Here's the Zoom link for people to join this Sunday's Holy Communion service at St Mary and All Saints at 10am. Our celebrant is the Archdeacon of Surrey, Venerable Paul Davies.<br><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09">https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09</a><br><br>Meeting ID: 525 392 1788<br>Passcode: 379904
Boris Johnson’s plan to increase national insurance contributions to raise £12bn for the NHS and social care could pose a “serious problem” for low-income workers, the archbishop of Canterbury has said.Justin Welby said privileging wealthy pensioners over the poorest young people was “not a people-centred policy”, as he stressed the need for “intergenerational equity”.His comments come after Tory MPs voted through a proposal to raise national insurance contributions (NICs) by 1.25 percentage points through a new ringfenced tax known as the “health and social care levy”.Under the plan, patients entering the social care system from October 2023 will not have to pay more than £86,000 in their lifetime – excluding food and accommodation. More means-tested support will also be provided for those with assets of between £20,000 and £100,000.The policy was announced earlier this week and put to a snap vote in the Commons in an attempt to stymie Tory rebels.Concerns have been raised by the care sector, some Conservative backbenchers and thinktanks that ministers are failing to tackle the issue quickly enough by not implementing the social care changes for two years, and refusing to guarantee that people will not have to sell their home to pay even when the changes do come into effect. Some say the plan places an unfair burden on poorer workers.Asked whether it was right that lower-income workers would pay disproportionately more, given pension and renting income was not covered by the levy, he said: “That is a very serious moral question. If we – as it were – privilege the wealthy older against the poorest younger, that will not work. That’s not a people-centred policy.“The policy needs to be centred on people and care for the poorest, as well as ensuring that we have an embedded system that will work and is acceptable to all.“As I say, the test is not just in terms of money, the test is in terms of effectiveness. If it pushes more young people into poverty and means they can’t get their own house and things like that, which I’m aware of from our own children – and ourselves for that matter, because we don’t own our house in this country – that is going to be a really serious problem, and that is wrong. It needs to be done fairly between the generations – that’s part of intergenerational reconciliation.”
Our Heritage Open Days will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 11th and 12th, from 2pm to 5pm.There will be bell ringing demonstrations, the chance for visitors to have a go at bell ringing. And the bells can be viewed in the bell tower via a tower camera that relays the images onto a screen in church.We’ll also be staging the popular teddy bear parachute drops as well as a local history display featuring Dunsfold families.Add to the fun some quiz sheets and refreshments available throughout the afternoons and all the family can enjoy a visit to a church that was described by William Morris as “the most beautiful church in all England.”
The English National Ballet’s translucent new home, a floating church and the capital’s largest club football stadium are among 46 winners of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London Awards 2021.With the cancellation of the 2020 RIBA awards circuit due to the coronavirus pandemic, some of today’s winning projects were actually completed and opened as long ago as early 2019.The RIBA London awards are the last of the UK regions to take place for 2021. Judges will now consider all regional winners to select just six to be shortlisted for the prestigious Stirling Prize - the award for the ‘Best Building in the UK’.The only water-borne winner is a converted barge (see photo) by Denizen Works, commissioned by the Diocese of London as a mobile church and versatile cultural space that will serve communities along the banks of the Regent’s Canal.The concertina roof at the bow of the boat opens heavenwards like a fan and is equipped with a large round skylight allowing the relatively low-ceilinged boat to transform into an imposing place of worship.The roof retracts to allow the mobile church to pass under low bridges with ease.
