An Anglican bishop will be expected to take equal opportunities training and faces costs of some £50,000 after a tribunal awarded a gay youth worker £47,000 compensation after ruling that he had been discriminated against.

The think-tank Ekklesia, which examines religion in public life, says that the controversial appointment of the head of the Evangelical Alliance UK to the new Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is "a historic opportunity for evangelicals to shift toward full acceptance of the equalities agenda."

Plans to make inciting hatred against gay people a crime have received a mixed response from church groups.

Lobbyists trying to derail recent UK equalities legislation because of their vociferous opposition to homosexuality do not represent the majority of Christians or people of faith, let alone most people in Britain, critics of protests against the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) have said.

Ahead of a rally in opposition to the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) outside parliament tonight (9 January 2007), which protestors predict will attract several thousand participants, supporters of the equalities legislation ‚Ä' from civil rights, religious and secular groups ‚Ä' say that the regulations are being widely misrepresented.