President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said he condemned “the barbaric attack” in the town of Hantoukoura.

He said several people also were wounded.

In a tweet, Mr Kabore offered his “deepest condolences to the bereaved families” and wished “a speedy recovery to the wounded”.

Islamic extremists have been active in Burkina Faso since 2015.

Jihadists have attacked police stations and churches across the country’s north but also recently have struck in the east.

In October, gunmen generally believed to be Islamic extremists attacked a convoy carrying employees of a mining company in that region, killing at least 37 people.

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The whoops of joy from the Congolese approaching the altar with symbolic gifts made for a vivid contrast with the solemnity of most religious ceremonies at the Vatican basilica.

Francis decided to celebrate the Mass to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Congolese Community in Rome.

The Mass was conducted using a special rite approved by the Vatican in 1988 entitled the “Congolese Missal for the dioceses of Zaire,” the former name of DR Congo.

The Vatican noted that Popes Paul VI and John Paul II had encouraged, as the Vatican put it, “opening the liturgy to the cultural values of the people” of DR Congo.

In his homily, Francis prayed that conflict cease, noting that peace was “gravely threatened in the east of the country”. He decried weapon suppliers, lamenting “conflicts fed by those enriching themselves with arms”.

Recently, rebels in eastern DR Congo have targeted Ebola response workers, compounding difficulties in containing the outbreak.

Francis noted that many in the pews on Sunday had left their homes and loved ones to come to Italy in search of a better life. In an apparent reference to hostility by many Italians to arriving refugees and migrants, the pope said: “The church is the house of God. Here, then, always feel at home.”

Francis’s expressed desires to visit DR Congo as well as South Sudan have so far been thwarted by persistent…

Keith Waters, 53, pastor of New Connexions Free Church in Ely, wrote online on 1st June: “A reminder that Christians should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Christian faith and morals. They are especially harmful to children.”

A local journalist responded to the now deleted tweet saying he was attacking the LGBTQ community and two days later he was on the front page of the Cambridge Evening News after he refused to apologise to another journalist who approached him before his Sunday service.

Mr Waters said his post was directed to Christians and he was referring to inappropriate outfits children might see. 

The preacher from Ely in Cambridgeshire, who also worked as a caretaker at the Isle of Ely Primary School, said he then experienced a series of harassments and threats, including his wife Joanna being asked by a funeral director what she would like to be done with his body and estate agents contacting them, having been told he was leaving the area ‘in a hurry’.

A local parent from the school he worked in also ranted at him from a car while he was on his bike and the head teacher informed him that he was being investigated for bringing the school ‘into disrepute’ after receiving a handful of complaints.

He was then given a final warning by the head…

The Psalm, which starts: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures” (ESV) has been turned into countless songs and posters but it will now be portrayed as a garden space at the popular Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show 2020.

It’s a collaboration between The Bible Society and Sarah Eberle, an award-winning garden designer.

In a trailer for the Psalm 23 garden, she said: “I just felt it’s so relevant because reading through the psalm again, it’s like, wow, I know where that relates to – it’s where I come to be peaceful, where I come when I’m troubled and when I’m happy and it’s this place.

“The thing I’m hoping for at Chelsea is for the visitors to be stopped and for them to find some sort of emotional communication with the garden and to want to stay and feel the peace and the restoration.

“There’s always a personal view on any garden I design,” said Eberle. “I grew up around Dartmoor. Walking the lanes, I saw the way the light played in the ferns. It was incredible.

“The inspiration is about spirituality, that sense of wellbeing, of arriving at a special place and a sense of being able to breathe, to feel comforted, to feel a sense of belonging, if you like.”

The Bible Society are also encouraging people to read the psalm and learn more about it through the project. 

Hazel Southam, the…

Speaking at her installation at Canterbury Cathedral, she said: “Let us think what it might look like for us here in Kent, if the name of Jesus enabled us to be a unifying body. That instead of focusing on the things that separate us, we focussed on the things that we share in common.

“What if we were to recognise his presence as we seek to ensure that the resources we have been blessed with is not for amassing personal wealth but to be shared in such a way that our brothers and sisters in poverty is no longer in need?”

The Rt Revd Dr Rose Hudson-Wilkin was consecrated as Bishop of Dover at St Paul’s Cathedral on 19th November and installed by the Archbishop of Canterbury at Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday.

She said in her address: “God’s presence in our midst changes the kind of relationship we have with him and with each other. This is at the heart of the Good news message we are called on to share.

“We are deeply mistaken if the kind of relationship we seek with God is so personal and private that we exclude our brothers and sisters around us or indeed as we are in Kent, on the frontier if we exclude our brothers and sisters from another mother!

“If we are going to experience that oneness of purpose that Jesus prayed for then we will need to seek to be identified more with the name of Jesus. For too long we have been embarrassed to be associated with him. We…

Many church leaders opposed the legislation as they felt it did not protect religious people enough – with Catholics, Anglicans and the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia writing to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to say: “We take the view that it would be better to have no Religious Discrimination Act rather than a flawed one.”

Australian Christian Lobby and Christian Schools Australia also agreed that it would be better to hold off.

One of the criticisms is that the term ‘religious body’ is too narrow, excluding groups that primarily engage in commercial activities. 

The importance of being defined as a ‘religious body’, as a church or Christian school would be, is that it is then given special protection over the ability to hire and fire on the basis of religious belief.

For example, therefore a Christian campsite, shop or business would not have the same rights as a church over the character of people they employ in their Christian organisation.

Equality Australia says the new law will open the doors to discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.

PM Scott Morrison announced the delay on Saturday, saying: “We made a commitment to Australians to address this issue at the last election and we are keeping faith with that commitment in a calm and considered process. We’re about listening and getting this right.”

“I have yet to see any wholehearted or enthusiastic support…

The chain recently stopped funding The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) after pressure over the belief that the charities opposed same-sex marriage. 

Ellie Goulding also recently threatened not to participate in a Christmas charity event unless The Salvation Army donated to the LGBTQ community, which they said that they did and the event continued. 

However, Chick-fil-A pulled out of both charities completely, with owners saying they had donated as long as they had agreed to and will now focus on education, homelessness and hunger.

The Chick-fil-A Foundation is reported to have donated $115K to the Salvation Army and $1.65M to the FCA in 2018.

Chick-fil-A opened its first branch in Reading on 10th October, however, it was revealed that the outlet would be temporary eight days later.

The opening in the Oracle shopping centre prompted criticism from LGBT groups due to comments made by the founder’s Christian son.

Now, the company is being criticised for funding the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a group that campaigns against hate groups such as white nationalists and Neo-Nazis but has also been accused of putting mainstream conservative organisations on its ‘hate map’ of groups in America. 

One of the groups on the hate map is the evangelical group Family Research Council, who had an attempted attack on their building in 2012 because of…