Ruth Gledhill

• Pope condemns those who turn 'things' into 'gods'

  Pope Francis, celebrating Mass at his Santa Marta residence, where he chose to live over the grandeur of the traditional papal apartments, said people should look beyond the beauty of things and the temptations of the here and now towards the transcendent.

• CofE makes more cash than McDonalds and three times as much as Starbucks

  The Church of England has an annual income of £1.41 billion, more than half of which was from donations by parishioners, according to a new report.

• Pastors in India beaten and jailed simply for praying in their own homes

  Evangelicals in India are calling on Christian leaders in the UK to pressure the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit this week to intervene to help persecuted Christians in India.

• Anglican membership figures could be out by millions

  According to official Anglican Communion figures, the estimated number of Anglicans in the world today is about 80 million. However problems with the reliability of the figures mean the number of active Anglicans could be far lower.

• Earliest church in the tropics dug up on historic slave trade island

  Remains of a church on Cabo Verde's Santiago Island, off the West African coast, dates back to late 15th century

• End anti-Christian discrimination in education, Pakistan Catholic pleads

  Leaders of Pakistan's Christians have petition the nation's Supreme Court to end discrimination against minorities in the education system.

• Vatican properties used as saunas and massage parlours

  Properties in Rome that are owned by the Vatican are being run as saunas and massage parlours, sometimes used by Catholic priests, according to more explosive leaks in the Italian press.

• Top Jersey politician condemns CofE failure to publish safeguarding inquiry

  In correspondence seen by Christian Today, Senator Sir Philip Bailhache, former Bailiff of Jersey, has written to the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby complaining that the Anglican church on the island is 'in limbo' as a result of a failure to publish a report into a safeguarding incident.

• Judge questions whether confession privilege should extend to Jehovah's Witnesses

  A US judge is considering whether it is constitutional to have a law that protects the clergy of just one religious denomination from disclosing what is said to them in confession.

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  We will not yield on same-sex couples and baptism says Mormon church

  The Mormon church has published a rare interview with one of its "Twelve Apostles" justifying the decision to exclude the children of same-sex marriages from baptism.

• Pope attacks churchmen who live for the love of money

  Pope Francis criticised prelates who revel in the life of luxury that their elevated position in the Catholic Church can offer.

• Thousands of Christians flee as ISIS advances into ancient Assyrian heartlands

  ISIS has made ground in a fierce and destructive offensive on a town near Sadad, 35 miles south of Homs and 65 miles north-east of Damascus, the capital of Syria.