All grief profoundly affects us, but this pandemic grief is so hard. Therefore, we need to support each other. We do this by following the guidelines. But we also do it by reaching out to each other with care and kindness

Justin Welby and Stephen Cottrell, Archbishops of Canterbury and York, in an open letter to mark 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, 26 January

You wouldn’t know it from this report by @BBCNews, but the Archbishops’ letter also named Jesus and spoke of every human being as created and cherished by God

Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield, 26 January

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be:
A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens.
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change, our children’s birthright

Amanda Gorman, from her poem “The Hill We Climb”, recited at President Biden’s inauguration, 20 January

Politics does not have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement does not have to be a cause for total war. We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and manufactured

Joe Biden, inauguration speech, 20 January

I acknowledge with shame that members of the Church of Ireland stigmatised women and children in a way which was very far removed from Christian principles and which resulted in an unloving, cold, and judgmental attitude towards pregnant women who deserved better. The birth of a child should always be a time for happiness, and that many young women experienced it as joyless and cold is a matter for bitter regret

John McDowell, Archbishop of Armagh, on the publication of research on mother-and-baby homes and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland, 27 January

Only in the Church of England would we describe a member of the College of Canons who can’t make the meeting tonight to formally elect our new Bishop as “contumacious”. It almost makes me want to miss the meeting so I can claim the adjective for myself.

Robin King, Archdeacon of Stansted (the term applies only to those without “lawful excuse”), 26 January

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