Severe hardship in Britain is being “normalised”, the foodbank charity Trussell warns.

Its second Hunger in the UK report, published on Wednesday, suggests that 14.1 million people experienced food insecurity last year through a lack of money — a rise from 11.6 million in 2022, when the last survey was carried out.

The survey also found that 61 per cent of households that reported going without food did not obtain any form of charitable food support. Trussell defines food insecurity as “going without or cutting back on quality or quantity of food due to a lack of money”.

When asked why they had not sought such support, more than half (55 per cent) said that they did not feel that they should because they were not facing financial hardship. One third (32 per cent) did not think that they were in enough need, and one quarter (23 per cent) thought that others were in greater need.

Read it all.

Ipsos polling for the Trussell Trust suggests that 14.1 million people experienced food insecurity last year through a lack of money — a rise from 11.6 million in 2022, when the last survey was carried out.https://t.co/k9zXu83atf

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) September 10, 2025

The question of who qualifies as an evangelical and how many evangelicals exist worldwide continues to puzzle scholars, church leaders and mission researchers alike. That was the central theme of a Sept. 2 webinar hosted by the World Evangelical Alliance and released publicly Sept. 5, featuring two leading voices in global religious demography.

Dr. Gina A. Zurlo, editor of the World Christian Database and a lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, and Jason Mandryk, longtime editor of Operation World, outlined both the difficulties and the necessity of measuring a movement that is increasingly diverse and shifting rapidly toward the Global South.

Both experts agreed that unlike Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or even Pentecostalism, evangelicalism has no universally agreed-upon definition. This makes the task of counting adherents unusually complex. Yet, they stressed, reliable figures are crucial for understanding how Christianity is changing worldwide.

Mandryk opened with a blunt assessment: “There is no such thing as the evangelical.”

Read it all.

Data from 2 studies show evangelical Christianity’s center of gravity has shifted from the US & Europe to African, Asian & Latin American regions.

Estimated to be approaching 1 billion globally, the evangelical population in China has now surpassed the UShttps://t.co/6B8knAxydH

— Julie Roys (@reachjulieroys) September 10, 2025

n a digitally oversaturated society like ours, distraction is a daily sparring partner. What begins as a quick check of the weather to decide what to wear on a morning run turns into 20 minutes of scrolling political takes or cat videos. Most of us don’t wake up thinking, I’d like to spend two hours watching Seinfeld reruns today, but here we are.

Our devices and internet algorithms are remarkably effective at capturing our attention and redirecting it from whatever we intend. Yet for all the well-earned anxiety about our attention crisis, a troubling tendency in our discourse is to conflate the predicament with concerns about productivity.

We can, and should, care about productivity and attention’s role in it. But when output and efficiency become our primary concern, it distorts the nature of attention. Attention becomes only a means to an end, problematically viewed as merely a “resource.” And the root of this problem is glimpsed in the most basic way we talk about attention: We pay it.

When we pay for something, we expect something beneficial or useful in return. When we pay, we’re the consumer—and we want to know that what we’re paying for is worth the cost. But attention isn’t something we pay. It’s something we should give.

.

We shouldn’t pay attention. We should give it.

That subtle shift in language “transforms how we inhabit our world.” https://t.co/bPt4H7Qhga

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) September 8, 2025

The percentage of U.S. adults who report currently having or being treated for depression has exceeded 18% in both 2024 and 2025, up about eight percentage points since the initial measurement in 2015.

The current rate of 18.3% measured so far in 2025 projects to an estimated 47.8 million Americans suffering from depression. Most of the increase has occurred since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Gallup obtained the most recent results for 2025 Feb. 18-26 and May 27-June 4, 2025, with 11,288 U.S. adults surveyed by web as part of the probability-based Gallup Panel. Respondents were asked, “Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have depression?” and if yes, “Do you currently have or are you currently being treated for depression?”

Both metrics are part of the ongoing Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The percentage of adults who report having been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime stands at 28.5%, hovering near the record high of 29.0% measured in the first quarter of 2023.

Read it all.

U.S. Depression Rate Remains Historically High https://t.co/P24MAawQa4

— Rasha B Basha (@basharabasha_ra) September 9, 2025

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank thee for thy servant Alexander Crummell, whom thou didst call to preach the Gospel to those who were far off and to those who were near. Raise up, we beseech thee, in this and every land evangelists and heralds of thy kingdom, that thy Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

⭐Alexander Crummel ⭐A powerful black preacher, scholar and Episcopal priest. After serving as a missionary in Liberia for 20 years, he returned to the U.S. and started the first independent black Episcopal church in 1875. #blackhistorymonth pic.twitter.com/yaqMmefeoI

— The Hope Center (@Hope_Center) February 10, 2021

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose grace we have been admitted into the glory of the new covenant: Grant, we beseech thee, that being delivered from the death of sin and the bondage of the law, we may rejoice in the life and liberty of the Spirit, and evermore find our sufficiency in thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

🌧🍀🍁Guten Morgen 🍁🍀🌧 pic.twitter.com/nqEx87U6yK

— Brigitta Neurauter (@BrigittaNeurau2) September 10, 2025

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it is written by the prophet:

‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will govern my people Israel.’”

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star appeared; and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” When they had heard the king they went their way; and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

–Matthew 2:1-12

Autumn morning skies 😎 pic.twitter.com/I2kV3fMTpi

— graham ross (@grahamr27165817) September 10, 2025