News from Europe

UK churches join climate change ‘wave’

Thursday, 03 December 2009 12:46

CWM’s UK member churches have called on their congregations to join a climate change demonstration in London ahead of the UN summit next week.

Members of the United Reformed Church and the Presbyterian Church of Wales will be pounding the streets of the country’s capital this Saturday as part of The Wave Campaign.

Organised by the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, tens of thousands of people will march in a public call to world leaders at the UN summit in Copenhagen to take urgent action on climate change.

URC church rallies Cumbria flood victims

Thursday, 26 November 2009 16:40

United Reformed Church congregations from Cumbria, UK, have gathered for an emotional church service following major floods that claimed lives and damaged 2,000 homes and businesses.

Five people were killed and hundreds had to be evacuated when heavy rain caused the Derwent and other rivers from the region to burst their banks in the last week

Held at a local reception centre and open to people of all faiths, the church service provided a quiet opportunity for volunteers and evacuees to reflect on the devastation caused.

URC welcomes levy to protect the poor

Thursday, 19 November 2009 15:24

The United Reformed Church has backed moves by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to protect the poor in the current financial crisis.

The church has supported government plans to impose a global levy of half a basis point, (0.05 per cent) on currency transactions in order to create “a better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public, based on trust and a just distribution of risks and rewards.”

Also known as the "Tobin tax", the levy aims to prevent banks destabilising the foreign exchange system and in turn wreaking havoc on national budgets and economic planning for the more vulnerable.

Prison work award for PCW minister

Thursday, 05 November 2009 13:54

A Presbyterian Church of Wales minister has been commended for her work helping ex-offenders settle back into their communities after prison.

Rev Nan Powell-Davies from Mold was awarded the Special Commendation Award at the North Wales Volunteer & Community Justice Awards 2009 for going out of her way to help Welsh-speaking offenders as coordinator of the BARA (Befriending and Resettlement Agency) programme.

BARA, which is sponsored by the PCW, supports ex-offenders as they rebuild their lives outside of prison, helping them deal with issues like finding accommodation or addressing alcohol and substance misuse. It also reaches out to their families while they are away and when they are released.

Focus on rich to end poverty, says CF minister

Wednesday, 21 October 2009 11:41

A Congregational Federation (CF) minister has called on Christians to focus mission on the rich as well as the poor in developing countries in order to address world poverty.

In a report in CF's magazine The Congregationalist Rev Angela Robinson, who is working in Bangladesh, said aid donations and only reaching out to the poor gives the rich an excuse to shirk their responsibilities.

Ms Robinson said: "A lot of Christians today, not just the Bangladeshis, assume that those who have the money do not need the gospel. Or if they do they can get it for themselves, after all surely they do not have problems, it is the poor who have problems.