Last week family and friends of Agnes Hicks, 54, were gathered in St Mary’s Catholic Church in Charles County. However, they were told to leave by Fr Michael Briese after someone reportedly accidently knocked over and broke a chalice.

The family were forced to carry Hicks’ casket out of the church yet claim the priest still called the police.

The Archdiocese of Washington released a statement apologising for the actions of the priest that “does not reflect the Catholic Church’s fundamental calling to respect and uplift the God-given dignity of every person”.

However, another statement revealed that pending the outcome of the archdiocese’s investigation, Fr Briese would be stepping back from his position.

WATCH: cell phone video inside Maryland church shows heated argument between Pastor and family laying their loved one to rest. Pastor kicked family and hundreds of attendees out of funeral because someone knocked over and damaged church’s sacred cup @fox5dc pic.twitter.com/MYQEybFYm3

— Anjali Hemphill (@AnjaliHemphill) June 28, 2018

“In his time as pastor of St Mary’s, Fr Briese has accomplished a great deal for the local community, welcoming and helping people from all walks of life at his parish with support through his work with the local community food bank and offering employment assistance,” the Archdiocese of Washington said.

“While acknowledging the…

The American Charge d’Affaires in Ankara, Philip Kosnett, said there is a “strong sense of unity in Congress between Republicans and Democrats” that Brunson – accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation which Turkey blames for a failed coup – should be released.

Kosnett added: “[There is] a similar sense of unity between Congress and the administration that in order for the relationship between Turkey and the US to progress, we need to resolve that status not only for Brunson but also for other American citizens and local Turkish employees of US missions who we feel are detained unjustly under the state of emergency.”

Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, both Senators, visited Turkey’s capital last week to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to directly appeal for Brunson’s release.

Speaking about what he hoped the trip would achieve, Shaheen told the New Hampshire Union Leader: “Pastor Brunson has been unjustly imprisoned and kept away from his family for well over one year. The opportunity to see him and his wife, Norine, and to appeal directly to President Erdogan, were my main objectives on this trip.”

Brunson was summoned to a local police station in October 2016 and later charged with links to a failed plot to overthrow the Turkish government in July 2016. He has been told he faces up…

Alesha MacPhail was reported missing from her grandmother’s home in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute at 6.25am on Monday.

Her body was found in woodland on the site of a former hotel in Ardbeg Road by a member of the public around two-and-a-half hours later.

Following the results of a post-mortem examination on Tuesday, police confirmed they are treating the schoolgirl’s death as murder.

The island community has been left in shock by the murder of the girl, who was a few days into a three-week break to visit family.

Rev Owain Jones has opened his United Church of Bute in Rothesay to allow people to visit at any time.

He said: “We’re all absolutely staggered, we have no words for this and it’s beyond any power of words to express. “We’re all just really sitting in a kind of shared stunned silence just trying to uphold each other.

“Bute is one of these places that is incredibly safe, you take all sorts of things for granted here and don’t panic if you forget to lock the house or whatever.

“It’s not a remote island in the classic sense – it’s only 90 minutes to Glasgow – but even so it is an island and we all know each other at least by sight, and it’s an extremely safe place and there is no context for this.”

Police said they have had a “very good” response to public appeals and are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry. Islanders have been warned to be vigilant about the…

Christians Against Poverty’s (CAP) new report ‘Powerless People’, found that while private companies have made great strides in the way they treat people in debt, debt collections from government and councils are increasingly becoming more aggressive and frightening.

Rachel Gregory from the charity told Premier about the depths of suffering from people chased for debts like council tax and benefit overpayments.

With council tax arrears – which just under half of the people we help at Christians Against Poverty have – what we see is that things can escalate very quickly from missing one payment to having a demand to pay the full year’s council tax in full and very quickly then going to court to get a liability order to have enforcement officers at someone’s door.”

Almost half of all debt clients helped by CAP have a debt with the DWP, HMRC or their local authority, with 41 per cent more likely to have considered suicide than those with only private sector debts.

The study also found 69 per cent of debtors were so stressed that they skipped meals and 93 per cent had suffered sleepless nights as a result.

Gregory said more compassion is needed towards people struggling financially.

“People we’re helping that have these types of debt are more likely to be vulnerable. We’re seeing higher rates of mental health problems and lone parents and learning difficulties. And…