The high number of babies being born in a reclusive Christian community on the West Coast is likely to offset any exodus, says someone who left.

Former Gloriavale Christian Community members have revealed that hundreds have left since its early days, including several families in the past year or so.

Eric Watson writes: Are there potentially a large number of Kiwis who feel aggrieved because our "most important" public holidays are Christian holy days?

Outspoken Anglican vicar Michael Hewat walked out of the church yesterday over its recognition of same-sex relationships.

A Sudanese Christian woman spared a death sentence for apostasy after an international outcry, met Pope Francis in the Vatican today.

A Catholic priest has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of dealing drugs at a party.

Pope Francis has said 2 per cent of the Roman Catholic clergy worldwide, the equivalent of 8000 members, are paedophiles.

Amid the swirl of opinion around the Anglican General Synod's decision to commit to finding a way to bless gay couples.

An Irish priest has warned his parishioners against "endangering" their souls by practising yoga and other Eastern disciplines.

A new documentary follows the six-week courtship and marriage of a young couple at the Gloriavale Christian sect, after its leaders opened the doors to a film crew.

Australia's Anglican priests will be free to report serious crimes revealed to them during confessions, ending a church law that has its roots in the 12th century.

A parent has taken concerns about religious teaching to the Human Rights Commission in the latest effort to remove the lessons from state school time.

The European Court of Human Rights has upheld France's ban on wearing a burqa or a niqab in public.

The sister of the 11-year-old boy who allegedly stabbed a classmate in the head with scissors has complained to the Ministry of Education about the school.

Kiwi league star and ex-All Black Sonny Bill Williams will play and train for the next month without food or water during daylight hours because of his religious beliefs.

A church which advertised that a prayer session could heal health problems including "incurable diseases" has been told to remove the advertisement.

Muslims in New Zealand will this year be fasting just 11 hours during Ramadan while their counterparts in the Northern Hemisphere will be going without food for over 20 hours.

The last services are being held at Auckland's Holy Trinity Cathedral today before a big construction project begins.

Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican's financial watchdog - all Italians - in the latest move to break with a murky past under his predecessor.

Singing star Stan Walker weighed into a revved-up blessing of the Destiny Church's new headquarters in Auckland yesterday, blending showbiz with religion.

Meriam Yahya Ibrahim, who was sentenced to death in Sudan after she married a Christian man, is to be freed, a Sudanese foreign ministry official has said.

The Anglican Church of New Zealand has instigated a move to allow clergy and parishes to opt into giving non-marriage "blessings" to same-sex couples.

Destiny Church is inviting Aucklanders to share in the official opening of its long-promised 'City of God' headquarters in Manukau this weekend.

An Anglican pastor has quit the church and is taking his congregation with him after the governing body moved ahead with plans to bless same-sex relationships.

The Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for refusing to renounce Christianity has given birth to a baby girl named Maya, her lawyers said yesterday.

The right-hand man of a Muslim leader at the centre of an Auckland mosque row has been charged with threatening to kill.