Britain needs leaders who will look on asylum seekers from Africa with 'compassion', the Bishop of Manchester has said. Rt Revd David Walker said there was a ‘political rhetoric that characterises them as wilful criminals rather than helpless victims’. Writing for the Observer newspaper the bishop said migrants are attempting to come to Europe through desperation and not want. ‘They are pushed, not pulled, towards the EU, forced out of their homelands by war, terrorism and the persecution of minorities,’ he wrote. Bishop David said: ‘Twenty-first-century Britain still aspires to be an international player. The moral cost of our continual overseas interventions has to include accepting a fair share of the victims of the wars to which we have contributed as legitimate refugees in our own land,’ he urged. Just days away from the General Election Bishop David said he wanted a government that looked upon refugees with compassion.

A Presbyterian church minister has issued a warning following the first legal recognition of a Pagan 'church' in Northern Ireland. Minister of Magheramason Presbyterian Church in Londonderry, Rev Graeme Orr, told the Irish News Letter: ‘There is a dark spiritual side involved with paganism that I would like people to be wary about. I would invite people to come and speak to me and find their answers through God.’ While most religions go back hundreds, even thousands of years, The Order of the Golden River – Northern Ireland's first official Pagan church – was established just six years ago, in 2009. Led by Patrick Cranberry, now legally recognised as a Pagan priest in the country, the group's members have remained anonymous since its founding. Though Cranberry says he has recieved a lot of support in the last few weeks, Orr says he is worried for the people of Londonderry, where The Order has been offered a building.

Children struggle to read emotions and are less empathetic than a generation ago because they spend too much time using tablets and smartphones, a leading psychiatrist has warned. Iain McGilchrist said children as young as five were less able to read facial expressions because of too much interaction with technology. He added that he had evidence that more pupils were displaying borderline ‘autistic’ behaviour. Dr McGilchrist, a former Oxford literary scholar who retrained in medicine, said he had heard of increasing numbers of teachers who had to explain to their pupils how to make sense of human faces.  He said ‘plausible’ theories as to why children are less empathetic are to do with the disruptive effects of technology in the family unit. ‘Children spend more time engaging with machines and with virtual reality than they used to in the past,’

Christians across Britain are being invited to join an ‘election prayer surge’ on the eve of the general election in a bid to pray in ‘God's will’ for the nation. In a pastoral letter, Dr Jonathan Oloyede, convenor of the National Day of Prayer and Worship, has issued a prayer summons to evangelical, charismatic and any other committed Christians to gather outside Parliament on the evening of Wednesday 6 May between 7.14 and 8.14, or those who cannot travel down to London are encouraged to meet where they live in small and large groups. Thursday 7 May 2015 will be a significant day in the life of this nation as we head to the polling stations to vote for the next government, our local councillors and in some places for mayoral candidates,’ he writes. ‘I urge you to renew the call to prayer for the UK and the government. I know many of you are already praying, but I believe we need to raise the bar in praying for God's Kingdom to come and His will to be done.’ If you want to organise an event where you are, Jonathan invites you to email him directly at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.