Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 20th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

5. What assessment the Church of England has made of recent trends in the number of vocations.

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

The number of people selected for training for ordained ministry within the Church of England has been stable for some time. However, the age profile of serving clergy means that larger numbers are retiring, leading to an overall decrease in the number of active clergy. The Church seeks to address that by increasing by 50% the numbers training for ordained ministry: an increase from about 500 to 750 by 2020.

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

That is an A* answer, but how can we do even better?

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

Quite simply, we need to make it easier for people who feel the call to enter ministry to do so more flexibly. The Church offers not only a three-year residential course to become an ordained minister, but part-time peripatetic provision. As a result of the apprenticeship levy, resources will be available to the Church for people to learn on the job. That should make it a whole lot easier for people to enter ministry.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 19th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

Speaking out about injustice is precisely what Church leaders do, and they do it well. When the Archbishop visits, I am sure that he will look closely at the injustice that the hon. Lady described. It is scandalous that infant mortality is increasing in the occupied territories when, on the whole, it is in decline around the world. The Church supports the Anglican Al Ahli hospital, where 1,000 children and more than 15,000 adults are treated, so we give practical support to the territories.

[Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)]

There is an increasingly militant settler movement that treats Palestine like its own biblical theme park. To what does my right hon. Friend attribute the radical decline in the numbers of Palestinian Christians living in the west bank?

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

Both my right hon. Friend and the hon. Lady have the advantage over me in having actually been to the occupied territories. I have not been there. Sadly, there is a huge pressure on Christians in the middle east. About 8% of the population of the middle east is Christian, with 80% concentrated in Egypt. As we saw at the Open Doors launch in Parliament last week, religious persecution is one of the main drivers of out-migration.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Caroline Spelman

Wednesday 16th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swayne]

The first thing is that we have gone to war with Daesh, and that is a very significant contributor. Equally, we are supporting the UNHCR and a number of organisations that are principally funded through the Iraqi national action plan and the Iraq pooled fund, to which we are the largest contributor.

[Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

Some of us met a delegation of Yazidis yesterday who explained the plight of almost 2,000 women still held captive. Would the Minister be willing to meet that delegation to hear at first hand of the difficulty they have in reaching help?

[Mr Swayne]

I have met a number of Yazidi delegations and, indeed, a number of representatives of other religions. I would be delighted to meet my right hon. Friend and her delegation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Caroline Spelman

Wednesday 28th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Swayne]

As the hon. Gentleman observes, there are no refugee camps in Lebanon—I have visited the settlements in the Bekaa valley—and it is precisely for that reason that we support UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to make the provisions that we are paying for.

[Mrs Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

Are persecuted Christians and other religious minorities able to get into the camps, and will they be able to remain within them and take winter refuge?

[Mr Swayne]

I have visited camps that are specifically for Christians, but I would be reluctant to make any kind of aid provision specific to a religious confession, because that would be to pour combustible material on a conflagration that is already in progress.