Ruth Gledhill - Times Online - WBLG

Pakistanis use Facebook to fight Taliban terror

Heartening story in today's Sunday Times about how Pakistanis in Swat are using Facebook to coordinate resistance to the Taliban terrorists.

'As chief minister of Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif is charged with holding off the insurgents and protecting its 82m people. Staff say he works from 7am to midnight. He looks exhausted.

“There’s no doubt that one of their aims is to penetrate into Punjab as well as to stop the operation in Swat,” he said. “But I think finally the whole nation is behind the concept of not allowing the insurgency to cripple our society.”

In his view Pakistan is paying the price for years of oppression of its poor and needs a social revolution. Pointing out that the Taliban won public support in Swat by demanding an Islamic justice system, he said: “To think in a society thirsting for justice that people will look away from such a movement is fooling ourselves.”

World's 'cutiest' priest becomes an Anglican

Father Alberto Cutié, the Roman Catholic priest who has been a cause of some international scandal since captured on film cuddling his girlfriend, now his fiancé, on a beach, has been accepted into The Episcopal Church in the US. It is likely he will go on to become an Episcopal priest. As The Lead reports, Father Cutié and his fiance were received into the worldwide Anglican Communion by the Bishop of Southeast Florida, the Right Rev Leo Frade, a fellow Cuban. He used his first sermon in an Episcopal Church to preach on forgiveness.

Irish Catholic child abuse: was English rule ultimately to blame?

A senior Spanish government minister has criticised the Spanish cardinal Antonio Canizares who said  'What happened at some schools cannot be compared with the millions of lives that have been destroyed by abortion.' Canizares is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. A full translation of his original remarks is provided by Chris Gillibrand of Cathcon has today written a guest essay for this blog, below, in response to the terrible events in Ireland. He makes clear how truly complex the roots are of institionalised child abuse and offers reassurance that even for the dead abusers, there is judgement at the hands of God. Read also a superb article in The Tablet describing the true horror against humanity of what went on in those institutions. One victim reports: 'They raped me on a Saturday, gave me an unmerciful beating afterwards, and then gave me Communion on Sunday. My God.'

Exodus in reverse, a taste of wilderness

The Israelites were forty years in the wilderness after managing to get out of Egypt. After just four days trying to get in I was starting to wonder if we might be heading the wrong way. Difficulties with passports entirely of my own making combined with the grounding of a Monarch plane saw us on Thursday, four days after our original flight had departed, stranded at Gatwick early in the morning with an entire day to wait before we finally took off. The many who have experienced such a fate in recent years will understand that it is not an exaggeration to describe an airport for a stranded passenger as a modern wilderness, especially if children are involved. The shops, the endless junk food, the sleepless blue chairs, the irritating buzz of the tannoy announcing every flight but your own - Ozymandias could have built these trackless wastes.

Oh Church of Scientology, pray what art thou?

 Scientology in France is currently 'on trial' for alleged fraud. The BBC World Service pegged their latest Have Your Say programme to this and invited me on to discuss the question 'What is Scientology?' with listeners around the world. I've never before spent two hours on air doing a live phone-in without a break. Exhaustion doesn't begin to cover the effect of such a stint. Read the programme's own blog here with more than 100 comments about this issue.

Of moats and beams

'Why are MP's still allowed to sign for someone's passport?  It says on the form that the signature must be someone with high morals and a benefit to society,' asks a reader in our story today on David Cameron and Gordon Brown's attempt to clean up Parliament. This reflects the currently prevailing assumption that a minority of bad apples means the whole barrel is rotten, the assumption I believe the Archbishop of Canterbury was trying to address in his article for us last week. He was adamant in his article of the need to expose and reform. Ekklesia even commissioned a poll which they argue challenges the Archbishop's views. It is likely that Dr Rowan Williams would agree, as would most people, that a clean-out of some MPs and more independents could help rather than harm democracy.

Men-nuns on the run

See this story in today's Sun. These men ended up in court in Crete, for failing to treat religion with due respect. Is it just me, or does the one in the middle look a bit like Gordon Brown? Perhaps they'd have been ok if they had supped with longer skirts.

Archbishop Nichols: Tony Blair 'lacks experience' of Catholic life

Superb interview by Dominic Lawson in today's Sunday Times News Review with the new Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols. It is clear that Archbishop Nichols is going to be a great Catholic leader unafraid to speak his well-considered mind. Lawson begins: 'All things considered, I imagine Archbishop Vincent Nichols would rather a report detailing decades of abuse of Irish children at Catho-lic-run institutions had not been published on the eve of his installation as head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Nichols is the church’s most media-savvy operator, but his sure touch seemed to have deserted him last week, when, after an admirably forthright declaration that the abuse was “a scandal” and that those responsible should be prosecuted, he praised the “courage” of those in the church who had “faced these facts from their past ”'

Archbishops plead: 'Don't vote BNP'

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have today urged voters not to show their anger with MPs at the coming European elections by voting 'in favour of any political party whose core ideology is about sowing division in our communities and hostility on grounds of race, creed or colour.' Robert Piggott this morning did a good report on the BBC.

Kirk stands by gay minister

The unity of the Church of Scotland could be at stake tonight as the General Assembly has upheld the appointment of the openly-gay Scott Rennie election to Queen's Cross Church in Aberdeen. Pink News reports that Rennie has the backing of ten 'evangelical' groups. Stewart Cutler has precise details. Looks like Thurible was among the first with the news.

To be a pilgrim for a day

The latest Times walks are now being promoted, including one fantastic outing where picture editor Paul Sanders is leading would-be photographers to the spectacular waterfall near Llangollen in Wales. Mine on 25 July is along the North Downs Way, turning off to Aylesford Priory, where the friars have allocated some time to us in the chapel afterwards for prayer, reflection and discussion. (There is also a classic car gathering in the fields around the Priory that weekend to be gloried in, more later on that.)

Archbishop of Canterbury: 'Stop humiliating our MPs.'

The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a stern warning against the 'continuing systematic humiliation of politicians.'

It takes true courage to call for an end to a witch hunt when the dogs are in full cry. Christian Courage is one quality Dr Rowan Williams possesses in full. See our news story with Times video where Danny Finkelstein of Comment Central and I have our say as well. Matthew Parris has also had a go.

Cardinal Cormac: 'Atheism the greatest of evils.'

The outgoing Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, made a contribution at the end of Archbishop Vincent Nichols' installation that was at once touching, funny, serious and extreme. He said, rather controversially perhaps, that a lack of faith is 'the greatest of evils.' He blamed atheism for war and destruction, and implied it was a greater evil even than sin itself. Read the report running as a page lead in today's paper. Bess Twiston-Davies wrote a nice At Your Service for online.

Hacks - 'you're just small beer!'

Update: see our report here, the rather wonderful occasion overshadowed by his remarks on the Irish child abuse report. In his homily, the Archbishop pledged himself to a battle against the advancing tide of secularisation and a defence of faith. 'Faith in God is not, as some would portray it today, a narrowing of the human mind or spirit. It is precisely the opposite. Faith in God is the gift that takes us beyond our limited self, with all its incessant demands,' he said. Citing St Paul, he said that faith was not only compatible with the mind’s capacity for reasoned thought but complemented it. 'Some today propose that faith and reason are crudely opposed, with the fervour of faith replacing good reason. This reduction of both faith and reason inhibits not only our search for truth but also the possibility of real dialogue,' he added.

Rape, torture and beatings: in Ireland, the Roman Catholic cover-up goes on

The new Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols has condemned those responsible for the terrible litany of abuse unveiled a few minutes ago in Ireland and has demanded that they be brought to justice.

His is a lone voice though. Few others in the Church seems to be commenting, from the Vatican down. No perpetrators have been named or shamed. There will be no criminal prosecutions as a result of this report. What an utter, disgusting, unforgivable scandal. No wonder the brother of one of the victims, pictured here, is so upset.

Will the Church survive this revolting saga? Will we ever know the true tally of evil in this unredeemed catalogue of sin?

Read David Sharrock's reports from Ireland here, here and here and prepare to be very, very angry.

If you can get through, the full report is downloadable here.

Education: Archbishop pushes church schools

This video shows the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams speaking up in support of church schools for the Church of England's new resource, Christian Values 4 Schools.

Lombardi in London: 'The Internet is truly blessed!'

The address last night by Papal spokesman Father Frederico Lombardi at Allen Hall, the Westminster seminary in Chelsea, was what I imagine hearing Jesus' own Sermon on the Mount have been like. Read our news story here. Blessed was Regensburg, blessed was the condoms story, blessed was Williamson, blessed might even be the net. We weren't quite all blessed. The truly reviled - press, radio and television - were merely 'paths towards blessedness'. But if we all work a little harder, he made clear, then one day we might all be truly blessed.

Revolution begins: within reason, given faith, God is back

In the Times Review section on Saturday, I was incredibly fortunate to be given the chance to review Terry Eagleton's new book, 'Reason, Faith and Revolution', and 'God is Back' by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, serialised in The Times. Soon I hope to interview John for my next CEN column. Given that the authors had tea with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams while researching the book, and that the Church of England has just lost £1.3 billion or nearly a quarter off the value of its investments in the credit crunch, I am interested in what he's got to say about if and how the established Church can capitalise on this renewed interested in its 'leader', aka God. In the meantime, below is the last column for the CEN which also touched on some of these issues. Check out this interview in New Humanist as well.

A plot for gods at the end of the rainbow

According to this story just in from AFP and also running in the Norway Post: Norwegian worshippers of the ancient Norse gods are to get a special burial site in Oslo.

The new grave will be shaped like a ship, and cremation urns of ashes of followers of the 'old religion' will be  'buried' there.

The special space in one of the city's cemeteries was requested by the Bifrost fellowship. In Norse mythology, bifrost is the rainbow bridge that connects the realm of the gods, asgaard,  to earth. It means the 'tremulous way'.

Pope's visit to Israel 'great success'

Mordechai Lewy, Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, has told me that the Pope's visit to the Holy Land should be regarded as a great success. What a relief. It's not over yet, quite, but just meditate for a second or two on how many things could have gone wrong, and didn't, and it surely makes a person believe it the power of prayer. The Anglicans, meanwhile, have been indulging in some depressingly-predictable Israel-bashing at their own all-expenses paidtwo-week bash in sunny Jamaica, leading to some pretty strong criticism from Anglican Friends of Israel, as we report.

Cardinal Cormac says 'goodbye'

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, back on his feet and well again after his brief stay in hospital, is pictured here as he bids farewell to Archbishop's House in Westminster.

Presbyterian minister in anti-gay Nazi sermon rant

Presbyterian minister Rev Ian Watson has preached a long sermon against the 'Nazi' style-tendencies of the liberals in the Christian churches, a perversion of the truth that gays were, like Jewish people,  among the main victims of the Nazis. He was speaking as a member of Scotland's evangelical grouping Forward Together. Read Mike Wade's report from Scotland. Target of his attack was the Rev Scott Rennie, of Queen's Cross parish in Aberdeen, a divorced minister who lives openly in the manse with his male partner. This is a controversy that's been ongoing for a while. It's due to be debated at the upcoming General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. More than 10,000 people have now signed a petition to the assembly against Mr Rennie's appointment to Queen's Cross.

Muslim appointed head of religion at BBC

Aaqil Ahmed, the innovative and interesting programmer responsible for Channel 4's recent Christianity: A History series, has been appointed the first Muslim head of religion at the BBC, as we report today.

Jews, Christians and Muslims write 'open letters' to Pope

This is the inscription above the plaque about wartime Pope Pius XII that is in the Holocaust Museum and that Pope Benedict XVI will avoid seeing when he visits Yad Vashem while in Israel this week. According to Vatican commentator John Allen, 'one core aim of Benedict XVI's journey this week is to re-introduce himself to the Muslim world, clearing away the debris from what he conceded this morning is "the burden of our common history." The drama is whether this 82-year-old pontiff, who has sometimes had his problems with public relations, is able to pull it off. It seems he might be. A Jordanian prince has already welcomed his liberalising of the Latin Mass.  Follow the Pope's pilgrimage by reading our reports from James Hider and others at TimesOnline's faith page. But also you can do no better than follow Luke Coppen, editor of The Catholic Herald, on Twitter. And to grasp just some of the challenges confronting 'B16', as Twitterers refer to him, read No Going Back, a collection of 35 letters to the Pope from leading Jewish, Muslim and Christian men and women published by the Holocaust Centre to coincide with his arrival in Israel. The letters, written on the basis of what each author would say if given five minutes with the Pope, is edited by Catholic nun Carol Rittner and Stephen Smith, chair of the Holocaust Centre.

Michael Nazir-Ali: Anglicans must 'look to Pope for unity'

As the Covenant process seemed to sustain something of a blow in Jamaica I was enjoying a the kindly light of  Oxford's Newman Society at the Catholic Chaplaincy, where Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester who recently announced he is to retire to work with persecuted Christians, was speaking about the future of the Anglican Communion. The bishop was interviewed before he spoke by Michael Webb. Read on for some of my notes on his speech. 

British Muslims '100 per cent' against gay acts

The new Gallup Coexist Foundation poll out today on Muslim integration shows the huge gulf of understanding that exists in the UK between Muslims and non-Muslims. This seems to have little to do with religiosity, however, and to be more culturally based. Read our news report here.

'Mutual respect' is what the report called for, it says, but makes no recommendations on addressing, for example, the apparently universal abhorrence for homosexuality among British Muslims in particular.  

But more worrying is where it reveals the extent to which Britain's Muslims are not 'thriving'.

Cardinal in hospital but 'back on his feet soon'

Prayers please for the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, in hospital for eight days so far but hoping to be out in good time for the installation of Archbishop Vincent Nichols as his successor at Westminster Cathedral in two weeks.  The Cardinal, aged 76, the only Archbishop of Westminster so far to retire, was admitted to hospital in Leeds at the start of the bishops' conference meeting on Tuesday last week. He had suffered a recurrence of an infection he suffered a few years ago. After massive doses of antibiotics he was deemed well enough after the weekend to be transferred to London, although the illness forced him to miss the installation of Michael Campbell as Bishop of Lancaster last Friday.

Archbishop of Canterbury 'Chaos and division' in all around we see

 

This beautiful image of the opening communion at the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica sadly belies what has followed. We've had the Archbishop of Uganda writing a pleading letter about his excluded clerical representative. And now the Archbishop of Canterbury himself has warned of the 'chaos and division' within the Anglican Communion threatening to derail the Covenant process, according to reports coming out of Jamaica this evening. Below you can read for the first time online the full text of the Windsor Continuation Group report to this meeting, and also the draft resolution of the Windsor Consultation Group to the council, a model of restraint and charity but with some potentially sharp disciplinary teeth lurking beneath the inevitable acronyms and jargon.

Racism in football: 'Out, out, out!'

During an international friendly match in Italy in 2006, more than 60 visiting Croatian fans formed this human swastika. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other racism in football cannot be dismissed as an eastern European or anything-but-British problem. As we report today in The Times, the MP John Mann who chairs the Parliamentary Committee on Anti-Semitism has also been placed in charge of a Football Association task force. And this group, that reports at the start of the next season in August, is expected to recommend a system of tribunals to assess off-pitch problems, including racist abuse by fans or, at junior level, parents. Clubs found guilty could face bans, or even losing points, ultimately costing them relegation, a place in Europe or even the Championship itself back at home.

Strangers who hope to become citizens

Faith communities from across Britain met in London today in support of a campaign to integrate hundreds of thousands of 'undocumented migrants' into British society. The campaign has received enthusiastic backing from Britain’s major faith communities who joined together at a rally in Trafalgar Square. Simultaneous services were held in churches and other places of worship throughout the capital as Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders came together to address a crowd of about 20,000, double the attendance of the last Strangers into Citizens event in May 2007. Duncan Brown, a graduate of City University journalism course who is working at The Times this week, has filed these photographs and this report from the Strangers into Citizens rally .

Covenant: Is this an instrument to castrate Gafcon?

As the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams leads discussions about Anglican unity in Jamaica, heavyweight theologians are battling it out over the internet. Is the Anglican Covenant an instrument to castrate conservatives, or a stick to beat liberals? As Jim Naughton's The Lead reports, already the meeting is dissolving into acrimony as the Anglican Consultative Council refuses to let a Ugandan Church clergyman take a seat at the table because he happens to be one of the US conservatives who has 'realigned' with the African province. And Drexel Gomez, West Indies primate who was one of the architects of the covenant in the first place, this morning gave a presentation to the council where he warned the communion is at 'breaking point'. Read today's news story in The Times.

Girl aged 8 gets divorce from 50-year-old man

In Saudi Arabia, a girl of eight whose father gave her to a friend in settlement of a debt has been given a divorce at the third attempt.

As we report today, the case has reopened the debate in Saudi Arabia on whether a minimum age for marriage should be introduced. 'After the first two petitions failed, the Saudi newspaper columnist Amal al-Zahid wrote: “The trafficking of child brides — a most reactionary practice that takes us back to the days of concubines [and] slave girls” should be outlawed. She added that the country was incurring “behavioural abnormalities and problems of which only Allah knows”.'

This picture is not of the Saudi girl, who remains anonymous, but of a Yemeni girl, Nojoud Nasser, also married off at eight and now successfully divorced. Read on for her story.