Father Charles Fitzgerald-Lombard from St Edmunds Roman Catholic Church in East Anglia was working on his books in the sacristy when he heard a large bang.

“It didn’t worry me terribly much at the time, it’s more in retrospect I realised how narrow it (his escape) was.

“All I was wondering was what on earth had happened, I thought a tree had fallen down but it was much more like a bang and what one would have expected from a tree falling, which I expect would have been more of a crunching noise.

“I wasn’t actually in the church, I was in the sacristy (similiar to a vestry), right next to the high altar of the church and this cross blew off the top of the main church but it landed on the sacristy roof, right over where I actually happened to be standing at the time, I was marking up the books…this was last Saturday and there was a tremendous wind storm that lasted for about three-quarters of an hour.”

When asked what his first reaction was, he said: “My first thought was that it was a bomb and then I thought well it couldn’t be a bomb – people don’t go around bombing churches very much in this country – and I was looking around and see if there was a table I could get under or something but of course, once it had fallen there was practically dead silence because there was nothing else to fall.”

Father Charles was…

Gareth Lee launched his initial case against Ashers bakery in 2014, after its owners Daniel and Amy McArthur refused to write ‘support gay marriage’ on a cake for the customer.

In 2018 the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the McArthur family, saying they had the right to refuse to bake a cake with a slogan they didn’t believe in.

Mr Lee is now appealing the decision before the European Court to refute the right of businesses to express religious beliefs.

He argues the owners’ opinions should be separate from a company’s.

The Christian Institute says this latest action is an attack on every person’s right to freedom of expression.

The Christian Institute’s Director Colin Hart said: “If it is wrong to compel an individual baker to say something they do not believe, it is just as wrong to compel a small family bakery. People don’t relinquish fundamental freedoms just because they set up a family company.”

The UK’s highest court judges were unanimous in finding no discrimination on the grounds of religious belief, political opinion or sexual orientation in the case against the Ashers Bakery. They also ruled that equality law does not compel people to say something they profoundly disagree with and the issue was about the message and not the messenger.

Speaking in relation to the Supreme Courts ruling, The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Simon Calvert said: “They…

John Cooper, founding member of the American Christian band Skillet, wrote on Facebook: “We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or ‘relevant’ people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years (and seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers) that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20 year old worship singers as our source of truth.

“We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word.”

The lead vocalist criticised the public nature of declarations about their loss of faith by people like Joshua Harris, author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and Hillsong worship leader Marty Sampson, saying: “I am stunned that the seemingly most important thing for these leaders who have lost their faith is to make such a bold new stance.

“Basically saying, ‘I’ve been living and preaching boldly something for 20 years and led generations of people with my teachings and now I no longer believe it..therefore I’m going to boldly and loudly tell people it was all wrong while I boldly and loudly lead people in to my next truth.’ I’m perplexed why they aren’t embarrassed? Humbled? Ashamed, fearful, confused? Why be so eager to continue leading people when you clearly don’t know where you are headed?”

He also…

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Safeguarding in Faith Settings has issued a call for evidence.

The focus for the second inquiry is on whether there should be a change in legislation relating to ‘positions of trust’ within faith settings. This inquiry comes as the Ministry of Justice undertakes a review of the current government legislation.

The intended objective of the inquiry is to publish a report detailing current knowledge on whether there is a need for changes to be made to ‘positions of trust’ within the Sexual Offences Act, 2003 to ensure faith settings are sufficiently within scope to allow young people to be better protected from harm.

Under the current legislation, it is illegal for groups of professionals such as teachers, care workers and youth justice staff to be involved in sexual activity with a 16 or 17-year-old under their supervision.

However, other adults who hold similar positions of power within settings such as faith and religious organisations and sports teams, are not covered by the current provisions.

Thirtyone:eight was announced as a core participant for the investigation and review into the current child protection policies and procedures in religious institutions in England and Wales, including non-conformist Christian denominations and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Those within the Islamic, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist faiths will…