Premier Christian Newscast

Premier journalist Anna Rees Green asks how the church can respond to Christian Nationalism in the UK.

In the second part of this series, Premier journalist Anna Rees Green explores how the language of Christian Nationalism shows up in UK politics.

Join Anna Rees Green, a Premier Christian News, Multi-Media Journalist, as she interviews leading voices from all areas of the political and faith spectrum. Welcome to 'Christian Nationalism: Faith and the flag in Britain'

Sadly, today’s episode will be the last episode of the Premier Christian Newscast. To wrap the show up, we looked back over the last two years at what stories and topics have come up the most. What has been making waves in church news? What issues are we unable to move on from? And what might this tell us about what is going to be hitting the headlines in the years to come? Has the Christian media...

All of the UK will be going to the polls soon in a general election, which is expected at some point in the autumn. After a drubbing in the recent local elections, Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are widely expected to be dumped out of office in Westminster too. And just as more and more Britons are abandoning the Tories, so too are Christians. This week we’re wondering how believers are thinking abou...

The horrendous attack on a mother and her children by Abdul Ezedi, an Afghan asylum seeker, in Clapham earlier this year sparked a ferocious row. A string of politicians and right-wing media outlets accused churches of giving asylum seekers like Ezedi bogus baptisms after they had fraudulently converted to Christianity to boost their arguments to not be returned to their home countries. But is any...

It’s not just British denominations which are splintering under the weight of their divisions. The United Methodist Church in the United States has also gone through a painful five years of divorce, with up to one in four congregations choosing to leave. The crisis was, inevitably, precipitated by deep disagreements over LGBT issues including same-sex marriage. When a crunch vote in their assembly...

It’s not just a toddler group. Emphasis on the ‘just’. That’s the title and message of a new report which urges churches to take their midweek parents and toddler groups more seriously. These groups are not just about toys on mats and beakers of juice for tired mums, but vital for children’s flourishing and also for drawing families into the wider church community. The report is one of a number of...

It is not just the Church of England and the Catholic Church which has been wrestling with divisions over same-sex marriage in recent years. The Baptist Union is also split between those who believe God affirms gay marriage and those who hold to a traditional opposition to it. Yet unlike other denominations, the Baptists have come recently to an interesting compromise. Individual congregations are...

Ecumenism. Even the word itself is probably putting some of you off right now. A tiresome bit of churchy jargon that has no relevance for your church or spiritual life, right? But working for unity across churches and denominations is for some a genuine passion, an urgent priority, even a lifetime’s ministry. Earlier this year, a group of Catholic and Anglican bishops spent several days in discuss...

Many of England’s biggest football clubs – today some of the country’s largest entertainment businesses – were originally started by local churches 150 years ago. Fascinatingly, the connections between Christianity and football are not solely a historical quirk either. There are Christians playing the game at every level, managing teams and running clubs, while churches use the sport for both outr...

Just before Christmas, the Catholic Church surprisingly announced priests could offer pastoral blessings to same-sex couples for the first time. The announcement has been a jolt of energy to the church, delighting liberals who have been quick to publicise their blessings, and equally infuriating conservatives. Why has the backlash been so vociferous, and what might this mean for the remaining year...

Almost nobody has heard of Sir Paul Marshall until a few weeks ago. But, thanks to his Twitter account, the multi-millionaire hedge funder and media mogul has become briefly famous, or perhaps infamous. An investigation has revealed Marshall had a private Twitter account which had liked and re-posted dozens of hardline anti-Muslim and far-right tweets. As well as owning a slew of right-wing media...

After the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the Church of England embarked on a racial reckoning just like so many institutions. This produced a landmark report and a new racial justice unit. But more than three years on, has any progress been made in dismantling prejudice and discrimination in the national church? Were the tumultuous events of 2020 a turning poin...

A Christian gospel singer was approached by the police while busking in central London. In a video of the conversation, one of the officers tells the singer she is not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds, and later sticks her tongue out. For many of those furiously sharing this video online, it is further evidence of how the secular authorities in this country are trying to unfa...

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the government of Iran has sought to tightly control its small Christian minority and suppress the spread of Christianity throughout the population. But the Women Life Freedom anti-government protest movement has rocked the Islamist regime. Millions of Iranians have defied the strict interpretation of Islam the government espouses, prompting a violent backlash...

The story which dominated the UK church world last year was undoubtedly the revelations about Mike Pilavachi and Soul Survivor. But while the C of E’s investigation into him confirmed he had acted inappropriately at the Watford church he led, the story has often been veiled in vague terms and muttered innuendo. What exactly did he do to those young interns? How much power and influence did he wiel...

Christians spend an awful lot of time thinking about how and why people join the church. But we rarely consider the opposite – all of those who leave. Every year, an entirely uncounted number of people give up on going to church. Some continue to believe and practice faith outside a worshipping community, others abandon Christianity entirely. Who are these people? What motivates them? Should churc...

Abuse scandals. Famous deaths. A lot of reports. And a even more arguing about same-sex relationships. 2023 was a busy year for church news, and 2024 is already shaping up to be more of the same. But before the last 12 months is totally swamped by what’s already kicked off this year, let’s take a brief look back at some of the most consequential stories from 2023, and think about how they may deve...

Ever since October 7th, the world has been transfixed with horror at the violence and war unfolding in Israel and Gaza. First the brutal Hamas terrorist attack which left over a thousand dead and hundreds more snatched as hostages. Then the devastating Israeli bombing campaign, which has killed thousands more. And now Israeli soldiers and tanks fighting deep within Gaza, as civilians desperately t...

In France, Emmanuel Macron has launched a new fund to raise hundreds of millions of euros to pay for the preservation and renovation of ancient church buildings across the French countryside. The move has excited church conservation types on this side of the Channel, as a possible model to follow to safeguard our crumbling Christian buildings which can no longer rely on local tithes or cash-strapp...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the famous atheist and scourge of Islam, has suddenly announced she has now become a Christian. Many in the church have reacted with excitement that a prominent anti-religious voice has switched sides. But others have been scornful, noting her article explaining the conversion seems focused on Christianity’s role in the culture war and fails to mention Jesus or the cross. Why do w...

It’s not only the Church of England that has been having big synods recently. Throughout October, hundreds of bishops and others from the Catholic Church gathered in Rome for their own synod. But unlike the regular twice-yearly meetings the C of E has had for decades, this synod is a much larger, and rarer event. It’s all part of Pope Francis’s efforts to erode the hierarchical nature of the churc...

Last week was a momentous one in the long-running civil war over same-sex relationships in the Church of England. Just like in February, a session of the General Synod – the church’s elected parliament – was almost entirely focused on scrutinising the bishops’ plans to offer formal services of blessing for gay couples in church. The lengthy and at times torturous debate offered a window into a chu...

How to handle 31 October and the spooky festivities it prompts across society is a topic which has divided the church in recent years. Some Christians abhor Halloween while others embrace it. What for the wider world is a harmless bit of fun involving dressing up and sweets, to many believers is a sinister and even occultish celebration of evil. Should the church shun Halloween, or that going over...