Churches Together in England (CTE) has six presidents, who jointly represent the whole membership – including the Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Anglican and Reformed churches.

Upon a presidency position becoming vacant, a group of Reformed churches and the Quakers nominated a woman who is in a same sex marriage for the role.

The appointment of Hannah Brock Womack to the Fourth Presidency position has not been well received by other denominations within the CTE.

As a result, Womack has been requested not to play any active role as a Churches Together president.

The member churches of CTE’s enabling group stated: “For the sake of our ecumenical unity at present, we request that the Fourth Presidency Group show restraint by not exercising the office of their Presidential appointment.”

Paul Parker, Recording Clerk for Quakers in Britain told Premier the dispute is an unnecessary distraction from the key issues Christians should be debating.

“The idea that it’s her sexuality that means she’s being rejected by other churches is just so disappointing,” he said.

Parker says Quakers in Britain are “committed to continuing in conversation together” and Womack “recognises that churches have got a long way to go”.

General Secretary of Churches Together in England, Revd Dr Paul Goodliff, told Premier taht theological divisions about gay relationships raise the deepest questions…

All Saints in Graveney, Kent has been part of the village for more than 900 years but now, with a dwindling congregation of only seven and a deficit of funds, the congregation members are donating £100 each month to keep it open.

The village has a population of 490, according to the 2011 census, and its church has a weekly bill of £181, which keeps it open for weddings, funerals, christenings as well as Sunday services.

Parish council secretary and member of All Saints congregation, Janet Turner told Premier: “I’ve been at All Saints for nine and a half years. My daughter was married in the church, it’s a lovely rural church and I fell in love with the church then and I’m just as in love with it now.

“It’s a very special church, its Grade l listed, it was listed by English Heritage as being at risk but we have managed over the last six years to do an enormous amount of work to put it in very good physical condition. But the problem and the problem common to all rural churches, is that congregations are decreasing and people don’t come to church anymore.”

The Diocese of Canterbury said there were no plans to close the church but was seeking “creative ways” to combat dwindling congregations.

Church of England figures show attendances fell steadily across Britain’s Anglican churches over the last decade, with just 1.18 million regular worshippers last year.

A…

Caroline Farrow, the UK campaign director of CitizenGo was en route to Orlando when she had her previously approved Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) revoked at the airport on Tuesday.

CitizenGo is an advocacy group that promotes petitions including those that oppose same-sex marriage, abortion, and euthanasia.

According to LifeNews, Farrow was visiting Florida to hand-deliver a petition, signed by nearly 500,000 people to Disney World, calling for the park’s gay pride parade to be cancelled to protect children from “LGBT indoctrination”.

Farrow has speculated her refusal into the country may be the result of hate crime reports made to the US Embassy.

On Twitter she posted: ” It therefore looks like having discovered that I am going to the US, 2 people file a police complaint last week, tip off the embassy or Homeland security and my ESTA is revoked.

“The vindictive obsessive mentality is quite something to behold.

8. It therefore looks like having discovered that I am going to the US, 2 people file a police complaint last week, tip off the embassy or Homeland security and my ESTA is revoked.

The vindictive obsessive mentality is quite something to behold.

— Caroline Farrow (@CF_Farrow) November 19, 2019

Farrow’s concerns come after comments she made about gender-transition procedures for children sparked months of harassment from online…

It is the first time UK citizens have been repatriated from the area, following concerns of links to Islamic State.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the decision on Thursday saying these “innocent, orphaned, children” should never have been subjected to the “horrors of war.”

World Vision welcomed the decision saying the children are “innocent victims” who do not deserve to be “punished for the actions of their parents.”

Marc-Andre Hensel, World Vision’s Syria Response Director, released a statement saying: “All children in Syria face deadly threats every single day; from indiscriminate violence, to being forced to flee their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
 
“Many children in Syria, including foreign children trapped by circumstance, will have experienced violence, acute deprivation and unimaginably distressing events. They now face malnutrition and the constant threat of fatal diseases in overcrowded camps.

Diminic raab said in a statement: “We have facilitated their return home, because it was the right thing to do,

“Now they must be allowed the privacy and given the support to return to a normal life.”

The Foreign Secretary also shared his relief of the “safe return of a number of orphaned children” on twitter:

I am relieved a number of orphaned children have arrived home safely from Syria. We assess each case carefully, and facilitated…

According to International Christian Concern, he was the pastor of a small community and the local believers think it was a deliberate attack.

South Korean news agency Yonhap News reported that a South Korean man had been stabbed in a robbery in Diyarbakir and that his family had been informed of his death.

It added that the South Korean embassy in Turkey had asked for proper legal proceedings to take place to investigate his death.

A 16-year-old has been arrested and the investigation is ongoing.

The Jerusalem Post report that Kim had lived in Turkey for five years and had one child with his wife and that she was pregnant.

The local Christian community think his death was deliberate because he was a pastor.

The religious freedom charity Open Doors say Christians make up about 0.2 per cent of the population in Turkey and can be persecuted if it’s assumed they were involved in a failed coup to bring down the President in 2016.

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The first bible translated into Welsh has been increasingly at risk of deterioration from flooding and damp at the 16th century farmhouse Ty Mawr Wybrnant, near Betws-y-Coed, Snowdonia, where it is on display.

But now the Trust, which cares for the property, says it has found a sustainable solution by installing a “pico” or small scale hydroelectric turbine to use water from the nearby stream to help power the heating system to prevent damp.

It means the bible is being protected by the very thing, water, that is also putting it at risk through increasingly heavy and persistent rainfall, flooding and damp, as the climate changes.

The book, on display with more than 200 other bibles in different languages, is one of only 24 known copies of the first bible translated into Welsh.

The translation was undertaken by Bishop William Morgan, who was born at Ty Mawr Wybrnant, and printed in 1588.

Experts say it helped standardise the Welsh language and is considered to be the single most significant step in ensuring the survival of the language today.

But the bible, along with the rest of the collection, is susceptible to moisture in the air.

Now the hydroelectric turbine will generate power for the electric radiators that control levels of humidity in the Grade II listed farmhouse, with the switch to renewable energy protecting the books in a sustainable way, the Trust…