A pastor at a Baptist Church in Ballincollig, Co. Cork, has thanked the community for the massive outpouring of support received following the drowning of a five-year-old local girl whilst on a family holiday in Germany.

The first bishop to openly back same-sex civil marriage has described as “reprehensible” the comments of a pastor who said homosexuality is a sexual sin, like rape and adultery.

ON A weekend when Islamic State released what appears to be a film of the murders of about 30 Ethiopians for no reason other than the fact that they were Christians, the differences thrown up by next month’s referendum on marriage equality may seem petty, almost academic.

A Baptist pastor has equated gay sex with rape in a condemnation of the forthcoming referendum on same-sex marriage.