Premier Christian Newscast
The podcast, brought to you by Premier, which takes you deeper into the stories impacting Christians around the world. Each week, we’ll dig into a particular issue, hearing from those directly involved or with a vested interest to make sense of the story and why it matters.
Episodes
April 15, 2024 • 49 mins
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 at liberty to host same-sex weddin...
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April 8, 2024 • 55 mins
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 discussion, joint services, pilgrimages an...
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March 25, 2024 • 36 mins
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 outreach and pastoral care. So much so ...
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March 18, 2024 • 41 mins
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 years of Francis’s pontificate? Is it a...
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March 11, 2024 • 29 mins
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 outlets, Marshall is also deeply em...
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February 26, 2024 • 72 mins
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 point, as the hierarchy hoped? We speak...
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February 12, 2024 • 36 mins
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 unfairly push Christianity out of the p...
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February 5, 2024 • 44 mins
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 from the state. What impact has th...
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January 29, 2024 • 29 mins
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 wield over the church and summer youth ...
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January 22, 2024 • 54 mins
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 churches change to become more porous or...
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January 15, 2024 • 35 mins
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 develop over the coming year. This week...
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December 18, 2023 • 48 mins
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 try to avoid the bombs, bullets and ...
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December 11, 2023 • 40 mins
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-strapped denominations to pay for essenti...
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December 4, 2023 • 41 mins
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 we end up arguing so much about cele...
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November 27, 2023 • 61 mins
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 church and shift its culture towards one...
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November 17, 2023 • 98 mins
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 church bitterly divided, almost 50-50 ...
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November 6, 2023 • 38 mins
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 the top? How should we distinguish...
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October 30, 2023 • 42 mins
The increasingly dictatorial government of President Daniel Ortega has turned its oppressive gaze onto the Catholic Church in Nicaragua in recent years. Angered by the church sheltering anti-government protesters in 2018, the state has intimidated, harassed, detained and exiled numerous church leaders and Christian activists. But many within the Catholic Church, which represents the vast majority of Nicaraguans, have continued to s...
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October 23, 2023 • 57 mins
Europe is often described as the world’s first post-Christian continent. In what was the cradle of Christendom, a tidal wave of secularisation has swept through from the post-war era onwards. But while mainline and established denominations – whether Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox - have if anything seen even more decline than we have here in Britain, there are some small signs of new life. A new breed of church planters are beav...
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October 16, 2023 • 56 mins
17 October marks the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Eight years ago the UN set itself the ambitious target of eliminating severe poverty globally by 2030. But despite almost a century of steady progress, numbers of people living on less than $2 a day have actually started increasing, not dwindling down to nothing. What’s gone wrong? Why are we struggling to press forward with development in the world’s poorest co...
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