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.

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

Pope Francis has called for Christians, Jews and Muslims to work together for peace as he toured holy sites in Jerusalem on the final day of his Middle East pilgrimage.

His only previous trip to the Middle East had to be cut short after the outbreak of one of its worst crises - the 1973 Yom Kippur War that pitted Israel against Egypt and Syria.

Last Monday I sat in Auckland Town Hall and watched people from 65 countries taking an oath that made them New Zealand citizens.

The man at the centre of a mosque battle in Auckland has allegedly been monitored by police for potential terrorist allegiances.

Employers find it okay to employ Buddhists and Hindus but are wary of hiring Muslims, an AUT study has found.

One thousand Christians have been forced from their place of worship in a city in eastern China after Communist Party officials decided their 10-storey mega-church was an eyesore that needed to be destroyed.

A mosque in Auckland has been shut down indefinitely following violent attacks and the declaration of jihad, or holy war, against private security staff.

Haider Lone, immediate past president of the NZ Muslim Association and administrator of the Avondale Islamic Centre, says he fears for his life as he believes the attack was an assassination attempt.

International outrage is growing after a heavily pregnant young woman was sentenced to death in Sudan for renouncing Islam and marrying a Christian man.

The Anglican Church has agreed to look at ways same-sex relationships can be part of church life, but will not marry gay couples.

A Salafist imam who taught two men who were stopped from leaving New Zealand to join the war in Syria says he is no terrorist.

The conventional investment thinking suggests tipping your money into growth assets like you have when there is a longer time frame.

The sons of a Muslim imam who was barred from his own mosque for allegedly teaching extreme Islam have denied their father is an advocate for jihad, or holy war.

A Muslim imam accused of teaching "extreme Islam" has been barred for a second time from his Auckland mosque sparking a row between worshippers.

Religious leaders in the UK want all halal and kosher meat labelled with slaughter methods. With a large chunk of NZ lamb sold there, are our exports at risk?

The Anglican Church faces a decision about gays and lesbians in the church this coming week.

Last week's newspaper delivered a comical cavalcade of delights.

Nigerian troops were reported to be massing for an assault to try to free hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by a militant Islamist group.

It was a total Pope-fest. Two living pontiffs - the incumbent and his immediate predecessor - presided at the canonisation of two deceased vicars of Christ.