The international development and relief charity revealed on Wednesday that its UK chairman Clive Mather shall become the new chairman of Tearfund USA – a new part of the Tearfund “family”.

Sonia Patterson (pictured above), who takes on the role of chief executive officer, said: “I am excited to start this new chapter with Tearfund USA, building on the organisation’s global legacy of helping the most marginalised and vulnerable.

“I’m looking forward to the process of setting up the organisation in the US, meeting supporters and partners and following Jesus where the need is greatest.”

Sonia Patterson joins the organisation with 20 years’ experience developing business, non-governmental and community ties across the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Clive Mather (pictured below) commented: “Tearfund USA will be asking Christians to go deeper in thinking about how they live.

“A whole life response to poverty involves praying, giving, acting, volunteering and making lifestyle changes.

“Sometimes it will involve sacrifice and inconvenience, but it will be liberating and empowering in a way that defies worldly expectations.”

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Leo Varadkar said while individual doctors, nurses or midwives could opt out of performing procedures on conscience grounds, entire institutions will not have that option.

Mr Varadkar was addressing concerns about surgical abortions raised in the Dail by Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Mick Barry.

The government is drafting legislation that will allow for any woman to request an abortion up to 12 weeks, subject to a cooling off period, and will allow abortion in extreme cases between 12 and 24 weeks.

It comes after citizens last month voted two-to-one in a historic referendum to repeal the state’s constitutional ban on abortions.

The Taoiseach said the legislation would follow the model of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, which allowed for terminations in extreme medical circumstances, and allow individual medics to opt out.

“It will not, however, be possible for publicly funded hospitals, no matter who their patron or owner is, to opt of providing these necessary services which will be legal in this state once this legislation is passed by the Dail and Seanad,” he added.

“I’m happy to give you that assurance.”

Mr Varadkar added: “That legislation will allow individuals to opt out based on their consciences or their religious convictions but will not allow institutions to do so.

“So just as is the case now in the legislation for the Protection of…

Joe and Claryce Holcombe, who lost their son, and eight extended family members have accused the government of having “institutional failures ” that allowed the shooter to obtain the gun he used in the shooting.

Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, opened fire inside First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs Church in November 2017, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others in what the Texas governor called the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history.

Soon after the shooting, the US Air Force admitted that it failed to report that Kelley was convicted of sexual assault to law enforcement database. If it would have done so, Kelley would not have been able to legally buy a gun.

The Holcombes claimed in the lawsuit that the massacre could have been avoided if there weren’t “institutional failures and the negligent or wrongful acts or omissions of one or more employees of the United States government”.

The lawsuit adds: “As a result of the criminal conviction, the Defendant USA was required to, amongst other things, enter this information into various federal computer databases advising that Airman Kelley had been convicted of crimes that prevented him from purchasing, owning and/or possessing firearms.

“But Airman Kelley was able to purchase an assault-style rifle as a direct result of the US Air Force’s admitted, systemic and long-standing failure to comply with…

Researchers at the University of North Carolina found believers in the United States generally consider God to be young, Caucasian and loving.

In their study, they reported perceptions vary according to an individual’s own political views and physical appearance.

They were also shown to see God as similar to them in terms of attractiveness, age and – to a lesser extent – race.

The authors concluded the liberals see God as relatively more feminine, more African American and more loving than conservatives.

In contrast, conservatives were more like to consider the author of creation as older, more intelligent and more powerful.

Published in the PLOS ONE journal, they said: “These differences are consistent with past research showing that people’s views of God are shaped by their group-based motivations and cognitive biases.

“Our results also speak to the broad scope of religious differences: even people of the same nationality and the same faith appear to think differently about God’s appearance.”

The study, entitled ‘The Faces of God in America’, which conducted by Joshua Conrad Jackson, Neil Hester and Kurt Gray. Some 511 American Christians took part – 330 men and 181 women.

The authors also said: “As faces communicate both physical and psychological information, this measure also provides insight into how believers…