Rev Chris Lee, vicar at St Saviour’s church in west London has been compared to the “hot priest” in the TV programme Fleabag as Marie Claire featured a number of so-called “hot priests” and their growing social media following.

Rev Lee has over 100,000 followers on his Instagram account, on which he shares regular posts of family snaps, but also “60-second sermons” and faith-based posts.

Rev Lee told Premier being labelled as an “influencer” is an “interesting one – I try to obviously influence people for good. So, in that way, yes, I would see that I have a responsibility or I have the opportunity, the platform in which to engage with people.

On the message of faith, the message of hope, a message on what can be seen as sometimes a superficial platform and tell people, ‘you’re loved, your value bought exists. So that’s how I try and talk to people online and influence them for good rather than for kind of some kind of vain pursuit that social media can sometimes be useful.”

 

He told Premier how he felt being described as a “hot priest”: “Well, at first it was a bit weird, it’s a bit embarrassing but I think it’s not a stretch to think why people are looking at a young priests and comparing them to young priests. I think it’s an easy comparison, but it was weird and strange.”

As the vicar’s social media reach continues to grow, Rev Lee told Premier he aims to…

A study by The Joint Committee on Human Rights found youngsters are living in “horrific” conditions at mental health hospitals in the UK that can inflict “terrible suffering” on those detained.

The report describes the “grim, predictable pathway to inappropriate detention” that takes place when struggling children are taken away from their home and the familiarity of routine.

“Under these conditions, the young person unsurprisingly gets worse and is then put through physical restraint and solitary confinement – which the institution calls seclusion. As the child gets even worse so plans to return home are shelved. The days turn into weeks, then months and in some cases even years,” the report reads.

 
Mark Arnold is the additional needs ministry director at Christian youth charity Urban Saints.

He tells Premier he shares the anger and disappointment of the report’s authors:

“This isn’t new, it’s been going on for a long time. And not much has been done to raise awareness about it. But here we are still with the same things happening over and over again.

“The staff in mental health institutions haven’t had adequate training or support to be able to know how to best get alongside them.

“A better understanding and acceptance of autism and of young people with learning disabilities is needed.”

Arnold, who has a 17-year-old son with autism says struggling children…

It’s the first case in modern times of arrest and prosecution for praying.

Christian Hacking, 29, from London was arrested by police on the 8th August 2019 for allegedly failing to comply with a Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) outside of Marie Stopes abortion clinic on Mattock Lane in Ealing.

Hacking pleaded not guilty and was set to go on trial on 5th November 2019 at Uxbridge Magistrates Court. However, a letter was sent to him stating that the case would no longer be taken forward due to there being not “enough evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction,” according to Christian legal group Christian Concern.

Christian Concern has stated that the arrest and case, revealed by police body camera footage, raises the question of whether praying in a public space now constitutes harassment and whether buffer zones around abortion clinics breach freedom of expression, religion and thought.

On 8th August 2019, police were called after the Marie Stopes clinic reported that two men were breaking the PSPO by praying on the green directly outside of the clinic, rather than in the designated area for ‘protest’ located further down Mattock Lane.

Video footage from the police body camera reveals two police officers approaching Hacking, who can be seen sat on the grass next to his wheelchair with a friend. The police statement from the arrest…

Kirk Franklin is a Texan gospel artist who led the choir The Family and has released solo albums.

Franklin posted a video on Instagram this week explaining why he would be boycotting the Christian music event, the Dove Awards, and the Christian TV channel Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) until tangible plans are put in place to “protect and champion diversity”.

He won the award for best gospel artist at the Dove Awards in 2016, the Christian version of the Grammys, but said that some of his acceptance speech was edited out on television when he mentioned the killings of black people by police officers.

He was referring to the killings of two black men by police officers; Philando Castile and Walter Scott.

He announced he would be boycotting the event and the channel and said it was his personal decision and he wasn’t calling others to join him.

However, other Christian artists have supported him, including rapper Lecrae, Natalie Grant and Marvin Sapp.

Lecrae uploaded a video on Thursday, saying: “People have been wondering about my support of my friend and my brother Kirk Franklin and his decision to halt his participation in the GMA awards.”

After explaining the context of the awards, he said: “I support my brother Kirk and until we have a conversation about these issues, I won’t be able to participate either, that’s just where I stand.”

“I know the issues that…

According to local reports, they damaged nearly 100 Christian graves in the Breuil cemetery in Cognac, destroying mostly crosses but also smashing a number of statues, plaques and representations of angels and of Virgin Mary.

The desecration of the cemetery took place just days before the Christian celebration of All Souls Day on 2nd November, when Catholics visit the graves of their loved ones to pray for the repose of their souls.

The mayor of Cognac, Michel Gourinchas, went to the graveyard Wednesday to survey the extent of the damage, describing the incident as “lamentable” and “shameful.”

The mayor said he hopes the incident was nothing more than an act of gratuitous and foolish vandalism without anti-Christian motivation.

“It is obviously the desire to break things, but it is the police investigation that will determine the nature of the faithless, lawless individuals who come to desecrate objects in a cemetery. I hope there is no political or religious connotation,” the mayor said.

“I hope, even if it is abominable, that it is only petty individuals who have done this to show how clever they are,” he said.

Anti-Christian desecration has been on the rise in France, although state officials have been reluctant to acknowledge the religious nature of the acts.

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The Christian organisation told Fox News that curiosity about Christianity has spiked since the US rapper released his first Christian album last week.

Dr. John Farquhar Plake, the organisation’s director of ministry intelligence, told Fox News; “When we saw an influential cultural figure like Kanye inspiring young people to curiously seek out answers to their faith questions, we saw that as an opportunity to do what we do best as an organisation: to provide God’s word and point people to it as a source to their questions about faith.”

The new program called “Bibles for Kanye Fans” has offered up to 1,000 copies of the Good News Translation for those who apply on American Bible Society’s website.

According to Google Trends, online searches for “Jesus” and “Christianity” shot up significantly in the US when West released his album on 25th October.

Dr Plake added: “Kanye’s album just points to this cultural curiosity and we’re happy to stand in the gap and say if you’re curious about the Bible, we want to provide one to you.”

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