Humanist ceremonies made up 23 per cent of the 26,007 marriages in Scotland in 2019, while Christian marriages accounted for 22 per cent.
Just under half of all marriages were civil ceremonies, at 12,635. A number of humanist groups were among religious and other belief bodies that carried out weddings, with the most popular being Humanist Society Scotland at 3,276 and Independent Humanist Ceremonies at 1,270. The Church of Scotland carried out 2,225 weddings and the Roman Catholic Church 911.
There were 912 same-sex marriages and 83 civil partnerships last year, 50 involving male couples and 33 involving female couples.
Churches and places of worship will be exempt from the 50-person indoor limit, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said Thursday evening.
Under the latest plan, most gatherings are to be limited to 50 people indoors and 200 people outdoors from Monday June 29th until July 20th, but not for Mass and other religious services.
“The Cabinet agreed that we would make an exception for places of worship. However the specific protocol is going to be worked out with churches and religious bodies to allow more people to attend religious ceremonies. It will be very much policed by them.”
He said the move was to acknowledge the fact that there are some large churches that can accommodate more than 50 people with social distancing.
A US Department has returned to the definition of sex as male or female rather than “one’s internal sense of gender” as the Supreme Court has gone in the opposite direction in a different area of law.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on June 12th that it is “returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology”.
This means that institutions which receive federal funding can no longer be forced to provide procedures such as gender reassignment surgery.
Gregory Baylor, Senior Counsel for religious liberty group Alliance Defending Freedom, also welcomed the revision and highlighted the impact of turning away from the “objective concept of sex” in other areas such as female-only spaces and women’s sports.
He said: “Confirming the clear meaning of sex as grounded in human biology ensures that women will continue to have equal opportunities in sports, school, and work, and it protects the privacy rights of all Americans.”
On June 15th, the Supreme Court decided that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which protects employees against discrimination because of their sex is defined as including sexual orientation and gender identity. The new HHS rule regards the definition of sex under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 of Civil Rights legislation as applied to healthcare.
Labour MP Dr Rupa Huq is introducing a bill “to restrict demonstrations in the vicinity of abortion clinics; and for connected purposes.”
If it receives the support of the House, pro-abortion MPs may change tack and add a censorship zone amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill, during that Bill’s Report Stage.
If introduced, exclusion zones, sometimes called ‘censorship zones’, would effectively ban volunteers from peacefully praying and offering support to women entering abortion clinics across England and Wales.
A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson said: “By attempting to restrict where women facing unplanned pregnancies can receive compassionate emotional and practical support, the ‘pro-choice’ lobby are removing real choice for women and revealing they’re really just pro-abortion.
Divorce is one factor that can increase someone’s risk of dying early, even more than a lack of exercise, according to a study of thousands of people in the US.
Eli Puterman and his colleagues at the University of British Columbia in Canada, turned to data from 13,611 US adults, aged between 52 and 104, who had filled out detailed questionnaires about their lives and then had their health tracked for six years.
Individuals who had been through a divorce were 45 per cent more likely to die within the six-year period, for example. “It was surprising to see [divorce] so high up there,” says Puterman. “But at the end of the day, our negative relationships really do have a very high impact on our daily well-being and our health, and divorce has probably emerged from years of negative experiences with a spouse.”
Pilgrimages to Lough Derg have been suspended for the first time in 192 years due to Covid-19, the organisers have confirmed.
The pilgrimage season which usually runs from June 1st to August 15th was suspended for safety reasons because pilgrims who walk bare-footed on the island touch stones with their feet and hands and congregate in a small space.
Father Laurence (La) Flynn, the prior of Lough Derg since 2013, said that confined space on the island, both indoors and outdoors, was the deciding factor behind the decision.
“There is nothing we would wish for more than to welcome pilgrims for the Three Day Pilgrimage,” he said.
“The Lough Derg team have examined every aspect of the relevant Government guidelines and following a thorough analysis the reality was clear: the traditional pilgrimage will not be possible.”
Staff at England’s only gender clinic for children say concerns about the treatments they administered on children were shut down, leaked documents reveal.
Clinicians reported worries that some patients were referred onto a gender transitioning pathway too quickly.
In the transcripts of a review seen by the BBC, staff are damning in their assessment of some parts of the service:
“Let’s pray that I am wrong because if I am not wrong, very many vulnerable children have been very poorly treated and will be left with, potentially, a lifetime of damage here,” one says.
“The reality is, by not doing anything, children are potentially still being medically mismanaged.”
The Tavistock – like other NHS organisations – has a named person clinicians can turn to discuss specific safety concerns.
But staff allege they were discouraged by GIDS Director Polly Carmichael from going to see the Trust’s safeguarding lead, and from referring cases to social services.
A new report by UK parliamentarians warns of an “unfolding genocide” in Nigeria against Christians, highlighting the religious element behind the violence. It calls for UK aid to be linked to efforts to protect Nigerian villagers from attacks by Islamist extremists.
The new report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief, Nigeria: Unfolding Genocide?, is the result of an investigation by 100 UK parliamentarians.
It describes attacks on churches and Christians which killed more than 1,000 in 2019. A partner of Release International, which supports victims of violence, estimates 30,000 have been killed since the conflict began in the 1980s. The United Nations put the death toll at 27,000.
Forbes contributor, Ewelina U. Ochab, said there are several steps that need to be taken to address the atrocities and the APPG’s report maps these, including comprehensive investigations and prosecutions. However, she said, “the comprehensive response will not happen until we recognize, once and for all, the nature and severity of the atrocities”.
“If the Nigerian Government is blind to the issue of religious persecution in the country, it is clear that the issue will not be addressed. However, the international community cannot be blind to the reports of atrocities and must ask important questions.”
It is unfair to have a “one size fits all” rule in relation to the number of people who can attend church, according to the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
He was speaking after the Government announced Friday that at most fifty people could attend indoor events, including religious services, a decision that Dr Martin called “strange” and “disappointing”.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, the Archbishop said some churches in the diocese of Dublin are so small that they would not 50 people while others could fit 1,500.
“We’ve worked very hard to prepare churches – to put signage, to arrange stewarding, to ensure there is very little interaction and if you’ve got a church with 1,500 people and only 50 people are allowed to enter, it is surprising.
“We have to find a way in which you have some relationship between the size of the church and the number of people who will come.”
David Pierrepoint, Church of Ireland archdeacon of Dublin agreed with Dr Martin, pointing out that with some large churches, like Christchurch Cathedral it would be unfair to make “someone at the door with a clicker machine” telling people they could not enter once the figure of 50 had been reached.
A High Court judge says hospices will not be forced to provide assisted dying if New Zealanders vote to legalise voluntary euthanasia at this year’s general election.
The decision by Justice Jillian Mallon also says aspects of the End of Life Choice Act are causing confusion among health providers and Kiwis generally.
Hospice New Zealand had asked the court to rule on several questions, including whether organisations can conscientiously object to providing assisted dying, before Kiwis are asked in September to decide on what side of this debate they stand.
Justice Mallon said hospices and other organisations “are entitled to choose not to provide these services”.
“Hospices or other organisations that choose not to offer assisted dying services may employ or engage health practitioners on the basis that these services are not provided by the hospices or organisations, but it will also be necessary to have arrangements for how health practitioners can comply with their objections under the End of Life Choice Act if a request is made of them by a person in the hospice or organisation’s care.”
