Gay Catholics have welcomed the decisions of the Charity Commissioners and the Charities Tribunal to refuse three Catholic adoption agencies permission to change their charitable objects in order to be able to refuse gay couples.

People resisting progress towards rights for all have stolen the language of religion, warned Peter Purton of the Trades Union Congress, opening a conference on faith, homophobia, transphobia and human rights in London on Saturday.

A major London conference this weekend will seek to show that people of faith and those with non-religious beliefs can be united in common purpose and action to eliminate prejudice and discrimination on grounds of sexuality and identity.

Just two days after the bombing of the Admiral Duncan public house in Soho, 30 April 1999, London's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered (LGBT) Catholics, parents, families and friends, gathered in a convent chapel in Camden Town.

Auxililary Catholic Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn Pat Power has expressed concern that Pope Benedict's recent comments on homosexuality have hurt the gay and lesbian community and damaged the church's standing.

One of its centres of attraction in the Lambeth Conference marketplace has been the stall "Seeing Christ in Human Rights", which shows gay Christians and the Gospel in a different light.

When Anglican bishops attending the Lambeth Conference took part in an anti-poverty walk with other faith leaders through central London, they traced steps that vividly illustrate the real divisions of our world, says Savi Hensman.

Claimed tension and hostility between religion and gay people is considerably over-emphasised by out-of-touch faith leaders, suggests new research from the campaigning equalities group Stonewall.

Participants in the Lambeth Conference are being invited to theatre show from a leading performance artist who offers to take them on a spiritual journey with lesbian and gay people.

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".