While an estimated 3,500 churches continue to wait for their official legal status, the government has allowed unlicensed churches to continue to meet.  Ayed told World Watch Monitor: “We haven’t heard that a mosque was closed down or the prayer was stopped in it because it was unlicensed. Is that justice? Where is the equality? Where is the religious freedom? Where is the law? Where are the state’ institutions?” The Virgin Mary and St Mohrael Coptic Orthodox church, south of the city of Luxor, had to shut down on 22nd August after a church member said Muslim mobs were attacking it.  “A great deal of Muslim young men, aged 16 – 26, from our and nearby villages gathered in front of our church building, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is the greatest) and chanting hostile slogans against Copts and the church, such as ‘We don’t want a church in our Islamic village’,” church member Moheb Thabet told World Watch Monitor. “They tried to break the front door… but we locked [it] from the inside. “We immediately called the police who arrived and dispersed the demonstrators but they didn’t arrest…

Somer Umeed Bakhsh, 15, and his brother Areeb, 13, have lived in Glasgow with their parents Maqsood and Parveen since their family fled Pakistan in 2012 when their father was subjected to death threats due to his Christian faith.

The UK Government has repeatedly rejected the family’s plea for asylum, largely because officials do not believe they would be at risk in Pakistan where blasphemy carries the death penalty.

Almost 85,000 people have signed a petition calling on the Home Office not to deport the family, who are being supported by the Church of Scotland.

Somer, who wants to be an astrophysicist, recently got six As and a B in his National 5 exams at Springburn Academy in Glasgow.

Dozens of pupils from the school joined the boys at the Home Office depot in Glasgow on Wednesday to show their support for the petition.

Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Reverend Susan Brown(left-holding box) alongside Areeb Umeed with Rev Linda Pollock alongside Somer Umeed as they are joined by supporters at the Border and Immigration Agency, Glasgow.

Some carried homemade banners reading “We stand with Somer and Areeb” and “Hear our voices we are future of Scotland”.

Somer said: “It’s very nice to see so many people actually supporting us and it shows how much they care.”

Areeb…

Most Rev Justin Welby addressed the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday. 

He told the council that the Church is embedded in communities where conflict and violence is rampant and said that the Church “cannot and will not walk away” from those who are suffering.

“Let me pledge my support to you, Mr Secretary-General, in this work,” Archbishop Justin said.

“I have the privilege of having assembled a team in my office that is already learning from past experiences. Many of them worked with the UN. Together we can reach out to counterparts from other faiths to encourage their involvement and support, as they are already doing.

“This is our collaborative offer to you in this time of global pain.”

The Church has already begun mediation efforts in South Sudan, however Archbishop Justin admitted that it’s not enough.

He said: “Mediation by itself, however skilled, is like using a garden hose to put out a forest fire, when what you need is rain over the whole area to let new life grow and sustain itself.

“We therefore need to complement mediation – in fact the whole conflict cycle – within the framework of reconciliation.”

Archbishop Justin urged the UN Security Council to “invest in reconciliation and learn how to support transformation in human relationships better”.

Today I pledged my…

The Rev Canon Philip Mounstephen, 59, will become the 16th bishop when he is consecrated later this year.

He is currently the executive leader of the Church Mission Society having been ordained in 1988, and is serving in the Dioceses of Oxford and Southwark. He was also the chaplain of St Michael’s Church in Paris.

Prior to ordination, he taught for four years in a rural comprehensive school in Oxfordshire.

Canon Mounstephen is married to Ruth, who is a strategic planner in the charity sector, and they have one adult daughter, Kitty.

He enjoys gardening, travelling and reading, and is a long-time fan of Newcastle United, which he describes as “a triumph of hope over experience”.

Canon Mounstephen has significant family roots in Cornwall with several generations of his ancestors living in Tregony from the mid-18th century, before moving to Truro.

“I am absolutely delighted to have been called to lead the Diocese of Truro in mission and ministry,” Canon Mounstephen said.

“With my family roots in Cornwall, I am very well aware of what a rich Christian heritage we have.

“I rejoice in Cornwall’s strong sense of identity and I look forward under God into leading us in what I hope and pray will be a fruitful and exciting future.”

Canon Mounstephen will succeed The Rt Rev Tim Thornton who was appointed as the Bishop at Lambeth last year.

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At a church ceremony in Berlin, two skulls in glass boxes along with a coffin covered with a Namibian flag were placed in front of the altar ahead of the handover.

The repatriation of the remains is a reminder of Germany’s short-lived past as a colonial power in Africa – which included the bloody suppression of a Herero and Nama uprising between 1904 and 1908 that left tens of thousands dead.

“We intend to do something today we should have done many years ago, namely to give back mortal human remains of people who became the first victims of the first genocide of the 20th century,” German Lutheran Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber told the fully packed church.

Germany is returning 19 skulls, five full skeletons and bone and skin fragments that were stored in hospitals, museums and universities for decades.

In the early 20th century, German scientists tried to prove the “racial superiority” of white Europeans over black Africans by, for example, analysing the facial features of the skulls, well before Nazi-era scientists conducted similar experiments on Jews and others.

“These skulls tell the story of brutal, godless colonial past and its consecutive suppression of the Namibian people. They say, ‘Never again!'” Lutheran Bishop Ernst Gamxamub from Namibia said during his sermon.

It was the third time Germany has returned human remains to Namibia. In 2011, 20 skulls were handed…

Francis presided over his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square and spoke about his weekend trip to Ireland, where the abuse scandal has devastated the Catholic Church’s credibility.

The final day of the trip was overshadowed by release of a document from a retired Holy See diplomat accusing Vatican authorities, including Francis, of covering up for ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick – despite knowing for years that he regularly slept with religious scholars.

The author of the document – retired Vatican ambassador to the US Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano – said Francis should resign for his complicity in the McCarrick scandal, which has implicated US and Vatican church leaders over a period of two decades.

Francis referred to the Irish culture of cover-up, but he omitted from his remarks a line in his prepared text noting how he had prayed in Ireland for the Virgin Mary to intervene to give the church strength to “firmly pursue truth and justice” to help victims heal.

US bishops have called for an independent investigation to find out who knew about McCarrick’s abuse and when, and how he was able to rise through the ranks even though it was an open secret that he regularly invited seminarians to his New Jersey beach house and into his bed.

Francis last month removed McCarrick as a cardinal and ordered him to live a lifetime of penance and prayer after a US church…