<div id="paragraphs-text-151007"><div><div>LLF is a set of resources exploring questions of human identity, sexuality, relationships, and marriage, launched on 9 November 2020.All 42 dioceses have appointed ‘LLF Advocates’, who are enabling churches to engage with the LLF resources in ways appropriate to local contexts.More than 85 percent of all dioceses (36) will have held an ‘LLF taster’ event day for clergy and lay people by the end of the month, with more than 5000 people participating in these so far. Since the launch of LLF, requests for the resources have also been unprecedented: more than 13,000 copies of the LLF Course have been distributed whilst the LLF book has been reprinted three times since publication due to strong demand. The LLF resources – which include a 5-session course for local groups – are designed to facilitate open, honest, and gracious learning and discussion among churchgoers across the country.LLF draws together the Bible, theology, science, and history with powerful real-life stories, in what is understood to be the most extensive undertaking of any church to hear and articulate as wide a range of voices, lived experiences and theological understandings as possible in this area.The LLF process of listening and learning together is not expected to be an easy one – but these strides are encouraging, and we thank all LLF Advocates for inspiring others to engage with openness, kindness, compassion, and grace. Bishop Sarah Mullaly, Chair of the Next Steps Group said: “There is a hopeful momentum as church groups have started to engage with the resources and are beginning to feed back through the online survey as well as in creative ways."The Next Steps Group is committed to continuing to support and listen as engagement begins to proliferate across the Church.” LLF Enabling Officer, Dr Eeva John, said: “It has been a privilege to have offered facilitation training for over 350 people."Learning about and sharing good practice is giving people the confidence to lead small groups in a way that deepens understanding and relationships even across disagreement about such sensitive and personal matters."A number of groups have engaged already online, while others plan to engage in the autumn when restrictions are lifted.”
THE mother of two women who were murdered last summer by a 19-year-old man says that she has already forgiven their killer, but warned that he could become radicalised while in prison.A former Archdeacon of Southend, the Ven. Wilhelmina (Mina) Smallman, was reacting to the guilty verdict reached on Tuesday in the case against Danyal Hussein, for the murders of Bibaa Henry, aged 46, and Nicole Smallman, 27, in Fryent Country Park, in north-west London (News, 19 June 2020).Mrs Smallman spoke about her daughters to the Radio 4 <em>Today</em> programme on Wednesday: “When we hold hatred for someone, it’s not only them who is held captive, it’s you, because your thoughts become consumed by revenge. I refuse to give him that power. He is a nonentity to me.”Hussein stabbed the two women to death in a random attack in the early hours of 6 June last year. A note found in his grandmother’s house, addressed to a demon and signed in his blood, stated that he planned to kill six women every six months, and in return he expected a lottery win.The detective who led the investigation, Detective Chief Inspector Simon Harding, said: “I firmly believe he would have carried out his contract. He would have carried on killing women, until he had killed the first six. . . He is a very, very dangerous individual.”Hussein had been referred to the Government’s counter-extremism Prevent programme for researching far-right material when he was 15, but was discharged after a year. Mrs Smallman said: “If this young man does have this tendency, when he goes into prison he is going to be even more radicalised. He’s a killer now; he’ll be a killing machine by the time he comes out. It’s up to those who assess who is due for release how they are watched and monitored.”
Only yesterday we posted a message on this website from the Rt Reverend Andrew Watson. The Bishop of Guildford revealed how during his three month study period a cornerstone of his day was the Church of England's Daily Prayer podcast.The Daily Prayer podcast, which is also integrated into the free Daily Prayer app, brings listeners together three times a day for short traditional services of Morning, Evening and Night Prayer, usually led by the Revd Catherine Williams from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire.The atmospheric services follow the pattern set out in the Church of England’s Common Worship services, with readings recorded by people around the country and music from St Martin’s Voices, one of the choirs of St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.Earlier this week the podcast, which was launched in March, surpassed 500,000 downloads, with around 8,000 people listening a day, either alone or in small groups. Traditionally, the daily cycle of prayer was most associated with monastic communities but during the pandemic many more people have found support and a sense of belonging through online worship. The Bishop of Gloucester, Rachel Treweek, said: “I'm delighted to see that the Daily Prayer podcast has had half a million listens - helping holy habits to become part of our daily rhythm amid life's joy and pain, activity and rest. “Whether people pray alone or alongside others, this podcast is an easy way of being united in prayer with brothers and sisters in Christ as we share the same words, and open ourselves to encounter God in prayer, silence and Scripture. “Together, yet in different contexts and carrying different stories, we are participating in a pattern of prayer which has been practised down the centuries.”Daily Prayer is the latest in a series of prayer and discipleship apps and podcasts available from the Church of England.Last year they were accessed eight million times, up 50 per cent on the previous year as the pandemic triggered a major change in the way Christians worship.Many cathedrals and local churches also broadcast morning and evening prayer as well as traditional services such as evensong, attracting a new virtual congregation both from their own communities and around the world.
