The new general director of the Evangelical Alliance in the UK has joined other church leaders in calling on Christians to demonstrate the meaning and importance of the Gospel through example.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York launched a Lent appeal for Zimbabwe on Ash Wednesday, as Christians in Britain and beyond joined in a day of prayer and fasting for the troubled country.

With Barack Obama and John McCain joining battle for the November US presidential elections, a leading evangelical Christian figure organised a candidates forum refreshingly free of rancour, say observers.

In a campaign comment ahead of today's election in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has condemned Archbishop Rowan Williams as lacking a "moral compass" and said that gays in the church are a sign of "moral degeneracy".