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The Church of England’s Lead Bishop for Children and Families has supported moves in the House of Lords to introduce legal protections for children from being used in undercover operations by police and other authorities. The Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, backed cross-party amendments to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill which has...

Another state in India has passed a law banning religious conversions. Madhya Pradesh has replaced existing legislation with a tough new law intended to prevent Hindus changing their religion. Release International warns that this is the harshest anti-conversion law yet to be passed in India. And there is concern it could lead towards a ban...

At least 13 people have been killed in a recent suicide bomb attack in the predominantly Christian region of Mozogo, in Far North Cameroon, after armed militants raided the community. The attack, thought to be perpetrated by Boko Haram, was by militants wielding machetes and firing guns into the air. As panicked villagers fled, a...

Conservation charity, A Rocha UK has announced that Hereford Cathedral is the recipient of its Eco Church scheme’s 1,000th award for creation care. A spokeswoman for A Rocha UK said: “Hereford Cathedral demonstrates that even historical buildings can make great progress towards being more sustainable. The Cathedral land includes both gardens within the cathedral complex...

Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani has become the Church of England’s Lead Bishop for Housing,  to spearhead the Church’s efforts to help ease the UK’s crippling housing crisis. Bishop Guli, currently the Bishop of Loughborough, will take up the new role later this year when she becomes Bishop of Chelmsford. The new post will involve leading efforts...

Editor:  Between the post-Christmas slump on news, and then the Covid-19 shut-down, we have struggled to find many good stories this month that will still be relevant in February.  We hope that things will get better in time for your March issue! Christian persecution in 2021 is set to rise in China and India Christian...

That is the forecast of Release International, which has recently published its annual Persecution Trends survey. “Our partners tell us that attacks are on the rise under Communism in China, Islam in Iran and Malaysia, and under militant Hinduism in India,” says Release CEO Paul Robinson. “Yet despite persecution and pandemic, we see clear evidence...

A new report by Christian Aid, Counting the cost 2020: a year of climate breakdown, has identified 15 of the most destructive climate disasters of the year. Ten of those events cost $1.5 billion or more, with nine of them causing damage worth at least $5 billion. Most of these estimates are based only on...

The Church of England, the education charity Teach First, and the Chartered College of Teaching have recently launched the new Rural Teaching Partnership. The partnership will run in ten pilot regions across England, and will see trainee teachers, trained by Teach First, start two-year placements with Church of England primary schools by September 2021 By...

The Government is to give the communications regulator Ofcom new powers to protect children and adults when they are using the internet. An Online Harms Bill will be introduced later this year, with the intention of allowing Ofcom to block access to online services that fail to properly protect children and other users.  Giants like...

As we launch in to 2021, with rapidly rising numbers of infections, it is all too easy to lose our bearings. So says Nigel Genders, the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer. He urges that rather than argue along the “usual political fault lines”, or to follow newspaper articles putting the blame either on ‘incompetent...

– as PM’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief Fiona Bruce, MP for Congleton, has recently been appointed as the new Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB). Bruce has long been a supporter of the work of Open Doors, including attending the World Watch List parliamentary launch, visiting an Open...