All briefings

United Methodist decline, Anglican votes and legal proceedings, and evangelical outlets turning to film, artificial intelligence and the heavens.

A day of reported violence against congregations in Myanmar sat alongside church governance disputes, court rulings and leadership gatherings on several continents.

A reported killing in Cartagena leads a day whose other news ranged from a dispute among US Orthodox over Ukraine to a private jet that ran off a Las Vegas runway.

On Saturday the churches' news ran heavily through courts and discipline — a Nigerian archbishop ordered to stand aside for six months, a guilty plea in England and a halted demolition in India — alongside funding, archaeology and calls to prayer.

Religious pushback turned a presidential proposal on Thursday, while a Dallas megachurch weighed leaving its denomination and two Christian groups contested their access to public venues.

Pope Leo XIV's recovery from lung cancer surgery led a day of reporting that reached from American ballot measures to German church growth, a Maryland property ruling and a Scottish discipline referral.

The Vatican disclosed that Pope Leo XIV has been diagnosed with lung cancer after surgery, as Pakistan's Supreme Court acquitted one of the Ayub brothers held for years on a blasphemy charge.

A day dominated by churches under pressure — a deadly bombing in Nigeria, a confiscation threat in Iran, and a run of American disputes over the state's reach into Christian life.

Thursday's reporting ran from an abuse sentencing in Western Australia to storm damage in southern Africa, alongside statements, an election and a lawsuit across several churches.

A Catholic archbishop's lawsuit over access to immigrant detainees led a day that also brought safeguarding and financial-oversight news on both sides of the Atlantic, alongside dispatches from Tanzania, Cuba and the wider culture.

The churches marked a death, a homecoming and a feast on Tuesday, in reporting that ranged from scandal and memory to the blessing of animals.

A deadly school bus crash in Florida led a day in which churches weighed elections, courts, worship and the limits of new technology.

Friday brought a criminal verdict against a former church leader, fresh scrutiny of the US military's approach to faith, and signs of a term ahead for religious-freedom law.

The day's news turned on institutions reshaping themselves: a military office created to tend soldiers' spiritual health, a bishop preparing to step down, and a cluster of Anglican governance news.

The day's news turned repeatedly on where faith meets the state — from immigration enforcement at churches to a disputed cross in Los Angeles — alongside quieter questions of identity and renewal within the churches themselves.

Tuesday's church news ran heavily through the courts, alongside a humanitarian emergency in Congo and continuing arguments over authority and technology.

Monday's reporting ranged from an 800,000-strong Mass in Paris and papal warnings on war and artificial intelligence to a US aid appeal, an Anglican court ruling and detentions in China.

On a visit to the healing shrine at Lourdes, Pope Leo urged the church to find the courage to name its own failures over clerical abuse, while Christian outlets reported on a scholar's explanation of "Christian antichrists," a case for wordless witness, a State Department wording change, and the death of a man shot alongside President Trump at Butler.

Saturday's reporting turned again and again on how Christians and the wider public reckon with political power, from a bruising speech at the United Nations to a scholar's new book on following Jesus in a world of "Christian antichrists."

On Friday, 25 September 2026, the churches' dealings with state power ran through the day's news — from an appeal by Christian leaders over $1 billion in global health funds to a lifted freeze on a Catholic migrant charity.

Government lawyers moved to free churches from a ban on endorsing candidates, while two Anglican provinces drew back from recognising same-sex relationships and a former youth minister denied federal abuse charges.

Christians helped defeat the UK's assisted dying bill in a vote reported on the same day as news of a pastor killed in Nigeria and a car-ramming attack in the West Bank.

The Archbishop of Canterbury set a 2027 date for the world's Anglican leaders to meet even as opposition to her at home widened, while Washington's dealings with faith ran through much of Tuesday's reporting.

Gunfire outside an Ontario synagogue on Yom Kippur led a day in which faith communities faced violence, internal discipline and the fast-moving question of artificial intelligence.

The Anglican Church of Tanzania filled a diocese that had gone years without a bishop, while the Christian press also carried word from Nigeria, Leeds, and three matters of American law and policy.

The Church of England reversed an interfaith award as Ghana gained a new bishop, while several faith communities marked festivals and a day of atonement.

A federal judge halted Illinois' assisted-suicide mandate against Catholic clergy and nuns, while a religious-liberty appointment, worries about artificial intelligence and debates over church life ran through the rest of the day.

From Hong Kong to Manila, Wednesday's reporting followed faith communities pressing against state power — through a son's plea, through lawsuits, and at the ballot box.

A high-profile nomination to a religious-freedom post led a day in which churches also reckoned with artificial intelligence, a fresh Church of England campaign, and hard questions over life, policy and the wider world.

MPs voted down the assisted dying bill for England and Wales, while Anglican leaders addressed relations with British Jews, a bishop's safety in Nigeria and honours at Lambeth Palace.