419,255 visits to this site in March - a record number.
Wednesday, April 01, 2026
Good News? - We'll Need To Wait and See.
Europe’s suicidal embrace of Left-wing judges is finally coming to an end.
Countries are reaching the dawning realisation that the ECHR should not be master of all it surveys.
.jpg)
.jpg)
CSW.
CSW.
Hi All,As we journey towards Easter – the cross and the resurrection and the hope of Jesus – I’m struck again by the scene of the last supper: Jesus sharing a meal with his friends in the shadow of his own death. This week I've spent time with pastors, Christians and communities around Colombia who are living under that same shadow. I met Pastor Marino, for example. He was sentenced to 40 lashes, was brutally beaten, and still carries the mental and physical scars to this day. His ‘crime’ was using the Bible in education and social reform programmes in his community. The shadow of death is very real for these wonderful people in Colombia. But so is the presence of Jesus with them. As you read the news below, I hope you’ll see that even though there is much darkness, Jesus is right in the middle of it. And he calls us to help bring the light and hope of the resurrection to those in greatest need. Grace and peace, | |
| |||||
 |
#EyesOnSudan – One month to go!We’re just four weeks away from handing in our petition to the Premier League, urging them to help stop the war in Sudan. They have the power to hold Manchester City club owner Sheikh Mansour – the UAE’s deputy prime minister – to account for his nation’s role in the conflict. More than 1,900 people have signed the petition so far – will you help us reach 2,000? We continue to press for action at the United Nations, UK Parliament and elsewhere, but we need your voice too. Over 30 million people are in urgent need, including nearly 15 million children. At least 150,000 have been killed, and over 13 million displaced. This cannot continue. | ||
‘Raising your voice over here makes a difference over there.’ – Mohaned Elnour, CSW’s Sudan Specialist | ||
 |
Save the date: Prayer and protest for EritreaLast year, someone commented on a video about our annual prayer and protest vigil for Eritrea, telling us to ‘give it a rest’. Because in their mind, our efforts hadn’t achieved anything. So why do we continue, even as some church leaders have been held for nearly 22 years? Because we cannot and will not forget them. We believe in the power of prayer to bring change. This May, we’ll once again stand outside the Eritrean Embassy with partners Church in Chains (Ireland), the Eritrean Orthodox Church in the UK, Human Rights Concern-Eritrea, and Release Eritrea. Will you join us? Thursday 21 May 2026, 3:30pm Embassy of Eritrea, You can also stand in solidarity using our one-page prayer guide: csw.org.uk/FreeEritrea | ||
 |
Arrested for YouTube? What is happening in Cuba?On 15 March, Pastor Rolando Pérez was arrested in front of his family after uploading a Bible teaching video to YouTube. The reason for his arrest was unclear. The next day, in another part of the country, the authorities arrested Pastor Elier Muir Ávila and his 16-year-old son Jonathan. Pastor Muir was released shortly after, but his son remains in custody. Sadly, these crackdowns on religious groups are not uncommon in Cuba. As the country faces another social and economic crisis, our blog explains: how did we get here? |
Hmm.
Prince William's diffident faith.
This is an expanded version of my column in The Times (£) today.
Prince William has made a declaration of faith. To be precise, it was actually more of a murmur of faith, a low hum or a discreet cough.
Through a briefing by an aide, the Prince of Wales let it be known that, although he “might not be at church every day” he had a “quiet” personal faith and intended to establish “a strong and meaningful bond with the Church and its leadership”.
The uncharitable will say he believes in nothing at all, but is trying to squash persistent rumours that he chafes at the prospect of becoming Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England when he accedes to the throne.
Others may sympathise with a relationship to religion that is no less genuine for being ambiguous.
People may be drawn to the church for a variety of reasons. They may find it answers a need for solace or fellowship. They may be inspired by the beauty of the liturgy or church architecture. They may value religiosity for keeping the cultural show on the road without subscribing to the faith themselves.
The late Queen was clearly a devoted believer whose faith demonstrably sustained her.
When he was Prince of Wales, the King famously said he wanted to be “defender of faith”. He seemed to believe that divisions between religions were inconsequential because they all led to the same good place in valuing something beyond the self and its material preoccupations.
When it came to it, however, he was anointed and crowned as Defender of the Faith and said he was indeed a convinced Christian.
We don’t know what William actually believes, but two generations on from the late Queen his faith seems a paler, more diffident version still.
This follows the trajectory of the Church of England itself, which for decades now has downplayed religious belief and cast itself more as the priesthood of social justice...
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
1 Peter 1. NIV.
Praise to God for a Living Hope.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
.jpg)
.jpg)
Great News.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
-
Franklin Graham preached in Glasgow, launches new fund to defend religious freedom in the UK. Staff writer Franklin Graham preaching at ...
-
7 ) ... Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8) But even if we or an ang...
-
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “M...
Much of the European political class embraces a suicidal empathy towards those who wish to destroy them. A key mechanism for this gallows ideology has been the European Court of Human Rights. But its hitherto sacrosanct position may be cracking.
Denmark and Italy last year led nine countries (the others were Belgium, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic) in writing an open letter criticising the court for blocking their efforts to deport foreign criminals and illegal migrants.
Last month, a YouGov poll of five European nations found that most Europeans in each country surveyed (59-75 per cent) support changes to the ECHR so that migrants who commit serious crimes can no longer use separation from their families to prevent deportation. This was across the political spectrum.
It’s hardly surprising these cracks are starting to show.
Through the European Convention on Human Rights, the rights of criminals are adjudged superior to the rights of the law-abiding. The rights of illegal migrants are prioritised over the rights of settled society. The rights of beneficiaries supplant the rights of the taxpayers who provide for them. Rather like an errant grandchild demanding ever more generous gifts from an impecunious grandmother, the court has indulged ever-increasing demands from the increasingly undeserving.
The enforcer of much of this self-destructive ideology has been the European Court of Human Rights. The Left-wing activism of the court has created perverse incentives, not least of which is the failure of the court in its rulings to help its member states deal with untrammelled immigration.
Bruno Retailleau, then French interior minister, said soon after his appointment in 2024 that the “rule of law is neither inviolable nor sacred…[it] is a set of rules, a hierarchy of norms, judicial control, a separation of powers, but the source of the rule of law is democracy, it is the sovereign people.” He was speaking after several criminal cases allegedly involving immigrants had shocked French society.
Needless to say his remarks were followed by the usual histrionics from the French bureaucracy, a group almost exclusively educated at the Sorbonne with as much understanding of the impact of illegal immigration as most other Leftist European politicians.
The Left-wing concept of the “rule of law” has been moulded into a deity which it is a sacrilege to criticise. But it isn’t the concept of the rule of law which is flawed – that remains as crucial as ever. Europeans are starting to notice that what is flawed is the courts which over-interpret the rule of law.
Giorgia Meloni of Italy also understands the problem. She recently held a referendum on judicial reform. Although she lost (it became a popularity poll of her own government) she had recognised the problem, complaining about “politicised” judges after they blocked her attempts to set up a Rwanda-type scheme of repatriation centres in Albania.
Eastern European countries, whose understanding of the importance of democracy is fresher than in the West, are also starting to recognise that democracy should be prioritised over the rule of lawyers. The calls will only get louder as Europe buckles under the strain of seismic levels of immigration. The court’s days may be numbered.