The  “priceless heritage” of “historic and beautiful” churches in England is in danger “as never before”, the chair of the National Churches Trust (NCT), Sir Philip Rutnam, has warned this week.

He was referring to the fact that 53 churches, chapels, and meeting houses had been added this year to Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register, announced last week.

Sir Philip said that the situation could get worse in the coming months if the Government chose not to renew the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme, which is due to expire on 31 March 2025 (News, 25 October). Under the terms of the scheme, established in 2001, VAT on eligible repairs or alterations costing more than £1000 to a listed place of worship can be reclaimed.

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The “priceless heritage” of “historic and beautiful” churches in England is in danger “as never before”, the chair of the National Churches Trust (NCT), Sir Philip Rutnam, has warned this week https://t.co/Q59Y4X8A3d

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 18, 2024

A vicarage in a deprived area of Bristol has been transformed by the installation of solar panels, insulation and an air source heat pump.

Formerly, the 1970s vicarage, which had gas central heating, “was cold on a warm day”, according to the Rev Derek and his wife Anne Maddox.

Accompanied by Basil the dog, they “were often found under blankets watching the telly,” says Anne. The gas heating system “wasn’t fit for purpose,” she adds.

Then, this summer, the Diocese of Bristol began a programme of making 130 of its vicarages more fuel efficient, as part of the Church of England’s ambition to reach net zero carbon by 2030.

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Bristol Diocese is committed to Netzero 2030
https://t.co/DFqdE2gpdd via @churchofengland

— Bishopviv (@Bishopviv1) November 6, 2024

A Churchgoer and former employee of Lichfield diocese who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 incurable bowel cancer has run 60 miles, between chemotherapy treatments, to fund-raise for the charity Refugee Action.

The runner, Pete Bate, 50, from Burntwood, near Lichfield, said this week that he had been feeling more stable since his cancer treatments were paused in May, and so he decided to take part in Refugee Action’s Race for Refugees challenge in September. He has raised more than £1200.

“I’m off treatment at the moment, and wanted to do something positive, to show there is life beyond and outside of cancer,” he said. “I’ve been a keen runner for years, but am gradually rebuilding my fitness due to the draining effects of chemo.”

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Pete set himself the challenge of running 50 miles for Race for Refugees, during a pause in treatment for Stage 4 bowel cancer. We’re thrilled to share that he reached his goal five days early! #RaceforRefugees pic.twitter.com/OF7ubvygKt

— Refugee Action (@RefugeeAction) November 1, 2024

Heading into an election where the economy is top of mind for many voters, pastors say finances have been difficult at their church this year.

A Lifeway Research study found 66% of U.S. Protestant pastors say the economy is very or somewhat negatively impacting their church. The two in three pastors who report a negative economic impact is the highest since 2011, and the 14% who say the impact has been very negative is the highest ever recorded in the 15-year history of the study.

Around one in 14 (7%) say their church is seeing a positive impact. A quarter (24%) aren’t seeing any impact either way, and 3% aren’t sure.

Last year, 50% said they experienced a negative impact, 40% no impact and 8% a positive impact. In 2022, 52% reported a negative effect, 40% said it was having no effect and 7% saw a positive influence.

“National trends of a favorable stock market along with unfavorable inflation and interest can influence a local congregation’s finances, but so do more local factors that contribute to economic problems or prosperity in the church’s community,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “In general, pastors have turned a little more negative in describing economic forces impacting their church this year.”

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66% of U.S. Protestant pastors say the economy is very or somewhat negatively impacting their church, according to @LifewayResearch.
https://t.co/LlAFg38CxC

— The Pathway (@mbcpathway) October 17, 2024

TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham has led calls to the Church of England to commit to re-wilding 30 per cent of its land. 

The call is backed by high profile figures including former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, former cabinet minister Michael Gove, and actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry, as well as 100,000 members of the public. 

The campaign, by the Wild Card group, was launched on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where Packham unravelled the ’95 Wild Theses’ – a spin on Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses that triggered the Protestant Reformation. 

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Chris Packham leads calls to rewild Church of England https://t.co/4f3SxzEfvE

— Sharon K. Gilbert (@sharonkgilbert) October 8, 2024

Devastating hundreds of miles from the Florida Gulf Coast to Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina, Hurricane Helene has created a complicated equation for Christian organizations that are on the frontline of disaster response.

“In my more than 20 years of disaster experience, I can’t think of a time when such a large area was at risk,” Jeff Jellets, the disaster coordinator for The Salvation Army’s work in the South, said in a statement.

Samaritan’s Purse chief operating officer Edward Graham told CT that the organization had to call in equipment and volunteers from its Canadian arm for its hurricane response and even had to adjust some of its overseas work. Just for this disaster, Samaritan’s Purse is operating in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Read it all.

Christian relief organizations, partnered with local churches, are working on bringing help to the most difficult-to-reach places in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. @emlybelz reports: https://t.co/mEcdbaJecl

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) September 30, 2024

D

evastating hundreds of miles from the Florida Gulf Coast to Georgia to the mountains of North Carolina, Hurricane Helene has created a complicated equation for Christian organizations that are on the frontline of disaster response.

“In my more than 20 years of disaster experience, I can’t think of a time when such a large area was at risk,” Jeff Jellets, the disaster coordinator for The Salvation Army’s work in the South, said in a statement.

Samaritan’s Purse chief operating officer Edward Graham told CT that the organization had to call in equipment and volunteers from its Canadian arm for its hurricane response and even had to adjust some of its overseas work. Just for this disaster, Samaritan’s Purse is operating in Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.

Read it all.

Christian relief organizations, partnered with local churches, are working on bringing help to the most difficult-to-reach places in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. @emlybelz reports: https://t.co/mEcdbaJecl

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) September 30, 2024

The bells of St Wendreda’s church have not rung for almost two years after a piece of metal fell to the spire floor in 2023. Now, its vicar fears that the church, famous for its ‘heavenly host’ ceiling, could be put on an at-risk list unless £250,000 is raised to pay for its repairs.

Rev Ruth Clay discovered that metal bars in the spire of St Wendreda’s, Cambridgeshire, were corroding. Engineers estimate the damages and scaffolding needed will cost £250,000.  

The church is unique – firstly in its stunning ceiling of carved angels, dating over 500 years.  It is also the only church to be named after St Wendreda, an Anglo-Saxon nun. Thought to be the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles, Wendreda used her knowledge of herbs to help heal sick people and animals.

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Today I fulfilled a 20-yr-long wish & went to see the double-hammer-beam roof of St Wendreda’s Church in March.

118 oak angels soar aloft in it, carved in the early 1500s, their wing feathers modelled on those of the Marsh Harriers that wd have been abundant there 500 yrs ago… pic.twitter.com/MDThOOQy55

— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) April 16, 2023

The Rev. John Parks was taking his first sabbatical in 40 years of ministry when he got a call from his church’s accountant with some bad news.

Church Mutual, the church’s insurance company, had dropped them.

“This does not make sense,” Parks, the pastor of Ashford Community Church in Houston, recalls thinking at the time. “We’ve never filed a claim.”

Five months and 13 insurance companies later, the church finally found replacement coverage for $80,000 per year, up from the $23,000 they had been paying.

“It’s been an adventure,” said the 69-year-old Parks from his home in Houston, where the power was out after Hurricane Beryl. “That’s putting it politely.”

Parks and his congregation are not alone. An ongoing wave of disasters — Gulf Coast hurricanes, wildfires in California, severe thunderstorms and flooding in the Midwest — along with skyrocketing construction costs post-COVID have left the insurance industry reeling.

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The same factors that have caused a crisis in the homeowner's insurance market are also affecting churches, who have to choose between paying for insurance or running programs.https://t.co/EZuQfur4d8

— RNS (@RNS) July 10, 2024

“I was thinking how can this be? How can somebody who’s clearly lived a long time and worked so hard be out here in this heat pushing carts,” Swensen said.

According to the heat index for that day, it felt like 111 degrees. Swensen was already heading home to put her groceries away but couldn’t shake the feeling of seeing McCormick outside, pushing the shopping carts, so she returned.

Swensen approached McCormick and learned he worked at the store to make ends meet. He has been pushing shopping carts outside for 23 years. Living off $1,100 in Social Security each month, McCormick’s bills totaled $2,500. He worked at Winn Dixie to fill the gap.

Read it all or you can enjoy the video.

Annapolis historian Janice Hayes-Williams remembers visiting this graveyard with her uncle, George Phelps Jr., in 2001. As they wandered through it that day, he keptmuttering to himself. “Jesus. … Jesus. … Jesus.”

“It was overwhelming to my uncle and me,” Hayes-Williams, 67, recalled on a hot July morning as she walked past the numbered markers. “The word that came to mind was ‘disposable.’”

“We both kept saying, ‘A cemetery of patients and no names? No names?’ It was more than unbelievable,” she said. “This is not how you treat human beings.”

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Their graves were marked only by numbers. She fought to find their names. https://t.co/vFukMCQVze

— Joe Heim (@JoeHeim) August 31, 2024

Almighty God, whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honour thee with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Keswick ❤️ pic.twitter.com/y982FVib49

— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) August 2, 2024

Lord Christ, who for our sake didst become poor, though thou wast rich: Help us to use our money rightly, wisely, and generously, that, having used corruptible goods to thy glory, we may at last gain the inheritance incorruptible, where thou livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

—Student Prayer; A Book of Prayers for Students; A Devotional Diary, arranged by J. H. Oldham (London, SCM, 1937)

“The Falls of Williams River”
Once, a long time ago, the falls marked the extent of western US expansion; it then marked the northwest boundary of Botetourt County, Virginia.#AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/detPHMNtZX

— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) July 31, 2024

Prior to joining T. Rowe Price, Poppy Allonby spent more than twenty years at Blackrock, predominately in equity investment roles and latterly as Managing Director, Head of Global Product Group, EMEA & APAC. Between 2014 and 2022, she was on the Church Commissioners’ Board of Trustees and a member of its Assets Committee.

“I am delighted and honoured to join the Church Commissioners as its CIO, an organisation globally recognised as a leader in sustainable investment,” said Poppy Allonby. “My focus will be on delivering strong, consistent returns to meet the Commissioners’ core purpose, which is to support the mission and ministry of the Church of England – and to do so in an ethical, sustainable way.”

The Church Commissioners has provided the Church with over £3.5bn in funding since 2009, with £1.2bn to be distributed during the current 2023-2025 triennium – a 30% increase on the previous triennium, thanks in large part to the excellent investment returns generated by the Commissioners’ Investment team. The fund has delivered 14 years of positive returns, while building a reputation as a global leader in responsible investment.

Exciting news @ccsforengland! Poppy Allonby is their new #endowment CIO. Poppy brings +21 years of expertise to the #CIO role. @Matttoledo1 @ChiefInvOfficerhttps://t.co/XCcQDVITtG#alts #privatemarkets #energytransition #duediligence #compliance #ESG #Vidriofinancial

— Vidrio Financial (@VidrioFinancial) May 31, 2024

The latest report on the Church of England’s strategic investment shows how funding in the last year has prioritised doubling the numbers of children and young people, and revitalising parishes for mission.

In the year 2023, Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Funding (SMMI) awarded £60 million to Church of England projects and parishes plus an additional £29 million to support lowest income communities around England.

Alongside the focus on growing the church younger and more diverse, funding prioritised parts of society where other sources of support have been withdrawn.

There was also a new structure, with a single Board – the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) – set up to distribute funding on behalf of the Archbishops’ Council.

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Church’s 2023 strategic investment focuses on doubling number of children and young people – reporthttps://t.co/TvsuU2BlC3

— Nick Edmonds (@nickedmonds575) May 21, 2024

Walking past empty pews and stained-glass windows, the Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin, pastor of Inglewood First United Methodist Church in Inglewood, Calif., talked about how housing prices were threatening his flock.

Congregants were being priced out of the neighborhood, he said. Many of those who remained were too burdened by rent to give to the church.

As Mr. Cyrus-Franklin spoke, a 78-year-old man named Bill Dorsey was a few yards away in an outdoor corridor that led to the chapel, amid tarps and piles of clothes. Mr. Dorsey’s makeshift residence, which the church tolerates, is one of several homeless encampments that sit in and around Inglewood First’s property, which is in a neighborhood of modest homes and small apartment buildings near Los Angeles International Airport.

“We know their stories and we know how hard it is to find housing,” Mr. Cyrus-Franklin said.

Read it all.

What Would Jesus Do? Tackle the Housing Crisis, Say Some Congregations. https://t.co/Hggl8Ggk1a #PMMilestone #Projectmanager #Projectmanagement #PMP #PMOT #constructionmanager #planning #businessplanning #management #projectmanagementtemplates #construction #engineering #PMO… pic.twitter.com/sXhuJQ5kyf

— Hassan Eliwa, PhD (@hassan_khe) April 28, 2024

Parishes in Margate, in Canterbury diocese, rated as one of the most deprived areas in the country, are among the recipients of the latest tranche of Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) funding.

In total, the diocese has been awarded £3.2 million for a five-year programme of church-planting, or setting up new congregations and revitalisation, it was announced on Friday.

SMMI is a new funding stream through which the Archbishops’ Council allocates funding to dioceses…. It replaces Strategic Development Funding (SDF), Strategic Capacity Funding, and Strategic Transformation Funding. It includes a £340-million Diocesan Investment Programme for the current triennium (2023-25), comprising a £100-million of Lowest Income Communities Funding…, and a remaining £240 million fund for which all dioceses can bid. Bids must be in line with the priorities of the overarching Vision and Strategy priorities for the 2020s.

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Millions given to help revitalise Kent churches. https://t.co/sWA9LMExmq #ebound #eboundavx #ukchurches #churchheritage

— E-Bound AVX (@EboundAVX) March 26, 2024

The provincial proposal being advocated by CEEC and the Alliance would involve the exercise of geographical episcopacy as it would involve bishops having responsibility for particular geographical areas. I have previously made this point in a theoretical description of what a conservative third province (the ‘Province of Mercia’) might look like.

‘Like the existing provinces of Canterbury and York, the new province would consist of parishes, deaneries, archdeaconries and dioceses. The number of dioceses that would initially be formed would obviously depend on how many parishes opted to join the new province, but one possible pattern would be for there to initially be four dioceses, one in the Southwest, one in the South and Southeast, one in the Midlands and East Anglia, and one in the North. Chaplaincies in Europe would come under the diocese for the South and Southeast.

Each diocese would initially have one bishop and one of these would be the archbishop of the province. There would be no fixed archiepiscopal diocese and the office of archbishop would subsequently be held by the senior bishop of the province.

A parish church in each diocese would be the cathedral. This would contain the bishop’s chair and would be used for diocesan services such as the enthronement of the bishop, ordinations, and the renewal of ordination vows on Maundy Thursday. The diocese would be named after the location of the cathedral and the incumbent would carry the title Dean. There would be no cathedral chapter and when not being used for diocesan services the cathedral would act as a normal parish church.’

As can be clearly seen in this description the geographical nature of episcopacy would be maintained in such a provincial arrangement. Bell’s suggestion that the geographical nature of the episcopate precludes a provincial solution is therefore mistaken.

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I have just posted a new blog post, 'Geographical episcopacy – a further response to Charlie Bell.'https://t.co/5qMh71WfIv

— Martin Davie (@MartinBDavie) March 11, 2024

Againat a background of running costs of £30,000 a day, and an income down by £1 million a year since the pandemic, the Dean of Canterbury, the Very Revd David Monteith, has defended the decision to hold silent discos this month.

Dean Monteith also suggested that there was a “gentle evangelistic dimension” to such events….

A 1990s silent disco was held in the cathedral for two nights this month, eliciting criticism from some quarters after footage was shared online. An online petition (“Anglican Deans, stop turning our great cathedrals into nightclubs”) has collected more than 2600 signatures. It was organised by a Roman Catholic layman, Dr Cajetan Skowronski.

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I looked at the scale of the financial challenge facing cathedrals, as highlighted by @liturgicalben in a recent article.

‘Our commercial activities utterly subsidise our worship.’https://t.co/eo1NXJ0fj9

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 26, 2024

A 7% increase in the National Minimum Stipend (NMS), set to come into effect in April, has been welcomed by the trade union Unite.

The increase, agreed by the Archbishops’ Council, acting as the Central Stipends Authority (CSA), will see the minimum stipend jump from £26,134 to £28,670.

Last July, the CSA announced a five-per-cent increase for 2024. The greater uplift to seven per cent has been made possible because dioceses, which will have to fund the stipends, need pay less into the Church of England pensions scheme. In December, the Pensions Board announced a drop in the contribution rate by three percentage points from April this year: to 25 per cent of the previous year’s National Minimum Stipend.

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A seven-per-cent increase in the National Minimum Stipend (NMS), set to come into effect in April, has been welcomed by the trade union Unite https://t.co/jroZM9yEUY

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 7, 2024

A homeless shelter has warned it may have to close because it only has enough money to run for another “four to five months”.

Churches in Reading Drop-In Centre (CIRDIC), a shelter based in St Saviour’s Church Hall in the town, says it costs £100,000 per year to run, and it currently only has about half of that.

Manager Mabel Gregory said it would be “dreadful” for the community if the centre had to close.

She said rising prices had made running the shelter “very, very difficult”.

“Our gas bill has gone up to £1,000 a month,” she said.

Read it all.

It would be beyond terrible were CIRDIC to close. It's been providing vital services for Reading's homeless for many years.https://t.co/dZDISP2hyP

— Karz From The 'Ding 🙄💙🦆☕🍺🍷🥃🦉🐧🧀 (@FFSKarz) January 17, 2024

“The story of a wealthy businessman who annually gives out hundreds of $100 bills to strangers motivated a group of Phoenix students to start their own Secret Santa club. Steve Hartman has their story in “On the Road.””

Watch it all.

Cathedral assets vary so widely that the richest cathedral holds 70 times more than the poorest, figures published in a written answer to a question at last month’s meeting of the General Synod have shown.

The Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, who chairs the Mutuality and Transparency in Finances Group, had asked what account the Church Commissioners had taken of the disparity; and the Dean of Peterborough, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston, had wanted to know what use would be made of the figures in supporting cathedrals in the financial challenges that they faced.

The figures date from 2020. Norwich topped the league table, with net assets of £73.5 million. Salisbury was the next highest, at £62.5 million, closely followed by Durham and Canterbury at 62.3 and 62.2 respectively. Lincoln (57.6), York Minster (50.7), Winchester (49.7), St Paul’s (42.4), Chichester (38.0), and Lichfield (32.7) completed the top ten.

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"All parts, all communities of the nation should have an equal access to the mission and ministry of the Church of England, including stipendiary ordained ministry, and that must mean an equal access to financial provision for how we get there." https://t.co/68igkkdZfM

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 5, 2023

I am sad to say I had a brain freeze during this one and mixed up Elijah and Elisha with reference to the Naaman story (2 Kings 5). My apologies.

The parable of the talents, depicted in a 1712 woodcut. The lazy servant searches for his buried talent, while the two other servants present their earnings to their master. pic.twitter.com/w5SEAtydJk

— 🌿_ (@rebeca6169) March 30, 2021

A total of £2.8 million has been allocated for 30 Church Buildings Support Officers across the country to give specialist advice on the management, conservation, repair and development of church buildings, including community use alongside worship.

A further £6.2 million has been allocated across 41 dioceses for making grants of up to £12,000 for repairs to churches. The grants will focus on small-scale but urgent works and ‘stitch in time’ projects that could save larger sums in the long term. The fund will also be able to help cover the cost of essential improvements for the mission and ministry of a church.

The grants come from the £11 million Buildings for Mission, funded by the Church Commissioners and administered by the Archbishops’ Council over the period 2023 to 2025.

Emily Gee, Director for Cathedrals and Church Buildings for the Church of England, said: “Buildings for Mission will help to fund the repair and improvement of church buildings through the dioceses, as well as to boost professional advice and grant money for rural and urban church buildings most in need.

Read it all.

“Our churches and cathedrals are invaluable signs of our Christian presence and heritage."

£9 million to be awarded to dioceses for repairs and specialist advice to parishes.

Read more at https://t.co/kMmg8WbQPX.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) November 9, 2023

The congregation raised the entire $1.6 million needed to purchase the property outright in less than three months. Shelton remarked, “The faithfulness of the Lord brings all of us to greater faithfulness, obedience, and generosity every day. The Lord has been good to St. John’s Parish Church these last 15 months, and we are sure He will continue the good work He has begun.”

Senior Warden, Ben Dixon, said, “I feel extremely fortunate to be part of this process, one that we as a Parish have not undertaken in almost 300 years. It is exciting to own new property on which to build a church. It has also been a blessing to experience the steadfastness of our congregation as we stepped out in faith during this process. While this is only the beginning of our journey, we now have a place to call home, to minister to the people of Johns and Wadmalaw Islands, for many years – and generations – to come.”

Read it all and watch the video.

Up to 19 churches in a town could close because of rising costs.

The plan has been put forward by the Diocese of Liverpool, which oversees churches in Wigan, Greater Manchester.

It has already outlined four churches that will be “released” with another 15 sites at risk of closure.

The diocese said they had to “face the reality that they cannot afford to invest” in all churches as it currently costs £1m per year to maintain church buildings in the borough.

Read it all.

Emma Thompson makes for an unlikely rebel. Her Christian faith was nurtured through Anglican choral music and the Book of Common Prayer. She teaches Sunday school and conducts a choir in her church.

“The local level, in my book, is where all the good happens — the love, the looking after your neighbour, the delivery plan for being a Christian,” says Thompson, a former City solicitor and now a company secretary and freelance journalist.

Her passion for local parish churches is fierce to the point that, she says proudly, the two most senior clerics in the Church of England have described her as a “rascally voice”.

Attendance in the Church has fallen by nearly 40 per cent since 1979, according to the British Religion in Numbers online data resources, and by more than 15 per cent alone since 2013.

Read it all (subscription).

My piece in today's @thetimes https://t.co/er0y6xwgox

— abigail frymannrouch (@abigailfrymann) September 30, 2023

Most Churches in the Anglican Communion are tackling the realities of the climate crisis every day, a global audience has heard. But the overwhelming nature of the crisis, and the attendant denial and cynicism, have hugely undermined efforts to act for change, the chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, the Rt Revd Julio Murray Thompson, has said.

Bishop Thompson, a former Primate of Central America, was addressing participants from around the world in webinars on the Lambeth Call on the Environment and Sustainable Development (News, 11 August): part of a structured series on how each of the calls — specific requests determined at last year’s Lambeth Conference — is progressing.

A key part of the [partial 2022] Lambeth [gathering] Declaration was the acknowledgement: “We contribute to the problem. We contribute to the solution. We are both local and global. We connect with one another, share our experiences, and can leverage our networks and Anglican identity to mobilise for action. We do not speak from just one position but from many. We do not only speak to others; we speak also to ourselves.”

Read it all.

Anglican environmental chair warns against climate denial https://t.co/4BnOXWDLg9

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 22, 2023

The Government’s decision to row back on its green commitments is shameful and short-sighted, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, has said.

In a speech on Wednesday afternoon, the Prime Minister announced plans to delay Net Zero targets, although he said that he still wished to meet the deadline of 2050. Measures an­­nounced included delaying by five years a ban on new petrol and diesel cars and delaying phasing out gas boilers.

If the country continued to im­­pose existing targets, he said, “we risk losing the consent of the British people and the resulting backlash will not just be against specific pol­icies, but against the wider mission itself.”

Bishop Usher, the C of E’s lead bishop for the environment, posted on social media on Wednesday morning, after news had leaked that Mr Sunak intended to water down the targets: “It will be another shame­­ful day if [the Government] rows back on its Net Zero policies. Shortsighted, it will erode credibility at home & abroad. This isn’t the time to seek political advantage with games. Leadership and action are needed, not delay and procrastina­­tion.”

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“Whilst it is right that he has kept our international commitments, postponing changes leave necessary adaptations to the last minute, rather like last-minute exam cramming — a risky gamble" – @bishopnorwich https://t.co/JCbZB6N6AJ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 21, 2023