Faith Digest: Charity drops ‘Christian’ from name

Charity drops ‘Christian’ from name. Christian Children’s Fund, an organization that helps needy children across the globe, has decided to change its name to ChildFund International as part of its plan to broaden its outreach. The charity was founded in 1938 by a Presbyterian minister and originally called China’s Children Fund. One of the first organizations to offer sponsorships of individual children, it changed its name to Christian Children’s Fund when it broadened its work beyond China. The new name change will take effect July 1. 

Scots consider virtual ministers. To stem a nationwide shortage of full-time clergy, the Church of Scotland is considering using “virtual ministers” who would preach over a live video link to congregations that do not have a permanent minister. The Orkney presbytery, which has 21 congregations spread over more than 10 islands, will be used to test the program by linking four congregations in the archipelago with technology similar to video conferencing. There are presently an estimated 190 full-time vacancies for clergy across Scotland, which has a population of 5.1 million. If successful, church officials say a number of congregations in some of the most remote parts of Scotland would be able to take part in the same service.

Islam on upswing among Canadian teens. More teenagers in Canada identify themselves as Muslim than with the Anglican, Baptist and United churches combined, a recent survey revealed. Project Kids Canada, which has tracked thousands of youth in an ongoing survey since 1984, polled more than 5,500 teenagers. Research showed the number of teens who identified themselves as members of “Other Faiths”—including Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and aboriginal spirituality—grew to 16 percent last year, compared with 3 percent in 1984. Muslims accounted for 5 percent of that group. While exactly half of teens in 1984 identified themselves as Roman Catholic, that number fell to 32 percent in 2008. During the same time period, young people who reported being members of the United Church of Canada dropped to just 1 percent last year, compared with 10 percent in 1984. Atheism is on the rise, with nearly a third reporting “no faith at all” in 2008, compared with 12 percent in 1984.

Britons debate cost of hospital chaplains. A British secularist group has called on the government to end public support for hospital chaplains, saying the government has no business paying the salaries of clergy. The National Secular Society sent a report to Britain’s Health Minister Alan Johnson calling for a review of hospital chaplaincy services with a view to ending taxpayer funding for them. The amount of money spent paying chaplains could pay for 1,300 nurses or more than 2,300 hospital cleaning staff, said Keith Porteous Wood, chief executive of the National Secular Society. The debate comes at a time when the major political parties in Britain are making predictions of hefty public service cutbacks in years to come because of the massive debt the government has built up.