It comes after a growing number of people have risked their lives to travel from Dover to Calais in recent months. On Thursday last week, UK and French authorities had nearly 100 migrants, including 17 children, trying to cross the Channel in one day while a further 35 migrants were intercepted on both sides of the water the following day.

Two more boats were intercepted carrying 28 people on Monday, followed by another three dinghies on Tuesday morning.

Christian charity Seeking Sanctuary is calling on the Christian community to push the English and French authorities for more humane conditions for migrants.

Spokesperson Ben Bano told Premier that migrants are motivated to take the dangerous journey: “What we’re seeing in Calais is people pitching tents, if they have them, in areas of waste land, being cleared away more or less every other night, if not every night.

“What we are seeing is that people are thinking ‘I’ve got nothing else to lose, this couldn’t be worse.”

Bano says there is no easy fix to deal with the influx of people fleeing war and conflict but there are measures that need to be taken to ensure migrants are treated with dignity and respect.

He said: “One thing we can do is to just improve the conditions a little bit so that people don’t feel they have to make these desperate attempts.

“We also call on the French authorities to stop the…

George Whitefield, one of the founders of Methodism and the evangelical movement, was laid to rest beneath the pulpit of The Old South Presbyterian Church, Massachusetts after he passed away in the parsonage – the church house provided for clergy members – in 1770.

The Gloucestershire born preacher started the Newburyport church in 1746 during the Great Awakening – a Christian revival that impacted British colonies in the 1730s and 40s.

His funeral was held in London, where another founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, delivered the sermon at Whitefield’s personal request.

According to the Times, Whitefield’s great-great-niece, Vicki Kenderdine, has accused the Old South Presbyterian Church of “claiming his body as their own property” and ignoring her grandfather’s wishes to be buried alongside his wife in Britain.

She is hoping to raise £41,000 to fly his body back to Gloucester.

Rev Sara Singleton of the Old South Presbyterian Church said that funeral directors had attempted to exhume the remains last year, but the church refused to give them authorisation.

There have been a number of campaigns to send Whitefield’s body back to his home country but the church has maintained that it was Whitefield’s desire to be buried there in 1770.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive…

In 1969, Klaus Weber, now 72, from Germany visited the Cathedral with five other men, their visit coincided with the organ being refurbished.

According to Klaus, a fellow member of the group, Georg took a fancy to one of the pipes.

He told the Church Times: “They were lined up. Georg took one small pipe. We couldn’t stop him. He never said why.”

When the group were heading home, Georg was worried that it would be seized by customs at Dover and wanted to throw the pipe away.

Klaus, who was 22 at the time, was adamant they could not throw it away as it was a “historical piece” and offered to take the pipe back to Germany with him for safe keeping, which he did without trouble.

Klaus kept the organ pipe ever since, after not being able to track down Georg to give it to him.

50 years later, Klaus felt it was time to right a wrong and wrote to staff at York Minster offering the 16-inch pipe, a D sharp, plus £50 – £1 for every year it was missing.

A spokesperson for the cathedral said: “It wasn’t missed. Unfortunately, it can’t go back in the organ; it will go into the collection with a note.”

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

Bishop William Bahemuka has reported that Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) an Islamic rebel group – attacked the town of Boga, in the Ituri Province on Friday and abducted over 200 women and children.

Rebels outnumbered Boga government troops in the three hour raid in which the Anglican Mission Hospital was looted, along with a number of shops and cattle.

Residents of the town fled during the attack, but the number of safe spaces to flee too are limited due to ethnic conflict in the north and outbreaks of Ebola in the south.

Eastern DRC has struggled with increasing political, public health and security instability due to the presence of armed groups, military operations and an influx of refugees to the region.

In a statement released on the GAFCON website The Bishop of the Diocese of Boga said: “I travelled immediately to Boga, Bishop Bahemuka said, “to investigate the situation, advocate for our people, and extend to them the care of the church. The situation is terrible. People are terrified. Families are traumatized and grieving over their abducted loved ones. The ADF has never been active in Boga, so people are confused and don’t know how to understand the current situation.”

He added: “I appeal to people of good will everywhere to lobby their home governments to put pressure on the DR Congo government to stabilize the security situation in eastern Congo. We…

Leading Commons figures opposed to breaking EU ties without an agreement in place were due to meet on Tuesday, with The Times reporting Most Rev Justin Welby was in talks to chair subsequent citizens’ assemblies at Coventry Cathedral next month.

Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith told The Times: “I generally don’t criticise the archbishop but he shouldn’t allow himself to be tempted into what is essentially a very political issue right now.”

Britons were exhausted from being told why the result of the Brexit referendum should be overturned, according to Mark Francois, the vice-chairman of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs.

Mr Francois added in the paper: “I suspect they will not be overjoyed by having it rubbed in by the Archbishop of Canterbury to boot.”

But the archbishop received support from his fellow clergymen, the Bishop of Buckingham.

The Right Rev Alan Wilson said: “In a mature democracy people would not be afraid of doing this, because it would show what people’s concerns and fears and hopes and aspirations around this subject were.”

Lambeth Palace has not responded to a request for comment.

Following the 2016 referendum, the archbishop told the House of Lords that the campaign had resulted in an “out-welling of poison and hatred” in Britain.

He added: “It is essential not only in this house but for the leaders of both…