Attendance at Christmas services leapt by 20 per cent last year and the number of worshippers at Easter was up 8.6 per cent as Church of England congregations experienced a third year of growth, the latest full annual statistics show.

The number of regular worshippers in the Church of England edged above a million in 2023 for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Statistics for Mission 2023 report.

Overall attendance remains below 2019 levels but the report published today shows numbers recovering towards the pre-pandemic trend.

The report confirms the pattern highlighted in preliminary headline figures for 2023 published in May of this year, with some upward revisions.

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Welcome Advent. Welcome 240 to our church. Welcome, welcome, welcome. pic.twitter.com/EjRY5eNmv3

— Tom Sander 🚴 (@RevThomasSander) December 2, 2024

One in three Americans are stockpiling daily necessities like toilet paper and non-perishable food out of fear that President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to add tariffs to imported goods will lead to higher prices, according to a new survey.

Some 34% of respondents said they are stockpiling items because they are “fearful or uncertain about the future,” according to a December report from CreditCards.com, which publishes information on credit cards and financial literacy. The organization in late November surveyed 2,000 US residents.

Overall, the majority of respondents said they would use credit cards for some or most of their purchases this holiday season, with three in 10 planning to go into or take on additional debt.

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One in three Americans are stockpiling daily necessities like toilet paper and non-perishable food out of fear that President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to add tariffs to imported goods will lead to higher prices, according to a new survey. https://t.co/I6pBDNFuKH

— Bloomberg Economics (@economics) December 6, 2024

Yesterday, I gave my farewell speech in the House of Lords, as part of a debate on housing and homelessness. I would like to apologise wholeheartedly for the hurt that my speech has caused. I understand that my words – the things that I said, and those I omitted to say – have caused further distress for those who were traumatised, and continue to be harmed, by John Smyth’s heinous abuse, and by the far reaching effects of other perpetrators of abuse. I did not intend to overlook the experience of survivors, or to make light of the situation – and I am very sorry for having done so. It remains the case that I take both personal and institutional responsibility for the long and retraumatising period after 2013, and the harm that this has caused survivors. I continue to feel a profound sense of shame at the Church of England’s historic safeguarding failures.

(Found here).

The Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested that he may not have been personally responsible for the Church of England’s mishandling of a child sexual abuse scandal.

In his final House of Lords speech as Archbishop, the Most Rev Justin Welby implied that the institution’s failure to stop serial predator John Smyth would have warranted his resignation regardless of his own personal culpability.

He said that a “head” had to “roll”, and that this would have been the case “whether one is personally responsible or not”.

“The reality is that there comes a time, if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility, where the shame of what has gone wrong, whether one is personally responsible or not, must require a head to roll,” he said.

“And there is only, in this case, one head that rolls well enough.”

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🔴 Archbishop of Canterbury implies he is not responsible over sex abuse scandalhttps://t.co/DtcUXG4mEU

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 5, 2024

Almighty God, who in thy love didst give to thy servant Nicholas of Myra a perpetual name for deeds of kindness on land and sea: Grant, we pray thee, that thy Church may never cease to work for the happiness of children, the safety of sailors, the relief of the poor, and the help of those tossed by tempests of doubt or grief; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today's the feast of St Nicholas, a 3rd Century Bishop of Myra. His popular legends include bringing three boys back to life who had been killed by a publican and placed in a barrel, as here in collected 16th Century continental glass at Erpingham, Norfolk. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/bJhCiP55bB

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) December 6, 2024

Thou who with thine own mouth hast avouched that at midnight, at an hour when we are not aware, the Bridegroom shall come: Grant that the cry, The Bridegroom cometh, may sound evermore in our ears, that so we be never unprepared to meet him, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar, window 6
‘The village’
Artist: SR Badmin pic.twitter.com/oicsv16w73

— Helen Day (@LBFlyawayhome) December 6, 2024

For Jerusalem has stumbled,
    and Judah has fallen;
because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
    defying his glorious presence.

Their partiality witnesses against them;
    they proclaim their sin like Sodom,
    they do not hide it.
Woe to them!
    For they have brought evil upon themselves.
Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them,
    for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.
Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him,
    for what his hands have done shall be done to him.
My people—children are their oppressors,
    and women rule over them.
O my people, your leaders mislead you,
    and confuse the course of your paths.

The Lord has taken his place to contend,
    he stands to judge his people.
The Lord enters into judgment
    with the elders and princes of his people:
“It is you who have devoured the vineyard,
    the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
What do you mean by crushing my people,
    by grinding the face of the poor?”
                says the Lord God of hosts.

The Tyne Valley lull before the weekend storm pic.twitter.com/s78PmMYg7k

— Graeme Peacock (@GraemePeacock1) December 6, 2024