Church of England partners with abuse survivors to publish safeguarding prayers

The Church said the materials “range from a safeguarding prayer that could be used to conclude a day of safeguarding training, to a litany of penitence for past failures”.

Rt Rev Libby Lane, Bishop of Stockport told Premier the new resources are one way the Church is coming to terms with the way it handled abuse.

 

“We recognise the Church should be at the vanguard of fostering change of culture where all can be safe and can flourish and we realise that has not always been the case in our Church,” she said.

“We need to face the hard truths that confront us. We pray that we would live up to the example of Christ and offer safe places and safe relationships for people, but that has not always been the case and so we so have to be honest about that.”

An example of the new liturgy is:

“For the times when people have been abused:
Lord, forgive us
All and heal us.

Bind up the wounds of those who have been hurt,
and in your mercy make us whole.
Lord, forgive us
All and heal us.”

The resources can be downloaded on the Church of England’s website and will be updated by the Church’s Liturgical Commission as new materials evolve.

Listen to Bishop Libby speaking with Premier’s Cara Bentley: 

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Franklin Graham Called Sanctuary Cities ‘a Little Picture of Hell’

Franklin Graham Called Sanctuary Cities ‘a Little Picture of Hell’



Franklin Graham recently made some controversial comments about sanctuary cities in California.


According to The Christian Post, Graham has been involved in a 10-city tour through California, the purpose of which is to encourage Christians to stand up for their values and to run for political office.


Graham said that “progressive” is “just another word for godless.” He also said California, with its liberal policies and politicians is a “sinking” state. Graham even told conservative Fox News columnist and host Todd Starnes that sanctuary cities such as San Francisco are a “little picture of Hell.”


Relevant Magazine provides the full quote: “People are leaving the state. The tax base is eroding. They are turning their once beautiful cities into sanctuary cities, which are just a little picture of Hell. Just go to San Francisco and go to this once-beautiful city and see what has happened to it.”


Nevertheless, Graham asserted, “I haven’t talked to anybody in the parties. We are staying out of the politics part of it but I do want Christians to vote and I want them to ask God before they vote, who they should vote. But, I don’t think the Christians should be silent. The Christian voice needs to be heard.”


 


Photo courtesy: Getty Images


Publication date: June 1, 2018

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Rachael Denhollander’s Former Church Apologizes for Mishandling Ex-Gymnast’s Concerns

(Screenshot: CBS)Sexual assault survivor Rachael Denhollander addresses disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar in Lansing, Michigan on January 24, 2018.

The former church of Rachael Denhollander has released a statement expressing remorse for not properly responding to the lawyer and former gymnast’s concerns over the church’s partnership with Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Denhollander gained notoriety in January when she testified against former USA Gymnastics physician Dr. Larry Nassar for his sexual crimes against gymnasts under his care, wherein she expressed her Christian belief in forgiveness.

Immanuel Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky, Denhollander’s former church, sent a statement to The Washington Post which they also published on the church’s website.

In it, Immanuel Baptist Church acknowledged that when Denhollander previously said, “My advocacy for sexual assault victims … cost me my church,” they were the church she referenced without naming.

“As the pastors of Immanuel Baptist Church, we knew that we were that church. After years of membership at Immanuel, Rachael and her husband, Jacob, had left our church voluntarily just weeks before the Nassar trial began,” the IBC pastors said.

“Fortunately, because of Rachael’s decision not to name our church…

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The Methodist Church releases new guidelines to partner with churches overseas

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Turkey Returns Confiscated Syriac Church Property Deeds

Turkey Returns Confiscated Syriac Church Property Deeds



Syriac Orthodox Christians have welcomed the Turkish government’s return of 55 title deeds, representing nearly half of their ancient church properties in southeast Turkey, which had been confiscated by the state in recent years.


Fifty of the official property deeds were delivered to the Syriacs’ 4th century Mor Gabriel Monastery near Midyat, in Mardin province, on 22 May. The disputed documents were received in person by Archbishop Timotheos Samuel Aktaş, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Tur Abdin, and Kuryakos Ergün, chairman of the Mor Gabriel Foundation. An additional five title deeds were returned to another Syriac Christian foundation in Mardin.


The turnover of Syriac community deeds resulted from the 27 March passage of an omnibus bill in the Turkish Parliament. The newly amended measures signed into law by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan authorised the return of these historic Syriac properties, many predating Ottoman times, to their original owners.


“These returned deeds have created great joy here among the Syriac Christians in Mardin and those who live abroad.”


            Kuryakos Ergün


“This is the first time our property deeds have been returned,” Ergün told Cumhuriyet newspaper on 27 May, noting that the new judicial amendments had considerably reduced property ownership problems of southeast Turkey’s Syriac…

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Christian footballer boycotts opportunity to represent USA over LGBT shirt

Jaelene Hinkle, who’s a member of the North Carolina Courage team, said she was chosen by the US team to play against Sweden and Norway in June 2017. However, she refused the opportunity because the numbers on the shirt for the matches were rainbow coloured.

 

“I felt convicted in my spirit that it wasn’t my job to wear it,” she told CBN’s The 700 Club.

“I gave myself three days to just seek and pray and determine what [God] was asking me to do in this situation.

“I’m essentially giving up the one dream, and I’m saying no to it. It was very disappointing.

“That’s where the peace turns to disappointment, because I knew in my spirit I was doing the right thing. Just because you are being obedient, it doesn’t make it easy.”

Hinkle said she hasn’t been selected to play for the US team since making the decision.

While she got support by her team mates and club manager for opting out of the matches, Hinkle was booed at a Courage game on Wednesday after her interview with CBN was broadcast.

Her club manager Paul Riley has continued to defend her.

“I give her a lot of credit. Whatever her beliefs are, whatever she believes in, that’s her. It doesn’t affect the team,” he said after the match.

Courage team mate Jessica McDonald added: “She is high on her faith, and in my honest option that’s absolutely incredible.

“If she’s for God, then that’s fine. That’s great if that’s what…

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Seminary Board Strips Paige Patterson of Title and Benefits in Dramatic Turnabout

Seminary Board Strips Paige Patterson of Title and Benefits in Dramatic Turnabout



Facing fresh evidence of an alleged rape cover-up by its former President Paige Patterson, the board of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary voted to strip Patterson of the title and benefits it had granted him while ushering him out of the seminary’s leadership a week ago.


In a statement posted to its website Wednesday (May 30), the executive committee of the Fort Worth, Texas, school’s board of trustees took away “all the benefits, rights and privileges provided by the May 22-23 board meeting, including the title of President Emeritus, the invitation to reside at the Baptist Heritage Center as theologian-in-residence and ongoing compensation.”


Patterson’s swift firing represents the most dramatic turn in the #MeToo movement’s effects on the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

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God told me to have a fourth jet

New Orleans-based Jesse Duplantis says he wants a Falcon 7X to enable him to travel anywhere around the world without having to refuel en-route.

In his regular This Week With Jesse video series, he said: “You know, I’ve owned three different jets in my life; just burning them up for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

“Now, some people believe that preachers shouldn’t have jets.

“I really believe that preachers ought to have every available voice, every available outlet to get this gospel preached to the world.”

The 68-year-old leader of Jesse Duplantis Ministries purchased a Citation 500 aircraft in 1994, a Westwind 2 in 2004 and a Falcon 50 in 2006.

Explaining why a higher calibre plane is needed, he explained: “We believe in God for a brand new Falcon 7X so we can go anywhere in the world one stop.

Pointing to a picture of his Falcon 50, Duplantis added: “People ask, can’t you go with this plane? Yes, but I can’t go it in one stop.

Jesse Duplantis Ministries

 

“If I can fly it in one stop, I can fly it a lot cheaper because I have my own fuel for it.

“This one here, I have to stop and then you pay those exorbitant prices for jet fuel all over the world.”

According to the private jet website Sherpa Report, a Falcon 7X costs $54 million and needs $1.3 million to fund its upkeep each year.

Without mentioning why commercial airlines were not a practical option for his ministry, Duplantis added: “I really…

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Newly Famous, Bishop Michael Curry Walks Fine Line in Political Fray

Newly Famous, Bishop Michael Curry Walks Fine Line in Political Fray



Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, captivated a global audience earlier this month when roughly 1.9 billion people tuned in to watch the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The Most Rev. Curry’s charismatic, love-centered homily during the service sparked a media blitz that rocketed him to stardom and landed him interviews at virtually every major American news network.


At a time when both political and spiritual matters are often marked by division, the praise for his sermon — which focused on Jesus’ message of love — was a rare moment of unity.


But when Curry ascended to a pulpit again less than a week later (May 24), it was in a very different context. He was standing in the front of National City Christian Church in downtown Washington, where a crowd of more than 1,000 eagerly awaited his short sermon. The event, headed by a bevy of liberal-leaning Christians, was organized to promote a “Reclaiming Jesus” proclamation in which he and various signers declared, among other things, that President Trump’s campaign slogan “America First” was “a theological heresy.”


The audience erupted before Curry could utter a word, with members leaping to their feet in a pre-emptive 30-second standing ovation.


It was a dramatic example of how Curry’s fame is being celebrated by the religious left. But while his ascendancy…

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‘Poor people are just like us, but they’re just going through a hard time’ Tearfund marks 50 years of fighting poverty

It all started in 1968, when it became normal for every household to have a television.

 

“This was the first time ever people had been able to see through mass media the immense suffering and pain of the people in Africa who were starving to death,” said Virginia Luckett, head of UK churches for Tearfund.

“There was a series of famines in the mid-60s that caused such a massive shock around the world. The Christians in the UK, particularly the Evangelical Church in the UK, said ‘this is wrong’.”

She told Premier that financial donations started flowing into the Evangelical Alliance to address the injustice happening and that’s when Tearfund was born.

It began with a passionate preacher named George Hoffman travelling around the country leading the call for Christians to show empathy to those suffering.

“They were involved in quite a lot of hospital-led work. Nurses were helping in famine situations,” Luckett said.

Year by year, as the need grew, so did Tearfund.

Tearfund Twitter

 

The group supports marginalised people, promotes education, advocates for clean water and feeds the hungry, and these are only a few of its responsibilities.

The one that’s probably the most widely-known is disaster response. It’s something Donald Mavunduse, head of the south and Eastern Africa team for Tearfund knows very well.

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