The country’s prime minister Scott Morrison opposed gay marriage while opposition leader Bill Shorten argued for marriage equality ahead of a national vote in 2017 that led to Australia legally recognising same-sex unions.

Mr Morrison, a Pentecostal Christian, accused Mr Shorten, a Catholic before converting to his second wife’s Anglican faith, of a “desperate, cheap shot” ahead of elections on Saturday by challenging the prime minister to say whether he believed gays went to hell.

Mr Morrison said he did not believe gays went to hell, after failing to directly answer the same question from a journalist a day earlier.

“I’m not running for pope, I’m running for prime minister,” Mr Morrison told reporters.

“So … theological questions, you can leave at the door.”

Australian political leaders’ religious views are rarely raised in election campaigns, which have long been regarded as a strictly secular argument over who should govern.

But nine prominent Christian church leaders wrote to both leaders this week demanding protections for religious beliefs and freedom of speech after Australian rugby union team star Israel Folau, the son of a Pentecostal preacher, was found guilty by the sport’s administration last week of breaching the sport’s code of conduct when he using social media to say gays were doomed to hell.

While Mr Morrison is a centrist, his opposition to gay…

The Marriage and Relationships Task Group’s new report ‘God in Love Unites Us’, will be presented in the upcoming Methodist conference to be held in Birmingham between 27th June and 4th July.

If the 67-page report is passed, the wider Church will consider it with a final decision made at the 2020 conference.

Rev Ken Howcroft chairs the group and told Premier why it’s important for the Church to talk about relationships, sex and marriage.

“We have not been good at doing it for a very long time and there is a dissonance between what we have sometimes formally said and the way we actually behave and that is not good,” he explained.

While Rev Howcroft acknowledged some members of the Church may be disappointed if the changes are implemented, he insisted that it would be impossible to please everyone in the Church.

“Whatever we say, there will be people who profoundly disagree with that and that’s the journey we’ve been on for all these years – in particular for the last 25 years or so,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do is to find a way in which we can deeply honour each other’s convictions.”

A clause has been included in the proposals that states no-one would be forced to officiate at a same-sex marriage if they felt prevented by “their personal beliefs and integrity”.

Rev Howcroft said he hoped that ministers would not feel pressured to conduct same-sex weddings.

Leah was taken captive along with over one-hundred other girls at her school in Dapchi, Nigeria by the Boko Haram extremist military group last year.

The other girls were released after a month; however, Leah has remained in captivity for over a year because she refused to convert to Islam in exchange for her freedom.

A prayer vigil took place for her at the Nigerian High Commission in London this afternoon (May 14).

Mervyn Thomas from the religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide shares a birthday with Leah and was at the vigil.

Mervyn told Premier:

“We are here today to stand in solidarity with Leah. It is coincidental that it is David and I’s birthday, but we are here to show solidarity with a member of our family.

“Leah is a member of our Christian family.

“She’s one of our sisters. She’s been in captivity, totally unjustly and has shown incredible courage.

“We want the world and the Nigerian government, particularly to stand up and take notice and to say enough is enough.

“We want them to take some action and we want to see Leah freed.”

MP, David Linden also shares his birthday with Leah and was at the vigil, he told Premier: “It is important that on Leah’s second birthday in captivity we keep that pressure on our own government at home here as well, because we know the UK has a…

The No Time to Waste report created by Tearfund in collaboration with Fauna & Flora International, the Institute of Development Studies and WasteAid, found that up to one million people a year are dying from diarrhoea, malaria, cancer and other illnesses caused by mismanaged plastic waste.

Sir David Attenborough has publicly backed the study, calling it the first of its kind to highlight the impact of plastic not just on wildlife but on the world’s poorest people.

Speaking to Premier, Tearfund’s Senior Advocacy Campaigner Ben Niblett said: “One in four of us around the world live somewhere where there’s no way to get rid of our rubbish. So when there is single use plastic people end up just living amongst piles of rubbish or burning it or dropping it in rivers.”

Tearfund are calling on Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Pepsi and Unilever to reduce the amount of single use plastic they sell to poor countries that do not have the infrastructure to safely dispose of it.

Mr Niblett said: “There

 is no need for these companies with all the money and the power and the resources they have to be selling and dumping these products in these very poor and vulnerable communities.

“So we’re calling on them to change that. And we’re hoping the church will lead the way.”

 The study also revealed that 400 million tonnes of greenhouses gases are emitted every year from global plastic…

Some of the protesters are refusing to enter church buildings or take part in Mass or other services.

The Catholic German Women’s Federation is supporting the strike.

Ute Hücker, who works for the organisation, has called for Catholic women in the UK to join the international protest.

“It’s necessary for the women (in Germany) to feel they’re not alone and know that there are a lot of friends around or in other countries and that we can do the work together,” she told Premier.

The strikers have adopted the name ‘Maria 2.0’. They carry banners with an image of Mary the Mother of Jesus will her lips sealed with tape, to symbolise a sense that the voice of women in the Catholic Church is not being properly heard.

Some of the protesters have held services in the open air near the church where they normally attend Mass. Other women have refused to act as readers or ministers of the Eucharist.

The strikers have called for greater equality in the Church between men and women.

Pope Francis has said he believes the Catholic Church will never ordain women priests but some of the protestors want the Roman Catholic Church to allow women to become deacons and priests.

Hücker told Premier she believes the Church needs to reform itself to sustain the faith of all Roman Catholics.

“It’s necessary that something is changing,” she…