The Anglican leader will mark the end of his ministry during a Holy Communion service at Canterbury Cathedral on 12th May 2019.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Most Rev Justin Welby said: “”I am deeply grateful to him [Bishop Trevor] for his faithfulness to the people of this Diocese and his faithfulness to Jesus Christ as he has sought to offer inspiration and pragmatic leadership over the past nine years.

“May he and Margaret [his wife] be assured of our prayers as they move into this next stage of their lives.”

Bishop Trevor was appointed Bishop of Dover and Bishop in Canterbury in 2010. He previously served as Bishop of Basingstoke for eight years.

Bishop Trevor said: “In the time I’ve been in the Diocese, what gives me real joy and energy is the myriad ways – thousands and thousands of ways – that I’ve been privileged to share in the lives of others who have discovered that God loves them.

“One of the great joys for me is confirmation.

“I love it: the privilege to listen, the privilege to serve and the sheer joy of sharing in the experience of a God searching out and loving people.

“If I’ve been able in any small way to help in that journey for people, then I thank God.”

Ordained as a deacon at St Mary’s Church in Luton in 1974, Bishop Trevor went on to serve in chaplaincy roles within churches in Norway and Italy. He returned to the UK in 1983, when he became the…

Reverend Colin Sinclair will succeed the Rt Rev Susan Brown in the role next year.

Rev Sinclair, originally from Glasgow, is the minister for Palmerston Place Church in Edinburgh.

The Stirling University economics graduate, who has worked for decades with Scripture Union, said he was honoured to take up the role.

He said: “I am honoured to be selected for this opportunity to represent the Church of Scotland nationally and internationally.

“It will be a pleasure to encourage church members in their faith and to see the impact of their faith in communities across our country.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed being a parish minister and despite the challenges we face I believe the Christian Faith is still relevant to Scotland.

“Our message is still Good News and it still changes lives.”

Rev Sinclair first became interested in the Christian faith as a pupil at Glasgow Academy when, to escape getting into trouble after a prefect saw him taking the wrong staircase, he dodged into a room where a Scripture Union camp video was showing.

A keen rugby player at university, it was also while a student that he took a holiday job as a film extra playing a soldier in the 1975 comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Through his work with Scripture Union he spent three years travelling…

Daniel McCArthur, general manager of Ashers bakery in Belfast, and his wife Amy have been in legal battle with gay rights activist Gareth Lee since 2014, when he asked them to ice a cake with the slogan ‘Support Gay Marriage’. They refused because they said it contradicted with their religious views.

Justice Lady Hale said: “The bakers did not refuse to fulfil his order because of sexual orientation.

“They would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, irrespective of their sexual orientation.

“Their objection was to the message on the cake, not to the personal characteristics of Mr Lee or of anyone else with whom he was associated”.

She also addressed the freedoms the couple based their claims on from European Convention of Human Rights, saying: “The freedom to not express an opinion which one does not hold is also protected by Article 10 of the convention…

“This court has held that ‘nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe”.

The judgment has set a precedent that one can refuse to promote a belief they do not hold as long as they are not doing it because of the person who asked them.

Lady Hale continued: “The bakers could not refuse to supply their goods to Mr Lee because he was a gay man or supported at…

Five Supreme Court justices will announce their decision in London on Wednesday.

Their ruling follows the latest round of a legal action brought against family-run Ashers bakery in Belfast by gay rights activist Gareth Lee, who won his case initially in the county court and then at the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.

The bakery went on to fight the finding of discrimination at a Supreme Court hearing in Belfast in May.

During the Supreme Court proceedings, the panel of justices including president Lady Hale, were told that the owners were being forced to act against their religious beliefs.

Owners Daniel and Amy McArthur, who have said the law risked “extinguishing” their consciences, will be in London for the court’s judgment.

David Scoffield QC, for Ashers, argued that the state is penalising the baking firm, with the courts effectively compelling or forcing them to make a cake bearing a message with which they disagree as a matter of religious conscience.

The legal action against Ashers was taken by Mr Lee with support from Northern Ireland’s Equality Commission.

Mr Lee and Dr Michael Wardlow, the chief commissioner of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, are expected to be at the Supreme Court for the ruling.

Controversy first flared when Mr Lee, a member of the LGBT advocacy group QueerSpace, ordered a…