Justin Welby held talks with Muhammadu Buhari in London.

Writing on Facebook, the Anglican leader said: “I expressed deep concern about the suffering resulting from raids on Christian communities and villages as far south as Delta State.

“We discussed the causes of such depredations, which have led to very many deaths and threaten an escalation of violence.

“I urged measures to restore confidence in the neutrality of the state, and spoke of the suffering of the poor in such tragedies.”

The Archbishop also called upon the president to do “everything possible” to secure the release of Leah Sharibu – the 14-year old Dapchi Christian school girl still held captive by Boko Haram for refusing to convert to Islam.

Justin Welby previously worked in conflict resolution in Nigeria before he became Archbishop.

He finished his post by calling on Christians in the UK to pray for the various conflicts in Nigeria.

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Nancy Motsamai died five days after collapsing in Heathrow airport whilst she was about to be deported. Her husband claims the home office staff thought she was pretending to faint to avoid deportation. 

The South African couple had struggled to get permanent visas since settling here through administration errors and Fusi Motsamai had been deported at short notice before and both of them wrongly detained for four weeks in 2017. 

Last month they were taken to Heathrow airport to be deported and the couple were separated until Fusi got a call saying Nancy had collapsed. On 12th March, Nancy died at their home due to a pulmonary embolism in the lungs caused by an underlying, previously undiagnosed health condition. 

Fusi Montsamai said they shouldn’t even have been at Heathrow airport because they had a judicial review approaching: “I sent them an email with a court reference and everything but they didn’t take my word for it”.

He said he wants the home office staff to “start treating people with dignity” and that his wife: “hated the injustice, she hated seeing people suffering because of the home office so all along she just wanted her story to be reported so it can help others, so it can open the eyes of the public.”

He added: “Hopefully the system will change – there must be no more injustice for people.”

The couple were strongly supported by their church family…

In the latest in a series of controversial statements, the author and church leader has suggested heaven isn’t just for Christians.

In a video on the Open Church website, Chalke claims that the common belief that only self-professing believers can be saved is merely a “geographical lottery”.

“What if the good residents of Kent had been raised instead in Kurdistan, or those born in Bournemouth had found themselves starting life in Bagdad instead?” he asks. “Are not many of us who are Western Christians, Christians only because we are Western? Surely, if the most devout Christians had been raised in an Islamic context they would be, very likely, devout Muslims?”

He also suggests theologians John Stott and Karl Barth had leaned towards his way of thinking.

The video forms part of Chalke’s new series marking the 500th anniversary since Martin Luther supposedly posted his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

Week by week he’s looking at ninety-five controversial questions about the way the Church operates.

He has received some criticism from evangelical quarters through the series.

Writing on the Premier Christianity blog earlier this year, Free Church of Scotland minister David Robertson accused Chalke of being ‘anti-christ’.

Addressing Chalke’s view that the Bible shouldn’t be taken literally, he said: “His teaching that the Bible is just a…

Members at its Governing Body passed an emergency motion this morning calling for concerted diplomatic action instead of following the suspected chemical attack in Syria.

The motion said that members: “Note with alarm the return to the international agenda of the possibility of heavy bombardment and violent intervention in the situation in Syria; while condemning the use of chemical weapons, is mindful of the complexities of the situation which rule out simplistic answers; call upon the UK Government to prioritise concerted diplomatic action to secure more peaceful and consensual international responses rather than an escalation of violence.”

Speaking after the vote, the Bishop of St Asaph, Gregory Cameron, who introduced the motion, said, “I am delighted that Governing Body is able to add its voice to this important issue to call for peace and justice in the Middle East. The situation is deeply complex but a rush to flex military muscles is not, in my opinion, a wise reaction.

“We are asking all Christians and people of faith to hold Syria in their prayers at this tense time.”

Speaking on Premier’s News Hour, Middle East expert and church consultant Dr Harry Hagopian suggested military action was becoming more and more likely.

Addressing US President Donald Trump’s tweets on the matter, he said: “[Following] his boasting about missiles…it’s going to be very…

Francis Paul Moore, 82, sexually assaulted one young boy at a primary school in North Ayrshire and the other two, both altar boys, at a leisure centre and beach at Irvine between 1977 and 1981, the Crown Office said.

At the time the boys were aged between five and 13.

The student priest was assaulted between 1995 and 1996 at a property in Prestwick.

Moore was sentenced to nine years in prison and placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday.

One of his victims, Paul Smyth, waived his right to anonymity to speak to the BBC.

He said he now had closure and urged any other victims of sexual abuse to come forward.

Mr Smyth told the BBC: “I still remember very clearly the first incident, as if it was yesterday. 

“Everybody thought he was a good guy, as if people thought he was a saint.

“It’s cost me years of anxiety, years of anger which shouldn’t have been there.”

In her sentencing statement Judge Lady Rae said Moore had been convicted of “despicable crimes”.

The judge said: “In carrying out these crimes you took advantage of your position as a minister of religion, a profession from which the public, including children, ought to be able to expect integrity, trust, support and pastoral care. What you did was a gross breach of trust.

“In my view you have neither shown nor expressed any remorse for these crimes. It is clear from…

In an extraordinary letter published on Wednesday, Francis also summoned all of Chile’s bishops to the Vatican for an emergency summit in the coming weeks to discuss the scandal, which has badly tarnished his reputation and that of the Chilean church.

The Vatican orders up such emergency visits only on rare occasions, when Vatican intervention is urgently required, such as when the clerical sex abuse scandal exploded in the US in 2002.

Francis said the meeting, which comes just a year after the Chilean bishops were last in Rome on a regular visit, would have as its objective “repairing scandal where possible and re-establishing justice”.

He blamed a lack of “truthful and balanced information” in his missteps in judging the case of Bishop Juan Barros, a protege of Chile’s most notorious predator priest, the Reverend Fernando Karadima.

Francis had strongly defended Barros during his January visit to Chile despite accusations by victims that he witnessed and ignored their abuse.

In Chile and during an airborne press conference returning to Rome, Francis had accused the victims of “calumny” for pressing their case against Barros, demanded they present “proof” of their claims, revealed he had twice rejected Barros’ resignation and insisted: “I am convinced he is innocent.”

After causing an outcry, Francis sent the Vatican’s…