Holy Week can sit strangely in the church year. It is the most solemn and significant of times in the church calendar, and yet, to all intents and purposes, ordinary life carries on undisturbed by it. Unlike Christmas, which bursts upon the scene in a riot of tinsel and fairy lights, demanding attention and pulling people in from the streets to enjoy carolling and mince pies, for most of the population, Holy Week passes unnoticed. Only the promise of hot cross buns and free childcare when schools are closed or a few eccentrics walking mournfully round the community on Good Friday may have any impact at all.

How, then, to engage with the non-churchgoing public? How to share the message of sacrificial love — an unpopular theme in today’s “Because I’m worth it”, “Go on, treat yourself” society? Perhaps by using the week to experiment and challenge, to offer services and events that are different from the norm, and to think carefully about all sectors of the community and explore ways in which they might become engaged, even briefly, with the drama of Holy Week and the life-changing effect of its events.

Your community might well be happily settled into a regular rhythm of services. It is to be hoped that the schedule is one that all can manage — ministry team, musicians, volunteers working within their capacity and capability, able to maintain the level of effort and energy required without collapsing with burnout. Nevertheless, we all know the dangers of complacency, of falling into a routine that becomes almost mindless in its familiarity. Holy Week offers an opportunity to try out new things in a way that is manageable (because it is only one week), understandable (it’s a special week), and unrepeatable, if necessary. If something completely new is too challenging or demanding, try and ring the changes with the established patterns, enabling your community to look with fresh eyes on familiar events.

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How to engage with the non-churchgoing public

Sally Welch continues her series exploring practical ideas for Lent and Easterhttps://t.co/hUxKr4235W

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 18, 2025

Friedrich Merz, the man favored to be Germany’s next chancellor after elections on Sunday, is a conservative businessman who has never been a government minister and was forced out of party leadership years ago for challenging Angela Merkel.

As a Christian Democrat and committed trans-Atlanticist, he has been considered a potentially better match for President Trump than the current Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz. He is also expected to lead a foreign policy more aligned with Mr. Trump’s ideas about Europe’s taking responsibility for its own defense.

But recent comments by Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have displayed just how difficult any partnership may be with a United States that is less reliable and possibly hostile, and sympathetic to Russia’s narrative on Ukraine and spheres of influence.

That challenge is especially profound for Germany, and after Sunday is likely to fall on Mr. Merz, 69, who is known to be assertive and direct, if a bit awkward.

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"Next Likely Chancellor Promises a Tougher Germany" by Steven Erlanger via NYT New York Times https://t.co/k70kWvVQ7b

— LadyEleanorA (@LadyEleanorA) February 20, 2025

The former site of a 24 Hour Fitness gym soon will become a spiritual home for hundreds of Anglican Christians in southwest Fort Worth.

Members of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church gathered on Feb. 2 for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the congregation’s new place of worship at 5001 Overton Ridge Blvd.

With hard hats, plastic shovels for kids and a disco ball, the ceremony marked the culmination of a 17-year search for a permanent location for the church plant to call home, said the Very Rev. Chris Culpepper, rector of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church and canon for church planting for the Anglican Diocese of Fort Worth.

“I just told everybody, ‘Bring a shovel because we’re all in this together,’” Culpepper said.

Tony Rutigliano was one of over 200 people who attended the groundbreaking ceremony. He grew up nondenominational and Baptist while his wife grew up in the Western rite Orthodox faith. When searching for a place for the family to worship together, Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church offered a “happy medium,” Rutigliano said.

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Melissa Greene, reporter for the Ft. Worth Report, wrote an article about Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church finding a new permanent home. Read it here: https://t.co/OtWbug9eRQ

— ACNA (@The_ACNA) February 19, 2025

The past week has been the bleakest in Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Ukraine is being sold out, Russia is being rehabilitated and, under Donald Trump, America can no longer be counted on to come to Europe’s aid in wartime. The implications for Europe’s security are grave, but they have yet to sink in to the continent’s leaders and people. The old world needs a crash course on how to wield hard power in a lawless era, or it will fall victim to the new world disorder.

Speaking in Munich last week, America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, offered a taste of how the home of fine wines, classical architecture and welfare cheques faces humiliation, when he ridiculed Europe as decadent and undemocratic. Its leaders have been excluded from peace talks between the White House and the Kremlin, which began officially in Riyadh on February 18th. However, the unfolding crisis goes far beyond insults and diplomatic niceties.

Mr Trump appears ready to walk away from Ukraine which he falsely blames for the war. Calling its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, a “dictator”, Mr Trump warned him that he had “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left”. America may try to impose an unstable ceasefire on Ukraine with only weak security guarantees that limit its right to re-arm.

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Europe’s worst nightmare, and what to do about it. Our cover this week @TheEconomist https://t.co/JVwHunz4Cr pic.twitter.com/SCJc0rjs4R

— Sophie Pedder (@PedderSophie) February 20, 2025

Almighty God, we bless thy Name for the witness of Frederick Douglass, whose impassioned and reasonable speech moved the hearts of people to a deeper obedience to Christ: Strengthen us also to speak on behalf of those in captivity and tribulation, continuing in the Word of Jesus Christ our Liberator; who with thee and the Holy Spirit dwelleth in glory everlasting. Amen.

20 Feb 1895: Abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass dies in Washington, D.C. He wrote several books including "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" in 1845. #History #HistoryMatters #OTD #ad https://t.co/bFA6EuTgeg

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— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) February 20, 2025

Almighty and eternal God, who in thy Son Jesus Christ hast revealed thy nature as Love: We humbly pray thee to shed thy love abroad in our hearts by thy Holy Spirit; that so by thy grace we may evermore abide in thee, and thou in us, with all joyfulness, and free from fear or mistrust; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Good morning!👋😊🌞
Happy Thursday!#sunrise #WINTER #sea #nature #NaturePhotography #NatureBeauty #naturelovers #NatureTherapy #photography pic.twitter.com/VJpPzYqOJq

— Kersti Sandström (@KerstiSandstrom) February 20, 2025

I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
    I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here am I, here am I,”
    to a nation that did not call on my name.
I spread out my hands all the day
    to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
    following their own devices;
a people who provoke me
    to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
    and burning incense upon bricks;
who sit in tombs,
    and spend the night in secret places;
who eat swine’s flesh,
    and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
 who say, “Keep to yourself,
    do not come near me, for I am set apart from you.”

–Isaiah 65:1-5a

Happy Thursday all and hope your weekend has been better than mine! pic.twitter.com/zRrqtD0jqU

— David Oxtaby (@Disc_light) February 20, 2025