The church of St John the Baptist, in the centre of Peterborough, has a remarkable history, not least the 16th Century parish sexton who conducted the funerals of Katherine of Aragon and Mary Queen of Scots, who are buried in the nearby cathedral.

But when the latest vicar, the Rev Michelle Dalliston, arrived two years ago, some were beginning to be concerned for the church’s future.

After years of slow decline in numbers, the combination of Covid followed by a period without a vicar, had taken its toll: confidence was waning and the building was only able to open for services, a Saturday café and a Tuesday lunchtime concert series.

Two years on it is “buzzing”, open most days in the week with everything from support for homeless people and a variety of NHS and other drop-in services to a busy café, revitalised lunchtime concerts with professional musicians, and a myriad of other events and activities.

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‘Traditional doesn’t mean boring’ – a medieval parish church growing for the future https://t.co/42zzGCPMtC #parishministry #anglican #uk

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 17, 2024

The report has been influenced by a series of recent blasphemy cases in Britain that have been inappropriately handled, according to government sources familiar with its findings.

They include the 2021 protests against a teacher in Batley, West Yorkshire, who received death threats and is still in hiding after showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in a religious studies lesson.

Another incident understood to have informed the report’s recommendations was the controversy last year in Wakefield, also West Yorkshire, after a copy of the Quran was slightly damaged at a high school. West Yorkshire police recorded it as a “hate incident,” which led to concerns that officers were being pressured into imposing de-facto blasphemy laws by conservative faith groups. It led to Suella Braverman, the home secretary at the time, introducing a new code of conduct for the police to protect freedom of expression.

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Teachers will be given protection from claims of blasphemy by religious groups under proposals set out in a government-commissioned report ⬇️https://t.co/9y7vlpx9gP

— The Times and The Sunday Times (@thetimes) May 17, 2024

One reason U.S. inflation is still high: Increases in prices for procedures to prop open clogged arteries, provide intensive care for newborns and biopsy breasts.

Hospitals didn’t raise prices as early in the pandemic as supermarkets, retailers and restaurants. But they have been making up ground since then. Their increases have contributed to stubbornly high inflation readings from the consumer-price index, which in April increased 3.4% from a year ago.

Hospital prices specifically jumped 7.7% last month from a year ago, the highest increase in any month since October 2010, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Among the procedures with hefty recent price increases are angioplasties placing stents in arteries to improve blood flow, which grew $670, or 4.5%, to $15,640 in the first three months of the year from the same period a year ago, according to Turquoise Health.

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Surging Hospital Prices Are Helping Keep Inflation High https://t.co/en50uqXMV4

— Edward Marx (@marxtango) May 17, 2024

Sitting in the front row of a supervisor training in 2016, Stamford Police Sgt. Sean Boeger raised his hand every time the instructor asked who had dealt with a particular experience, including homicides, fatal accidents, and child deaths.

During his nearly 30 years as a police officer, 48-year-old Boeger had helped with body recovery efforts at Ground Zero after 9/11. When 20 children were killed by a lone shooter in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, just 40 miles from Stamford, Boeger volunteered to help the small Newtown police department. He covered midnight shifts as officers took time to recover.

The instructor at the training triggered something in Boeger. Until that class, he had never dwelt much on the effect of witnessing so much trauma. Driving home that evening, he also thought back to another incident, when he responded to a report of a small child falling out of an eighth-story window.

“I felt overwhelmed, kind of panic-stricken,” he recalled of that evening. “I think I was more in shock from the stuff I’d never contemplated and the trauma impact it had on me. Because you don’t stop to think about it.”

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Around the country, chaplains are serving police departments: not just showing up for ceremonies and funerals, but providing counsel for the traumatic incidents police so often face.https://t.co/Vaiq3VnlGi

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 17, 2024

Holy God, who didst call thy servant William Hobart Hare to proclaim the means of grace and the hope of glory to the peoples of the Great Plains: We give thanks to thee for the devotion of those who received the Good News gladly, and for the faithfulness of the generations who have succeeded them. Strengthen us with thy Holy Spirit, that we may walk in their footsteps and lead many to faith in Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

A Bp William Hobart Hare biography extract–“the Scriptures in their original texts had never been half a day out of his hands" https://t.co/lN9Y78kqrm #churchhistory #bishops #parishministry #theology pic.twitter.com/evE6riqwwC

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 17, 2019

Almighty God, who after thy Son had ascended on high didst send forth thy Spirit in the Church to draw all men unto thee; Fulfill, we beseech thee, this thy gracious purpose, and in the fullness of time gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him, who is the head over all things in the Church which is his body, Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Oh I could stand for hours and watch splashes of sunshine on the land, falling through clouds to spotlight scattered farms and barns. A view that’s constant and yet ever-changing. #peakdistrict pic.twitter.com/V0MjoEn2PT

— peaklass (@peaklass1) May 17, 2024

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.”

–Ephesians 5:1-14

First light at York Minster. pic.twitter.com/sJpbPD7OYO

— Andy Marshall 📸 (@fotofacade) May 17, 2024