Churches offer homeless rolling night shelter
Twelve churches in Tower Hamlets have clubbed together to open a rolling night shelter for homeless people in the East London borough. The GrowTH project is offering homeless people a safe and warm place to sleep seven days a week until the end of February. Participating churches are taking it in turns to open their doors to guests from 7.30pm and provide a hot dinner in the evening and breakfast the following morning. Tony Uddin, of Tower Hamlets Community Church, is one of the project organisers. He said the churches were inspired to set up GrowTH because of the gap in service provision for local homeless people in their area. ‘Our volunteers’ generosity means that we can make a real difference this Christmas and throughout the winter,’ he said. ‘It is important for churches to be involved in the local community and our initiative is proof that we can make a real difference and implement the much publicised Big Society ethos.’
Pray: for this and similar initiatives across the country and that the Gospel message will be lived out in practice. (Pr.28:27)
Boris Johnson launches FareShare depot
On Tuesday the Mayor of London Boris Johnson opened a new food depot in London that will distribute more than 300 tonnes of surplus food a year - the equivalent of 800,000 meals - to charities, instead of clogging up landfill sites. The FareShare depot was made possible by a £362,000 grant from the London Waste and Recycling Board. It will focus on rescuing surplus and still perfectly edible food from organisations within London and redistributing it to support some of city’s most disadvantaged people, helping to reduce the amount of food being sent to landfill. The Mayor Boris Johnson said: This inspiring project will have a genuine impact helping vulnerable people.
Pray: that the Government will adopt policies that will not lead to people losing their homes. (Mt.25:37)
Christmas omitted on EU school diary
The European Commission has come under fire for producing more than three million copies of an EU diary for secondary schools which contains no reference to Christmas. More than 330,000 copies of the diaries, accompanied by 51 pages of glossy information about the EU, have been delivered to British schools as a ‘sought after’ Christmas gift to pupils from the commission. But Christians have been angered because the diary section for December 25 is blank and the bottom of the page with Christmas Day is marked only with the secular message. While the euro calendar marks Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivities as well as Europe Day and other key EU anniversaries, there are no Christian festivals marked. If the commission does not mark Christmas as a feast in its diaries then it should be working as normal on December 25.
Pray: against the authorities that keep undermining the Christian faith. (Ps.28:18)
Christmas omitted on EU school diary
The European Commission has come under fire for producing more than three million copies of an EU diary for secondary schools which contains no reference to Christmas. More than 330,000 copies of the diaries, accompanied by 51 pages of glossy information about the EU, have been delivered to British schools as a ‘sought after’ Christmas gift to pupils from the commission. But Christians have been angered because the diary section for December 25 is blank and the bottom of the page with Christmas Day is marked only with the secular message. While the euro calendar marks Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivities as well as Europe Day and other key EU anniversaries, there are no Christian festivals marked. If the commission does not mark Christmas as a feast in its diaries then it should be working as normal on December 25.
Pray: against the authorities that keep undermining the Christian faith. (Ps.28:18)
