Church

Religious group ‘reviewing all available remedies’ after clips of young people rushing its buildings in ‘raids’ go viralOn any given day, Los Angeles’s Hollywood Boulevard teems with tourists and street performers clustered near the area’s many landmarks. But in recent months, the strip has been set abuzz for a new reason.Throngs of mostly adolescent boys and young men have been rushing the Church of Scientology’s international headquarters on the famed street. Continue reading...

Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslims said poor mental health made him admit to crimesThe Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019 has been prevented from appealing against his guilty pleas, after one of New Zealand’s highest courts said his bid was “utterly devoid of merit”.Brenton Tarrant, who is responsible for the worst mass shooting in New Zealand’s history, asked the court of appeal in February to allow him to appeal against his guilty pleas, claiming harsh prison conditions had affected his mental health and compelled him to admit to the crimes. Continue reading...

Kendrick Guidry, alone among judges, initially ruled that the state supreme court’s decision to uphold a ‘lookback window’ for abuse claims did not set a binding precedentOnly one judge in Louisiana has ruled in favor of the Catholic church’s ongoing attempts to strike down a law there which allowed old abuse claims their day in court – even after a state supreme court decision upheld the constitutionality of that so-called “lookback window”.But now, that judge – Kendrick J Guidry of Lake Charles – is being forced to acknowledge that his ruling benefited a specific church on whose finance committee he sits, giving him a direct financial interest that required his recusal under the state’s judicial code. Continue reading...

Michelle Sadio, 44, was shot near the River of Life Pentecostal church in Willesden in 2024Two men have been found guilty of murdering an innocent woman and injuring two more people in a drive-by shooting outside a wake.Michelle Sadio, a mother of two, was shot outside the River of Life Pentecostal church in Willesden in north London on 14 December 2024. She had been among about 100 mourners, including children as young as five, at the wake for 80-year-old Dianne Boatong. Continue reading...

Manhattan church led by Norman Vincent Peale was known for opposing presidency of JFK – and Catholics in generalDonald Trump’s attacks this week on Pope Leo, for his criticism of the US attack on Iran and the US president’s decision to post an image of himself as Jesus Christ on social media, make a good deal more sense considering Trump attended services as a young man at the Protestant Marble Collegiate church in Manhattan, which was led at the time by an anti-Catholic pastor.That church’s pastor in Trump’s youth, Norman Vincent Peale, who would later officiate at Trump’s first wedding, is best-known today as the author of the Christian self-help book The Power of Positive Thinking, but when Trump was 14, Peale made national headlines as the leader of a group of Protestant churchmen who loudly objected to the presidential candidacy of John F Kennedy, on the grounds that he was a Catholic. Continue reading...

The Rev Catherine Hutton says ‘hate cannot drive out hate’ after protesters gathered to demand information about suspectsThe minister of a church near the scene of an alleged gang-rape in Epsom has condemned the “intimidating” protest involving hundreds of people gathering in the Surrey town to demand information about the suspects from police.A woman in her 20s is believed to have been assaulted outside Epsom Methodist church in Ashley Road after leaving Labyrinth nightclub on Saturday between 2am and 4am, according to Surrey police. Continue reading...

Retrial ordered in case of Benjamin Field, found guilty in 2019 of murdering Peter Farquhar, 69, in BuckinghamshireA former church warden who was jailed for life for the murder of a university lecturer has had his conviction quashed at the court of appeal.Benjamin Field was jailed for at least 36 years in 2019 after being found guilty of murdering 69-year-old Peter Farquhar in Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire. Continue reading...

Pontiff makes first papal visit to country as he starts 11-day tour that will also include stops in Cameroon and AngolaPope Leo XIV arrived in Algeria on Monday for the first papal visit to the country, calling for peace on the opening stop of a tour of Africa that signals the continent’s growing importance to the Catholic church.The 11-day trip, which will include stops in Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, is the longest by Pope Leo since being elected to the papacy in May last year. Continue reading...

Victim in her 20s was attacked after leaving Labyrinth Epsom nightclub between 2am and 4am on SaturdayA woman was raped by several men outside a church after leaving a nightclub in Surrey, police said.The woman in her 20s reported she was attacked after being followed leaving Labyrinth Epsom between 2am and 4am on Saturday. Continue reading...

Survivors of UK’s mother and baby home scandal welcome news after years of campaigning for recognitionUK politics live – latest updatesThe Church of England is expected to make a formal apology for its role in forced adoptions and the UK’s mother and baby home scandal.Survivors of the scandal – in which hundreds of thousands of children were forcibly separated from their mothers – have welcomed the news after years of campaigning for recognition. Continue reading...

Robert Morris, who started Gateway church, pleaded guilty in October to sexually abusing girl in the 1980sThe founder and former pastor of one of the US’s largest megachurches has been released from an Oklahoma jail six months after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl in the 1980s.Robert Morris, 64, who started Texas’s Gateway church and also once served as a White House spiritual adviser during Donald Trump’s first presidency, pleaded guilty in early October in Osage county district court on five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child. Continue reading...

Experts say paid participants are using automated tools to generate unreliable survey responses at scaleIf you had been keeping tabs on the news about church attendance in Britain lately, you would be forgiven for thinking the country was in the midst of a Christian revival.Stories of swelling congregations, filled with young people returning to the flock, spurred on by everything from social media to a rise in bible sales appeared to be confirmed by a 2024 report from the Bible Society. Continue reading...

Research suggested resurgence in Christianity, especially among young people, but some respondents found to be ‘fraudulent’A YouGov survey showing a significant rise in church attendance in parts of the UK has been withdrawn after some respondents were found to be fraudulent.The poll was central to a Quiet Revival report, published by the Bible Society last year, which prompted news stories about an apparent resurgence in Christianity, particularly among young people. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: The first woman to hold the position of archbishop of Canterbury arrives at a time of transition with hopes that she can restore the church’s reputationGood morning. At a ceremony later today, Sarah Mullally will be installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury. The first woman to take on the role in its near 1,500-year history, she becomes de facto head of the Anglican communion at a difficult and painful moment for the Church of England.Mullally takes over an institution grappling with safeguarding failures, internal division and questions about its place in modern British public life. So what exactly is the job she is stepping into – and how much power does it still carry?Middle East | The US is poised to deploy airborne troops to the Middle East as strikes intensified across the region on Tuesday and Donald Trump claimed the US was in “very good” talks with Iran to end the war.UK politics | Rachel Reeves has ruled out universal support to deal with any future rise in energy bills, saying any government help would be targeted, and criticised the support offered by Liz Truss’s government as unaffordable and irresponsible.Health | The meningitis B vaccination programme will be expanded to include year 11 pupils at schools affected by the outbreak in Kent, health officials have said.Meta | A New Mexico jury has ordered Meta to pay $375m in civil penalties after it found the company misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and enabled harm, including child sexual exploitation, against its users.Environment | Ofcom to investigate climate change denial complaints for the first time since 2017. Continue reading...

Heather Danae Lewis who was one of 30 people charged in Minnesota church protest showed she did not attend eventFederal prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against a woman accused of participating in a controversial January protest at a Minnesota church after the woman apparently did not attend the event at all.Prosecutors notified a federal judge they intended to drop charges against Heather Danae Lewis, who was one of 30 people charged in connection with an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protest that disrupted a service at Cities church in St Paul. Officials have charged the protesters with civil rights crimes, saying they interfered with the right of the congregants at the church to exercise their religious beliefs. The media professional Don Lemon, who was at the event reporting on the protest, was among those charged. Continue reading...