QUOTES FROM THE MEDIA
FOOD BANK USE REMAINS HIGHER THAN PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS, TRUSSELL WARNS
LOOK OUT LADBABY, CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHOIR IS COVETING YOUR CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE
The need for food banks in the UK remains well above pre-pandemic levels, the Trussell Trust has warned. The charity reported … that more than 5,100 emergency food parcels a day were given out during the six months to September – an 11 per cent increase on the same period in 2019. The latest figures … suggest that families with children have been the worst affected. In the six months from April 2021, 935,749 parcels were handed out. Of these, 356,570 were given for children, an average of 2,000 parcels a day, compared with almost 1,700 in 2019… Winter is the busiest time of the year for the Trussell Trust, especially around Christmas. Its network of food banks expect to hand out more than 7,000 food parcels each day in December. The universal credit cut earlier this year, rising fuel costs and inflation exacerbate the situation, forcing parents to skip meals to pay for food for their children or heat the home, the charity reports. Its chief executive, Emma Revie, urged the government to strengthen the social security system and called for public donations. ‘Everyone in the UK should be able to afford the essentials – to buy their own food and heat their homes.’
Only divine intervention will stop Adele, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, Abba or the bookmakers’ favourite, LadBaby, from bagging Christmas No 1, but one unlikely artist claims to have God on side. The Church of England has released its first Christmas single, working with Classic FM to commission a new version of the carol ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’. It was composed by Rebecca Dale, who has topped the classical charts, and recorded by St Martin’s Voices, a choir at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London. Martin Hoyle, a social media performer known as LadBaby, has secured the top spot for three years... He is the favourite again this year... Bookmakers had not yet appeared to take into account the church’s offering...
The Evangelical Alliance’s Changing Church report, which surveyed 552 church leaders and 1,676 church members, reveals a significant shift in the habits of churchgoers since the start of the pandemic… The research finds that attendance at weekly in-person services has dropped by 32 per cent… This finding was also reflected in what individual respondents reported about their own church attendance, with 92 per cent saying they had attended church services in person on a weekly basis prior to the pandemic, but only 68 per cent saying they do so now. This is contrasted by a 16 per cent rise in fortnightly and monthly in-person church attendance… The research also reveals that changing patterns of church attendance have had an impact on giving, volunteering and youth work. Some 60 per cent of church leaders report a decrease in giving. Only 15 per cent said this had increased, while one in five (19 per cent) said it had stayed the same.
Church Times
Christian Today
SALVATIONIST
The Times
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Salvationist 11 December 2021
The co-director of a charity which supports refugees when they arrive in the UK says there needs to be a more Christian response to the crisis. Phil Kerton from Seeking Sanctuary says politicians should think about the individual lives of people trying to make the journey from France to the UK… ‘There needs to be a people-centred solution that is based on Christian values. If you look at the parable of the good Samaritan – he saw someone who was from a hated alien race in trouble and he made certain that he was looked after, that his needs were looked after. His first reaction was to treat the person as a human being with a humanitarian response.’ Premier
ATTENDANCE AND GIVING SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTED BY PANDEMIC, STUDY FINDS
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THINK OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN – CHARITY HEAD SAYS CHRISTIAN RESPONSE IS NEEDED TO SOLVE THE REFUGEE CRISIS
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