Church of England and Same-Sex Blessings
In November 2023, the Synod of the Church of England narrowly passed a motion to trial “special stand-alone services” for blessing those in same-sex partnerships. This is to be for two years while debate on their ongoing status continues. However, can we realistically expect that after the two years’ trial period the pilot will be rescinded? I think not!
Rev John Dunnell, National Director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), stated; “CEEC is grieved and saddened that the General Synod passed a motion earlier this afternoon to continue with the implementation of the bishops’ proposals. These proposals depart from a biblical understanding of sex and marriage.”
Bishops of the Anglican Network in Europe urged the House of Bishops to repent, saying, “This action is offensive to the God of love. It replaces His
wonderful gospel of grace with a dislocated message, blessing what God calls sin. This is heartbreaking, wicked and outrageously arrogant.” The above quote, from the Anglican Network, adequately sums up what Bible-believing Christians hold to be true. FRD
Foetal Sentience
Lord Moylan, an English Conservative politician, has set out a Foetal Sentience Committee Bill in the House of Lords, where it received its first reading. The purpose of the Bill is to create a committee which will, on an ongoing basis, be a source of scientific expertise on the sentience of the human foetus (its ability to experience sensations) in the light of the rapid increases in scientific knowledge relating to the development of the unborn child. (Medical science has, of course, advanced significantly since the 1967 Abortion Act.) The Committee would also inform policy making.
In 2019, in answer to a question asked in Parliament on the subject of spinal surgery for spina bifida babies in the womb, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Jackie Doyle-Price, answered that innovative treatment would be routinely available on the NHS for the first time. Pain relief would be delivered in the course of an operation, and the foetus would be monitored during the procedure by ultrasound to check the heart rate. This would be done between 20 and 26 weeks of gestation. This is in sharp contrast to the destruction of a healthy foetus, which is not given this consideration and is provided no pain relief.
The organisation, Right to Life UK, has commented that the killing of “protected animals” from “two-thirds” of gestation is subject to tighter legal regulation than unborn human beings aborted at the same stage. An example of the recent improvements in this area of medical science is that the survival rate for extremely premature babies has doubled over the last decade, for which there is new guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine that enables doctors to intervene to save premature babies from 22 weeks’ gestation.
Lord Moylan’s Bill must pass through another reading in the House of Lords before being passed to the House of Commons for consideration. We should pray that the Bill will become law, that the proposed committee will be set up and that its advice to government will have a moderating effect on our legislators, and primarily, lead to a compassionate regard for the unborn child. FRD
The Scourge of Islam
Islam dates from the early seventh century and spread rapidly in the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt was captured by Islamic invaders in 639 AD,
but remained predominately Christian until the twelfth century. Farther west, however, North Africa soon became overwhelmingly Muslim. Modern-day Turkey was part of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire but it started to succumb to Islam in the eleventh century, and the capital city Constantinople (now Istanbul) was captured in 1453. The spread of Islam was connected with serious doctrinal error in the Christian Church. Arianism, which denied the Divinity of Christ, had overrun North Africa, while Byzantine Christianity had largely degenerated into the worship of icons.
The spread of Islam in Europe was checked from the Reformation onwards, but it resumed in the twentieth century, and most major European countries have rapidly increasing Muslim populations. The name Muhammad (in various spellings) has been the most popular name for baby boys in Britain in 2023; and the demographics show that in 25 years’ time probably a fifth of the people in Germany will be Muslim.
The Lord is scourging atheistic Europe with this false religion, and none of the countries know what to do about it. Their atheism has blinded them, to the extent that they can hardly even admit that there is a problem. To make such an admission is regarded as a mark of extreme right-wing politics. Instead, the people in power occupy themselves with “diversity”, “gender”, “transgender”, “climate change” and, ever more, abortion. Yet the examples of North Africa, Syria and Turkey show us that Islam is not only intolerant towards atheism but has little regard for the existing history and culture of the nation. The whole European heritage is in jeopardy, and Britain’s precious Christian heritage along with it. It is sad to watch the process but it is what we deserve. If we provoke God with our atheism and rejection of Christianity, we are the ones who will suffer. “Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? (Jer 7:19). DWBS