A teenager has become what is thought to be England's youngest churchwarden.Ben Jenkins (see photo) was appointed during a recent service at St Nicolas in Stanningfield, Suffolk.The 19-year-old said he wanted to "make a difference" to his local church and community.The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Right Reverend Martin Seeley, said it was "wonderful" to see younger people coming forward to serve their churches.Mr Jenkins was elected to the office of churchwarden at the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich's annual parochial church meeting in December.He was appointed by the Bishop of Dunwich, the Right Reverend Mike Harrison.The Church of England diocese said his appointment made Mr Jenkins the youngest churchwarden in Suffolk, and he was thought to be the youngest in England.Of his new role, the teenager said: "The church is a really important part of community life in rural areas and I want to ensure this continues. "Lots of young people my age volunteer with different organisations. I felt called to make a difference in my local church and community."
THE former Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Revd James Jones, has called for the establishment of a Royal Commission on the future of policing.Bishop Jones, who chaired the independent panel which blamed a lack of police control for the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 (Comment, 22 October), said that he had reflected on the continuing experiences of the families of the victims in their efforts to discover the truth of what happened.“It is now 60 years since the last Royal Commission, in 1962,” he said on Tuesday. “Society has changed dramatically, and the criminal landscape even more so: non-recent cases, cyber crime, child sexual abuse, international fraud, misconduct in public office, hate speech, discrimination, trafficking, and modern slavery are but some examples that call into question whether our police services are properly established for the 21st century.“Maintaining law and order in the modern world requires the police service to have the right recruitment, training, skills, expertise, ethics, emotional intelligence, and professional development. This is foundational to the pursuit of justice. Fundamentally, it will not be possible for the police service to steer the future without the benefit of the analysis and debate which a Royal Commission, operating beyond the reach of government departments, could provide.”The Bishop was speaking during the launch of <em>Towards Justice: Law enforcement and reconciliation</em>, a report by the educational charity Cumberland Lodge. It calls on police, politicians, and policymakers to take a more joined-up approach to responding to past harms, and to place the needs of victims, survivors, and their families at the heart of that.Bishop James said at the launch: “There is a change which has taken place in my lifetime. There was a time when individuals and organisations could expect to be trusted by reason of the deference shown to their role or position. That era is no more. Every organisation and individual has to earn and retain trust through demonstrating that they are speaking plainly and truthfully, and are not seeking instead to distort the truth because of the impact on their own reputation.”The Cumberland Lodge report calls for the introduction of an independent public advocate to act as a single port of call for the provision of support to those affected in often complex situations. It also backs calls for a duty of candour for serving and retired police officers, and other public bodies, noting that a lack of transparency can lead to mistrust and suspicion of cover-ups; and it suggests alternative systems of remedy, such as restorative justice.Cumberland Lodge’s chief executive, Dr Edmund Newell, said: “Underlying our report is the recognition that the passing of time is not healing for victims if injustice persists, and risks making issues more contentious, problematic — and costly — for all concerned.”
Everywhere I look – including inside myself – I see cracks. Whether it is the record of the church at safeguarding, or the culture revealed at the heart of our government, or the horrors of famine looming in Afghanistan, or the exhaustion of teachers, medics and carers two years into a pandemic, or the floods and wildfires sweeping the planet, we are cracking. St Paul speaks of treasure in fragile earthenware jars. Leonard Cohen sings of the ‘crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in’. David Attenborough shows us seeds that split open only after forest fires. I wonder how in myself, in our church, in our world, we may be cracked <em>open</em>? It is very uncomfortable – there is a lot of mess – and yet in it and through it God renews and regenerates. The woman who broke the alabaster jar to anoint Jesus was less anxious about the cost or the loss than the opportunity. Where can I turn my attention this day so that I focus not so much on the cracks but on what becomes possible through the opening? In creation, in history, in Scripture we see that this is how God works… so let’s be expectant.
Drop-in sessions at a Church of England parish, set up to provide a ‘safe space’ for people feeling anxious or lonely in the wake of the pandemic, have proved so popular that they are being expanded to cater for demand.Ric’s bench’, offering tea, coffee, snacks and a place to chat at St Richard’s parish in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, will be launching a fourth session in response to demand.Father Chris Brading, Vicar of St Richard’s, said the two-hourly sessions are attracting people of all faiths and none to the church and hall. Volunteers are coming forward from the church and the wider community, he said. The sessions are about listening, engaging with guests and providing signposting to specialist support if needed.The ‘Ric’s bench’ title is taken from a bench - actually a pew - preserved from the original ‘tin church’, that was demolished to make way for the current church building in the 1930s.The bench now sits outside the hall as a symbol of the ongoing outreach work of the church."We set up at the end of September but we had been praying about this through the lockdown."Loneliness and anxiety were clearly on the rise because of Covid."'Ric’s bench' is somewhere you can go and sit, where you can meet friends and talk to people or just sit and reflect," Father Chris said.As a result of its work running a dementia café twice a month, the parish has established links with GP surgeries in the town, and these are helping to spread the word about this latest initiative.</div></div>
