Her courage, fortitude and commitment made her an outstanding campaigner as well as a loyal friend to many. She was much loved and respected and will be greatly missed by those whose lives she touched.

Feminist Catholic nun and campaigner Sr Una Kroll (above) has died aged 91. Sr Una, a doctor and lifelong campaigner for women’s ordination, was formerly an Anglican who was ordained a priest in the Church in Wales in 1997. She became a Catholic in 2008 in solidarity with its women. In an article for The Tablet in 2014, written shortly after the Church of England voted to ordain women bishops, she said that the decision had “undoubtedly” hindered progress towards unity both within the Anglican Communion and between other Christian Churches. “How wonderful it would be if more women could be invited now to join male laity in decision-making in the higher tiers in the Church, and ultimately, of course, be ordained deacons, priests and bishops – and potentially be elected pope,” she wrote.

Sr Una, who lived as a solitary nun in lifelong vows in the Diocese of Salford, is survived by her children, Florence, Leo, Elizabeth and Una, and 10 grandchildren. A full obituary will follow.

The Christian publishing house Kevin Mayhew has announced the appointment of a new managing director, David Gatward. A former commissioning editor at the company, which produces a number of Catholic hymn books, Mr Gatward has worked in publishing for 25 years.

Cardinal’s Oratory role
The head of the Vatican’s liturgy dicastery, Cardinal Robert Sarah, has accepted an invitation to become a patron of the London Oratory School’s liturgical choir. Praising the school for its “high mission of education”, he said that he wanted to thank the choristers for their “ministry of beauty”.

Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, joins existing patrons Princess Michael of Kent and composer Sir James MacMillan CBE.

Ruth Gledhill, former religious affairs correspondent for The Times, is to become editor of website Christian Today. Ms Gledhill, who has also written for The Tablet, will take up the role on 20 January, the same day that Donald Trump is inaugurated as President of the United States. “Planning my 10 minute inauguration,” she commented on Twitter. “A cup of coffee at Church on the Corner in Barnsbury.” She will work with contributing editor Mark Woods.

DJ ambition
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor would have been a DJ if he had not become a priest, according to Arundel and Brighton’s diocesan news site. In an interview to mark his 60 years as a priest, the cardinal and former Bishop of Arundel and Brighton said that his calling could have been to medicine, like his father, or to teaching, or to music. “Or in today’s terms even a DJ,” he continued. Elsewhere in the interview the cardinal said that he decided he wanted to be a priest aged 15 – and had never changed his mind. “I had no idea of what the Good Lord had in store for me,” he said. “Perhaps that was fortunate!”