Humanists UK has created a new resource called “Assemblies for All” that gives teachers a wide range of ideas for non-religious assemblies and chances to explore topics such as the environment, physical and mental health, arts and culture and LGBT issues.

Under the 1944 Education Act, all state schools in the UK are required to provide an act of daily worship of a “broadly Christian character”, but can opt out of it. As of last month, 42 schools have applied to do so.

Graham Nicholls, director of Affinity, a network of more than a thousand evangelical churches told Premier his issue with it: “Well, I can see the purpose of it to try and airbrush out God from the school assemblies that take place,” he said.

“There is legislation about there needing to be an act of worship. I can kind of see the fact that it is perhaps a more of a kind of historical antiquated thing that many parents would not think that that was necessary anymore. But it’s a real kind of full on assault of having any kind of God content in school assemblies.”

Dr Ruth Wareham, education campaigns manager for Humanists UK, told Premier this is not an attack on Christianity, but keeping up with what parents and students want.

“We’re not trying to airbrush Christianity out of schools, but it is worth saying that the latest British Social attitude survey found that up to 80 per cent of young people are…

The Most Rev Justin Welby told ministers at Westminster that “mere exhortation” was not working.

The leading Anglican made the intervention as peers heard just five universities were known to have adopted an agreed definition of anti-Semitism.

The archbishop, who is President of the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ), said: “We hear numerous reports of no-platforming, of intimidation and lack of free speech.

“I accept fully that the universities are autonomous but will the minister look for ways in which pressure can be applied to ensure these standards are kept?

“Because mere exhortation, would she agree, is not really working.”

Government frontbencher Baroness Berridge pointed out the Lords has legislated to ensure the independence of universities.

She said: “Although the secretary of state can issue guidance, that guidance has to take into account the autonomy of our academic institutions.”

Lady Berridge told peers the Government “strongly encourages” higher education institutions to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.

Responding to a question in the House of Lords, Lady Berridge said only five providers had informed the Government that they had adopted the definition.

She said: “As autonomous institutions, the decision rests with individual providers.

“But the Government will continue to urge and encourage them to…

Pastor Aarón Méndez Ruiz and Alfredo Castillo de Luna were forcibly taken from a migrant shelter in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo on 3rd August, after Pastor Méndez Ruiz blocked the kidnapping of a group of Cuban asylum seekers by an organised crime ring.

Four days before the men’s disappearance, 500 asylum seekers arrived at the Casa del Migrante AMAR migrant shelter in Nuevo Laredo.

A number of Cuban migrants were kidnapped at the AMAR shelter earlier in the year which resulted in victims experiencing severe physical mistreatment, including torture, during their captivity before being freed.

Those seeking asylum from Cuba are particularly at risk by criminal groups due to the belief that most have family members in the US with access to funds to pay ransom.

Following Méndez Ruiz and Castillo de Luna’s disappearance, family and friends have received no ransom demand or any further communication in relation to the two men, according to religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

On 4th October the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH) issued a call to the Mexican government to detail what measures it has taken “to determine the whereabouts or destination” of the men, to protect the families of the victims and report the progress of any investigations.

Catholic and Protestant church leaders have increasingly become the target…

More vigilant security is needed for places of worship as almost 20,000 offences, including theft, arson and drug dealing on church grounds have been recorded since January 2017.

Figures obtained by the Countryside Alliance through Freedom of Information requests reveal thieves stole war medals from a veterans’ memorial, silverware and oils in the past two years.

Arson attacks are amongst the crimes recorded, including an arson attack in February 2017, which destroyed the Grade II-listed Church of the Ascension in Manchester.

The Church of England’s director of churches and cathedrals, Becky Clark told Premier: “While these things are undoubtedly very damaging, very harmful when they happen to individual communities, we’re still looking at the majority of churches being safe places that are open to their communities.”

“We’re trying to work with the police on different initiatives to deal with some of the most widely presenting issues. However, fundamentally, churches are places where people should be able to come in all states, they should be able to come and feel safe. We want to make sure that those churches feel that they can stay open.”

“This research includes churchyards, which are enormously important green spaces. In some communities, particularly in urban areas, they might be the only green and open space available to people. So it’s going to be a natural…

A committee of MPs has warned the limit has unintended consequences no government should be willing to accept.

The Work and Pensions Select Committee said the Government’s justifications for the policy were based on assumptions that “simply do not hold true” and a “crude and unrealistic” distinction.

The committee published its final report of the current Parliament on Sunday, which concluded the Government must lift the two-child limit and return to providing support for all children through the benefits system.

The report said the limit will leave families having to stretch “frozen and capped” incomes to breaking point and children could bear the brunt of its impact.

It added: “The Government argues that the two-child limit will not increase child poverty because it will encourage families to increase their incomes from work.

“That may be possible for some. But for many, especially lone parents, the difficulty of accessing affordable childcare means that working more hours simply isn’t an option.

“Those families are left with no choice but to make their already frozen and capped incomes stretch ever further – sometimes to breaking point.

“All too often it will be children themselves who bear the impact.”

The report also said the Government had not provided any evidence to dispute experts forecasting that the policy will “significantly increase” child poverty.

It said…