Tag: Church Times

Priests call for leadership and clear decisions on same-sex blessings and clergy same-sex civil marriage

UK: House of Bishops – Men in Dresses Dither Over Same-Sex Blessings in “Living in Love and Faith” Tussle! (23.12.2025)

On Friday, the Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Dr Joanne Grenfell, said that she “approached Tuesday’s meeting of the House of Bishops with the voices of LGBTQI+ colleagues and friends on my heart.

“So many have written to me to ask that the House of Bishops does not forget that our work is not just part of a church process, but fundamentally affects their lives and those of their loved ones,” she said.

The Bishop quoted a recent sermon by the Dean of St Edmundsbury, the Very Revd Joe Hawes, in which he called on the Bishops to act (News, 15 December).

Decisions “cannot be paused or stalled”, Dr Grenfell said: “There are matters of justice that need attention now, particularly around ordinands and clergy in same-sex marriages.”

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UK: Bleak Poverty Statistics "Wearily Familiar" - Joseph Rowntree Foundation! (6.2.2025)

UK: Bleak Poverty Statistics “Wearily Familiar” – Joseph Rowntree Foundation! (6.2.2025)

Larger families with three or more children have consistently faced a higher rate of poverty, it says: 45 per cent of children in large families were in poverty in 2022/23. Disabled people, carers, renters, people claiming benefits, and people in workless households were also at a disproportionately higher risk of poverty.

More recent figures were equally bleak, owing to the continued affects of the cost-of-living crisis. In October 2024, about 2.6 million of the poorest fifth of households (44 per cent) were in arrears with their household bills or behind on scheduled lending repayments; 4.1 million households (69 per cent) were going without essentials; and 3.2 million households (54 per cent) cut back on food or went hungry.

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