The London 2012 Organising Committee has given the go-ahead for a community arts project linked to the Methodist Church to feature as part of the Cultural Olympiad. LOCOG awarded an Inspire Mark – its official seal of approval – to the Outside/In project, which will see young people and adults from different parts of Newcastle telling stories about themselves, their history, culture and communities through art. The artists’ work will feature as four exhibitions at The Holy Biscuit from March through to July 2012. The Holy Biscuit (formerly Shieldfield Methodist Church) is a community arts space partnered with The Methodist Church and The Biscuit Factory – an independent art gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. Ish Lennox, Olympic and Paralympic Games Coordinator for the Methodist Church said: ‘It’s fantastic that a Methodist project has won an Inspire Mark. We are completely committed to engaging with the Cultural Olympiad. Methodist Christian Discipleship is life-long and whole life.'

Pray: for this project and all those involved in running it in 2012 and beyond. (Ps.5:12)

More: http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.newsDetail&newsid=548

More than a quarter of young women today lost their virginity when they were below the legal age of consent, an NHS survey has revealed. According to the study 27 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds had underage sex. By comparison, just four per cent of women now aged 55 to 69 first had sex when they were underage. NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: ‘The survey paints a picture of sexual behaviour which is changing over the generations, with younger women beginning to have sex younger.’ Across all age groups, the statistics show that 14 per cent of women lost their virginity before the age of 16 compared with 20 per cent of men. The average age for losing virginity was 17, although for those now aged 16 to 24 it was 16. Diane Abbott, the Shadow Public Health Minister, commented: ‘The rising numbers of girls having under-age sex is alarming.’

Pray:that ways would be found to reverse these statistics and improve moral standards. (1Cor.6:9)

More:http://www.christian.org.uk/news/one-in-four-young-women-admit-they-had-underage-sex/

Comedienne Jennifer Saunders says she does not like the sexualisation of pop music and is concerned about the effect of online pornography on boys. The actress, who is married with grown up daughters, criticised the sexual content of music videos, saying: ‘I don’t think it helps society’. Miss Saunders also commented that the proliferation of pornography on the internet is fuelling a wrong attitude towards women. She told Stylist magazine, in response to a question on pop’s sexualisation: ‘I don’t like it. I find the whole R’n’B sexual videos stuff really annoying.’ She said: ‘I think they are having to re-educate boys on how to treat women in schools, because of the internet and the amount of porn they see. I think that’s a shame.’ Last month a leading head teacher said the ‘liberal dogma of the past’ has left us with the ‘moral abyss of the present’, as she hit out at the sexualisation of children.

Pray: that more people at all levels of our society would speak out against our falling moral standards. (Jas.1:21-22)

More: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/jennifer-saunders-criticises-sexualisation-of-pop-music/

An American woman who claims to worship Norse gods has won the right to stay in Britain because of her ‘family life’ with her boyfriend and his wife. The Home Office refused Emily DiSanto, permission to stay in Britain because the law bans polygamous relationships. But now she has won an extraordinary legal case in which she is allowed to remain on the basis
of her human right to family life. Emily now shares Alan and Anne-Marie Caulfield’s marital home in south-east London with his two children – one by each of the women. The case is the latest example of how human rights laws are being used to overturn the decisions of ministers in immigration cases in what critics say are dubious circumstances. This decision also shows the definition of family life is now widening far beyond the conventional couple with children and has implications for immigrants who believe in polygamy, which is still practised in parts of the Muslim world and – illegally – by breakaway Mormons in the USA.

Pray: for God’s hand on the lives of these people and also for the courts to recognise the primacy of monogamous marriage in our society. (2Sa.22:31)

More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8963019/Pagan-wins-family-life-human-rights-case.html