The House of Commons is due to vote on Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement on Tuesday. It will be a significant symbol of how much support the Prime Minister has lost among her own party over Brexit and will play a big part in what type of deal the country may try to get next. 

Although it may be an indication of how much favour there is towards models that Labour MPs and soft-Brexiteers tend to prefer, it won’t make anything much clearer. 

To coincide with the run up to the vote Lichfield Cathedral will host a special time of guided prayer from 1:10–1:30pm on Tuesday and is urging other churches and cathedrals to join them. 

The Dean of Lichfield, the Very Revd Adrian Dorber said: “It seems right therefore to invite people to come and pray in the cathedral, to remember the heavy responsibility on our parliamentarians, and to ask God for wisdom and integrity in our national life.”

The Dean of Southwark, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn has written a special prayer for people to use if they wish and the Chair of the Association of English Cathedrals and the Dean of Lichfield, the Very Revd Adrian Dorber, today urged people to remember their cathedrals were always open for prayer or just to take a moment of stillness and quiet reflection.

The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn delivered his prayer on Premier Christian Radio, which you can listen to here at 3:10: 

The Archbishop…

These include uniformed youth organisations such as the Scouts and Guides; open access youth work and religious settings which offer education in their own faith, such as Sunday Schools and those of other faiths and religions.

They are asking for contributions of opinion to try to provide a sector-wide safeguarding framework for all of these settings, saying: “While the majority do so [behave] in a safe environment, there are some settings which do not.”

They say: “We are inviting the views of out-of-school settings providers, staff and volunteers working in out-of-school settings, local authorities, parents, accreditation organisations, young people, schools, charities, and other interested groups and individuals on a draft voluntary safeguarding code of practice for out-of-school settings, and accompanying draft guidance for parents.

“Following the closure of the consultation, we intend to publish the finalised version of the code in due course. The providers’ code would be a voluntary document. It would be intended as a voluntary resource setting out best practice to help providers of out-of-school education settings understand how they can ensure they are delivering education and activities in a safe environment.

The consultation period will end 24th February 2019 and department will publish the results shortly after. 

Sarah Champion MP, Co-Chair of the APPG…

At the age of 17, Martha competed in the popular baking show and reached the quarter finals. She has since released two cookery books and is a food columnist for Waitrose magazine, as well as an ambassador for Christian charity Tearfund. 

It’s not her first time teaming up with the Church of England as she previously baked alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury at an event in Birmingham diocese (video below). 

This year, she went to Hunsdon JMI School in Hertfordshire to teach children how to bake stained-glass window star biscuits and promote the Church of England’s #FollowTheStar campaign which encourages people to look into their local church again at Christmas time.

Martha said: “Christmas is my favourite time of year to bake, as everyone is in high-spirits and there are plenty of people around to share my creations with!
“Seeing the lights from the tree shining through the stars reminds me of the joy of Christmas and the Magi following the star to the stable to visit Jesus.
“Going to church has always been an important part of my Christmas morning. I love the joyful atmosphere that builds, singing Christmas carols and spending time celebrating and reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas.
“It sets the tone for the rest of the day, focusses my mind and there is plenty of time later in the day for turkey and stuffing!”

The Follow The Star campaign…

Rising from the Christian charts, Lauren Daigle has received immense growth in publicity due to her album Look Up Child reaching number three in the US Billboard 200 chart and the main single from the album, ‘You Say’, reaching number 44. 

In Christian charts, the album reached number one both in America and the UK. 

During a ten minute interview on the Dominick Nati Show on iHeart radio, Daigle spoke about her music and her career. Dominick Nati, who is also a Christian, started the interview by saying he had been listening to her for a while as he used to go to Bethel Church. 

Eight minutes into the interview, after talking about criticism she’s got for what she wears while singing worship songs, Nati said: 

“I hate to do this to you Lauren but I usually ask tough questions so is that alright if I ask just a couple of ones that are tougher and you can let me know if you wanna answer them?

She replied: “Ok, cool.”

“Well, just ‘cos we were talking about Ellen [DeGeneres] …do you feel that homosexuality is a sin?”

After a pause, she responded: “You know I can’t honestly answer on that…I have too many people that I love that, they are homosexual, I don’t know. I actually had a conversation with someone last night about it and I was like ‘I can’t say one way or the other, I’m not God’. So, when people ask questions like that that’s what my go to is. I just say…

The call from Christian Aid comes after warnings the world must cut carbon emissions to zero by 2050 to meet goals in the Paris climate deal to curb global warming to 1.5C (2.7F) and avoid the worst impacts of rising temperature.

The UK Government has asked its climate advisory committee for advice on setting a net-zero target for emissions and the European Union has set out plans for “climate neutrality” by 2050.

In a report on net-zero emissions, where any greenhouse gases that are still put into the atmosphere are “offset” by measures such as planting trees or using technology to curb warming, Christian Aid backed natural solutions.

The aid charity said UK efforts to tackle emissions should follow a similar pattern to the waste hierarchy of “reduce, reuse, recycle”.

Firstly, there should be efforts to consume less energy and resources, then more efficiency such as insulating homes or using public transport and finally using more renewables and sustainable materials.

There is a need to minimise emissions from hard-to-tackle sectors such as aviation and meat and dairy production, but there may still be some pollution that will need to be offset through generating negative emissions.

But the report called for solutions which are environmentally and socially sound, including restoring UK habitats and in particular native forests, which would help tackle climate…