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A senior Church of England theologian has called on the newly appointed bishop of Sheffield to stand aside ahead of his consecration, saying his opposition to female priests will "cause significant pastoral and public damage to the church".
Martyn Percy, the dean of Christ Church, Oxford, urged Philip North to either renounce his membership of the Society, a C of E organisation that rejects female priests, or decline his nomination as bishop of Sheffield, which was announced last month.
Slovenia permitted same-sex marriages for the first time from Friday under a law giving gay couples largely the same rights as heterosexuals though barring them from jointly adopting children.
The head of the unit in charge of weddings in Slovenia's second largest city Maribor, Ksenija Klampfer, told Reuters the first lesbian wedding would take place there on Saturday.
Harriet Harman has called for an end to politicians talking about the importance of marriage.
Labour’s former deputy leader said if she ruled the world they would no longer be allowed to discuss how damaging divorce can be.
She accused ministers who back marriage of ‘sneering’ at single mothers and making their children feel there is something wrong with them.
Ministers have shelved scrapping the Human Rights Act in favour of a British Bill of Rights until after Brexit .
The move, a Tory promise as far back as the 2010 manifesto, has been put on hold by Justice Secretary Liz Truss as her department has too much on its plate.
The Dutch organisation Women on Waves has announced that their "abortion ship" will dock in the harbour of the Puerto San Jose, Guatemala today. The ship is equipped to carry out medical abortions up to 10 weeks gestation. Abortion is only legal in Guatemala when the mother's life is at risk, but Women on Waves plans to circumvent the law by sailing into international waters, 12 miles outside Guatemala.
A 42-year-old man who burned a Quran and posted a video of it on Facebook has been charged with blasphemy in Denmark, a striking decision by prosecutors in a country that is largely secular but has grappled with the role of Islam in public life.
The decision stunned many Danes: No one has been convicted of blasphemy in Denmark since 1946, and the country has a long tradition of free speech; burning the flag is not a punishable crime.
IN THE fourth century Julian, a Roman emperor, grumbled, as he tried to push back the Christian tide, that the “impious Galileans” looked after “not only their own poor but ours as well”. The church in Europe continued to do so for centuries until the state took over many of its roles after the second world war. Now, amid swingeing welfare cuts, the impious Galileans—and other religious groups—are on the front lines once again.
One in four British charities—nearly 50,000 in all—is faith-based, says Rachel Wharton of New Philanthropy Capital, a think-tank. Half of all charities working in overseas aid have religious roots. Such groups receive nearly a quarter of the total income of registered charities in England and Wales—about £16bn ($20bn) a year. Stalwarts such as the Salvation Army dominate the work in Britain (80% of the money raised by faith-based groups goes to just 4% of organisations). But new groups are springing up, too. “We are helping 5-10 new Christian charities set up every month,” says Michael O’Neill of Stewardship, an organisation that assists groups in managing their charitable giving.
An election to decide the new Bishop of Llandaff has ended with no result.
An electoral college of 47 people, including all the bishops in Wales, had met over three days to vote on a confidential candidates list.
The election follows the retirement of Dr Barry Morgan at the end of January.
University Christian Union mission weeks have a reputation.
Dumped into a far-flung corner of campus, they tend to be little known by many outside the small circles involved in organising.
But a new model of student evangelism is taking off with slick and engaging content based on the award-winning Humans Of New York style of storytelling.
Many Christians are turning to apps and memes to express their faith instead of churches – and it's raising intriguing questions about the future of the world's largest religion.
When the Reverend Pete Phillips first arrived in Durham nine years ago, he was ejected from the city's cathedral. He had been reading the Bible on his mobile phone in the pews. Phones were not allowed in the holy place, and the individual who accosted him would not believe that he was using his phone for worship and asked him to leave. "I was a bit miffed about that," says Phillips, who is director of the Codec Research Centre for Digital Theology at Durham University in the UK. "But that was 2008."