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Minister: Rev Naison Hove.
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BN16 2PYRecent Posts
- Faiths leaders demand climate action at COP26 in Glasgow September 21, 2021 4:21 am
Faith leaders have joined together to demand climate action ahead of the COP26 meeting in Glasgow. The Glasgow Multi-Faith Declaration, signed by representatives of religious communities across the United Kingdom, calls for people to be “advocates for justice” ahead of the COP summit. The Revd Clare Downing and Mr Peter Pay, Moderators of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church (URC) made the declaration alongside leaders of every major Christian denomination and representatives from Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh communities. Read More … …
- Glasgow Multi-Faith Declaration for COP26 September 20, 2021 8:00 am
UK Senior Faith Leaders Archbishop Angaelos, Archbishop of London, The Coptic Orthodox Church The Rt Revd John Arnold, Bishop of Salford, and lead Bishop for the Environment, Catholic Church in England and Wales Imam Qari Muhammad Asim, Chair, Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board Malcolm M Deboo, President, Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (Inc) Revd Clare Downing and Mr Peter Pay, Moderators of General Assembly, United Reformed Church Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi, S&P Sephardi Community, UK Revd. Lynn Green, General Secretary, The Baptist Union of Great Britain Rev Sonia Hicks, President of the Methodist Church and Barbara Easton, Vice-President of the Methodist Church Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Former Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism Rt Rev Andy John, Bishop of Bangor and Senior Bishop in the Church in Wales Rabbi David Mason, representing Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra (Imam), Christian – Muslim Forum Mr. Patrick O’Mara, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United Kingdom Mrs Trupti Patel, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain Juliet Prager, Deputy Recording Clerk, Quakers in Britain Imam Sayed Razawi, Chief Imam, Director General of the Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society Rabbi Danny Rich, former Senior Rabbi and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom The Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, Head Priest of the London Buddhist Vihara Dr Natubhai Shah, Senior leader, Jain Community UK The Rt. Hon Lord Indarjit Singh of Wimbledon, Director Network of Sikh Organisations (UK) Jasvir Singh OBE, Chair of City Sikhs Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia OBE KSG, Chairman, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich and lead Bishop on the Environment, Church of England Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK Scottish Religious Leaders & Representatives The Rt Hon Lord Jim Wallace of Tankerness, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Elizabeth Allen, Clerk, General Meeting for Scotland, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Imam Sohail Ashfaque, Blackhall Mosque Lt-Col Carol Bailey, Secretary for Scotland, Salvation Army Revd David Coleman, Minister of the United Reformed Church and Chaplain to Eco-Congregation Scotland Allan Forsyth and Isadora Quay, on behalf of the Baha’i Community of Scotland Rev Bonnie Evans Hills, convener Scottish Episcopal Church Interfaith Relations Committee Madhu Jain, Hindu Mandir Scotland Revd Dr Martin Johnstone, Glasgow Churches Together COP26 Ambassador Ani Lhamo, Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist Centre Bishop Brian McGee, Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Interreligious dialogue Rev Dr David Miller, Moderator, United Free Church of Scotland Acharya Ji Mishra, Priest of Hindu Mandir Scotland Ravinder Kaur Nijjar, Advisor Sikhs in Scotland Imam Hassan Rabbani, Imam of Zia-Ul-Quran Mosque, Chair of Scottish Muslim Forum Lama Yeshe Choje Losal Rinpoche Abbot of Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist Centre Rabbi David Rose Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation Rabbi Moshe Rubin, Giffnock and Newlands Hebrew Congregation, Senior Rabbi of Scotland Shaykh Sohaib Saeed, Al-Furqan Mosque The Revd Mark Slaney Chair Methodist Church Scotland Sr. Isabel Smyth Sisters of Notre Dame & Secretary to the Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Inter-religious Dialogue Most Rev Mark Strange Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church Linsay Taylor, Muslim Council of Scotland and Chair of Interfaith Scotland Dr Srihari Vallabhajousula, Honorary Priest, Hindu Temple of Scotland, Rutherglen, Glasgow Ameed Versace, Climate Officer, Scottish Ahlul Bayt Society Revd Paul Whittle, Moderator of The United Reformed Church National Synod of Scotland Rev. George Whyte, Principal Clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Source
- The UK’s arms sales to human rights abusers September 16, 2021 8:07 am
The Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair is taking place in London this week. We believe that the 2021 DSEI event demonstrates the need a complete reassessment and overhaul of the UK government’s support for the UK arms industry, similar to that of 2007/2008 when the Defence Export Services Organisation was shut down. The DSEI arms fair is billed as one of the world’s largest arms fairs. It will host 1,600 exhibitors and admit 30,000 people through the doors of the Excel Centre in London. The UK government welcomes to DSEI military officers and other officials from countries that suppress democracy and have a history of human rights abuses. This year the government has provided VIP visas to delegations from: – Algeria Bahrain Columbia Israel Kazakhstan Oman Pakistan Philippines Saudi Arabia Turkey United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Several of these countries are perpetuating civil conflict or feature on the UK government’s list of human rights priority countries. For example, in 2019 Dominic Raab suspended new export licences to Turkey in response to its actions in Northern Syria against the Kurds. Yet Turkey has a ‘national pavilion’ at DSEI. The High Court is due to hear a legal challenge to UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia following its repeated bombing of civilian targets in Yemen leading to huge loss of life. This is the second such challenge in as many years. The UK Government’s argument that these repeated ‘isolated incidents’ do not form a pattern was rejected by the High Court in 2019. Export licences were suspended at the time but have since resumed. Saudi arms buyers will receive a particularly warm welcome at DSEI as Saudi Arabia is the UK’s largest arms export market making up some 40% of UK arms exports. The UK government’s 2019 human rights and democracy report notes that in 2018 a UN Commission of Inquiry reported on alleged violations during the demonstrations in Gaza. The Commission concluded there were grounds to believe that in 187 of the 189 fatalities of protestors, the use of live ammunition by Israeli security forces was unlawful. The UK government called for investigations into excessive use of force in Gaza and the West Bank. Yet some of the several Israeli exhibitors invited to DSEI boast in the 2021 exhibition guide that their products benefit from combat-proven experience. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade is helping to organise protest against DSEI and also against local arms fairs in other parts of the UK. In 2020, an Arms Fair was stopped by Liverpool City Council although it is now re-scheduled to be held from 11 October 2021 (see here). Arms exports are secretive and frequently corrupting. But for the government the allure of arms sales is strong. Tax-payers money is invested in supporting DSEI and the speaker programme always features government ministers and top UK military officials. The disproportionate support for arms exports through the DTI’s UK Defence & Security Exports costs us millions every year. It comes at the expense of support to other export sectors (see table on page 29) and needs to be brought to an end. The DSEI arms fair with its worrying cohort of military ‘VIPs’ demonstrates this only too well. =============================== <!– –> Source
- Introducing Ryan September 15, 2021 1:53 pm
Blog · 15th September 2021 According to my mum, when you asked me as a child what I wanted to be as an adult I would reply (un-ironically) “Prime Minister!”. Whilst my lofty ambitions have tempered somewhat since then, politics, the way it shapes people’s lives and opportunities, remains extremely close to my heart. I am especially passionate about issues surrounding child poverty and seeking solutions to this injustice. I have been involved in a number of educational projects volunteering with young people from economically deprived backgrounds. I also had the opportunity to work on a project last summer, which carried out research surrounding the impacts of Covid-19 on education and its part in deepening inequality. I am driven by a desire to ensure the dignity of the people that systems of wealth and power often forget. I have just graduated from studying theology at Cambridge which taught me so much about myself. Primarily, I discovered that I am really very bad at New Testament Greek! More importantly, I became convinced that to be a follower of Jesus is about so much more than turning up at church or speaking the right Christian language to your peers – it is about building the Kingdom. In Jesus, we meet someone who welcomes the stranger, who loves his enemies and gives generously. I was once told by a supervisor at university that I had to “cut the compassion” in my essay about Jesus. Yet, the more I read of Jesus, the more I am resolved that love and compassion are right at the core of who he was. To build the Kingdom, then, is to seek to realise this compassion at every level of society, from the relational to the political. This duel belief in the power of politics and a faith in a compassionate Messiah have led me to JPIT. I cannot wait to get stuck in as the Labour parliamentary intern this year. Thus far, most of what I know about the inner-workings of politics comes from watching The Thick of It. So I am excited to gain an insight into this fascinating world (and hopefully be part of a kinder, gentler politics). With JPIT I will be particularly throwing myself into work around the Nationality and Borders Bill and thinking about what it looks like to truly welcome the stranger. JPIT’s commitment to justice and the dignity of each individual is what gets me up in the morning (and on the train to Marylebone). <!– –> Source
- Meet Beth September 15, 2021 11:40 am
Hello! I’m Beth, and I will be one of the JPIT/House of Commons Interns for this year. I’m from Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. I have moved to London in the last couple of weeks to start working for JPIT. I love the outdoors and getting to explore new places, so I am excited to get to do that again now that things are opening up! I really enjoy singing and leading worship in my local church, and I love playing games and reading too. I have always deeply cared about justice and been moved and distressed by stories of injustice in the UK and around the world. However, I have often not known what I can do to stand up against injustice and let my voice be heard. That is a big reason why I applied to work for JPIT. I want to learn how we, as Christians, can together unite our voices for change in the name of Jesus. I love the local church, and how together we can play an active role in bringing hope to our communities. Whilst at university I moved into a missional community where we sought to get to know our neighbours, understand the challenges they faced and share with them about Jesus. This experience taught me so much, from the joy of getting to know my community and build lasting friendships to the struggles of working families trying to make ends meet. It showed me how policy changes really do affect people’s lives and how political shifts often affects those who have the least the most. Political decisions really do matter. I became even more convinced of this when I spent some time working for Christians Against Poverty (CAP). I saw how they use their voice and expertise to call for fairer debt solutions and a better system, so that people can avoid falling into debt in the first place. This taught me that we, as Christians, do have a voice and can affect positive change when we unite together and speak up together for a fairer and more just society. I’m delighted to be joining JPIT as one of the JPIT/House of Commons interns for this year. I hope to continue to learn how we, as followers of Jesus, can ‘work for peace and justice’. <!– –> Source
- Introducing Matt September 15, 2021 10:52 am
Blog · 15th September 2021 I am delighted to be joining JPIT as the Team Intern for 2021-22. Having followed the excellent work of the team for a while now, I am excited to be contributing to their output myself over the coming year. I will be the face behind much of JPIT’s social media content, as well as working on projects such as climate campaigns and ethical banking. I’ll also be taking on production of the brilliant Politics in the Pulpit podcast. Raised a Christian, I enjoyed church but often felt an urge that my faith should have more to say to the great issues of injustice and suffering I saw in the world around me. This led me towards studying politics at university. I felt that politics was a powerful channel for action to create a more just society that enabled, rather than diminished, human flourishing – a key concern of Christian faith. As I tried (and failed) to answer the big questions of justice, freedom, and power, I came to understand that politics has few, if any, satisfactory solutions. This reminded me once again that our hope is in Christ and Christ alone. Yet, it is an inescapable fact that we are political beings. We exist and are embodied in communities and cultures. Our stories and struggles are interwoven with those of our fellow citizens, bound up in a common life that requires governance. How, then, should we act politically? Christians identify as ‘citizens of heaven’, but as earthly ambassadors of that heavenly reign, how can we best represent Jesus in our politics? I wanted to explore these questions further, and so I enrolled in the SAGE Graduate Programme at the Jubilee Centre. This provided me with a strong biblical basis for Christian engagement in all areas of public life. While studying there, I developed an interest in attempts to bring the means of change, power, and agency closer to everyday citizens through emerging ideas like community organising and citizens’ assemblies. Having engaged with the intersection of faith and politics intellectually, I am now very excited to be actively working in that space with an organisation like JPIT. I believe that successful change happens not only by engaging stakeholders and key players at important institutions, but also by building momentum from the ground up. In JPIT’s case, this means the members of our associated churches. I look forward to working at both of these levels as we strive together for peace and justice. Outside of work, I enjoy playing and watching sports, listening to music, and consuming a wide range of podcasts. The photo above is from my most memorable gig, the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy at the Royal Albert Hall. I hope to take full advantage of living in London to see plenty of live music and sport over this year! <!– –> Source
- Explainer: Social Care September 14, 2021 6:12 pm
Following the government’s announced social care reforms in September 2021, JPIT’s Paul Morrison provides a guide to some of the issues involved. What is social care? Social care covers a wide umbrella of services to people of working age as well as the elderly. It varies from light touch support to help people stay active and engaged in their communities, to regular personal care visits to help with washing or dressing all the way through to long term nursing home care. For some, the care is simply essential for life, and for many more social care offers the opportunity to maintain a dignified and connected life. Good social care can transform lives, but bad or absent social care can ever so quietly close people off and strip them of their dignity. Both good and bad care often go unnoticed by all but very close friends and family. Who gets social care? Adult social care is used by adults of any age whose needs[1] are assessed to be significant enough to warrant support. The service is particularly needed by people of pension age who account for two-thirds of the 800,000 individuals receiving long term care, and just under over half of all social care spending. This does however mean that support for working age people with disabilities or impairments forms a sizable and often overlooked component of social care. Why does social care need reform? The case for change falls into three broad areas of concern[2]: 1. There are not enough social care services available to meet the need: Local authorities in England receive around 2 million new requests for help each year, and for a variety of reasons reject around 42% of them. The number of requests is steadily rising, levels of reported disability are rising, but the numbers receiving long term care are steadily falling. Other surveys indicate that 1.5 million over 65s who need and are entitled to care do not receive it. Increasingly stretched local authorities have had to spread their resources more thinly. You only need to talk to families who have dealt with the care system to know that the effect of this is to make it much harder to ensure loved ones are cared for with dignity. The system can appear to be a confusing, guilt inducing maze. Unfortunately to ensure good care families are often required to have sufficient money to top-up the basic care packages on offer, and/or the ability to put their case to the local authority persistently and well. 2. Care staff have persistently been undervalued: There are around 1.5 million people working in the care sector. In Scandinavia, care work is viewed as a profession with progression, training programmes, and wages at around three quarters that of a nurse’s. In the UK care work is viewed as a low paid, low skill occupation with a limited career pathway. By 2019 average pay had slipped back relative to other low paid jobs, and for example is now below that of retail assistants. The job can be difficult and demanding and given the low pay and status we cannot be surprised that each year almost 1 in 3 carers leave the profession (for home care workers it is nearer 1 in 2), and that recruitment is a persistent problem. Even if not financially rewarding, care-giving can be a hugely rewarding job. However, when surveyed, three quarters of domiciliary carers said that cost pressures meant they did not have time to provide dignified care. 3. For some people care is very expensive, even to the point of needing to sell their home to pay for it: Unlike the NHS, social care is not free when you need it. Essentially if you have assets of over £23,250 then you must foot the full cost of care, and may need to pay a proportion of costs if you have assets below this threshold. The ‘housing disregard’ means that if you need to continue living in your own home, the value of your property is not counted in your assets, but if you move into residential care it does then count. Fees for care can quickly become substantial, and the government estimates that 1 in 10 adults over will face costs of over £100,000. What reforms are being proposed? The Command Paper contains 3 sections. The first about the NHS, the second about social care and the last about a 1.5% rise in National Insurance contributions to be branded “the Health and Social Care Levy”. The increased tax will raise an additional £11 billion[3] but to be divided between the NHS and the social care sector. Changes to means tests: There is a fairly detailed answer to the issue of families needing to pay high fees for care. It sets a cap where once a person has paid £86,000 they will not be asked to pay any more for their care. The means test is also restructured, so that if you have assets of less than £20,000, no care fees are payable; between £20,000 and £100,000 a contribution of disposable income and up to £20,000 per year may be charged; and over £100,000 the person must pay full costs. The annual cost of this will be around £1.6 billion, but this is not additional money to the sector to improve services – local authorities will lose some fees from people with assets, but they are replaced by money from National Insurance contributions. Few specific commitments to social care: Ironically for an announcement billed as ‘fixing social care’, beyond the funding reforms, there are very few commitments to change or even provide additional funding to social care. The paper says encouraging if familiar things about the system and promises that a White Paper will be forthcoming, however the only money it specifically offers the sector is £160 million per year to provide a helpline and other support for care staff. For context, the care system costs £23 billion a year, and the Health Fund estimates […]
- Why fixing social care will take more than funding reforms September 14, 2021 6:10 pm
From the reporting of last week’s announced reforms to the social care system in England, you might be forgiven for thinking that the key issue was National Insurance contributions, or broken election promises, or even grand political gambles. Fascinating as this is (for political nerds like me at least) it is a serious problem that in the one week when social care is at the top of the news agenda, remarkably little attention has been given to those who need its help or do the hard work of delivering care day to day. What is even more troubling is that the Command Paper presented to Parliament introducing the changes to social care goes into huge detail on the tax issues (including a section on the rather niche issue of freeports) without telling us much about how the extra money will improve the quantity or standard of care available to families in need. Huge demand, but often overlooked Around two million new requests are made to local authorities in England for social care each year. However, despite its huge scale and importance, social care has never had the recognition, funding or public support afforded to the NHS. Perhaps this is because unlike the NHS only one in seven of us have direct contact with social care services any given year[, or perhaps it is because it provides unglamorous care we hope we will never need ourselves, to people who we would prefer not to think about. For whatever reason, social care has been politically easy to forget. The Dilnot Report from which the main ideas for the current reforms are drawn was published over a decade ago, and was commissioned because by 2008 the social care system had been widely regarded as increasingly inadequate for a decade before that. The report was widely welcomed, but despite frequent political promises to “fix social care”, the reality of the next decade was that the sector was forced soldier on in the face of increasing need and dramatic cuts in funding. The Covid pandemic then threw fresh attention on the challenges faced by the system. Need for reform The case for change falls into three broad areas of concern. First, there are not enough social care services available to meet the need. Secondly, care staff have persistently been undervalued and poorly paid. Finally, for some people care is very expensive, even to the point of needing to sell their home to pay for it. The government’s reforms focus on addressing the third of these concerns. It has changed the system for paying for care, introducing a cap on how much people will have to pay for their care costs, funded through tax increases. Broadly this is better for those with assets of £20,000, but for those with less, very little changes. For those with large amounts of savings or assets, perhaps a property in an expensive area, the system provides assurance that this wealth will be protected. I understand why that is important for many, and depending on how this assurance is paid for, it could be just. Tackling injustice However, there are many other injustices about the social care system which warrant attention. More than 1.5 million people need and are entitled to care but are not receiving it – leaving many people who could thrive if only their care needs were met. Workers are often poorly paid and not treated fairly, and not all care is of the quality people deserve. Women disproportionately bear the burden of care, both as low paid workers and as unpaid carers taking up the stain caused by an inadequate care system. There are racial injustices as ethnic minorities report less access and satisfaction with the care system, and carry out a greater proportion of low paid care work. I could go on. We do not yet know how much money these reforms will provide for the social care system, but even if it was the entire £11 billion that will be generated by the planned tax increases, it would still be £15 billion short of spending the same proportion of national income on social care as in Scandinavian countries. Beyond the funding reforms, there are very few commitments to change or even provide additional resources to social care. Changing means tests and providing a one-off above-inflation funding increase is certainly not going to be enough to “fix social care”. Find out more: Read Paul’s explainer on the social care system [1] either as a person receiving care or a family member helping with arrangements <!– –> Source
- Leaders say new protest bill ‘attacks rights of citizens’ September 14, 2021 11:07 am
The Revd Clare Downing, Moderator of the United Reformed Church General Assembly, has joined more than 350 church and civil society leaders in expressing concern about government proposals to restrict protest and increase police powers. In an open letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, released last weekend, the leaders voiced concern about several aspects of the wide-ranging Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill: its impact on the right to protest, the threat it poses to Traveller communities, and fears that increased policing powers have the potential to entrench racial injustices in the justice system. It also highlights the very…
- Power and protest September 13, 2021 8:59 am
Church leaders have joined representatives of hundreds of civil society organisations to express concern about government proposals to restrict protest and increase police powers. As consideration of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill begins in the House of Lords, they have written to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, urging a fundamental rethink of approach. The letter voices concern about several aspects of the wide-ranging Bill: its impact on the right to protest, the threat it poses to Traveller communities, and fears that increased policing powers have the potential to entrench racial injustices in the justice system. It also highlights the very limited amount of parliamentary scrutiny that the proposals have so far received. Signatories include the President of the Methodist Conference, the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, and a Moderator of the United Reformed Church’s General Assembly, alongside representatives of Liberty, Friends of the Earth, the Quakers, Christian Aid, Tearfund, and 350 other organisations. Peaceful protests play an important function in a democracy. This legislation would create confusion and make protest more difficult to organise and difficult to police. Proposals to create a new criminal offence of trespass would have a particular impact on Gypsy and Traveller communities, as well as criminalising those who are homeless or wild camping. Read our briefing on the Bill and the nonconformist tradition of protest “It is better to protest than to accept injustice” – a blog from Christian Aid about the Bill <!– –> Source