Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nigel Huddleston and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 24th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Nigel Huddleston (Mid Worcestershire) (Con)]

8. What steps the Church of England is taking to use technology to promote its values and beliefs over the Christmas period.

[The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Dame Caroline Spelman)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his timely question as we prepare for the arrival of Advent this weekend. The Church of England will launch a new website—www.achristmasnearyou.org—on 1 December to help the 2.7 million members of the public who attend church over Advent, and the 2.5 million people who attend at Christmas, find their nearest church service or celebration.

[Nigel Huddleston]

How are churches being encouraged to use social media to share the message of Christmas, and what is the take-up of social media by churches in constituencies such as mine?

[Dame Caroline Spelman]

Some 23,000 services have been added to the website by more than 5,000 parishes. It might interest hon. Members to know that it has filters, so, for example, disabled parishioners can find out how easily they can access a church, and there is a filter for those who wish to know whether mince pies and mulled wine will be served. The social media campaign also includes a video in which Mr Speaker’s very own chaplain makes her important contribution under the hashtag #joytotheworld. I recommend that we all watch that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Nigel Huddleston and Caroline Spelman

Thursday 5th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Spelman]

This kind of fund provides very small grants to communities, which are used to meet a range of pressing social needs, including employment skills, environmental work, homelessness, healthy eating projects and so on. It is significant that 71% of those projects have continued to run after the funding has ceased. It is precisely because of the diverse backgrounds of the seasonal workers in Lincolnshire—many are from the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church—that such grants could facilitate the cohesiveness of the society in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

[Nigel Huddleston (Mid Worcestershire) (Con)]

4. What discussions the Church Commissioners have had with Christian communities in Iraq on the future of those communities.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

7. What discussions the Church Commissioners have had with Christian communities in Iraq on the future of those communities.

[Mrs Spelman]

In March, the Bishops of Coventry, Leeds and Southwark, who play a leading role for the Church on international development issues, travelled with Christian Aid to Iraqi Kurdistan, where they met internally displaced people from Iraq and refugees from Syria, and saw at first hand the pressures that Christians in those communities suffer.

[Nigel Huddleston]

I appreciate the good work that the Church Commissioners are doing with the Christian communities in Iraq. What role are they playing in communicating the outcome of those discussions back to Government, and indeed congregations in the UK, and is there more that concerned Christians in my constituency can do to show the strength of feeling on that important issue?

[Mrs Spelman]

Yes, immediately upon their return the bishops, with their first-hand knowledge, wrote to the Foreign Office, drawing its attention to the persecution suffered by the Christians in those countries. In order to inform our congregations, many of us have Church-based non-governmental organisations who have produced excellent briefing documents, which are shared with parishes up and down the country so that they can pray in an informed way. I have written to the Foreign Office about what is effectively genocide, particularly of the Yazidi community, and I recommend other like-minded Members of Parliament to do the same.