Reaching out to Lily Allen

Pop singer Lily Allen has often spoken out angrily against the church and religion, even putting these strong feelings into a song on her album ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’. So it comes as a surprise that she recently revealed a compassionate vicar was instrumental in assisting her to cope with the loss of her unborn baby and in inspiring her to get married in a church.

Allen informed Elle magazine during an interview how their local vicar in Cranham, Gloucestershire, reached out to her and fiancee Sam Cooper after they lost their baby boy at six months.

“People wouldn’t have thought I’d have a church wedding, but since I had the really traumatic experience last year, our local community all pitched in,” she said.

“We hadn’t been there long, but after the news got out we received flowers and really heartfelt, beautifully written cards.

“Our vicar said a similar thing had happened to his family, so he would come over and sit with me. It feels really nice. We feel protected.”

Allen said that on her wedding day she was able to announce that she was expecting again.

Global survey finds that a majority of people believe religion is important

A new Ipsos MORI poll has discovered that religion is still important to seven out of ten people globally. The survey investigated the views of over 18,000 people across 24 countries, including both developed and developing countries.

The survey also found that there was a notable difference between Christian and Muslim-dominated countries when it came to the role faith played in everyday life.

In Muslim-majority countries, 94% of those with a religion agreed that their faith was important in their lives, compared to 66% in Christian-majority countries.

61% of people in Muslim-majority countries believed their religion was the only true path to salvation compared to 19% in Christian-majority countries, while 61% of people Muslim-majority areas were likely to give time and money to others in need because of their faith compared to only 24% in Christian-dominated societies.

Interestingly enough, 73% of youth (people under the age of 35) around the globe affirmed that faith was important to them.

Chief executive of Ipsos MORI, Ben Page said: “The survey is a good reminder to many in western Europe of how much religion matters – and is a force for good – in much of the world.

“Our analysis shows people would rather keep politics separate from religion, but that in a globalising world, it still matters more than many in old Europe think.”

The former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, a practising Catholic and patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation was impressed by the results of the survey.

“This survey shows how much religion matters and that no analysis of the contemporary world, political or social, is complete without understanding the relationship between faith and globalisation," he said.

“The evidence is that, though people fear the prospect of religious strife, even here in Britain, there is much to encourage the view that people can learn to respect those of another faith and live with them peacefully.

“Inter-faith dialogue and action today is not just an interesting but peripheral minor subject, it is the essence, central to creating greater social cohesion and harmony.”

Royal couple join prayer service

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, in the midst of a Royal tour of Canada, attended a prayer service with 200 sailors on board the Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal.

The couple spent the night on board the ship in the captain’s quarters before joining the interdenominational prayer service that lasted 45 minutes and interceded for the Queen as well as the couple themselves.

Prince William and Kate then visited an organisation that works with at-risk youth called Maison Dauphine.

Prince William told the children from the centre: “Don't ever let people put you down – because a prince looks up to you.”

UK sends £38m to assist starving Ethiopia

Spiralling food prices have worsened a food crisis in Ethiopia caused by a severe drought, and in response Britain has promised £38m in food aid to the struggling east African country.

There are approximately 3.2 million Ethiopians in need of food aid, and this grant from the UK will feed around 1.3 million for three months.

The donation was announced by International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who urged other countries to supply similar assistance.

“Through no fault of its own, the Horn of Africa is experiencing a severe drought caused by the failed rains,” he said.

“Britain is acting quickly and decisively in Ethiopia to stop this crisis becoming a catastrophe. We will provide vital food to help 1.3 million people through the next three months.

“This situation needs an international response and Britain is calling on the international community to provide fast, effective relief.”

The entire region of the Horn of Africa is experiencing their driest conditions in 60 years putting around 10 million people at risk of starvation.

Christian Aid has also been appealing for water and food to affected villages and families.

“The crisis has been building for some time, especially in Kenya and Ethiopia, and is fast escalating across the region,” said Nick Guttmann, Christian Aid’s humanitarian director.

“People are desperate and if we don’t act now we could be looking at one of the worst humanitarian situations the world has seen in a long time.”

Purpose Driven pastor backs the Church as best way to combat AIDS

The author of ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ and pastor of one of the biggest churches in the world, Rick Warren, has stated that in the battle against HIV/AIDS, the local church is the "single fastest way to mobilize at the grassroots level around the world."

In an article for CNN, Warren detailed exactly why he saw the church as the "world's most powerful weapon against AIDS."

Warren began by pointing out that the church has the largest distribution network on the planet.

"There are more churches in the world than all the Wal-Marts, McDonald’s and Starbucks combined. The church was global 200 years before anyone else thought of globalization. We could take you to thousands of villages around the world where the only institution to speak of is a church," argued Warren.

Secondly, Warren said that the church is growing more quickly than even the HIV/AIDS infection rate. The church gains 35,000 converts daily in China alone while there are 7,000 new people infected with HIV/AIDS every day.

Finally, Warren emphasised that "these church members have a non-profit motivation to serve. We are commanded by Jesus Christ to 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Warren has already sent out 14,869 members of his church to 195 nations in the world as part of a Christ-centered humanitarian program called the P.E.A.C.E. Plan.

The acronym for the plan is based on the five actions Jesus modeled: Promote reconciliation; Equip servant leaders; Assist the poor; Care for the sick; and Educate the next generation.

Warren has previously stated that he aims to mobilize 1 billion Christians worldwide to participate in the P.E.A.C.E. initiative.

New software sheds light on Biblical authors

New software developed by team from Israel is generating new understanding on the various authors and editors of the Bible.

Scholars and theologians have long known that the Bible was written by a number of different authors, and that some texts have been rewritten to fit into a larger editing process or particular theological emphasis.

Now software that uses an algorithm to examine texts from the Bible is being used to analyse style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible it is able to find different author’s voices in the larger work.

The program forms part of a sub-field of artificial intelligence studies known as authorship attribution, and is providing interesting food for thought. One of its more interesting findings is that the traditional scholarly division of the Bible between different authors is about 90% correct — effectively recreating years of work by multiple scholars in minutes.

"We have thus been able to largely recapitulate several centuries of painstaking manual labor with our automated method," said Moshe Koppel of Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, the computer science professor who headed the research team.

One interesting point of difference is that scholars have always known that Isaiah was written by two different authors, with the second taking over from Chapter 39. However, the software results show that the second author actually takes over a little earlier, from Chapter 33.

The differences "have the potential to generate fruitful discussion among scholars," confirmed Michael Segal of Hebrew University's Bible Department, who was not involved in the project.

Baseball star saves church

New York Yankees baseball star Mariano Rivera has agreed to buy and renovate a crumbling century-old church building in the city of New Rochelle, N.Y.

Rivera agreed to become part of this project alongside other members of his Spanish-speaking church, Refugio de Esperanza.

In terms of the agreement they have entered into with the city, Rivera’s congregation will lease the building and restore it at no cost to the municipality, and then buy it for $1.

The church was originally built in 1907 and once housed the biggest Presbyterian church in the area, but has since fallen into such disrepair that it is considered a safety risk. Experts say it could cost up to $3 million to properly restore but Rivera wants it nevertheless.

During a press conference announcing the project, New Rochelle's Mayor Noam Bramson spoke highly of the North Avenue church facility, describing it as “a much beloved structure that's had a significant role in New Rochelle's history.”

“Today, we are here to observe and to celebrate an agreement that will bring the church back to its former luster, and with its original purpose, as a house of worship,” he told the Associated Press.

Bramson also praised Rivera, saying that the closing pitcher is thought highly of “for his skill and grace and for his deep faith.”

Rivera, who is a previous resident of New Rochelle and owns a restaurant there, said: “We have a lot of goals that we want to fulfill, but the main goal right now is to restore the church. You know, make the church the way it was before.

“The moment that I saw the church I fell in love with the church,” he added.

Once the facility is fully renovated, Rivera was looking to use it to minister to youth in the area. “I love the youth,” he said. “I always say that that's the future. That's our future.”

Lohud.com reports that Rivera informed them his church would hold after-school programs and possibly even sponsor a youth baseball team, thus combining his two passions.

“The game is my job, but life continues,” Rivera said. “Baseball will stop one day and I will have to step up. This is what I want to do.”

(Image from Wikipedia.com).