Our pick of the week's happenings to inform your prayers.

Society & Politics

• Reviews into proposals to ban pro-life protests: Both the Home Office and Ealing Council are holding consultations to explore public attitudes to a ban on pro-life protests outside of abortion clinics. Click here to find out more – you may be able to contribute.
  
• BBC promotes multi-partner relationships: An article and a programme put out by the BBC this week portrayed so-called ‘polyamory’ in a positive light, framing it as ‘not limiting love’.
  
• LGBT-inclusive Maths lessons? Stonewall releases guidelines for secondary schools encouraging pro-LGBT ideology to be integrated across 12 different curriculum subjects. Read more here. Meanwhile, Spiked magazine has issued its ‘Free Speech University Rankings’ for 2018 – and things haven’t improved on last year.
  
• Government refuses to sanction sharia courts: Home Secretary Amber Rudd has responded to a recent report into the parallel Islamic legal system, saying that the Government will refuse to recognise or encourage it. Read more here.
  
• Ocado drops blasphemous product after outcry: Following complaints, online grocery shop Ocado has stopped stocking a variety of beef jerky named in such a way as to blaspheme the name of our Lord Jesus, and has issued an apology. Read more here. 

Church Issues

• Voices of the Silenced ‘silenced’ by Vue: The premiere of the Core Issues Trust film which questions LGBT dogma was cancelled at short notice by its host, Vue cinema in Piccadilly, after outcry from pro-LGBT campaigners. Christian Concern led a protest in response and the film was shown successfully at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster.
  • Our evangelist friends Syd and Liz Doyle have sent word that their daughter and her husband have received nasty abuse from LGBT campaigners, as part of a wider backlash against their Michigan church. Watch the pastor’s gracious response here. Please have them in your prayers.
• Anti-Semitism in Church: CUFI exposes rampant anti-Semitism being promoted in a St Albans Methodist Church under the guise of a pro-Palestine talk. Read more here.
  
• CofE faces over 3,000 abuse cases: The Synod meeting put a special focus on abuse this week as an overwhelming number of complaints were dealt with in 2016. Meanwhile, as the Church continues to liberalise its stance on sexuality, GAFCON is encouraging faithful Anglicans to be courageous and leave. Read more here.

World Scene

• Germany to compensate Algerian Jews: The German Government has agreed this week to recognise 25,000 Algerian Jewish Holocaust survivors as eligible for compensation, offering them a one-off payment. Read more here.

Israel & Middle East

• Escalation in Syria and Lebanon: Iran, Turkey and Russia have all been angered this week by losses of their own forces and resources in Syria and Lebanon, through targeted air-strikes from the IDF and the US. Meanwhile, the Assad regime has reportedly been carrying out multiple chemical weapons attacks on citizens in the Damascus area, in what could be termed a genocide. The remarkable events this week all point towards a coming war with Israel. See this update from Middle East commentator Amir Tsarfati for a fuller explanation.
  
• Israel’s own migrant crisis: As Europe has struggled to deal with the arrival of thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, so Israel is facing a migrant crisis of its own – and the government’s response so far has been controversial. Read more here and here.

Upcoming Events

• Marriage Week: 7-14 February. Theme: Think Ahead! See the official website.
• Day of prayer for the UK's relationship with Israel (London): Saturday 17 February, 10am-12:30pm, World Harvest Christian Centre, South Norwood, London SE25 5NQ.
• Lobby Day for Israel (London): Wednesday 28 February, 10:30am-5pm. Help make the case for Israel in Parliament this 70^th anniversary year. Click here to book. For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
• Foundations 9 (Cumbria): 19-23 March, Grange-Over-Sands. Theme: 'Into the lion's den: reaching a world gone mad'. Steve Maltz's annual week-long Hebraic conference. £260 per person. Click here for more information and to book.

Recommended Sources

At Prophecy Today UK we are aware that the world is moving very quickly and it is difficult to keep up with all the latest developments – especially when the material circulated by our mainstream media is increasingly far from reality and definitely not devoted to a biblical perspective!

Though we are not a news service, we want to help keep you informed by passing on updates and reports as we are led. This will be a selective, not an exhaustive, round-up, which we hope will be helpful for your prayers. Click here to browse our News archive.

We also recommend the following news services for regular updates from a Christian perspective:

• Christian Concern (UK)
• Christian Institute (UK)
• JNN News (Barry and Batya Segal, Israel)
• Worthy News (Israel)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
• Kehila News (Israel)