The Lancashire Festival of Hope leadership team say it’s a “travesty” that Blackpool Transport chose to remove them.

The company had said it came to the decision after listening to public feedback.

A number of people had taken to social media to claim that Franklin Graham would be preaching hate and homophobia at the event which is due to take place at the city’s Winter Gardens in September.

In an open letter, the church leaders said: “Because the Christian community is also a customer, we hope Blackpool Transport will listen to our public feedback as well, and not show what appears to be a potential bias against Christians.”

A number of MPs have raised concern about his visit to Blackpool fearing he will repeat previous statements condemning homosexuality and Islam.

But speaking to Premier earlier this year, Graham said: “I’m not coming to preach hate, I’m here to preach about a saviour – Jesus Christ who can make a difference in our lives if we put our faith and trust in him.”

The church leaders say they are seeking a meeting with Blackpool Transport and have urged Christians not to complain but to act in a positive nature by praying.

“While we pursue a fair and open dialogue with Blackpool Transport, we urge all supporters of the Festival to refrain from contacting Blackpool Transport directly, or engaging in comment via social media, about this matter,” they…

During his visit, the US president held meetings with Theresa May and the Queen before travelling to Scotland where he has business interests.

Many had claimed he shouldn’t be given a state visit because of the division he has caused in the USA.

Explaining his reasons for protesting, Doughty the MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, told Premier’s News Hour: “As a Christian MP, his attitude towards refugees, his attitude towards women, his attitude towards locking up children in cages, separating them from their families and of course his war like and often very, very aggressive rhetoric.

“This is someone who espouses the very worst of things, you know, breeds division instead of love.”

Protesters also lifted a large balloon depicting Trump as a baby near to Parliament.

Sarah Elliot, a Christian and Chair of Republicans Overseas UK dismissed the attempts of the protesters to ridicule Trump.

Speaking to Premier she said: “It was up for two hours, I think it was a little ridiculous and a waste of time and money but everybody has the right to free expression.”

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Its annual review found a growing number of churches are seeking funding for urgent repair, with climate change also having a serious impact on historic buildings.

Eddie Tulasiewicz from the National Churches Trust told Premier what’s behind the increased demand for cash.

“Each parish has to raise the money themselves… if they need to fix the roof or something like that – it costs a lot of money. If you want to fix a roof it’s half a million quid… and in the past there has been funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund but that’s gone down quite substantially in the last couple of years.”

Another contributing factor to the rise in churches seeking funding is linked to the government ending its Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund in 2016.
 
Figures in the Trust’s Annual Review show that it received 480 applications for grants in 2017 – an increase of 26 per cent on 2016.

In 2017, the National Churches Trust awarded £1.7 million to help pay for 230 repair, maintenance and development projects at churches and chapels throughout the United Kingdom.

This was an increase of £300,000 compared to the £1.4 million it awarded in 2016.

Highlighting this, Tulasiewicz added: “We’re finding that a lot of churches are applying to us for grants and we’ve had about a quarter per cent increase in the last year for people applying for funds to keep those churches…

Two Indian priests have been accused of being among four clergymen who raped a woman in South India.

The 34-year-old woman was allegedly raped and blackmailed in Kerala in India. She told one priest about previous sexual abuse she had faced and he allegedly pressurised her into sexual acts in exchange for not telling anyone what she had told him.

She said she was then raped by two other priests who she turned to for help.

Fr Job Matthews handed himself in to police on Thursday, the priest she said she originally told, and Fr Johnson Mathew was arrested on Friday, one of the other four accused.

The priests deny the accusations.

On Wednesday, Kerala High Court dismissed any future option of bail to any of the priests.

The police have intensified the search for the other two priests, Fr Abraham Vargheese and Fr Jaise K George.

The woman’s husband spoke on New Delhi television on Thursday and said: “Even after we got married in 2006, the priest continued to sexually abuse my wife, blackmail her, saying that he would tell me everything. I got to know all this only in February.”

According to Associated Press, her husband told reporters he found out about the abuse in February this year when he noticed a bank statement which included a hotel transaction in his wife’s email inbox.

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Rev Paul Sanderson from Chorley near Preston was also told to undertake 140 hours of unpaid work, pay £85 in costs and handover an £85 victim surcharge.

District Judge John Maxwell was quoted by the Daily Express as telling the 50-year-old: “No disrespect, but if I see you again, I hope it’s at a wedding.”

Burnley Magistrates Court (pictured) had heard how Rev Sanderson was travelling to one of the churches he was overseeing when he pulled up after realising he had drunk too much.

A female motorist felt the clergyman’s bump into hers in the Co-op store car park in Whalley, prosecutor Sarah Cook said. The drive found police at the scene after she had gone to contact her husband.

Using a breathalyser, 0ffficers discovered Rev Sanderson – a married stepfather of two – to be more than three times above the drink-drive limit.

The former Catholic priest admitted driving with excess alcohol in his system in June last year.

According to the Daily Express, defending lawyer Daniel Frazer told the court Sanderson was “of exemplary character” but had post-traumatic stress disorder and “drank to deal with that situation”.

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