A selection of recent news stories to aid your prayers.

Society & Politics

• Half of Brits pray: A new survey suggests that 51% of British adults pray, and a fifth of those have no religious affiliation. Read more here.
  
• Labour anti-Semitism continues unabated: The head of the Jewish Labour Movement has accused the party’s leadership of failing to deal with the virulent anti-Semitism within its ranks. Meanwhile, as a call to ban Hezbollah was introduced to Parliamentary debate this week, Labour MPs were briefed internally to reject it.
  
• Co-op offers quicker, easier divorces: Co-op’s new online divorce service may cut the time it takes to get a divorce by as much as half. Read more here.
  
• Manchester bans pro-life protests: Manchester becomes the second local authority, after Ealing, to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics, citing ‘harassment’ from pro-life demonstrators. Read more here.

Church Issues

• CofE and Methodist merger? Members of the General Synod will debate next month whether or not to adopt a priest-sharing arrangement with the Methodist Church, to help ‘sustain a Christian presence’ in the nation. Read more here.
• CofE decides not to create trans liturgy: Bishops have agreed to use existing liturgy to mark gender transition instead – to mixed response from clergy. Read more here.

World Scene

• China cracks down on Christians: Registered churches are being subjected to tighter controls and unregistered churches are being shut down or demolished, and believers arrested, as the government seeks to tighten its grip on Christianity in the country. Read more here. Christians make up some 7% of China’s 1.4 billion population.
  
• No room in Canada for pro-lifers: According to the PM Justin Trudeau, Canadians can hold whatever views on abortion they like…so long as they are not pro-life. Read more here. Meanwhile, this week Trump has proclaimed 22 January ‘National Sanctity of Life Day’.

Israel & Middle East

• Abbas calls on EU to recognise Palestine: The PA President has been meeting with 28 EU foreign ministers this week and pled on Monday for the bloc to recognise Palestinian statehood. Read more here.
  
• Pence: embassy move by end of 2019: Speaking to the Knesset, the US Vice-President announced that the move of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will be complete by the end of next year. Watch the full speech here.
  
• Gaza on the brink of collapse: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has warned that conditions in the Gaza Strip are so dire, that the enclave risks disease outbreaks and could soon collapse completely. Rivlin placed the blame fully at the door of the Palestinian leadership. Read more here and here. Meanwhile, PA President Abbas has just acquired a new luxury private jet – for $50 million.

Upcoming Events

• The P Word Conference (Cardiff): Saturday 27 January, 10:30am-4pm, Freedom Church, Cardiff. A practical Christian response to pornography for all leaders. In partnership with CARE. For more information and for tickets, visit pwordconference.com.
• Day of prayer for the UK's relationship with Israel (London): Saturday 17 February, 10am-12:30pm, World Harvest Christian Centre, South Norwood, London SE25 5NQ.
• Lobby Day for Israel (London): Wednesday 28 February, 10:30am-5pm. Help make the case for Israel in Parliament this 70^th anniversary year. Click here to book. For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
• Foundations 9 (Cumbria): 19-23 March, Grange-Over-Sands. Theme: 'Into the lion's den: reaching a world gone mad'. Steve Maltz's annual week-long Hebraic conference. £260 per person. Click here for more information and to book.

Recommended Sources

At Prophecy Today UK we are aware that the world is moving very quickly and it is difficult to keep up with all the latest developments – especially when the material circulated by our mainstream media is increasingly far from reality and definitely not devoted to a biblical perspective!

Though we are not a news service, we want to help keep you informed by passing on updates and reports as we are led. This will be a selective, not an exhaustive, round-up, which we hope will be helpful for your prayers. Click here to browse our News archive.

We also recommend the following news services for regular updates from a Christian perspective:

• Christian Concern (UK)
• Christian Institute (UK)
• JNN News (Barry and Batya Segal, Israel)
• Worthy News (Israel)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
• Kehila News (Israel)