An astonishing claim in Tuesday’s Times …
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
On Friday, the Commons voted by 330 to 275 to give the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill a second reading. Unusually for a private Member’s bill, it was committed to a Public Bill Committee with “the power to send for persons, papers and records” – ie, to call witnesses and take evidence.
Continuing fall-out from the Makin Review
On 28 November 2024, the Church Times indicated that in the wake of the publication of the Makin Review, the Church’s National Safeguarding Team (NST), along with a number of dioceses, is currently considering whether there is “any immediate safeguarding risk” posed by church officers and if there is evidence to support any disciplinary processes. In the summer, the NST commissioned an independent external barrister to create a “threshold document” to apply to all persons criticised in the Makin Review to see if action under the Clergy Discipline Measure is warranted. In parallel with this, dioceses are making decisions about the ministry of clergy named in the Review. A former Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, is among the clergy who have been asked to “step back” from ministry, although few formal statements are in the public domain.
A further report in the Church Times asserted that three unnamed retired “senior police officers” had refuted certain aspects of the Makin Review’s findings and said “on the basis of the information presented in the report, Archbishop Welby was justified in thinking in 2013 that proper processes had been followed”. However, when put to Mr Makin, his spokesperson stated: “Any detail on police involvement beyond what is contained in the report is a question for the police.”
Non-religious and belief weddings?
In reply to a Written Question from Freddie van Mierlo (LibDem, Henley and Thame Commons) asking the Secretary of State for Justice if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of enabling (a) non-religious belief organisations and (b) Humanists to conduct legally binding weddings as religious organisations, Alex Davies-Jones, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Victims, said:
“We are aware that non-religious belief organisations, such as humanists, have long been campaigning to conduct legally binding weddings. Given marriage is such a valued part of our society, I hope you will understand that as a new Government, we will need time to properly consider our marriage law, including the Law Commission’s 2022 wedding report, before publicly setting out our position.”
Marriage, family and succession law in Scotland
In reply to two Written Questions in the Scottish Parliament in rather similar terms on the proposed consultation on the legal age of marriage and family and succession law from Claire Baker (Mid Scotland, Lab) and Fulton MacGregor (Coatbridge and Chryston, SNP), here and here, Siobhian Brown, Minister for Victims and Community Safety, replied as follows:
“We continue to make progress on this consultation. As well as the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership, it will cover a wide range of areas: extending simplified divorce and dissolution procedures; qualifying requirements for religious and belief bodies when they solemnise marriage or register civil partnership; a Scottish Law Commission report on cohabitant’s rights following separation; and some points arising on financial provision when one cohabitant dies.
We are also preparing impact assessments in relation to this consultation. We are planning to issue it within the next few months.”
Scale, impact and outcomes?
In the course of his address to the Charity Commission’s Annual Public Meeting, its new Chief Executive, David Holdsworth, said this:
“Our research tells us, consistently over many years, that what matters to people is information about how money is spent by a charity, knowing charity achieves its purpose, makes a difference and operates to high ethical standards. Respond to this. Understand that transparency and impact reporting really do matter. Thinking about and demonstrating your impact should run like a golden thread through everything you do. We will work with you to evolve reporting requirements to make more visible the sheer scale, impact and outcomes charities achieve.”
Well, yes, but how would “impact reporting” work for faith communities? This is a serious point: an urban parish church hosting a foodbank, a mother-and-toddler group and an over-60s lunch club would find it fairly easy to demonstrate “impact”, but what would it look like for a rural chapel with a congregation of ten?
Religious minority rights
The second edition of the Atlas of Religious or Belief Minority Rights has been published. The Atlas combines quantitative and qualitative methods to measure minority rights in 16 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.
The project covers five policy areas – family, education, religious symbols, spiritual assistance, and legal status – and measures the rights of minorities through three indices – promotion, equal treatment, and gap majority-minority rights). Obviously, it does not include the UK, but, perhaps surprisingly, neither does it include Germany.
Quick links
- Stevie Martin, Strasbourg Observers: Dániel Karsai v. Hungary: further clarification of state obligations in the context of assisted dying.
- Stevie Martin, UK Constitutional Law Association: Differentiation in dying: Can limiting assisted suicide to the terminally ill be justified?
- David Torrance, House Commons Library: The United Kingdom constitution – a mapping exercise.
- Jennifer Young, Forum for Humor and the Law: Holy Moly! Blasphemy in the UK?
And finally…
This week, The Metro reported that Worshippers can now speak to an AI Jesus listening in a confession booth, a new form of Deus ex machina. The hologram of the Messiah is part of an art project at St Peter’s Church in Lucerne, which aims to start a conversation about the role of AI in religion. This is a temporary feature of the church, which has been programmed by scientists at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts to give worshippers advice (but not absolution).