We need to remember churches are more than a place to host a food bank. They are a visible reminder that we belong to one another, and that our communities are rooted in something older and stronger than the present moment

Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Opposition, The Spectator, 6 April

If you’re going to make the investment of going to a church, then you’re being asked to believe some quite mad stuff. . . You don’t want to get pabulum . . . because, if this stuff is true, then you want people who are animated by what that truth means, otherwise what’s the point?

Tom Holland, historian, The Edition, The Spectator, 3 April

You can get a sort of hectoring, moralising judgement from watching a BBC drama or by reading a newspaper. . . But what the Church alone can give you is something that is strange and distant and has depth to it. . . If it is just a filtering down of “being nice”, then that’s just pointless

Fergus Butler-Gallie, priest and writer, Ibid.

Perhaps the way to ensure improved attendance at forthcoming acts of worship is for preachers to focus on religious matters, and leave other subjects to politicians. After all, the church service should be the charging point of faith. Within this, the sermon should be about two things. It should be about God, and it should be about eight minutes long

David S. Ainsworth, letter in the Telegraph, 8 April

Britain’s new Christians are coming to faith in a country that appears to be more comfortable talking about “things unseen”. They describe with joy the encounters and experiences that led them to faith. “As corny as it sounds it just feels like coming home,” said [Lily] Wood, as she prepared to be received into the church

Article by Madeleine Davies in The Sunday Times, 5 April

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