Sainsbury's chief and Church leaders criticise plans to reform Sunday trading

The Chief Executive of Sainsbury's, Justin King, said that 'maintaining Sunday's special status has great merit' in a letter to The Sunday Telegraph. The Anglican Bishop of Oxford added his signature to a separate letter to the same paper, highlighting the 'detrimental impact' of the possible changes. The concerns come after Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said he would be willing to look at the impact of the temporary relaxation on Sunday trading, introduced during this year's Olympic Games. (Read more: BBC News, 19/8)

Icon of Elizabeth Prout to be displayed at Shrewsbury Cathedral

 

 

An icon of a Victorian nun who campaigners want to see beatified is to be displayed at Shrewsbury Cathedral.

Aidan Hart, an iconographer from Pontesbury, Shropshire, was commissioned by a parishioner to paint an icon of Elizabeth Prout.
Sister Prout was born in Shrewsbury in 1820 as an Anglican, but later became a Catholic and worked and lived in deprived parts of Manchester.
Mr Hart has been working on the icon since February 2009.
Not yet canonised The artist, who grew up in New Zealand, said: "I received a phone call from a parishioner who asked if I could do an icon of Elizabeth.
"She told me a bit about her and she said she wasn't canonised, but hoped that she would be…. We had this long process of me coming up with the design…. and eventually settling on a design."
Elizabeth was also known as Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus

He is also a professional sculptor and works on a commission basis, with a two-year waiting list.
Mr Hart said: "There are not that many professional ones [iconographers] in this country, about 500 people doing it as a devout hobby, so we're a bit of a rarity.
"The word icon means image and refers to images of holy people, Christ and the angels, but painted in a particular way.
"We try to indicate the holiness of the person, so we're painting someone not just with the eyes of the body, but with the eye of the heart, so you're indicating spiritual truths as well as physical ones."
He "had a test of the monastic vocation" for years and during this time he painted other icons, but believes that this is the first of Sister Prout.
She was born in Coleham, Shrewsbury, but her family moved to Stone, Staffordshire in the 1840s.
Mr Hart said: "The gold isn't decoration, it really represents the presence of God, so we have a gold background with Elizabeth's hands raised in prayer."
"She's praying for the whole world and looking at us in compassion. She cared for the poor and in a sense we're all poor, so she's in heaven praying for us."
The icon includes St Julian's Anglican Church where she was baptised and the brewery in Coleham where her father worked as a cooper.
Sister Prout died in 1864 and is buried at St Anne's Church, Sutton, St Helens.

Alarming news from Pakistan about the arrest of an 11 year old Christian girl with Downs Syndrome

We have received reports of a new and appalling low in the ongoing abuse of blasphemy laws.  Allegedly, a Quran was found with some of its pages burned by Muslims in a Christian area of Islamabad - in previous cases the burning has nearly always shown to have been done by Muslims, or by mentally unstable people - and worse, they have had an 11 year old Christian girl with downs syndrome called Rimsha Masih arrested and charged with the crime.  Rimsha was arrested on the 17th August 2012.

Muslim extremists are threatening to burn down every Christian house in the community.  Several thousand Christians have fled the suburb and are in hiding, along with the family of the victim.  Mobs of over a thousand Muslims have surrounded the community and are burning tyres.

At the last account, Christian human rights workers have persuaded local Mullah's not to authorize the threatened attacks after Friday prayers.  Some went to the local police station and report the situation on the ground is very bad.  It is quite evident that the police they talked to have already assumed her guilt.  They refused to allow the workers to see the FIR, placed by a Muslim called Alsyed Muhammad Ummad.  The police were aggressive and hostile, and appear to have immediately called Muslim youths to the police station to harass the Christian workers.  The police said 'She has burned our holy book and you are here to protect her'.  It is quite clear that the police are hostile to the accused, presume her guilt and have no regard for her status as a minor or as one with Down's Syndrome.

Please pray for her and her family.

The Christian rights workers are planning to apply for bail for her immediately after the Muslim Eid celebrations currently ongoing

Source, also information from International Christian Voice on FB

York Mystery Plays brought back to life

The York Mystery Plays, a theatrical tradition dating back to the 14th century, have been resurrected in an epic production involving an Olivier Award-winning director and 1,700 enthusiastic local people. There are two casts of 250 amateur performers who have between them been rehearsing for six nights a week for the past four months. (Read more, BBC online, 9/8)