The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, has urged communities to “draw closer to one another in love”, after two people were killed, and four left in hospital, in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

“Hate can never defeat hate, only love can conquer hate. Today, we stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbours and reaffirm our shared commitment to peace and safety for all,” he said.

According to reports, at about 9.30 a.m. on Friday a car was driven towards worshippers who had gathered outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, and at least one person was stabbed.

Police firearms officers shot and killed a man who is believed to be the suspect, and it was later reported that two other people had been arrested.

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The Bishop of Manchester (@BishManchester), Dr David Walker, has urged communities to “draw closer to one another in love”, after two people were killed, and four left in hospital, in an attack on a synagogue in #Manchesterhttps://t.co/QI44cIMNhf

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 2, 2025

These works of local hospitality – flowers, music, refreshments, keeping the church warm – may seem simple, but they are fundamental to the church’s mission: to draw people together in fellowship to hear the word of Christ. And whilst the works are simple, organising them isn’t. A service like our Harvest Festival needs many to help: everyone from clergy to musicians and flower-arrangers. However, ever fewer are willing to volunteer.

In recent decades, the Church of England has undergone a relentless programme of centralisation. Money and powers have been drawn upwards from parishes to dioceses and new bodies like the Archbishops’ Council.

These central bodies are fixated on grand visions and political fashions rather than the practical work of local parishes. They are reluctant to spend money on paying for ordinary clergy and churches. Instead, funds are soaked up by growing bureaucracies.

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✍️ 'The next Archbishop must care for the Church, not political fashions' | Writes Bijan Onrami

Read the column ⬇️https://t.co/w0mDBc3HsW pic.twitter.com/p2kGynnk50

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 2, 2025

As of September 2025, Russia’s war in Ukraine has dragged on for three and a half years. Despite nine months of efforts by the United States to end the fighting, there remains no end in sight.

There has been a flurry of activity, from talks in Saudi Arabia to Oval Office meetings, and even a summit in Anchorage between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Europeans have spent nearly a year talking among themselves about providing a peacekeeping force, whenever a ceasefire is reached. Yet despite all this diplomacy, multiple meetings, and countless statements, Russia continues to pummel Ukraine’s cities and engage in a brutal, months-long ground offensive.

Russia believes it is winning the war of attrition—and that it can overpower and outlast Ukraine. Should Russia conclude that it cannot fully “win” and that destroying Ukraine’s military and toppling Ukraine’s democracy is impossible, that does not mean that Moscow will sue for peace. Instead, a next-best option for Russia is likely a forever war, waged at a lower, more sustainable intensity, that would prevent Ukraine from joining the European Union or NATO. This means that the prospects of the Kremlin seeking any diplomatic breakthroughs are extremely low.

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"Ukraine may need to escalate in order to de-escalate, all while maintaining its defensive line at the front," @maxbergmann and @MSnegovaya write.

Read more from @csiserep about the next chapter for Russia's war in Ukraine: https://t.co/4IOJGSkvT6

— CSIS (@CSIS) October 2, 2025

Jane Goodall, one of the world’s most revered conservationists, who earned scientific stature and global celebrity by chronicling the distinctive behavior of wild chimpanzees in East Africa — primates that made and used tools, ate meat, held rain dances and engaged in organized warfare — died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Her death, while on a speaking tour, was confirmed by the Jane Goodall Institute, whose U.S. headquarters are in Washington, D.C. When not traveling widely, she lived in Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, in her childhood home.

Dr. Goodall was 29 in the summer of 1963 when National Geographic magazine published her 7,500-word, 37-page account of the lives of primates she had observed in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in what is now Tanzania. The National Geographic Society had been financially supporting her field studies there.

The article, with photographs by Hugo van Lawick, a Dutch wildlife photographer whom she later married, also described Dr. Goodall’s struggles to overcome disease, predators and frustration as she tried to get close to the chimps, working from a primitive research station along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

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She lived a great, impactful life, and inspired me to study primate behavior. Stephen Jay Gould called her work one of the Western world's greatest scientific achievements. Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91 https://t.co/bXbmX0ueqh

— Michael Platt (@MichaelLouisPl1) October 1, 2025

O God, who by the teaching of thy faithful servant and bishop Remigius didst turn the nation of the Franks from vain idolatry to the worship of thee, the true and living God, in the fullness of the catholic faith; Grant that we who glory in the name of Christian may show forth our faith in worthy deeds; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

1 Oct: translation feast of St Remigius, apostle of the Franks, who baptised King Clovis #otd (BM/NGAW) #France Remigius or Remi died 13 Jan 553. pic.twitter.com/MX26xKq6pk

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) October 1, 2025

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who dost feed the birds and clothe the flowers, and who carest for us as a father for his children: We beseech thee of thy tender goodness to save us from distrust and vain self-concern; that with unwavering faith we may cast our every care on thee, and live in daily obedience to thy will; through thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The leaves soften, the bracken rusts, the sunrise ticks later and later. The change seems to happen imperceptibly, but walk along a lane or stand in a woodland you haven't seen for a few weeks, and it's suddenly obvious all around you. The birds are quieter, the air thicker, as… pic.twitter.com/6Kpr2Yamvs

— peaklass (@peaklass1) October 2, 2025

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.3This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink? 5 Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim upon you, do not we still more?

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have any one deprive me of my ground for boasting.

–1 Corinthians 9:1-15

Good morning from Norway…snow soon pic.twitter.com/hIoY1DVXRs

— Morten (@helifliMorten) October 2, 2025