On Saturday, pro-life campaigners will march to Parliament Square in central London, in opposition to any change in abortion law which could see the circumstances which allow the practise liberalise. 

Currently, abortion is allowed in specific scenarios and pro-choice campaigners say it can be too hard to get an abortion when the woman wants it and that mothers should be given more of a say in the decision.

Involved in organising the day is Regan King, a Christian pro-life supporter. He told Premier: “We’re going to be having sometime of worship and praise.

“There’s going to be some live music, some seminars talking about abortion, talking about how we can best help our culture, which seems to love the idea of abortion in many ways but at the same time still maintains some moral conflictions over it”

“Hopefully it will be an encouraging time as well as we hear stories of God’s grace, mercy and redemption in many people’s lives.”

One of the main Christian speakers is Rachel MacKenzie who will share her story of having had two abortions and coping with it afterwards.

The group will walk to Westminster in the afternoon: “We’re going to be marching from the Connaught rooms nears Holborn to Parliament Square where we will finish with hearing from Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali and engaging in group prayer.”

Regan said: “The aim of the day is to encourage and inspire Christians who have a concern for the pre-born child as well as to be a…

Bishop Mark said: “I shall be 69 in October and will have been Bishop of Jarrow for just over eleven wonderful and happy years and that seems to be a good time to retire and move onto the next stage of life.

“In recent weeks I have become ever more aware of what an extraordinary blessing it has been to be allowed to live in the North East and to be amongst its people for these past eleven years.

The Bishop of Jarrow will celebrate the Eucharist for the last time in Durham Cathedral on the afternoon of Sunday September 23^rd.

Bishop Mark said: “People across the region have been extremely generous with their prayers for me over the past eleven years and I wonder if Elisabeth and I might trespass on your kindness a little longer by asking that they continue to pray for us as we prepare to make what feels like quite a significant transition.”

The Rt Revd Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham said: “Bishop Mark has been a great servant to the Diocese and the region over these last eleven years and I want to personally thank him on behalf of the whole Diocese for everything he has done, for the energies he has brought to being Bishop of Jarrow and to his ministry here in the North East.

“I want to particularly highlight Bishop Mark’s leading role in helping people discern vocation to ordination and also his championing of poverty issues. I also want to pay tribute to…

Palavanatham village in Tamil Nadu was hosting a church-run club for the holidays for around 50 children which, according to the school’s organiser, John Madhavan, was disrupted when two men trespassed on the property and demanded that the programme be stopped.

Reportedly, the men were overbearing and sharply questioned the children about their caste. Despite assurances by the organisers that the children were there at the consent of their parents, the two men continued to threaten everyone present and prevented anyone from leaving the premises while they alerted the police.

Mr Madhvan also said that the men are known to have threatened members of the church over the past year. No one was injured but the moment was described as “religious intolerance and intimidation” by Nehemiah Christie from the Synod of Pentecostal Churches. 

The school was due to run until the end of this week but was cancelled after the incident. 

Steven Selvaraj, South Asia team leader for the Christian freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide told Premier: “While the session was taking place, two men actually had stormed into the session and properly interrupted the session and stopped the teaching and the singing”

He explained: “There’s been a political vacuum in South India…Tamil Nadu is one of the few countries that the RSS and the BJP have not had government there.”

The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) are a Hindu…

The Cathedral has been free in the past but introduced a fee to help with the upkeep of the building. 

Now, it is returning to it’s old policy in a bid to welcome more people, an announcement which was made when the Archbishop of Canterbury visited on Saturday. 

John Whitcombe, the Dean of Coventry told Premier: “We want to take down any barriers to people coming in and enjoying our extraordinary building and being caught up in the message that it represents.”

“We will be making the announcement just after our 12 o clock litany, which is a prayer we say every day about breaking down barriers between people and nation,

“So it’s going to be lovely to be able to say ‘and we are taking down this barrier to people being able to come in’”

John said that it feels wrong to have to pay: “I stood by our entrance and I’ve stood by the entrance of many cathedral up and down the country as people look at the charge and even if it quite a modest charge it’s just not in our national mind-set to pay to go into a build of this sort.”

“So I’m really confident that so many more people will come in both from the city and from across the country – people who’ve travelled across the world actually on the whole don’t mind paying”

Speaking of how they will make-up the loss in revenue, he said: “We have taken in a little bit short of £100,000 each year in the last few years since we have been charging people for entry so the first thing is…

A priest was one of those killed on 1st May at Our Lady Fatima Church, just four years after 15 people were killed from the same church. 

2000 people had gathered for the service in Bengui, the capital of Central African Republic (CAR), when armed men threw grenades and fired on the church.

Several of those killed or injured were trapped in the church compound as the gunmen attacked and were unable to flee until police intervened. 

Local sources report that constant gunfire was heard in and around KM5 district from the time of the attack until 3pm.

The Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Bangui has identified Father Albert Toungoumale Baba as the priest killed at the church.

After attacking the church, the perpetrators moved into neighbouring districts, looting shops and homes and attacking civilians. An Evangelical church member was killed outside his home.

Father Moses Otii, the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima told Catholic charity Aid to Church in Need: “I saw three hand grenades thrown in front of the Church, but thank God in an area without people, and a grenade thrown in among many people gathered in the open air within the church’s compound.”

He added that in the commotion, some ran and hid but others couldn’t: “a lady had both legs cut off by the grenade, she couldn’t move. It was a commotion with people running and people crying.”

Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Mervyn Thomas said: “We extend our…

Last week, Sam Gyimah, the government’s minister for universities, announced plans to punish universities that don’t uphold free speech and criticised the attempts to ban speakers

In the Daily Telegraph on Sunday, Prof Stephen Toope, the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge University, said he has an “agenda of openness” and is committed to universities “trying to explore the greatest questions that face the nation and humanity.”

The intentions by Sam Gyimah to uphold these rights was also welcomed by many Christians.

Graham Nicholls, the Director of the evangelical group Affinity told Premier: “In general I was very encouraged by them,

“We would want to support and be very pleased about any attempt to avoid the suppresion of freedom of speech and of course I’m particularly concerned with free speech and the freedom to claim and express the gospel on university campus or anywhere else.”

In recent years, there has been increasing attempts to ban speakers because of views not held by other students, such as pro-life groups or Jewish speakers.

Speaking about whether things had changed for this generation of university students, Graham Nicholls said: “I think overall it has got worse – there is a danger you get paranoid about it…but I think there has been an increase.”

Graham said this is often genuine ignorance and fear about what the law is and whether they could accidentally be supporting exclusion of other groups.

He explained he is now…

After being approached by constituents, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate Forbes, brought the topic of religious bullying up in Hollyrood.

People had told her stories of their children feeling uncomfortable about being open about their faith.

Kate Forbes told Premier one was of a “five year old who was in the habit of saying a quick grace before lunchtime and she was getting questioned by other people and I think possibly staff as well.”

“She was just replicating what she would normally do at home and I think it’s right that children are allowed to express their faith in that way.”

The SNP politician said another regarded: “The teenage sons of the minister who were just constantly being accused of being bible-bashers and things like that and they were by no means shoving anything down anyone else’s throat.”

“People should be allowed to be themselves in school.”

Last week the MSP, prompted by the stories of religious bullying, asked the parliament: “what its position is on protecting young people’s right to religious observance, education and freedom of religious belief in schools.”

The reply from John Swinney, the Deputy First Minister of Scotland, stated: “Freedom of religious belief is an important feature of Scottish life that must also apply in schools” and said providing education on religion and morals was enshrined in law.

He added: “The legislation also gives parents a right to…