LONDON, UK, June 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Right Reverend Richard Chartres, bishop of London, condemns abortion, divorce, and promiscuity in a new pamphlet that reflects on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which was celebrated in the past week.
Chartres raises concerns about the state of the family and its children in England, including the unborn, and says “the 2012 Jubilee offers us an opportunity to pause and reflect not only on an extraordinary reign but also on what the Jubilee could mean to us as a nation.”
The pamphlet, published by the Bible Society, is entitled Jubilee then and now: A big idea for the 21st century. In it Chartres reflects on the biblical meaning of jubilee, the history of the jubilee in England, and the present jubilee, before reflecting on the current social situation in England.
“Literally millions of children grow up without knowing a stable, loving, secure family life – and that is not to count the hundreds of thousands more who don’t even make it out of the womb each year,” he writes.
In 2010, 189,574 unborn children were aborted in England, according to British statistics, and 3.8 million children are caught up in the family justice system each year, with the number of single-parent families growing.
“Promiscuity, separation and divorce have reached epidemic proportions in our society,” writes Chartres. “Perhaps, then, we shouldn’t be surprised that depression and the prescription of anti-depressants has reached a similarly epidemic level.”
Between 2010 and 2011, divorces in England and Wales rose from 113,949 to 119,589, and many couples are now choosing not to get married to avoid the divorce.
Chartres points out the need for change in England saying, “We need a fresh narrative that appreciates the real virtues communicated by our history but which transcends our recent past.”
Right Reverend Richard Chartres’s leaflet is available here.