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.

Harassment in the Holy Land

25 Sep 2023
00:56:44

Christian pilgrims have been visiting Jerusalem and the Holy Land for centuries, trying to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. But in recent years, there has been a disturbing rise in incidents of harassment and abuse against Christians by Jewish Israeli...

Small boats, Rwanda and welcoming the stranger: the church amid the politics of migration

18 Sep 2023
00:46:55

Immigration is never far from the headlines these days. Whether it’s the government’s highly controversial plan to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda, the so far unsuccessful efforts to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats, or even the sche...

Covid-era church closures reconsidered

28 Aug 2023
00:33:58

‘Prohibiting people from worship and communal religious exercise is profoundly illiberal and illegitimate.’ Those are the words of the former EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Jan Figel. The Slovakian has launched a legal case again...

Drag queens in church?

21 Aug 2023
00:57:08

Men have dressed up as women for thousands of years, but as you’ve probably noticed, drag is having a particular moment right now. Drag races are prime time TV fodder and drag artists are everywhere in popular culture. And the church is no different....

Ethnic diversity in church

14 Aug 2023
01:18:36

It’s pretty well known that most churches in Britain are largely filled with white faces. Clearly there are hundreds of thousands of believers from other ethnic backgrounds, but on the whole they tend to worship in separate churches. In an era when w...

ChatGPT: Coming to a church near you?

7 Aug 2023
00:47:50

At a recent Protestant convention in Germany an entire church service – liturgy, prayers, psalms, and sermon – was written and delivered by AI software. Around the world ministers and Christian techies are experimenting with tools such as ChatGPT to...

Unbanked: Are conservative Christians getting locked out of our financial system?

31 Jul 2023
00:33:51

Financial institutions are guilty of discriminating against Christians. That’s the claim of Anglican vicar Richard Fothergill and charity exec Mike Davidson, both of whom are prominent Christians who have recently had their bank accounts closed. They...

Safeguarding in crisis in the Church of England

17 Jul 2023
01:06:13

The work of keeping children and vulnerable adults safe from harm and abuse in church has never been a more central part of the Church of England’s remit. Yet in its efforts to do right by victims and build ever more robust policies to root out abuse...

What ever happened to revival?

10 Jul 2023
00:37:32

The recent Asbury Revival prompted huge excitement among many British charismatics and Pentecostals. But it has also prompted some uncomfortable questions, including why isn’t this happening more over here? When the Charismatic Renewal movement hit t...

Climate activism and the church

3 Jul 2023
00:37:40

Recently, the Church of England announced that its multi-billion pound funds would no longer invest in any fossil fuel companies. For years the Church had tried to use their position as shareholders in companies including BP, Shell, Total and ExxonMo...

Fired, prosecuted, banned: Is Joshua Sutcliffe the most persecuted 33-year-old in Britain?

26 Jun 2023
00:55:58

Joshua Sutcliffe, it seems, cannot stop getting into trouble. The Christian teacher has been fired twice from schools and also prosecuted for street preaching during the pandemic lockdown. And now, he has been banned from teaching anywhere for two ye...

The Windrush scandal

19 Jun 2023
00:34:26

Seventy-five years ago this week, the HMT Empire Windrush docked in the UK, bringing 800 migrants from Caribbean nations to their new lives in Britain. But the anniversary is a bittersweet one the British Caribbean community thanks to the lingering a...

The state of sex education in schools

12 Jun 2023
00:53:17

Graphic lessons on oral sex, how to choke your partner safely, and the existence of 72 different genders. According to the Christian MP Miriam Cates, these are some of the things appearing in sex education classes up and down the country. According t...

The end of hatch, match and despatch?

5 Jun 2023
00:30:03

Churches have been holding baptisms, weddings and funerals for the people of Britain for well over 1,500 years. But in recent decades the numbers of those choosing to hold these pivotal life moments inside a church building have been plummeting sharp...

Gafcon in Kigali: A struggle for the future of Anglicanism

29 May 2023
34:45

Last month, the Rwandan capital of Kigali was the unlikely host of a gathering which will shape the future of the world’s third-largest Christian denomination – the Anglican Communion. Hundreds of conservative and evangelical delegates from across th...

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