An elderly evangelical Christian preacher suffering from cancer and diabetes would rather go to prison than withdraw a statement he made last year during a sermon in his north Belfast church where he called Islam ‘satanic.’ In an interview, an obdurate Pastor James McConnell, 78, who is facing a potential hate crime conviction, told the Belfast Telegraph that he is ready to serve his time in jail, unafraid to be locked up with sex offenders, hoodlums, and paramilitaries. ‘I have no regrets about what I said. I do not hate Muslims but I denounce Islam as a doctrine and I make no apologies for that. I will be pleading 'not guilty' when I stand in the dock in August.’

A British charity that provides assistance to Christians in predominantly Muslim countries hosted a training session in London on Tuesday to advise UK churches on protecting their premises and congregations against an attack by Islamic State militants. The Barnabas Fund, which says it offers ‘practical aid for the persecuted church’, invited fifty church leaders to participate in the half-day session at Westminster’s Central Hall. The charity’s international director, Patrick Sookhdeo, and police representatives were present to give advice. An email with the subject line ‘Protecting British churches from terrorist attack’ warns, ‘Given the dramatic growth of IS in the Middle East and the increased anti-Christian rhetoric and attacks from that group, plus the recently thwarted attempts to attack churches in Paris, the possibility of an IS attack on British churches cannot be discounted.’

15-year-old Lewis Brimble was recently told by the NHS that they had declined his application for Eculizumab, the only drug that could save his life. He said ‘I have had a rare kidney disease since I was nine years old which progressed into end stage renal failure. I spent two years on dialysis. When I was 11 Mum donated her kidney to me, and I slowly got back to being normal. Then after 15 months my disease came back, with damage to my transplanted kidney. Since then I have been deteriorating. Doctors said there is only one drug, Eculizumab, that can stop my disease from getting worse and forcing me to go back to a nightmare half-life on dialysis. But now, NHS England have rejected my application for the drug simply because it is ‘too expensive’.’

The Queen may have to move out of Buckingham Palace to allow maintenance work costing £150m to be carried out. It is one option being considered by the royal household, which says the palace needs new plumbing and wiring and has not been decorated since 1952. It comes as the Crown Estate, which owns property on behalf of the Queen, returned record profits of £285m to the taxpayer last year. The publication of the royal accounts can be an uncomfortable time for palace officials. Under scrutiny is the way the Royal Family spends public funds. The palace puts the cost of funding the royals at 56p per person in the UK. It's a figure Sir Alan Reid, the keeper of the Privy Purse described as excellent value for money. Royal sources reported significant amounts of asbestos needed to be removed from Buckingham Palace in a project described as a fundamental re-service.

In 2012 MPs were first alerted to the fact that the Grade-1 listed building needs urgent repairs. A new report warns MPs that if they stay in the buildings whilst repairs are carried out it could take 32 years and cost £7 billion. The whole structure is crumbling. Built on London clay, it is slowly sliding towards the river. There are serious problems with the roof, walls are crumbling and the foundations are cracking. MPs are facing an option to move out while the work is done, which could take 10 years and cost £3 billion. This is the surveyors' favoured option. The sorry condition of Parliament could be seen as a metaphor of Britain's crumbling moral, spiritual, economic and political state. We have undermined family life through laws allowing abortion, easy divorce, and same-sex 'marriage' and sent our soldiers to fight in wars that had little or nothing to do with our national security. We have passed laws that favour the rich and deny justice to the poor.

The World Prayer Centre is inviting all Christian believers, churches, youth groups, intercessory groups, young and old to come and pray for our family of nations at what they believe is a significant time in our nations. You are invited to come for a National Day of Worship and Prayer at TRUMPET CALL 2015 at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham on Saturday 4 July 2015. Ian Cole, Founder of World Prayer Centre said, ‘If we, as the Christian Church, do not stand together and pray on behalf of our nations and their future generations, who will? At TRUMPET CALL 2015, we will release a powerful trumpet blast over the British Isles and beyond into Europe - an alarm that will alert us to the dangers we face, while at the same time opening our eyes and to heed God’s spirit within us to the opportunities we have to live out our Christian faith in actions and prayer for our nations.’ There are car parks near the venue and many cafes, restaurants and shops nearby.

A new ComRes poll commissioned by Tearfund asked practising Christians in the UK to identify the main social and political issues they believe the world will have to face over the next ten years. They said it would be climate change or the environment. Next came social justice, then secularism, migration and poverty. The research was released just before a mass lobby of Parliament on Wednesday calling on parliamentarians to tackle climate change. Campaigners want MPs to support a climate change agreement aimed at limiting temperature rises to two per cent of pre-industrial levels, and to work towards ending pollution from coal in the UK.

The number of recorded sexual offences against children in England and Wales has risen by a third, according to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). There were 31,000 offences recorded in the year up to April 2014, up 8,500 on the previous year. Figures compiled by the charity show that 85 offences were recorded by police every day, with significant rises in Scotland and Northern Ireland also. A spokesman said high-profile cases had ‘played a contributory factor’ in encouraging people to come forward. Jon Brown, from the NSPCC's sexual abuse programme, told BBC Radio 4's Today that cases in Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and elsewhere had helped prompt children, young people and adults to speak about abuse that is either happening to them or has happened to them. Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) lead for child protection, said police now looked upon child abuse very differently but the latest figures could be still only be the tip of the iceberg.

We’ve grown used to stories of dazzling new churches with huge followings, global media ministries and where founders and leaders become worldwide celebrities. Roy Godwin and Dave Roberts tell a different story. No glittering palace of worship here, no global media empire and no megachurch congregation. Instead, this is the story of a converted farm, high up in the bleak but beautiful hills of west Wales, where God breaks through. The Grace Outpouring is a simple story of hospitality and prayer - where all are made welcome and aware of God’s presence. There’s no story of building a congregation or even a resident community. Instead, the core vision is a scattered prayer community - the Caleb Community - pouring the grace and power of God outward into the world, rather than inward, into a church. To read the wonderful story of A House of Prayer with the Father’s Heart, click the 'more' button below.

Traditional Christian teaching could effectively be ‘criminalised’ in some settings under David Cameron’s plans for new anti-extremist banning orders, a top Anglican theologian and former parliamentary draftsman has warned. The Rev Dr Mike Ovey, a former lawyer and now principal of Oak Hill Theological College in London, a training school for Church of England clergy, said proposals for new ‘Extremism Disruption Orders’ could be a disaster area for people from all the mainstream religions and none. Mr Cameron and Theresa May have signalled that the new orders, planned as part of the Government’s Counter-Extremism Bill, would not curb the activities of radical Islamist clerics but the promotion of other views deemed to go against ‘British values’ even if it is non-violent and legal. Dr Ovey warned that unless the criteria are tightly defined, the orders could be used against almost anyone and would have chilling effect on preachers and even call into question the curriculum of colleges such as his.