Anglican leaders have planned a number of ‘seeker-friendly’ initiatives across the country, including a fifty-foot tall helter skelter inside Norwich Cathedral and a gin and prosecco festival at Peterborough.

Rochester Cathedral’s Rev Canon Rachel Phillips told Premier it’s a great opportunity to reflect and have fun.

“We hope that when people come in, they will know that they’re welcome and they will have an enjoyable experience,” she said.

“So while people are here, having fun and playing crazy golf, they will take the opportunity to reflect on that wider theme of building bridges that they might find that they would like to pray, light a candle. Maybe talk to somebody.”

Rev Phillips said the goal of these initiatives is to connect with the local community.

She added: “This is about welcoming everyone into the cathedral, letting people know that we’re here. We’re open.

“It’s free to come in and everyone is welcome.”

There have been some who have criticised church buildings being used for social occasions.

Rev. Rachel said she hopes that these events will lead to more people hearing about Jesus’s message.

“We hope that we’ll reach more people with the message the good news that Christians have to bring that Jesus came to bring peace,” she said.

“He said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers that people might find ways to build bridges in their own life.'”

The Church of England…

Donald Trump and the First Lady Melania were welcomed by the Queen on the first day of their three-day visit to the UK amidst the threat of mass protests.

A 20-foot ‘Trump baby’ balloon will be raised in Parliament Square, Westminster, at 9 am on Tuesday, according to organisers The Stop Trump Coalition.

Despite the protests about his visit, Sarah Elliott a Christian and chair of Republicans Overseas UK told Premier plenty of good can come out of it.

“Free trading arrangements are being discussed and the foundations for that.

“Also I think it’s very important that both of our countries continue to work together – especially on security and intelligence sharing.”

Mr Trump sparked controversy minutes before he landed at London’s Stansted Airport when he called the London Mayor a “stone cold loser” on Twitter.

It followed Sadiq Khan’s comments that the UK should not “roll out the red carpet” for Mr Trump.

….Kahn reminds me very much of our very dumb and incompetent Mayor of NYC, de Blasio, who has also done a terrible job – only half his height. In any event, I look forward to being a great friend to the United Kingdom, and am looking very much forward to my visit. Landing now!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 3 June 2019

Simon Barrow from Christian think tank Ekklesia told Premier’s News Hour Mr Trump’s language was unacceptable.

He explained: “It doesn’t seem…

The Understand Unbelief study, which seeks to research the nature and diversity of “unbelief”, found that almost a third of atheists and 45 per cent of agnostics believed in underlying “forces of good and evil”, with many believing some events were “meant to be”, although they did not believe in the existence of God.

Aaron Edwards, lecturer in theology, preaching and mission at Cliff College told Premier every person is hard wired to seek out meaning in life: “You can see when you observe people, they want something to be true. They want there to be a wider holistic meaning.

“But that [meaning] doesn’t have to impact their own lives, so I think that’s the key really.”

Mr Edwards added that this search for meaning can only be fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

He also said the study shows that people are willing to embrace a faith system and Christians should be encouraged to share the gospel with more confidence.

“We’ve always had the same challenge of preaching the gospel to those who don’t want to believe – the thought that people believe in some abstract supernatural belief is really almost a given,” he said.

“We just need to point people to the ultimate fulfiller of meaning in God and in Jesus Christ and in the good news that we have to proclaim.

The report defined atheists as people who “don’t believe in God” and agnostics as people who “don’t know whether there…

Campaigners for better RE say the new school inspection framework will put more pressure on schools to prioritise the subject.

It’s understood two-day long inspections will now put greater emphasis on the broad curriculum while a small number of subjects will also be chosen as a focus for examination. These subjects could include religious education.

Ben Wood from the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) told Premier this is a good change of direction.

He said: “Ofsted are really pushing the sense that they want a curriculum to be broad.

“I think there is a sense for people, both in education and the wider public of what’s gone on in schools has been narrowed recently and there’s a number of reasons for that.

“But what Ofsted are doing here is a saying that school curriculum has to be broad.

“And that means that while English, maths and science are important so is RE, and history, and geography, and art, and music, and PE, they’re all important, they all have a role to play.

“It’s very heartening to hear Ofsted saying that within that curriculum, RE has a crucial role to play.”

Guidelines for inspections now require schools to ensure pupils can reflect their own religious beliefs as well as having knowledge and respect for others.

Schools will also have to prove that teachers have expert knowledge of the subjects that they teach.

Ben Wood, who…

In June 1989, students and workers occupied Beijing’s Tiananmen Square for a huge pro-democracy protest.

Chinese army troops brutally suppressed the peaceful protests and killed and wounded thousands of people.

To mark the six weeks of demonstrations in the Beijing massacre, vigils and events are being held in Hong Kong, London, Washington DC and other cities around the world.

CSW said in a statement that it “joins organisations and individuals around the world in remembering once more the brutal and tragic events of that time”.

The Christian Charity also said: “We stand with the surviving family members of the victims, who, three decades on, are still seeking justice and truth.

“We commend their courage and their determination, at the same time as we condemn the authorities’ forceful suppression of their rights.

“Under President Xi Jinping there has been a pattern of increasing human rights abuses: a stranglehold over civil society; a heightened sensitivity to perceived challenges to Party rule; and the introduction of legislation that curtails civil and political rights in the name of national security.

“There has also been a rapid and alarming decrease in freedom of religion or belief, marked by the closure of thousands of temples, churches and mosques, the detention and disappearance of religious leaders, and the stripping away of religious symbols and…