Currently all state funded schools in England and Wales are legally required to hold a daily act of worship of a ‘broadly Christian nature’.

It’s been reported that 42 schools have successfully applied to their local Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) board to opt out of the collective worship in the past three years, with many requesting to hold “multi-faith” assemblies instead.

Rev Steven Terry from the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education told Premier it is culturally inappropriate to require children of all faiths and none to adhere to this law.

“I think this is very welcome news. I only wish that more schools were doing it.

“We live in an increasingly diverse society and to have a situation where we’re still required by law to offer a daily act of worship of a broadly Christian character is, I think increasingly inappropriate, given how many different cultures and different faiths systems are now represented in our society today.”

Terry was optimistic that Christianity still had a presence within schools but went on to say that an exposure to different beliefs provides a realistic and balanced education for children.

“We’re not taking Christianity out of the school place. By doing this, we’re certainly allotting it a proper place within the context of a multi faith community.

“One shouldn’t feel threatened as a Christian by having other…

In an open letter to every church, school and chaplaincy in the Diocese of Oxford they say it is a critical moment in our national life.

Signed by Rt Rev Steven Croft, Rt Rev Alan Wilson, Rt Rev Colin Fletcher and Ven Olivia Graham, the letter says that while the government has done a great deal to ensure a smooth Brexit, we all have a role to play in ensuring our country thrives.

“There is an important role at this time for practical expressions of love and hope by communities and individuals,” they suggest.

Recognising the division across the country that comes from Brexit, the bishops state: “Our nation is divided about our future relationship in Europe.

“Our calling as the Church in these times is not to take sides in this debate but to continue to be the Church for everyone.

“There are leavers and remainers in every congregation, but this can never be our primary identity as Christians.”

In response, the bishops have suggested 12 ways to love our neighbours in the coming weeks.

These include giving more to foodbanks, showing friendship and hospitality to EU nationals and looking out for the lonely, the anxious and the vulnerable.

Christians are also encouraged to pray in both public and private.

The list of 12 has been made into a poster which is free to download from the Diocese’s website.

Stay up to date with the…

Thousands of people in Hong Kong have been protesting for weeks for their ‘five demands’ – including the end to the extradition bill, which has been dropped, but would have allowed Hong Kong criminals who committed a crime in China to be extradited there, comprimising Hong Kong’s autonomous agreement with China.

The bill has been declared ‘dead’ by Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam but the protests encapsulate a greater theme of Hong Kong people wanting more of a say over their laws. 

Having started over three months ago, the pro-democracy demonstrations have turned more dangerous recently, with a teenager being shot on Friday night and protesters defying a new law not to wear masks.

Karen Chu, a Christian student in Hong Kong told Premier: “When there’s demonstrations going on, the best thing to do is just stay home.”

Karen has not been involved in the protests but said: “At the beginning there are quite a lot of Christians that were going out and singing the song ‘Sing Hallelujah to the Lord’, or otherwise participating, but recently they got a lot more violent and so most of the Christians I know have not been going out and doing those things.

“I do know some people that have escalated their actions as these protests escalate, but I think most Christians decided that this has gone too violent and illegal and they don’t want to take part too much in it. We still…

Prince Harry visited Dirico in southern Angola to support the HALO Trust, an organisation that began rehabilitation work in the country in 1994 by clearing landmines.

HALO reports to have removed over 100,000 landmines to date but consider their work far from finished.

The Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), a Christian charity that provides flights and medical attention to people in remote areas, provide flights to the HALO team to help them clear the landmines.

When Prince Harry visited them, he told MAF pilot Marijn Goud: “HALO could not do it without you, thanks!”

Mr Gould, a Christian who lives in Angola with his wife and two kids, wrote on Facebook: “Today was a slightly different day. Went to a minefield in the morning, saw HRH Prince Harry detonate a mine, had a chat with him and flew a team of very hard working HALO de-miners back home. During the event MAF was on standby for medical evacuations. We are very proud to be partnering with this great organization, working hard to make Angola land mine free in 2025.”

The Duke of Sussex walked on an active minefield with body armour and remotely detonated a landmine to remove it from the field. He then visited Huambo, the site that his mother Princess Diana was famously photographed in wearing similar body armour in 1997.

Her visit brought international attention to the cause, and the impact on those who live in…

Currently the only data gathered is from visitor books and figures counted by church wardens on Sundays.

These are thought to seriously underestimate the number of visitors and tourists who visit churches and chapels throughout the whole week.

The Great Church Visitor Count, run by the National Churches Trust, will analyse the difference between the number of entries recorded in a church visitor book and the actual number of visitors who pass through the door.

Ten counters are already installed, including St Peter at Heversham, Cumbria; St James at Jacobstowe, Devon; St Matthews at Skegness, Lincolnshire; St Mary at Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire and St Augustines at Hedon, Yorkshire.

30 more counters will be installed at churches and chapels in Wales and Herefordshire later in 2019.

The counters, attached to the porch, will record the number of visitors they have over two years, with initial results of the research being released in 2020 and a full report in 2021.

To increase the range of data available, the National Churches Trust is asking churches to install their own digital counters and to collaborate in the research project.

Any churches that already have digital counters are also invited to share their data with the research project.

National Churches Trust Chief Executive Claire Walker says: “Our Great Church Visitor Count project will help churches in a number…

Catholic bishop of Hyderabad, Bishop Samson Shukardin, said other faith minorities were using different names too, to prevent them from being subjected to abuse.

He told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need: “Many minorities give their children Islamic names so they will not be singled out as Christians and become potential targets for discrimination.

“In many cases, minority students do suffer abuse in public schools.”

Bishop Shukardin explained that the textbooks in state-run schools were a problem, saying: “The minorities are considered infidels and they are depicted negatively in textbooks, which promote prejudices against minorities.

“The fundamentalists believe that Islam is the only complete religion – that salvation is only found in the Qur’an as the last holy book.”

Kidnappings and forced marriages are also common in rural areas where people have little education.

Archbishop Sebastian Shaw of Lahore archdiocese and Bishop Shukardin stressed the importance of education to limit kidnappings and to provide Church-run schools and colleges in Pakistan.

Bishop Shukardin said: “We also need resources to help needy families send their children to college, which many cannot afford to do – let along enabling them to pursue advanced degrees.

“Education is key for every nation trying to transform society.”

One of the fears many Islamic extremists have in Pakistan is…

Francis celebrated an opening Mass in St Peter’s Basilica with global attention newly focused on the wildfires that are devouring the Amazon rainforest, which scientists say is a crucial bulwark against global warming.

On hand for the service were indigenous people, some with their faces painted and wearing feathered headdresses, as well as more than 180 cardinals, bishops and priests, who donned green vestments like the Pope.

They travelled to Rome from the region for three weeks of debate at a special synod which has become one of the most controversial of Francis’s papacy.

Among the most contentious proposals on the agenda is whether married elders could be ordained priests to address the chronic priest shortages in the region. Currently indigenous Catholics in remote parts of the Amazon can go months without seeing a priest or having a proper Mass.

Another proposal calls for the Catholic Church to identify new “official ministries” for women, though organisers have made it clear that priestly ordination is off the table.

Francis’s conservative critics, including a handful of cardinals, have called the proposals “heretical” and an invitation to a “pagan” religion that idolises nature rather than God.

They have mounted an opposition campaign, issuing petitions and holding conferences to raise their voices.

In many ways, Francis opened the synod last year, when he…