James Macintyre

• Gordon Brown is back: Flawed titan with a moral compass opens up about faith in politics

  Brown is back, and has opened up for the first time about his 'strong personal religious beliefs' which he says he should have been 'more open' about while an MP, chancellor and prime minister, and warned against driving religion out of the public and political spheres.

• Church versus state in India as archbishop rebuked by officials for 'nationalism' warning

  Ahead of elections in Gujaret, India's westernmost state, next month, the Catholic Archbishop of its capital, Gandhinagar, has been rebuked by officials in the election commission for urging voters to ensure that the country is 'saved of nationalist forces'.

• Church of Scotland must modernise or die, warns former moderator

  The Church of Scotland will 'drift into irrelevance and obscurity' unless it moves its focus away from preserving institutions and traditional services and onto modernising and using smart phones to connect with the young, the former moderator of the Church's general assembly has warned.

• Sinai mosque attack: Egypt's Anglican bishop appeals for world to do more to tackle terrorism

  Responding to the terrorist attack on the Sinai mosque which left at least 235 people dead, the Anglican Bishop of Egypt has called on the international community to step up the war on terrorists who, he said, enjoy freedoms to raise funds in Europe.

• Abortion protests review announced after concerns over harassment

  The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, yesterday ordered an 'in-depth assessment' of protests outside abortion clinics in the UK following recent concerns about the tactics of some protesters and pressure from MPs to ban prayer vigils outside clinics.

• Blasphemy crisis and deadly protests: What is going on in Pakistan?

  Pakistan, which is ranked fourth on Open Doors' 2017 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, is in the midst of a blasphemy crisis.

• Pope arrives in Myanmar for tense visit as Rohingya crisis looms

  Thousands of Catholics were gathering in Yangon today after long journeys by train and bus, excited to get a glimpse of Pope Francis, who begins a trip to Myanmar fraught with diplomatic risk over its treatment of the minority Muslim Rohingya people.

• Vatican speech for TUC general secretary demands Apple and Amazon offer 'better way'

  The Catholic general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Frances O'Grady, will today deliver a speech at the Vatican arguing that inequality, corporate power and 'titans of technology' are depriving working people of dignity.

• Pope Francis in Myanmar and Bangladesh: Masses, spirituality, and highly controversial politics

  The visit next week by Pope Francis to Myanmar and Bangladesh will, naturally, be full of spiritual fruitfulness, but it is also laced with political and religious sensitivity, as became clear last night when the Vatican issued several revisions to the schedule.

• How unlikely Catholic Steve Bannon uses St Ignatius' meditation methods to stay off alcohol

  Steve Bannon, the outspoken and divisive former adviser to Donald Trump has said that he abstains from alcohol with the help of the 'examen', a meditative daily exercise recommended by St Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises.

• Church reacts to 'disappointing' Budget that 'could have gone much further' for the poorest

  The Church of England has said that the Chancellor's Budget today 'could have gone much further to help the many at the sharp end struggling to get by'.

• JFK died on this day: He represented light where Trump oozes darkness

  On this date in 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated and, so the cliché goes, America lost its innocence.