When the diocese of Liverpool put its independent evaluation of the Transforming Wigan (TW) project in the public domain, it bucked a trend (News, 29 September 2023). Few evaluations of projects backed by the Archbishops’ Council’s Strategic Development Fund (SDF) have been published. The report laid bare the challenges that the project had encountered. The reconfiguration in 2020, which entailed the grouping of 33 churches in a single benefice of seven parishes, Church Wigan, had caused “considerable upset and dissatisfaction”.

The report recorded a fall in average weekly attendance from 1718, in 2015, to 1567, in 2019, and 1150. in 2022. A goal to turn around the financial strength of the deanery proved ambitious: overall giving was 88.6 per cent of the 2014 total in 2019, and, in 2020, only one parish paid its share in full. Without diocesan support, the report noted, the number of stipendiary clergy, already down to 13, would have fallen to eight.

A crucial aspect of the report was its careful delineation of the context in which the project took place. Wigan deanery had the lowest levels of giving in the diocese: an average of £5.40 per member per week (compared with a diocesan average of £8.57). Only one per cent of the population attended a C of E service on a Sunday. The fall in clergy numbers — from 24 to 18 in 2013 — was a catalyst for, not the outcome of, the project. But the authors also referred to successes, most notably new worshipping communities and social-justice activities, in which parishioners had “worked together beyond the confines of an individual, established church”.

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Two years after the evaluation of Transforming Wigan I spent a day in Wigan to see what’s happening now. Many thanks to everyone who spoke to me.
‘The seeds that were sown ten years ago have taken this long to start growing. Now you see the fruit.’https://t.co/7oD3ARG300

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) April 4, 2025

Lent is “not on the radar” for most Americans, according to a new Lifeway Research study focusing on Catholics, Protestants and the unchurched. One in four participants in the survey (26%) say they observe Lent, to one degree or another. That’s lower than the 31% of Americans who claim to attend worship services weekly or almost weekly, according to 2023 polling by Gallup.

Most believers who observe Lent find their own ways to mark the season, with some form of the “give up one thing for Lent” pattern as the norm. It’s hard to find evidence of ancient Christian patterns of fasting and abstinence in the survey results.

“Fasting is on the Christian liturgical calendar not unlike the Jewish Yom Kippur and Muslim Ramadan,” noted Lifeway executive director Scott McConnell, in the organization’s summary of the study. ”For Christians attending non-liturgical churches, they may not even notice the season of Lent has arrived. It is not that they look down on the practices of fasting, prayer and charity. But if they participate, they may be exchanging additional time with God for other forms of self-denial.”

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(ANALYSIS/@tweetmattingly) The bridge between Ash Wednesday and Easter is the penitential season of Lent. However, Lent is “not on the radar” for most Americans, according to a new Lifeway Research study.https://t.co/MNl34jGrFv

— Religion Unplugged (@ReligionMag) April 3, 2025

Herewith the NBC blurb-‘For parents, having a child be admitted to the hospital can make a stressful situation even worse. In many cases, kids need extra care, but some of it can be done at home. In North Carolina, Atrium Health expanded its Hospital Home program to include pediatrics. They say it doesn’t cost any extra, and the results are better. NBC News’ Anne Thompson has the story.’

As Abernathy tells it—and I believe he is right—he and King were first of all Christians, then Southerners, and then blacks living under an oppressive segregationist regime. King of course came from the black bourgeoisie of Atlanta in which his father, “Daddy King,” had succeeded in establishing himself as a king. Abernathy came from much more modest circumstances, but he was proud of his heritage and, as he writes, wanted nothing more than that whites would address his father as Mr. Abernathy. He and Martin loved the South, and envisioned its coming into its own once the sin of segregation had been expunged.

“Years later,” Abernathy writes that, “after the civil rights movement had peaked and I had taken over [after Martin’s death] as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” he met with Governor George Wallace. “Governor Wallace, by then restricted to a wheel chair after having been paralyzed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, shook hands with me and welcomed me to the State of Alabama. I smiled, realizing that he had forgotten all about Montgomery and Birmingham, and particularly Selma. ‘This is not my first visit,’ I said. ‘I was born in Alabama—in Marengo County.’ ‘Good,’ said Governor Wallace, ‘then welcome back.’ I really believe he meant it. In his later years he had become one of the greatest friends the blacks had ever had in Montgomery. Where once he had stood in the doorway and barred federal marshals from entering, he now made certain that our people were first in line for jobs, new schools, and other benefits of state government.” Abernathy concludes, “It was a time for reconciliations.”

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Remembering MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. – who was assassinated 57yrs ago today.

He was 39. pic.twitter.com/nbj1c4wSIH

— Michael Warburton (@TheMonologist) April 4, 2025

Almighty God, who by the hand of Moses thy servant didst lead thy people out of slavery, and didst make them free at last: Grant that thy Church, following the example of thy prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of thy love, and may strive to secure for all thy children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

4 April 1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony at the Lorraine #Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. #CivilRights #history #OTD #MLK #RIP #ad https://t.co/kQPysMQCkG pic.twitter.com/mccA9VZPep

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) April 4, 2025

O Lord and heavenly Father, who hast given unto us thy people the true bread that cometh down from heaven, even thy Son Jesus Christ: Grant that our souls may so be fed by him who giveth life unto the world, that we may abide in him and he in us, and thy Church be filled with the power of his unending life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Langs de rivier oever. Fijne vrijdag #zonsondergang #reflectie pic.twitter.com/QmtYdg6idF

— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) April 4, 2025

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the Lord.

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when men shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

–Jeremiah 23:1-8

A faint Sun Halo over the #Thames at #Twickenham on this fine April morning. @StormHour #loveukweather @itvweather @SallyWeather pic.twitter.com/GmXNZrPr93

— CaptainQuack (@KaptainKwack) April 4, 2025