Ekklesia News

Church of Scotland parishes have been asked to raise £100 each to help a charity for homeless Scots in London, following the loss of Scottish Government backing.

The Church of Scotland’s Moderator has written to all 1,450 Kirk congregations asking them to raise at least £100 each to help a charity for homeless Scots, following the loss of Scottish Government backing.

The appeal went out in the middle of January and it is understood that it is going well. But there is still concern for the longer term future of Borderline, the charity for homeless Scots in London, after the Scottish Government slashed its grant.

It withdrew 75% all its funding from the end of March 2012, after steadily cutting the charity's £107,000 lifeline over the last three years.

Borderline has to raise £100,000 this year to maintain services. The charity has been offering support and advice to homeless and insecurely housed first and second generation Scots in London since 1990.

Willie Docherty, Borderline's chief executive, said: "What the Scottish government is saying is that they no longer wish to fund our organisation because we operate outside Scotland."

Mr Docherty said that two of London's best-known homelessness charities, Centrepoint and St Mungo's, regularly referred Scottish clients to Borderline because of its specialist knowledge and experience.

The agency also helps get Scots home again by paying their transport costs. "Once people have come here and realise the streets aren't paved with gold, they have to find help somewhere. We give them travel warrants to get back home and we make sure that there's someone at the other end to meet them," said Mr Docherty.

The Scottish Government says it regrets the "difficult decision", but has to make cuts because of the financial constraints imposed on it by Westminster. Critics say the amount of money involved is tiny compared to the overall budget, but vital for the charity.

The fact that it is based in England has caused extra controversy. Alex Salmond has stressed that an independent Scotland would be good for its neighbours, and that future relations will be based on generosity. But its treatment of Borderline will give ammunition to those who accuse him of parochialism.

The Rt Rev David Arnott, Moderator of the General Assembly of the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, has written to Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, expressing his disappointment about the withdrawal of funding. Mr Arnott is urging him to reconsider the Scottish Government’s decision.

Known to those who use Borderline as the “Scottish Embassy in London” it helps first and second generation Scots who have fallen on hard times, usually homelessness.

Mr Arnott said: “I was moved when I heard of the good work Borderline do for homeless Scots in London. It is crucial that the Scottish community stands together to ensure that no vulnerable Scot in London is without the support they need. The Church of Scotland is willing to what it can, but I urge the First Minister to reconsider the grant allocation.”

The Church of Scotland is already involved in tackling homelessness in Scotland through the Scottish Churches Housing Action initiative. Many individual congregations have helped address homelessness through initiatives such as the Fresh Start scheme, while others have used or plan to use their land on which to build affordable housing.

* More on the work of Borderline: http://www.borderline-uk.org/

* Donate to Borderline: http://www.borderline-uk.org/how-you-can-help

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The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India says that the widening gap between rich and poor is "a matter of serious concern for the church".

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, told the bishops' biennial assembly on 1 February 2012 that the widening of the gap between rich and poor is "a matter of serious concern for the church" - writes Anto Akkara.

"We have two sets of Indians. One section of the people is racing ahead while the majority are limping," Gracias said. Meeting in Bangalore, the assembly runs from 1-8 February and is being attended by 170 bishops.

Gracias, who is also archbishop of Mumbai, said the challenge before the Indian church is to be "conscience keepers to the nation," quoting American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and he urged his colleagues to "make a difference in the life of the marginalized."

Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, reiterated the concern over the wealth gap in India in an address on 2 February.

Quoting UN figures, Turkson pointed out that despite India emerging as the fourth largest economy in the world, nearly 35 per cent of the Indian population lives on less than US$1.00 a day.

Turkson, who is from Ghana, noted that 80 percent of the Indian population, more than 800 million people, are surviving on less than US$2.00 a day.

"Our ability to transcend ourselves and to anchor onto Christian values of love and service of our neighbours is the pre-eminent way to social development in India," recommended the Vatican official.

T. K. Oommen, a prominent sociologist in India, challenged the gathering to examine "on whose sides are we -- on the side of the flourishing few or the sinking many?"

Though churches in India are known for their dedicated service in the field of education and healthcare, Oommen said they should also conduct a critical assessment of the number of poor students and beneficiaries in some of the elite Christian institutions.

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]

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The time has come for a C of E change in stance on civil partnerships, says the LGB&T Anglican Coalition in its submission to the House of Bishops.

The time has come for a change in stance on civil partnerships, says the LGB&T Anglican Coalition in a submission to the Church of England's House of Bishops review on the subject.

The coalition calls on the Church to allow churches to register civil partnerships, to authorise services of Thanksgiving and Dedication, and to end the ban on bishops entering civil partnerships.

With over 47,000 civil partnerships registered in England by the end of 2010, the submission notes that “[a]s social attitudes towards those in same-sex relationships have become increasingly open and accepting, the Church of England is becoming increasingly isolated. This is in turn damaging both our mission and our ability to provide pastoral care to those in our parishes, congregations, and clergy.”

On offering civil partnerships in parish churches, the Coalition says it has already identified 95 churches who want to press ahead. However, the C of E's General Synod, its governing body, would need to approve the application.

Although negative statements have been made by the Church of England’s press office, says the Coalition, “the fact that there has been no possibility of discussion within the Church about whether individual churches should be allowed to register their for Civil Partnerships is in itself a retrograde position for the Church of England to be in.”

On services of Thanksgiving and Dedication, the LGB&T Anglican Coalition has called for an experimental liturgy to be introduced in the same way that such services were permitted following marriage after divorce in the 1990’s.

It declares: “The present situation where services of blessing are proscribed and the creation of public liturgies deemed to be wrong, is creating pastoral tensions, ecclesiastical ambiguity, and a culture of double standards… As a minimum step, therefore, the Church should permit services of thanksgiving and dedication to take place in pastoral response to the large number of civil partnerships. To refuse to respond in such a way would confirm fears that the present ban is motivated by prejudice rather than theology or religious belief. “

On the current ban on appointments of openly gay clergy to be Bishops the Coalition calls for an immediate end to the moratorium: “One of the most pressing needs is to see an end to the moratorium on appointment of bishops in civil partnerships even if celibate. There is no justification for the current moratorium and it should be repealed immediately.”

The submission also warns against putting up barriers to such appointments: “Furthermore, any attempt to deter or exclude such candidates by singling them out for intrusive questions is not only unjust and hurtful to the individuals concerned but also damaging to mission and ministry.”

In response to the submission, the House of Bishops review group has invited members of the LGB&T Anglican Coalition to meet with them to discuss the issues further.

The Coalition is also organising an Act of Witness at General Synod drawing attention to the many hundreds of LGB&T clergy who minister in the Church of England despite the discrimination and suspicion which they often suffer. This will take place on Thursday 9 February, 8:30-10am in Deans Yard, Westminster, London.

* London clergy petition to allow priests in the C of E to choose to bless civil partnerships in church: http://tinyurl.com/6mlg6s9

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Some 7,000 clients are being served by Ecumenical Church Loan Fund Philippines, whose seed fund was from Eclof International, a micro-finance NGO.

It is harvest time for strawberries in the northern Philippine town of La Trinidad, so strawberry farmer Alice Rivera will start repaying a loan extended by a Geneva-based ecumenical church loan fund - writes Maurice Malanes.

"This is what we appreciate ... we can start repaying our loans only immediately after the harvest season starts," said Rivera, who is 45. She is just one of 7,000 clients being served by the Ecumenical Church Loan Fund-Philippines (Eclof-Philippines), whose initial seed fund was provided by Eclof International, a non-profit micro-finance organisation.

Rivera, a widow and mother of a nine-year old son, has started harvesting strawberries from a 500-square-metre lot that she leases from the farm of Benguet State University, an agricultural school.

Starting this January up to May 2012, she expects to harvest an average of 20 kilograms every three days. As of 25 January, Rivera said she had retailed her 20-kilogram produce at one hundred pesos (about US$2.35) per kilogram.

"Although retail prices fluctuate ... I can still earn something, enough to send my kid to school and set aside some amount to repay my loan," she said in an interview in late January when ENInews went with four Eclof staff to visit their clients.

Given eight months by Eclof to pay her 20,000-peso (US$467) "agricultural loan," Rivera said she was confident she could pay off her loan before May.

Eclof-Philippines follows what Eclof local branch manager Valentina Tangib describes as a "flexible policy" for agricultural loans. "Before, our policy for small business and agricultural loan repayment was uniform in which we collect loan payments monthly," Tangib said.

Tangib and her staff found that farmers had difficulty repaying their loans since they could only start earning three months after harvest. Since five years ago, they have made it a policy that agricultural loan clients are given eight months to repay their loans.

Meling Telcagan, aged 60, a cut-flower farmer specialising in growing "Malaysian mums" (a species of chrysanthemum), has also been taking out Eclof's small loans since 2005. Most flower growers like Telcagan time their first harvest during February because flowers are more in demand then.

Besides Valentine's Day, when a dozen mums are priced at as much as two hundred fifty pesos (US$5.84) to three hundred pesos (US$7), February is also a flower festival season for neighboring Baguio City during which mums are popular items.

Other flower plots in Telcagan's greenhouse will be harvested in March and April, the season of school graduation, while other plots are planned for June, a wedding month.

"I thank God for giving my family a net income of eighty thousand pesos (US$1,869) during only a month of harvest last year," she said. Telcagan says she plans to repay her 30,000-peso (US$817) Eclof loan by March.

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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Disability Rights UK, a membership organisation representing over 500 NGOs across the country, has strongly criticised the government's Welfare Reform Bill.

Disability Rights UK, a membership organisation representing over 500 NGOs across the country, has strongly criticised the coalition government's controversial Welfare Reform Bill.

Neil Coyle, Disability Rights UK Director of Policy and Campaigns, declared yesterday: “The Government’s removal of protections for some disabled people from the Welfare Reform Bill ignores the hundreds of thousands of disabled people directly affected, the hundreds of charities who have highlighted the potential devastating impact for disabled people and their families, the House of Lords who proposed additional protections and the Joint Committee on Human Rights who suggested the Bill will cause destitution.”

Disabled people are disproportionately represented among benefit claimants due to educational attainment issues, higher poverty, lack of accessible work and employer discrimination.

The Bill aims to cut 280,000 disabled people from receiving out of work benefits altogether and 500,000 disabled people to be made ineligible for a benefit designed to help with disabled people’s higher costs of living.

These plans have long term cost implications being ignored by DWP – including a substantial potential increase in (avoidable) NHS use and rise in demand for council social care services - which many disabled people are being made ineligible for due to council budget cuts.

House of Lords amendments had secured protection for some disabled children, disabled adults needing longer than a year to find work and disabled students.

Disabled people believed their fears and concerns had been acknowledged and addressed in the Lords, says Disability Rights UK, but but this hope has been removed in the Commons' demand for short term welfare expenditure cuts which ignore risks of higher future costs.

Huge political awareness has been raised around the WRB debate by the Spartacus Report on DLA and the social media driven Spartacus campaign led by disabled and sick people themselves.

A third of all disabled people already live in poverty, but the Bill will now enforce destitution for some families and individual disabled people, say critics. The amendments would merely have softened the blow of the cumulative impact of the Government’s cuts, they add.

Neil Coyle continued: “Disabled people remain the hardest hit by cuts. But the Government has completely failed to analyse the full cost of proposals. Cuts have consequences for disabled people and their families, but will also mean the NHS and councils experience higher costs through higher health, care and poverty needs. The Government has chosen to ignore long-term needs and costs in the short-term search for departmental savings.”

* Disability Rights UK: http://www.disabilityalliance.org/

* The recommendations of the Joint Committee on Human Rights report on the likely impact of the WRB on disabled people are online at: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201012/jtselect/jtrights/233/...

* Spartacus Report and campaign: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/spartacusreport

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SNP Work and Pensions spokeswoman Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP has hit out the ‘compassionless UK coalition’ and its controversial Welfare Reform Bill.

SNP Work and Pensions spokeswoman Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP has hit out the ‘compassionless UK coalition’ after MP’s overturned House of Lords amendments to their Welfare Reform Bill on 1 February 2012.

Dr Whiteford said there was increasing evidence that the welfare system should be devolved and highlighted evidence from the Scottish Local Government Forum Against Poverty and Rights Advice Scotland who have warned that UK welfare reforms will remove a safety net for hardworking taxpayers and their families.

Dr Whiteford declared: “The UK Government has exposed itself as an out-of-touch and compassionless coalition. It is increasingly clear that the only way we will get a welfare policy that suits Scotland’s needs is by having the powers to set that policy in Scotland."

She continued: “From time limiting contributory Employment and Support Allowance to cuts in the availability and level of crisis loans, it is the most disadvantaged in our communities that are paying the price of the Tories reforms."

“Reform of the benefits system is necessary but the Tory/LibDem Coalition Government’s plan looks increasingly like an assault on the most disadvantaged. We must not have cuts for the sake of cuts. Not only would that risk forcing the most vulnerable in society into a perilous position, it also takes vital capital out of the economy without consideration of the impact," said Dr Whiteford.

“While reform is necessary, it must be done carefully and decisions on entitlements based on medical need – not government spin," she said.

“The welfare system should maximise the potential for all people to work and live free from poverty, however, this cannot be achieved through cuts in support for disadvantaged people," Dr Whiteford added.

“This issue shows yet again the different stance Scotland would take if we had the power to legislate on this issue and it is our clear view that it is the Scottish Parliament, not the UK Parliament, that should decide on welfare policy for Scotland – as would be the case if Scotland was independent,” the Scottish National Party Work and Pensions spokeswoman at Westminster concluded.

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The Church of England’s decisions about women bishops are likely to have a major impact on its mission as well as its ministry, says Savi Hensman. If the church appears to be reluctant to accept and fully use women’s gifts, attempts to attract and involve more people across a wide age-range may be undermined.

The Church of England’s decisions about women bishops are likely to have a major impact on its mission as well as its ministry. If the church appears to be reluctant to accept and fully use women’s gifts, attempts to attract and involve more people across a wide age-range may be undermined.

Research findings: cause for concern

Findings from the 28th British Social Attitudes survey were published in December 2011. It showed a serious decline in religious belief and practice in recent decades. 31per cent in 1983 did not belong to a religion, compared to 50 per cent now (64 per cent of those aged 18-24).

There are various reasons for this. But evidence suggests that the widespread perception that Christianity treats women as inferior is one of the factors.

For instance in 2008, Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization, edited by social scientist Kristin Aune of the University of Derby and two others, was published by Ashgate. This revealed that, in England, Christian churches had lost over a million women worshippers since 1989, in part because of their perceived attitudes.

“Because of its focus on female empowerment, young women are attracted by Wicca, popularised by the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Dr Aune observed. “Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church.”

In contrast, there is evidence valuing women’s gifts has a positive effect on mission. For instance, a 2010 University of Warwick paper, 'Statistics for evidence-based policy in the Church of England: Predicting diocesan performance', by Leslie J Francis and colleagues, examined the factors linked to differences in diocesan performance during the Decade of Evangelism, from 1991-2000. In dioceses with a higher proportion of women clergy, the Church of England tended to enjoy more growth or slower decline.

Taking into account the fall in church membership and involvement, and even nominal Christianity, such findings deserve serious consideration.

The debate over women bishops

There is wide public support for allowing women to be bishops in the Church of England. A YouGov online survey in July 2010 of Britons aged 18 or over found that 63 per cent were in favour and only 10 per cent against, while the remaining 27 per cent expressed no opinion. By the end of 2011, after dioceses had discussed the issue, it had become apparent that there was overwhelming support among churchgoers too.

Moving forward on this matter would greatly assist the church in mission and ministry in England today. The decision on whether women should be eligible to be bishops in the Church of England (or senior clergy or elders in other churches) does not simply affect potential candidates, but has far wider implications.

The role of bishops is not merely administrative: they are there to nurture and support other clergy in their calling and, most importantly, to enable the priesthood of all believers, in all their diversity, so that the whole people of God in each locality can witness in word and deed to the good news of Christ.

The exclusion of any section of the Christian community from being even considered as bishops can have a demoralising effect on those who, at parish level, are seeking to live out their faith within an often sceptical society, and to help to build God’s realm of justice and peace in an deeply unequal and sometimes harsh world.

There has been growing recognition that both men and women are made in God’s image and that, in Christ, barriers are broken down: in the words of Paul’s letter to the Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Yet the church has often failed to communicate this effectively to the wider world, in part because this is not fully reflected in its own life. Some churches seem unsure how to respond when the Holy Spirit calls and empowers women.

There is an understandable wish in church circles to accommodate the small minority of churchgoers who still do not accept women’s ordained ministry, and proposals have allowed generous provision to enable them to be ministered to by solely male clergy, including the delegation of pastoral functions to male bishops.

Some are uneasy with this but have accepted it because of the desire to move forward together. However there is a risk that concessions could be extended so far that the role of women bishops was seriously undermined, and ordination of women to the episcopate might become unworkable. This would be a tragedy, not only for the Church of England but also for Christian witness nationally.

However, a positive decision by the Church of England to open up all orders of ministry to women as well as men could promote mission, especially if used as an opportunity to share the theological reasoning behind the move. For, now as much as two thousand years ago, Christians believe that the living Christ continues to invite men and women, people of different ages, ethnicities, cultures and backgrounds, to follow, be transformed, join in changing the world and become inheritors of eternal life.

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© Savi Hensman is a respected Christian commentator on religion, politics, theology and social policy. She is an Ekklesia associate.

The government's overturning of House of Lords amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill was “totally wrong”, says the National Housing Federation.

The government's decision to overturn House of Lords amendments to the Welfare Reform Bill was “totally wrong”, says the National Housing Federation.

The organisation has pledged to "keep fighting" against the coalition's “unfair” proposals, it said today (2 February 2012).

Among the controversial measures in the WRB is the decision to cut housing benefits for social tenants who are deemed to under-occupy their homes as well as a £26,000-a-year benefits cap - which has been heavily criticised or questioned by charities, churches and more recently the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

National Housing Federation Chief Executive David Orr said: "The decision by MPs to reject the Lords' Bedroom Tax compromise is a blow to thousands of families in social housing across the country, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet."

He continued: "That over 70 organisations, from disabled charities to mortgage lenders, came together in support of this change to the Welfare Reform Bill shows just how important this issue is. It is unjust to penalise people for under-occupying their homes when they have nowhere else to move to."

"Given the level of opposition in the Lords to these proposals and their potential impact, it is totally wrong for the Government to shut down discussion by claiming financial privilege," said Mr Orr.

'We will continue to campaign against these unfair proposals," he declared.

The government has reaffirmed its commitment to "transitional arrangements" and promised a nine-month "grace period" for tenants hit by the overall benefit cap after losing their job.

The National Housing Federation said it welcomed the new arrangements but warned that they are insufficient on their own and will do little to protect families.

"We remain concerned that this crude measure will lead to a rise in rent arrears, homelessness and child poverty," said NHF chief Orr.

* National Housing Federation: http://www.housing.org.uk/

* See also: Unfair to tenants and taxpayers: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/16225

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People living with cancer have warned MPs that the Westminster government's welfare changes could push patients and their families into poverty.

People living with cancer in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have warned MPs that the Westminster government's welfare changes could push patients and their families into poverty.

Groups of disabled, sick and other people have been making similar points, but yesterday the coalition government voted down amendments that would have ameliorated what critics say are some of the worst aspects of the Welfare Reform Bill.

Writing in the Herald newspaper based in Glasgow, Elspeth Atkinson, director of Macmillan Cancer Support in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales declared: "Cancer patients want to work. They haven't chosen to give up the safety of employment. The assertion that providing hard-earned benefits at a time of greatest need encourages a dependency by seriously ill cancer patients on benefits is simply not based on fact."

She continued: "The Government's plan to cut Employment Support Allowance after one year will leave around 7,000 cancer patients up to £94 worse off each week, simply because they have not recovered quickly enough. These are people who have paid into the system all their working lives and it is wrong to put them under further financial and emotional distress on top of recovering from a life-threatening illness."

"In our experience of treating and supporting cancer patients, one year is not long enough for many people to recover from cancer treatment. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy can be highly debilitating. The ongoing and severe side-effects can leave patients struggling for years. Although there is clear evidence that one year is not long enough for patients to recover, the Government seems determined to press ahead with the changes," said Ms Atkinson.

She concluded: "We accept the benefits system is in need of reform. However, cutting help for cancer patients will only succeed in causing stress and worry to people going through an already difficult time."

Macmillan Cancer Support in Scotland offers practical, emotional and financial help to people affected by cancer. It provides trained medical professionals to the NHS and have cancer centres throughout the country where people receive expert care in a specially-designed environment.

It also campaigns to improve the lives of people in Scotland living with cancer.

* Source: Poverty Truth Commission, Scotland - http://povertytruthcommission.blogspot.com/

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Mental health charity Mind says that it "will continue to fight for improvements to the welfare and benefits system", despite yesterday's disappointing votes.

Mental health charity Mind says that it "will continue to fight for improvements to the welfare and benefits system", despite the Welfare Reform Bill vote in the House of Commons on 1 February 2012.

The message was echoed by thousands of people on social networking sites this morning, as questions were also raised about the legality of government cuts to essential provision for sick, disabled and vulnerable people.

There is also anger in the House of Lords at the government's use of 'financial privilege' to deny the second chamber its constitutional revising role, and at other "sleights of hand" as one critic put it - referring back to Lord Freud's earlier attempt to use a procedural motion to overthrow the will of the House, which has voted an unprecedented seven times against the government on the WRB.

Despite the enormous campaigning efforts of people across the disability world, MPs have now voted to overturn the House of Lords' amendments to extend the time limit on contributory Employment & Support Allowance to two years.

332 MPs voted in favour of keeping the time limit to one year, beating the 266 who voted against by 66 votes.

MPs also overturned six other amendments made by the Lords, reinstating plans to cap the amount of benefits a person can receive to £26,000 annually, and preventing young disabled people who have never worked from claiming ESA.

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind, commented: "We are bitterly disappointed that the House of Commons has chosen to implement this arbitrary one year time limit."

He continued: "The Government’s own figures clearly show that the vast majority of people on Employment and Support Allowance need the help to remain in place for more than a year."

"Forcing someone with a mental health problem to look for work before he or she is well enough to do so risks seriously undermining their recovery, and could even make them more unwell," said Mr Farmer.

"This is a short-sighted move which could in the long run incur huge health and social care bill, and we urge the Government to reconsider," he said.

"Mind will continue to fight for improvements to the welfare and benefits system, and to the Welfare Reform Bill in particular," the Mind Chief Executive concluded.

The charity also thaned the 467 people who used its cyber-facilities to urge their MPs to support the Lords’ amendments.

* Mind: for better mental health - http://www.mind.org.uk/

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A group of theologically conservative American Christian leaders is joining with animal rights defenders to advocate against cockfighting.

A group of theologically conservative American Christian leaders is joining with animal rights defenders to advocate against cockfighting, calling the practice of watching and betting on roosters who fight to the death antithetical to biblical values - writes Chris Herlinger.

"Christians should stand up and speak out against this barbaric practice which horrendously abuses God's creatures," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, in a 24 January 2012 statement.

Concern about cockfighting is focused on the state of South Carolina, where critics of the practice are trying to strengthen the state's laws against it. Though cockfighting is illegal in all 50 US states, it remains a misdemeanour in 11 of them, including South Carolina.

The Humane Society of the United States describes cockfighting as "a lucrative crime, with gambling winnings offsetting even the maximum misdemeanour fines," and is working with such groups as the South Carolina-based Palmetto Family Council, a Christian advocacy group with ties to national pro-family Christian organisations, to toughen legislation against what some describe as a "blood-sport."

Oran Smith, the Palmetto Family Council's executive director, said that South Carolina is increasingly attracting people interested in watching cockfighting and betting on the outcome.

"As a matter of state pride, we must strengthen our laws now," he said. Smith's organisation has produced a video that has drawn praise from the Humane Society for its strong stance against cockfighting.

The video argues that cockfighting is antithetical to biblical principles, citing Genesis 9:9-10, in which God speaks of establishing a covenant with both humans and animals. "Wanton cruelty toward animals is frankly unbiblical and unChristian," Smith says in the video, which can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/palmettofamily.

In the video, Land says humans are called to "respect every living thing... Cockfighting is a pornography of violence. People who watch it are going to be brutalised by it."

"Religious leaders had a founding role in the humane movement in the 19th century. Today in the 21st century, they remind us of our solemn responsibilities to other creatures," said Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society, praising the work of Christian leaders for working against cockfighting.

"Their voices can help guide the nation toward better decision-making and behaviour when it comes to our treatment of animals."

[With acknowledgements to ENInews. ENInews, formerly Ecumenical News International, is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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The coalition used its Commons majority to overturn Lords amendments to its Welfare Reform Bill yesterday, but legal and political challenges will continue.

As expected, the coalition succeeded in using its Commons majority to overturn all Lords amendments to its Welfare Reform Bill at Westminster yesterday (1 February 2012) - including one ameliorating a top-slicing overall benefit cap strongly opposed by charities and churches.

In so doing the government was accused of abuse of parliamentary process and manipulation by opponents, as Prime Minister David Cameron sanctioned the use of relatively obscure 'financial privilege' provisions to ensure that the second chamber cannot effectively block or delay cuts and changes to benefits which critics say will leave hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people and families worse off, exposed, homeless, jobless and feeling betrayed.

'Financial privilege' asserts that only the Commons had the right to make decisions on bills that have large financial implications. It is also likely to be used to stifle dissent on massive legal aid cuts effecting the poorest, and on an NHS bill for England which has been opposed in whole or part by the majority of health professionals.

Legal challenges at domestic and European level are now being discussed, and disabled and sick activists vowed to fight on to expose what they called the government's "callous" and "manipulative" stance on welfare.

Some also believe that cuts which will hit disabled children, abused mothers, cancer patients, the terminally ill, carers, the old, people with multiple disabilities and the vulnerable and many others, breach United Nations standards for the protection of people with disabilities and for children.

Lord Bassam, Labour's chief whip in the House of Lords, said the 'financial privilege' move "fundamentally undermines the constitutional role of the Lords as a revising chamber".

Lord Mackay of Clashfern, a former Lord Chancellor under PM Margaret Thatcher, commented: "The time we have spent coming here and taking part seem to be somewhat of a waste of taxpayers' money at a time of considerable austerity if the whole procedure is useless."

In the voting, only a handful of Liberal Democrats, who could have made a significant difference, rebelled against their Conservative government partners.

The House of Lords defeat over plans to cut payments to disabled children was overturned by 324 votes to 255 – a government majority of 69.

The peers' attempt to prevent the so-called "bedroom tax" on homes was thrown out by 310 to 268 – a government majority of 42.

The Child Support charge amendment, put forward by Lord Mackay and backed by many Conservative peers, was overturned by 318 votes to 257 – a government majority of 61.

An amendment backed by Church of England bishops saying that child benefit should not count towards the £500-a-week benefit ceiling was defeated by 334 to 251 – a government majority of 83.

MPs also voted by 328 to 265, a majority of 63, to require terminally ill cancer sufferers on chemotherapy to undergo assessments to see if they were fit for work.

Huge cuts to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and the transition to ill-specified Personal Independence Payments (PIPs), which removes a lifeline for around half a million disabled people, were also voted through.

In a passionate speech, Anne McGuire, shadow work and pensions minister, accused the government of talking about "social tenants as a breed apart" and of "attempting to disadvantage those who are already disadvantaged."

She disputed the Department of Work and Pensions classification of 'under occupied homes' and said the new housing benefit policy put people in an "unbelievable bind" because it was "ill-thought-out, it won't achieve its aims... and it will push the poorest people, including those who are working... into even greater disadvantage".

Ms McGuire said it was doubtful whether social housing tenants could legally take in lodgers to make up the £12-14 reduction in housing benefit, as Lord David Freud had suggested, and if they did whether that income would then affect their benefits.

On the CSA charge, she welcomed a reduced fee, but said it was a "ridiculous policy".

Likewise, the cut in support for disabled children would affect 170,000 families and could cost parents £1,400 a year, the shadow minister said. Disabled children would lose £22,000 over the course of their childhood, including those who were profoundly deaf and had Down's syndrome or cerebral palsy.

"In order to pay the most severely disabled children an extra £1.75 a week, children who are not as disabled - and I use the words advisedly - are going to lose their benefits," she declared.

The Welfare Reform Bill now goes back to the House of Lords again, but with little scope for further changes. But the campaign to challenge the legality and morality of what the government is doing will continue, vowed campaigners last night.

* Welfare politics: A 'morally disabled' government, by Simon Barrow - http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/16221

More reaction and commentary to follow.

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Jersey Chief Minister Ian Gorst is proposing legislation to limit vulture funds profiteering on debt claims from some of the world’s poorest countries.

Jersey Chief Minister Ian Gorst is proposing legislation to limit vulture funds profiteering on debt claims from some of the world’s poorest countries. Vulture funds buy up debt cheaply then hold out for huge profits from the countries concerned.

US vulture fund FG Hemisphere is currently suing the Democratic Republic of Congo for $100 million in the Jersey courts on a debt it bought for just $3 million.

The final appeal in the case is expected to be heard in the next few months. The debt originally comes from loans to Congolese dictator General Mobutu during the Cold War.

Jubilee Debt Campaign report that the proposed legislation will follow a UK Act of Parliament introduced in 2010, which limits debt claims against forty impoverished countries in line with internationally agreed debt relief. However, it only applies to debts which originate prior to 2004, and does not cover all low-income countries.

The UK Treasury estimates the UK Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act passed in 2010 will save some of the most impoverished countries £145 million over six years.

"This is an important step," said the Jubilee Debt Campaign's Tim Jones, "But the States of Jersey need to implement the bill urgently to prevent a vulture fund claiming $100 million from the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the most impoverished countries in the world".

He added, "Jersey should act to stop vultures funds profiteering from all countries for good".

Traditionally, vulture funds have preyed on countries in the global South, although they are beginning to target indebted Western countries such as Greece.

There is evidence that vulture fund speculators have been buying up Greek debt at a low price, and are refusing to take part in write-downs of the debt, holding out for large profits. Recent estimates have suggested that speculators could account for as much as €50 billion of Greek debt, and that companies have bought debt at a price suggesting a 75 per cent chance of default.

[Ekk/1]

Britain's four Children's Commissioners have joined up to demand changes to the government's Welfare Reform Bill, saying the coalition's plans will harm young people.

Britain's four Children's Commissioners say the government's Welfare Reform Bill will cause significant harm young people.

In a joint statement, they explained why they were concerned at the "serious negative impact" the bill could have on children.

The Commisioners declared: "We urge the UK Government to reconsider its plans, specifically the £26,000 benefit cap to be imposed on families each year."

They pointed out that the cap is likely to lead to more families becoming homeless and breach UN child rights rules. Their statement also warned of the knock-on effect the changes are likely to have on council and charity services.

The statement continued: "We are concerned that many more families and their children will be pushed into absolute poverty over the coming years if these proposed changes go ahead."

The Commissioners also said that children have rights independent of their parents, and under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children's rights must be considered in the drafting of legislation that affects them.

Scottish Commissioner Tom Baillie told The Herald newspaper in Glasgow that children with disabilities were already three times more likely to be living in poverty and were just one of the groups likely to be further impoverished by measures in the bill.

He added: "What the Government doesn't recognise is that a modest loss of income for a family already living in difficult circumstances can have a significant impact, quite disproportionate to the actual amounts involved. This is absolutely unacceptable and it also sets the Government way back in terms of the target of eradicating child poverty by 2020 – which may become impossible."

[Ekk/3]

In viewing the first anniversary of the 25 January 2011 Revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and set forth many changes that would have simply been unthinkable twelve months ago in Egypt, we should bear in mind that the deep socio-economic and technological structures of civilisations play out over long periods of time, says Dr Harry Hagopian. Here he offers a perspective on the development and prospects of those recent events in Egypt, and responses to them.

The French historian and educator Fernand Braudel used the term “longue durée” (or the plurality of historical time) to describe how changes in the deep socio-economic and technological structures of civilisations play out over long periods of time. He postulated that such shifts are as vital in determining the history of societies and nations as major political events and crises which give priority to long-term historical structures over events.

His name sprang to my mind few days ago as we all watched Egyptians in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other parts of the country celebrating the first anniversary of the 25 January 2011 Revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak and set forth many changes that would have simply been unthinkable twelve months ago. After all, not only has Egypt rid itself of a president, it has also elected a new Majlis al-Sha’abParliament). It has witnessed many demonstrations, some of them peaceful and popular whilst others bloody and violent, with the young men and women who ignited the revolution struggling to maintain the focus on their objectives in order to prevent the country from sliding into further corruption, nepotism, oppression, misrule, discrimination and top-down governance.

But there have also been fears across many communities. As the Muslim Brotherhood and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) cosy up for the next stages of drawing up a constitution and electing a president, there are indications that important cross-sections of Egyptian political and civil society might well be marginalised again. For instance, instead of just repealing the 1981 Emergency law, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi announced that the military government would limit its use of extrajudicial arrests and detentions to “thuggery”. There has also been some alarm about the continued interrogations of foreign-financed groups, including the US-based National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House, in that such moves target the much-cherished and hard-won freedoms of thought and expression that the likes of Naguib Sawiris, a businessman and founder of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, have advocated for in the ‘new’ Egypt.

Equally seriously, Egypt’s foreign currency reserves have fallen from a peak of $36 billion to about $10 billion and could even run out soon. The currency is under severe pressure, and a steep drop in the exchange rate could bring painful inflation and more social unrest. Youth unemployment is about 25 per cent, a dangerous situation where 60 per cent of the citizens are under the age of thirty - so much so that SCAF have now resurrected a loan request for a $3.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, despite the fact that there were initial fears it might infringe upon Egypt’s sovereignty and introduce further austerity measures in the country. So with mounting debts, negligible growth and dwindling foreign reserves, Egypt’s military rulers and the new Parliament face a potential crisis that could still undermine a peaceful political transition.

In the midst of all those turbulent and portentous changes, I am not at all surprised by the Statement (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/16213) issued by His Grace Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK, on the first anniversary of the uprising at Tahrir Square. This statement comes almost a month after the Alexandria Memorial Service held at the Coptic Church Centre in remembrance of all those killed in an explosion in the Church of Saints Mark & Peter in Alexandria on 1 January 2011. The statement is a thoughtful and cautious one that addresses a turning point in Egypt’s contemporary history and keeps afloat the living hope that a cohesive nation would come about once the dust of the revolution begins to settle down. I believe that the most striking sentence in this Episcopal statement is the call that the reforms - once implemented - should instil “a sense of citizenship, ownership and responsibility into every Egyptian; ceasing to focus on the person's religious or political stance, but more on his or her contribution and accountability to a single nation state and equality before the law.”

As a high-ranking Egyptian cleric, Bishop Angaelos should clearly articulate his hopes and fears. And let us be candid enough to admit that there are fears among many Egyptians - not least the Egyptian Coptic Christians (largely Orthodox, but with considerable Catholic and Evangelical communities) - that a deal between SCAF and the Muslim Brotherhood might affect radically the direction in which the country is steered in the next twelve months. After all, it seems to me that none of the potential presidential candidates who have declared themselves eligible are acceptable to either body, and many pundits have opined that the sole exception might well be Mohamed Selim Al-Aawah, an Islamist lawyer with controversial anti-Coptic sentiment and a blurred association with the regime of the ICC-indicted Sudanese President Omar Bashir.

In those past twelve months, I have often written that those ‘revolutions’, ‘revolts’ or ‘uprisings’ spell out a nascent form of Arab revivalism that has awakened ordinary peoples’ thirst for dignity, citizenship rights and economic as well as social justice in the whole Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. But how will this take shape? Perhaps one valid formula was provided by an Egyptian youth organiser who spelt out his key demands with four rhyming Arabic phrases: “An elected parliament that represents me, a president chosen by the citizens, an independent and fair judiciary that protects my citizen rights, and socio-economic policies that empower me.”

The future of Egypt remains uncertain and is fraught with unpredictable pitfalls and possible setbacks. It therefore requires a combination of political vision and birr as much as the persistent resolve to move forward and to take calculated risks whilst always avoiding the precipice. Perhaps this is one model for a reborn nation that the likes of Wael Ghoneim, author of Revolution 2.0, have called for in the past year. In fact, the popular mantra that ‘we are all Khaled Sa’eed’ posted on countless Facebook pages in memory of one victim of the Egyptian revolution applies equally to Christians and Muslims - in Egypt certainly, but across the whole region too.

However, this mammoth task can only be achieved through inclusiveness, accountability, transparency and the willingness to forgo the arrogance of power and pursue instead the necessary reforms that would entitle Egyptians - and all other Middle East and North Africa peoples - to become full citizens enjoying equally their God-given and man-made rights.

In his Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World, Jack Goldstone linked the occurrence of revolutions to slow demographic processes. This is not unlike Fernand Braudel’s concept of the “longue durée”, and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa region have certainly learnt the meaning of patience. So is it not only idoneous that we too should share that sense of patient but cautious optimism with them as we watch history unfold in front of our eyes?

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© Harry Hagopian is an international lawyer, ecumenist and EU political consultant. He also acts as a Middle East and inter-faith advisor to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales and as Middle East consultant to ACEP (Christians in Politics) in Paris. He is an Ekklesia associate and regular contributor (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/HarryHagopian). Formerly an Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Committee and Executive Director of the Middle East Council of Churches, he is now an international fellow, Sorbonne III University, Paris, consultant to the Campaign for Recognition of the Armenian Genocide (UK) and author of The Armenian Church in the Holy Land. Dr Hagopian’s own website is www.epektasis.net