Exhibition of relics at the British Museum

A relic of the skull of Thomas of Canterbury from the Treasures of Heaven exhibition

A startling exhibition of relics at the British Museum until 9 October features important contributions from the British Province of the Society of Jesus and Stonyhurst College. Stonyhurst curator, Jan Graffius describes the fascinating history of the objects on loan to Treasures of Heaven: Saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe, and urges visitors to appreciate the beauty and meaning of the exhibition.

Historic Orthodox Council moves closer.

 A meeting of three Orthodox church leaders in Istanbul has removed obstacles to a council that would involve most of the world’s Orthodox churches. The patriarchs discussed the plight of Christian minorities in the Middle East but also made agreements that pave the way for the first pan-Orthodox council in centuries. Many Orthodox churches are centred in difficult areas of the world, like the Middle East where there is revolution and persecution, or Russia and Eastern Europe where economic and social challenges remain. Patriarch Bartholemew of Constantinople, Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria and Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem, meeting with Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus and a representative of Patriarch Ignatius of Antioch, ‘all expressed the readiness to proceed to the pan-Orthodox council’.

• http://www.ekklesia.com/

Christians oppose Scottish bid to redefine marriage.

A proposal to change the definition of marriage to include same-sex unions has been condemned by Scottish evangelicals. A public consultation is asking Scots whether the law should be changed, and evangelicals are warning that the move would further undermine marriage. Christian pressure group CARE and the Evangelical Alliance (EA) say the Government is following the agenda of ‘a tiny minority for largely political reasons’. CARE for Scotland’s Dr Gordon Macdonald said: ‘The Scottish government is making a grave mistake.’ EA Scotland director Revd Dr Fred Drummond added: ‘Any attempts to redefine the traditional value of marriage will further damage the well-being of our society.’ Meanwhile, in England, the Law Commission’s recommendation that cohabiting couples should have the same rights as married couples has been rejected by the Government.
Sources: Christian Today (5/9); Christian Concern (7/9)

• http://www.christiantoday.co.uk/
• http://www.christianconcern.com/

A new Canadian Ordinariate?

A recent meeting of leaders in the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada (ACCC) voted to unite with the Roman Catholic Church through the Apostolic Constitution created by Pope Benedict XVI.

The ACCC, part of the Continuing Anglican Movement, is made up of more than two dozen congregations. Its Eighth Provincial Synod and Thirteenth Diocesan Synod were held simultaneously at the Rosemary Heights Retreat Center in Surrey, British Columbia.

The website VirtueOnline.org published a letter from Dean Shane B. Janzen detailing the event.

The meeting was attended by four ACCC bishops, including Bishop Peter Wilkinson, the communion’s Metropolitan and Ordinary. Archbishop John Hepworth, the Australia-based Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), was also present.

The discussion included the House of Clergy and the House of Laity and focused on the implementation of a proposed Canadian Anglican Catholic Ordinariate under the Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus.”

Support for the Ordinariate was unanimous in the House of Clergy and received 25 of 30 votes from lay delegates, with two members opposing the proposal and three abstaining.

The synod then passed a resolution enabling Bishop Wilkinson, with the advice and consent of the Provincial Council, to enact the necessary canonical ordinances and rules to establish the Ordinariate.

Australians to write Christ out of History?

Christian leaders in Australia have condemned changes to the national curriculum that will replace the terms BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini) in text books.

Under the new curriculum, which was due to be released next year but has been delayed, BC and AD will be replaced with BCE (Before Common Era), BP (Before Present) and CE (Common Era).
Peter Jensen, the Archbishop of Sydney, said that taking references to the birth of Jesus Christ out of school books was an “intellectually absurd attempt to write Christ out of human history” that he likened to calling Christmas “the festive season”.

It is absurd because the coming of Christ remains the centre point of dating and because the phrase ‘common era’ is meaningless and misleading.

Christopher Pyne, the education spokesman for the opposition Liberal National Party, said it was pointless to deny Australia’s cultural heritage.
"Kowtowing to political correctness by the embarrassing removal of AD and BC in our national curriculum is of a piece with the fundamental flaw of trying to deny who we are as a people,” he said.

Australia is what it is today because of the foundations of our nation in the Judeo-Christian heritage that we inherited from Western civilisation.

The Reverend Fred Nile, an MP in the New South Wales parliament, described the changes as “an absolute disgrace” and the “final insult” to Australian Christians.
“The direction of the national curriculum is towards almost a Christian cleansing to remove from our history any references to the role Christianity had in the formation of Australia and still has today,” he said.
But the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which is responsible for developing the secondary level national curriculum, said the new terms were the increasingly common standard for the representation of dates.
While BC and AD, which translates to “in the year of Our Lord” are designations used to number years in the Christian era, the terms BCE and CE have been widely applied as secular counterparts.
The little-known term BP (before present) is a time scale used by scientists and archaeologists to date past events. The standard year of origin is 1950, reflecting the fact that carbon dating technology became more reliable in the 1950s.
A similar controversy was sparked in Britain nine years ago, when a school banned its pupils from using BC and AD. Christians complained at the time that the authorities were “imposing political correctness in schools to ensure children are cut off from the past, for fear of upsetting someone”.
Defending the change, the British Qualifications and Curriculum Authority argued, “It’s not a question of one way is wrong and one is right, more a question of which is most commonly used. CE/BCE is becoming an industry standard among historians. Pupils have to be able to recognise these terms when they come across them.

More students take religion at A-level

More schoolchildren are both sitting and passing Religious Studies (RS), as the government prepares to exclude it from the new Baccalaureate. This year, 18,463 teenagers chose to take A-level RS – 4.3 per cent up on last year. Nearly a third more pupils now take the subject than in 2005. The pass rate is up too: 80.4 per cent gained a grade A*-C, 2.2 per cent more than 2010. It was expected that GCSE RS results would also show a similar improvement this week. But Premier Christian Media’s Peter Kerridge, a key player in the RE.ACT campaign to include RS in the new Baccalaureate qualification, said: ‘All this good work could be undermined following the exclusion of RS from the English Baccalaureate.’
Source: Christian Today (23/8)

• http://www.christiantoday.com/

East African Food Crisis - please help!

Over 12 million people across east Africa are facing severe food shortages caused by a combination of drought, irregular harvests, high food prices, conflict and displacement. The crisis has been building for some time, and is fast escalating across the region.

Christian Aid is responding in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. The appeal funds received so far are enabling our partners to provide urgent, life-saving assistance including providing water to villages experiencing the worst drought conditions, food for families in remote areas, and animal feed to protect the livestock that are so crucial to the survival of the pastoralists. Through our partners we are also providing urgently needed food and shelter for people in camps across the region.

However, as you will have seen in the news, the unfortunate reality is that the crisis is only going to get worse in the coming months – so more funds are desperately required to continue to provide aid and help communities rebuild their lives. Tens of thousands of people have already died – many of them children.

We urgently need your support to help save lives:

• £7.50 could buy enough food to feed a goat for a month – and provide a family with milk to supplement their diet.
• £22 could pay for a mosquito net, blankets, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting for housing and other essential items to meet the immediate needs of refugees arriving in camps.
• £61.50 could pay for the labour needed to maintain one borehole, providing water to 1,000 people affected by drought.
• £108 could pay for the parts needed to repair a pump at one borehole, restoring water to more than 140 families.
• £150 could pay for beans, maize, salt and vegetable oil for a family for five months in a camp.

Please, if you can, send a gift TODAY. Because the sooner we receive your donation, the sooner we can turn your compassion into action – and save lives.