Church Issues

• Church of England protected abusers rather than the abused. A damning report has found that for decades the Church of England failed to protect many children and young people from sexual predators, preferring instead to protect its own reputation. From the 1940s to 2018, hundreds of clergymen, or others in positions of trust associated with the Church, had existing convictions of sexual offences against children. Read more here.

Society & Politics

• ‘Protect the vulnerable, but end all lockdown measures’. Scientists and medics from the world's top universities have penned an open letter calling for the UK and US to allow people who are not at high risk to live normally. They state that countries should build herd immunity to Covid-19 by letting it spread in young people. Read more here.
• Christian preacher wins civil injunction over preaching in the streets. A High Court in Somerset has ruled in favour of Christian preacher Michael Overd following an attempt by local police to restrict his freedom to preach in the streets. Read more here.
• Thousands to be vaccinated by Xmas? Documents leaked from the NHS reveal plans to develop five major vaccination centres across Britain, along with and a fleet of mobile units, injecting tens of thousands of the public every day. Read more here.
• Nicola Sturgeon ‘forgot’ crucial sexual allegations meeting. In a significant story almost entirely overshadowed by news of further Covid restrictions, Scotland’s First Minister has insisted she ‘forgot’ about a meeting in which she was told about harassment complaints against Alex Salmond. Opposition MSPs said she had clearly ‘misled parliament’. Read more here.
• Teaching assistant sacked over RSE comments loses tribunal case. Kristie Higgs, who was dismissed for sharing concerns about teaching young children about LGBTQ+ relationships on social media, has lost her case. Read more here.

World News

• World Evangelical Alliance confronts Turkey over expulsion of Christians. In what is seen as a worrying trend of increased Islamification in Turkey, it was recently noted at the UN Human Rights Council that over the past two years, 60 or more expatriate Protestant Christians in Turkey had been denied residency, arbitrarily and without due process. Read more here.
• Anti-Christian attacks increase across India. In a country guaranteeing constitutional freedom of religion, open discrimination against Christian believers continues unabated. Several recent violent crimes against Christians, incited or perpetrated by Hindu nationalist extremists, occurred in Chhattisgarh state and in Jharkhand State. Read more here and here.

Upcoming Events

‘Becoming Overcomers’ – more webinars in the ‘Relevance for Today’ series.
A second interactive webinar course of nine sessions is planned for Issachar Ministries on Wednesday afternoons, to start on 14 October 2020. Click here to see and hear more from Clifford and Monica Hill, who will be giving input on the Seven Churches of Revelation. You can reserve your place with Jacqueline on 07759 042 315 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .