Hydraulic fracturing for shale oil and gas is “in the national purpose” and right for Britain’s energy security, the chairman of Cuadrilla said.

The Church of England is “out of touch” with local communities and some of its own dioceses over the issue of fracking, according to activists in the UK.

When Jonathan Swift was appointed Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral exactly 300 years ago, he wasn’t that impressed. Robert Hume explains why.

Thousands of Irish labourers who worked, suffered and died in a massive 19th century construction project in Canada have finally been acknowledged.

The Archbishop of Canterbury today presented Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe with a dossier of abuses Anglicans have suffered in his country.

Zimbabwe’s top Anglican bishop said an excommunicated church leader close to the country’s president has taken over an orphanage housing 80 children as part of a schism over gay marriage.

An elderly brother and sister were killed in an early morning house fire.

HE came, he toured, he failed to conquer.

POPE BENEDICT criticised Catholic Church leaders yesterday as “insufficiently vigilant” during decades of sexual abuse of children, as he arrived in Britain to win over one of Europe’s most secular countries.

THE Catholic Church’s woes over sex-abuser priests continued yesterday despite a further attempt by the country’s most senior cleric to put the matter to rest with fresh apologies and promises to make amends.

A New Zealand church billboard depicting a downcast Joseph lying beside Mary in bed and the heading “God is a hard act to follow” has provoked a religious row.

The US Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles elected the first female bishop in its 114-year history but ended voting for the day with one of two openly gay candidates still vying for the second bishop’s position.

Episcopalians in the US have declared gays and lesbians eligible for “any ordained ministry”, a vote expected to upset world Anglican leaders who had sought a clear moratorium on consecrating another gay bishop.

CORK firm Cubic Telecom has signed a €10 million deal with the international charity organisation, the Mission to Seafarers.

TO say we live in interesting times somehow doesn’t capture the enormity of the events in the global financial system.

Australia’s Anglican Church consecrated the country’s first female bishop today in a ceremony attended by hundreds but opposed by at least one prominent church leader.

The Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin in California has sued a deposed bishop, demanding he vacate his offices and turn over financial accounts for leading a secession last year prompted by the church’s ordination of women and gays.

The Anglican church in Australia has announced the appointment of the country’s first woman bishop.

THE Archbishop of Canterbury defended yesterday his right to broach the sensitive subject of Sharia law, but accepted that comments which triggered a storm may have been unclear.

The Anglican church's most senior clergyman is questioning some long-held Christmas beliefs.

The Anglican Church of Canada will try again today to vote on the issue of blessing same-sex unions.

Roman Catholic bishops marked Easter Sunday with an unprecedented message to President Robert Mugabe to end oppression and leave office through democratic reform or face a mass revolt.

The head of the Anglican Church in Ireland today appealed to politicians to show the courage needed to secure a political breakthrough in the North.

The head of Ireland's Anglican Church, Archbishop Robin Eames, will hold a ground-breaking meeting with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams at Stormont today.

Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu turns 75 tomorrow – his acerbic tongue and irrepressible humour as sharp as during his anti-apartheid crusades.

WHEN he launched his famous libel action in 1997, Jonathan Aitken was proud, haughty and self-righteous: “If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it.”

THE news that Clonfert priest Fr Mossie Dillane fathered a child has “reignited the debate over celibacy” according to one of last weekend’s newspapers.

Spain got its first married priest this weekend when a Canary Island bishop ordained an Anglican pastor as a Roman Catholic priest.

Elaine Ganley, Paris

Church officials in London have barred the producers of The Da Vinci Code from shooting scenes in Westminster Abbey after denouncing the book, which the film will be based on, as "theologically unsound."

More must be done to help children caught in the “intolerable” poverty trap in Ireland, a senior cleric said today.

THE Anglican Church was edging closer towards a split last night over the ordination of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The Anglican Church is set for a major split on the issue of homosexuality, as church leaders meeting in Newry have called on the church in the US and Canada to withdraw from the Anglican group of churches.

I OBJECT to the attack on President Mary McAleese by Dr Hazlett Lynch (Irish Examiner letters, February 4).

AN Anglican church commission sharply criticised the US Episcopal Church yesterday for consecrating a gay bishop and called on the church to apologise and refrain from promoting any other clergy living in a same-sex union.

British fathers’ rights group Fathers 4 Justice today brought chaos to the traditional Sunday service of the Church of England’s General Synod when members climbed on the roof of York Minster in England.

Ugandan rebels burned and looted six villages in remote southern Sudan, killing at least 100 people and forcing some 15,000 to flee, a religious leader and Sudanese rebels said.

Nine men linked to the Anglican Church in South Australia, including two former ministers, have been arrested for allegedly abusing children over the past five decades, police said today.

Former Governor General Peter Hollingworth, who resigned as the Queen’s representative in Australia a year ago over a paedophilia scandal, said today he took too long to comprehend the damage of child abuse.

Gay Church of England cleric Jeffrey John was under pressure today to step down from his new post as Dean of St Albans.

A bitter and unrepentant Mordechai Vanunu spent his first night of freedom in a Jerusalem church after serving an 18-year prison term for disclosing Israel’s nuclear secrets.

HOMOPHOBIA in Ireland? Regretfully, we have a long, long way to go, as indicated by Niall Murray's article (Irish Examiner, February 20).

The head of the Anglican Church in Ireland made an impassioned plea today to Northern Ireland’s politicians to redouble their efforts to achieve political stability, following the recent Assembly elections.

The Rev Gene Robinson began his ministry as the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop by saying he wanted to bring the message of God’s love to “those on the margins”.