Sir Keir Starmer has apologised after visiting a church which has been criticised for its traditional teachings on marriage and family, while another Labour MP has praised the very same congregation.

The church’s senior pastor, Agu Irukwu, has in the past spoken out against same sex marriage and aspects of equality legislation. LGBT+ groups claim it promotes “conversion therapy”, a charge the church denies.

The Labour leader visited Jesus House in London on Good Friday to see its vaccination centre, posting a video on his Twitter feed praising it as a ‘wonderful example of a church’ for its work with the community.

In 2017, Theresa May visited the church, while more recently Boris Johnson and the Prince of Wales have both been to the pop-up vaccination centre there.

But after a backlash including from his party’s LGBT+ members, Sir Keir called it a mistake and deleted the clip.

He said he “completely” disagreed with the church’s views on LGBT+ rights and was not aware of them beforehand.

“I apologise for the hurt my visit caused and have taken down the video,” he said. “It was a mistake and I accept that.”

In a twist, and following his Party Leader’s apology, Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham tweeted: “I applaud the extraordinary work of @jesushouseuk, and of churches and other faith groups, in supporting our communities throughout the past year.”

After criticism from LGBT groups, he responded with: “Given the attention this afternoon, I have checked with Jesus House. They tell me they don’t practise anything like conversion therapy, and regard homophobia as anti-Christian.”

On Easter Sunday a dawn Mass was held at a Mass rock on Achill Island for the first time in living memory. Public worship is currently banned under the Government’s Covid-19 restrictions.

Local curate, Fr Gerard Quirke celebrated the liturgy at the site used during penal times when priests risked imprisonment or death for saying mass publicly.

The action recalled Easter Sunday in 433 when St Patrick lit a Paschal Fire on the Hill of Tara in defiance of the High King of Ireland.

In his homily, which was broadcast online, Fr Quirke prayed for the coming of the day when believers would again sing the praises of God in churches.

Pope Francis has used his traditional Easter message to pray for an end to restrictions in parts of the world that have banned Christians from worshipping together at the most important feast in the Christian calendar.

The Pope’s prayer – delivered in his Urbi et Orbi address from St Peter’s Basilica – comes as religious believers in the Irish Republic face some of the most draconian restrictions in Europe.

Pope Francis said: “once again this year, in various places many Christians have celebrated Easter under severe restrictions and, at times, without being able to attend liturgical celebrations.

“We pray that those restrictions, as well as all restrictions on freedom of worship and religion worldwide, may be lifted and everyone be allowed to pray and praise God freely,” the Pontiff said.

Life in religious congregations is showing signs of slowly returning to normal as coronavirus cases, hospitalisations and deaths decline and vaccination rates rise across the United States,.

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that Americans are increasingly confident they can safely go to services at a church, temple, mosque or other house of worship. And the percentage who say they actually have attended religious services – in person – in the past month is slightly higher than it was last summer.

Three-quarters of U.S. adults who normally attend religious services now say they are “very” or “somewhat” confident they can do so safely, without spreading or catching the coronavirus – up 12 percentage points from when this question was last asked in July 2020. Over that period, there also has been a considerable drop in the share who say they think their congregation should be closed to help stop the spread of the virus.

Roughly four-in-ten people who typically attend religious services at least once or twice a month say they actually have done so, in person, during the past month – up 9 points since last summer. And as in-person attendance has trended upward, there has been a corresponding decline in the share of regular religious attenders who recently have watched services streamed online or on television.

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has welcomed the forthcoming increase in allowable number of funeral attendees but said he did not understand why it has been delayed for a month.

Measures set out by Government on Tuesday included that from April 26th, funeral Mass attendance can rise from 10 to 25 people “on compassionate grounds”.

In his Chrism Mass homily at the Pro Cathedral on Wednesday, Archbishop Dermot Farrell said everyone understood the “worrying context” in which the decision on a slow return to worship was taken.

“I welcome the announcement of the increase in the number of family members who can attend the funeral Mass of their loved one, although it is not clear why this measure has been delayed for one month.”

The archbishop also said he would continue to emphasise to Government the importance of the earliest possible return to public worship “and that the easing of restrictions must not be subordinated to powerful commercial interests. There will be further direct engagement with Government to ensure that specific positive consideration is given to public worship by the end of April.”

Children born through donor-assisted reproduction or surrogacy should be entitled from the age of 12 to access information about the identity of their genetic parents, the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, Prof Conor O’Mahony, has advised the Government. At the same time, he says, people should be allowed to use surrogacy who will have no genetic link to the child, providing neither the egg nor the sperm.

This is one of 27 recommendations in A Review of Children’s Rights and Best Interests in the Context of Donor-Assisted Human Reproduction and Surrogacy in Irish Law, which is due to be published by the Government shortly.

Also recommended is a system to encourage the parents to disclose the facts of donor conception to the child before the age of 12.

“If somebody goes and orders anonymous sperm on the internet and administers it at home, the law simply can’t stop that,” he acknowledged. “What the law can do is provide very strong incentives to go through the preferable route.

“The right to identity is legally binding on the State. We know from all the adoption debates going on lately how important it is, so the law should be set up to try to protect it as far as possible. At the same time there is a reality that some things are beyond the reach of the law.”

Ireland’s restrictions on religious worship are now the most far-reaching and disproportionate in Europe.

That’s according to an Irish Barrister and Legal Counsel for the human rights advocacy firm, ADF International.

In response to a challenge at the High Court, the government has confirmed that it is a criminal offense for a priest to conduct mass unless for the purpose of a funeral or a wedding. Similarly, worshippers could face a fine or up to 6 months jail time for leaving their homes to attend a place of worship.

Lorcan Price said freedom of religion is a fundamental right, secured by the Irish Constitution and international law.

“Where a government introduces restrictions on religious worship in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the restrictions must be proportionate and reasonable. The blanket ban on all worship in Ireland is clearly disproportionate as can be seen by looking to the approach taken by almost every other European country,” he said.

A large cohort of people are growing increasingly weary of the blanket ban on public worship as their spiritual and mental wellbeing is being eroded.

That’s according to the Catholic Bishop of Waterford & Lismore, Alphonsus Cullinan.

He added that it is very difficult to explain to people why they are banned from public worship, especially as Ireland is one of only a few countries in Europe where it is not allowed.

Bishop Cullinan also denied that there is a choice of either health and safety or worship: “It is not that we must stop public worship to safeguard physical health. We can do both. We must safeguard people’s health AND support their spiritual wellbeing”.

“I feel that the spiritual well-being of our people has not been given any serious attention by the authorities. To say that ‘services go online’ is very hard to take and feels dismissive.”

He expressed some sympathy with the government, but appealed to them to “take into consideration the spiritual care of hundreds of thousands of Catholics and many people of other faiths who wish to exercise their rights as guaranteed by our constitution”.

A Catholic priest and at least six others were killed by gunmen in an attack on St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Benue State, Nigeria, the Diocese of Katsina-Ala confirmed Wednesday.

Fr. Ferdinand Fanen Ngugban had just offered Mass in his parish church in eastern Nigeria and was preparing to leave for the Holy Week Chrism Mass when he was shot in the head by gunmen on March 30.

According to a statement by Fr. Fidelis Phelle Akjmbul, chancellor of the Diocese of Katsina-Ala, there was pandemonium among the people who took refuge in the parish premises.

“Fr Ferdinand went out to find out the cause of the confusion. He was shot in the head as he tried to take cover after sighting armed gunmen.”

Local authorities in Nigeria’s Benue State confirmed the attack occurred on St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Aye-Twar village.

The unidentified gunmen also raided the local village and set many houses on fire, according to multiple media reports.

In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.

U.S. Church membership was 73% when Gallup first measured it in 1937 and remained near 70% for the next six decades, before beginning a steady decline around the turn of the 21st century.

The decline in Church membership is primarily a function of the increasing number of Americans who express no religious preference. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has grown from 8% in 1998-2000 to 13% in 2008-2010 and 21% over the past three years.