Metal detectorist Derek McLennan uncovered the 10th-century hoard, which includes silver bracelets and brooches, a gold ring, an enamelled Christian cross and a bird-shaped gold pin, in a Dumfries and Galloway field in 2014.

National Museums Scotland raised £1.98 million to acquire the treasure trove of items for the nation.

Rules on discoveries in Scotland mean only the finder receives payment, differing from the rest of the UK, where awards are split with the land owner.

But it was reported at the time the church would share in the proceeds.

Undated handout file photo issued by Galloway Viking Hoard Campaign of a bird pin from a Viking hoard found in Dumfries and Galloway. The Church of Scotland is taking legal action for a share of a Viking hoard worth almost £2 million found on land it owns.

Church trustees are now taking legal action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

A Church of Scotland spokesman said: “It can be confirmed the general trustees of the Church of Scotland have raised an action against Derek McLennan.

Undated handout file photo issued by Galloway Viking Hoard Campaign of a pectoral cross from a Viking hoard found in Dumfries and Galloway. The Church of Scotland is taking legal action for a share of a Viking hoard worth almost…

Colonel Michael Elcomb served in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, serving in the Second World War in Malta, Sicily, Germany and North Africa, where he was wounded.

On Saturday, he decided to support his local church St Mary’s, a Church of England parish in Codford in Wiltshire, by joining in with a sponsored cycle and walk on his mobility scooter. The church has been there 750 years and requires repairs every now and again, usually paid for by locals.  

Colonel Michael Elcomb said: “Churches are such important historic buildings and do so much to keep communities together.

“That’s why we must keep them in good repair. Good luck to the many people around the country who will be Riding and Striding and raising funds to keep England’s churches in shipshape condition.”

‘Ride+Stride for Churches’ is a sponsored event in which people walk or cycle between churches. The money raised helps fund repairs and the installation of modern facilities at historic churches, chapels and meeting houses.

Last year the event raised over £1.3 million.

St Mary’s Codford, that seats 120 people, added a digital organ a few years ago and the congregation, described on its website as “a pretty straightforward and ‘conservative’ lot”, try to keep up to date with modern styles of worship whilst maintaining some tradition. 

Before Col. Elcomb even started he had raised…

The Augustinian Church Choir, from Erfurt, are visiting next month for a nine day tour to mark the partnership between the Diocese and the Erfurt Kirchenkreis in central Germany. 

The choir will visit churches and cathedrals across the county including the cathedrals of Bradford, Wakefield and Ripon, alongside Leeds Minster, Halifax Minster and St Margaret’s Church in Ilkley.

There will also be stops to visit York Minister and Ilkley Moor. 

The choir will perform work by Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Flor Peeters, Gustav Holst, Arvo Pärt and John Rutter.

The partnership between the two countries began formally on the 1st November 1997, growing out of an earlier link between Bradford and Erfurt that began in the late 1980s.

Rosalind Beeson, chair of the Diocese’s Erfurt and Leeds link group, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Augustiner-Kantorei to perform in venues across West Yorkshire.

“It will be wonderful to hear this massed choir perform sacred choral music from a wide range of composers from the 15th to the 21st centuries.

“This visit builds on two recent choir tours to Erfurt from the Bradford area in 2013 and Bradford Cathedral Choir’s centenary tour earlier in 2019.

“We are very glad to be able to reciprocate and to strengthen our partnership with Erfurt, recognising our shared musical heritage.”

Alex Berry,…

The storm hit Mozambique, on the south eastern African coast, on 15th March this year and went on to reap destruction in bordering Malawi and parts of Zimbabwe

The 105 mph winds and heavy rain caused devastating flooding, ruined crops and battered homes.

Reports suggest over 1000 people died.

Edgar Jone, Tearfund’s representative in Mozambique was there at the time and lost part of his home. He told Premier: “After six months, we still have two million people are still living in need of food and we have got 77,000 people are still living in temporal displacement camps in Mozambique.

Most of our infrastructure has been destroyed such as roads, electricity or water supply, hospitals and schools.”

Mr Jone said the government had started rebuilding infrastructure but that the humanitarian needs are desperate, with the church playing a role in trying to limit the effects of the storm.

“What the church is doing now, we are involving church leaders to pray for people that lost their family members and also awareness on risk, disaster, risk management and also climate adaptation to warn people are continuing to stay in a risk area and also churches are helping to map the secure area and resettle people from the risk area to a secure area.

“We request prayers for long term recovery because climate change is coming to stay and…

The Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that a lawyer for Dr Ulrich Klopfer’s family contacted the coroner’s office on Thursday about possible foetal remains being found at the home in an unincorporated part of Will County in northeastern Illinois.

The sheriff’s office said authorities found 2,246 preserved foetal remains, but there’s no evidence medical procedures were performed at the home.

The coroner’s office took possession of the remains. An investigation is under way.

Dr Klopfer, who died on September 3, was a long-time doctor at an abortion clinic in South Bend, Indiana.

It closed after the state revoked the clinic’s licence in 2015. The Indiana State Department of Health had previously issued complaints against the clinic, accusing it of lacking a registry of patients, policies regarding medical abortion, and a governing body to determine policies.

The state agency also accused the clinic of failing to document that patients get state-mandated education at least 18 hours before an abortion.

Dr Klopfer was believed to be Indiana’s most prolific abortion doctor, with thousands of procedures performed in multiple Indiana counties over several decades, the South Bend Tribune reported.

Christian, Mike Fichter, the president of the group Indiana Right to Life, said in a statement that “we are horrified” by the discovery of the foetal remains at Dr…

Jarrid Wilson, the associate pastor of the Californian church, took his own life on Monday.

He had a wife and two young sons and lead the young adult ministry. 

Wilson ran the mental health charity Anthem of Hope and was open about his struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts, inviting people to donate to 

In a talk called ‘Hope has the last word’ at the church’s mid-week service, the main pastor spoke about how suicide was not the answer and tried to answer people’s questions.

Laurie started: “When I heard the news that Jarrid was gone and I just couldn’t believe it” and explained how he was up at 3:30am listening to a podcast when he saws texts from his own son about Jarrid’s death

“I screamed, I yelled ‘No, God, no!’

“People think that us as pastors and spiritual leaders are somehow above the pains and struggles of everyday life. We’re supposed to be the ones that have all the answers but we don’t, we’re just like you, we need to reach out to God for his help and strength everyday.”

He addressed people‘s concerns, saying: “Jarrid had put his faith in Christ and that is why I believe right now he is in the presence of the Lord in heaven – a very important thing to remember.

“One dark moment in a Christian’s life cannot undo what Christ did for us on the Cross.”

He added: “We need to remember what Jarrid told us in his best days, not his worst” and added…

The debate, released on Friday 13 Sep, features Weinstein in conversation with Professor Alister McGrath and explores the question “Religion: Useful Fiction or Ultimate Truth?” and was filmed in front of a live audience at The Institute of Mechanical Engineers in Westminster, London. It is the first episode to be released in the second season of The Big Conversation from Premier Christian Radio’s faith debate show Unbelievable?. The first season had over 5 million engagements across video, podcast, broadcast and print.

Weinstein, who describes himself as a ‘Professor in Exile’ after he was forced to stand down from his position at Evergeen State University in 2017 after confrontations with student protestors over ‘political correctness’ on campus says that belief in God has been an important evolutionary development to make sure people behave well. “The deity is a hack, right? It hacks a structure in a way that functions… How do we learn what it is wrong? These things are induced in us through a mechanism. In Catholicism, the fact that you do wrong and that wrong counts against you in a way that you can relieve yourself of the debt but you have to confess it to somebody who is then in a position to give guidance to you. Again, it’s a hack. It correctly teaches you that this is wrong through some mechanism that has to be instantiated in the real world and it…