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Christians have been in the Middle East for nearly 2000 years, but they now face the threat of ‘imminent extinction’, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. In a recent letter to The Sunday Telegraph, Archbishop Justin Welby told of a visit he had made about 15 years ago to the home of an elderly Palestinian...

Prince Charles has praised the ‘extraordinary grace and capacity for forgiveness’ of the thousands of Middle Eastern Christians facing persecution. Speaking late last year, the Prince said he had been “deeply humbled” by meeting Christians from the Middle East ‘who, with such inspiring faith and courage, are battling oppression and persecution.’ He wanted to assure...

Churches and campaigners gave a cautious welcome to the recent UN Climate summit held in Poland.  The main result of the talks was to agree to adopt a rulebook for assessing the national plans that make up the Paris agreement, signed in late 2015. It may sound very technocratic, but such a rulebook will help...

Anti-Semitism is on the rise across Europe.  This is the finding of a recent survey of 16,300 Jewish people across 12 EU countries. France came top, with 95 per cent of the French Jews saying that anti-Semitism is a big problem.  In the UK, the figure is 75 per cent.  Furthermore, 29 per cent of...

The cut-backs by the Government have caused a ‘parenting crisis’ in the UK, according to a recent report by the childcare charity Spurgeons. The annual report, The Parent Report, draws on an online YouGov survey of 1055 parents who have a child under the age of 18.  One in ten of these parents reported feeling...

More and more people in this country just aren’t making it, no matter how hard they work.  Such is the finding of a recent survey into poverty in the UK. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)’s recent 2018 poverty report has found that four million adults are in poverty in the UK – despite having a...

New guidance for parishes planning services to help transgender people mark their transition has been published by the Church of England. The pastoral guidance will be incorporated into Common Worship. It encourages clergy to be ‘creative and sensitive’ in using liturgy to enable people to mark a major transition in their lives. It formally commends...

A recent Parliamentary report that berates the Government’s housing for asylum-seekers has been supported by the Church of England’s refugee welcome co-ordinator, Nadine Daniel. Ms Daniel said that the entire asylum-housing system was crippled by a ‘perfect storm’ of insufficient funding, a paucity of housing stock, and a surge in asylum claims in the past...

Full extent of Church of England work to support local communities revealed Lead Bishop for Education calls on Government for Rural Strategy Nigeria’s Christians brace for attacks ahead of elections 2020 Lambeth Conference Four out of five Christians have ‘taken action’ on poverty Religious freedom under threat worldwide Churches urged to embrace contactless payments as...

More than 33,000 social action projects – from food banks to debt counselling – are run or supported by churches, according to figures setting out for the first time the full scale of the Church of England’s service to communities. The findings – which amount to the largest survey to date of the extent of...

The Church of England’s lead bishop for Education, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway,  Bishop of Ely, has called for a cross-Government rural strategy to safeguard the future of education in rural communities. Bishop Stephen said that while ‘We have been reassured that the Government has a presumption against the closure of rural schools,’ and also...

A leading Anglican is warning that Nigeria’s Christians face escalating attacks by Islamist militants in the lead-up to this year’s (2019) general election. Christian farmers in the north are being driven from their homes and killed by Fulani herdsmen. The Anglican Archbishop of Jos, Benjamin Kwashi, has called for the Nigerian government to intervene to...