That was the first Christmas that I ever faked and I was terrified that I would be found out. A whole childhood of being laughed at and singled out as different will do that to you. I was afraid that everyone would know I was a Christmas fraud and more than anything I so badly just wanted to fit in. To be normal. That kind of thing sticks with you.

I was really shocked to read in the Guardian that a quarter of parents (23 per cent) are choosing not to pass on their faith to their children for fear of them being alienated at school. I have to wonder though, who are these parents and surely their faith is a central part of who they are and how they live?

Recent decades have seen great strides in equality and anti-discrimination legislation. Perhaps the most regrettable outcome of this ruling is that it will be used as a rallying cry for religious exemptions and the rolling back of equality law. Britain is better for our equality laws, it's imperative that we defend them.

For non-Christians - the majority of Brits - the Bible isn't uniquely moral, uniquely important, or uniquely beautiful. Christian hegemony is out of date. Cast away on a desert island, people should be offered the book of their choice and we now have a whole wide world of inspiration to choose from.

Freedom of religion and belief can help in the struggle against violent extremism. The connection between these issues may not be immediately obvious, but the spread of violent extremism is one of the biggest challenges we face, and so looking for new ways to tackle it is essential.

When acting as Secretary General I would urge Guterres to embrace rather than obstruct the expansion and strengthening of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Gay Rights. The world will be watching and hoping fervently that he will not be unduly influenced by regressive religious forces.

"What is reli-gion?" Shaykh Babikir asks, his thick Sudanese accent curling the word out over his bottom lip. "Man creates religion to suit himself....

I post appreciations three or four times a week, on Facebook -- a list of things that I appreciate in my life. It's a long list nowadays, including a much-loved husband, two beautiful beagles, a wonderful home, a wonderful job, faith, health and happiness. And that was exactly what had pissed this one gentleman off.

As a community, we must stand against those whose actions bring our religion into disrepute. In its place, we should encourage dialogue and debate. We should come together to find common ground.

At 39 weeks pregnant I found I really needed some moral support and while my friends had offered to organise a baby shower for me it for some reason just didn't feel right. My doula had mentioned a Blessingway to me during our first meet.

I always wonder if there should be a 12 step plan for recovering Catholics? Catholics Anonymous meetings to attend? Not that a recovering Catholic would need help staying out of the church on a Sunday, but some kind of program would be helpful, because what ever you do, the Catholic guilt is always deeply ingrained.

Despite thousands of online tutorials on how to take care of your natural hair, how to grow it long and the emergence of hair conventions and forums, Muslim women seem absent from this conversation.

Only when we understand the mere symbolic function that ritual sacrifice has nowadays, will we be able to eradicate the need for it and perhaps further succeed in the attempts of a universal understanding and denouncement of animal cruelty that is not necessarily culturally relative.

We must not go astray in our commitment to the implementation of universal and inveterate human rights, rights not only for those persecuted minorities who are increasingly taking recourse in arguments which ground them, but for the tragic story of a couple who went so far as to honour their love for one another despite their disparate creeds and despite the dangers that regressive people in their isolated communities are viciously willing to pose.

If we want meaningful integration in our diverse society, we must have it in our schools. All the available evidence supports this claim. It is a truth which should have led to significant reform of England's education system a very long time ago indeed. Instead, it has barely figured in education policy.

In a move devoid of any common sense, Theresa May's government looks set to capitulate to the demands of religious groups by relaxing admissions rules for faith-based academies, allowing them to select all pupils along religious lines. It's hard to think of a more retrograde policy than the facilitation of greater religious segregation of children and young people in our education system.