2003 is the total number of page views across our A Church Near You website during the past week. That creates a new landmark high in people visiting our site.Remember, a visitor may visit more than one of our pages on a single visit. The Church of England gets this information from the website servers. With this method, even people who opt out of cookies are counted, which improves accuracy compared to Google Analytics.There will be many parishes whose websites can claim much higher levels of interest but we've grown steadily over the past three years. In fact we've seen our growth increase almost ten-fold.So thank you to all you readers who are visiting our site and reading our information, prayers and news stories. We would be nothing without you.
Our joint parish Holy Communion service tomorrow is at St Mary and All Saints' Church, Dunsfold at 10am. Our celebrant is Reverend Rutton Viccajee.<br>We hope you be with us but if you're housebound or elsewhere you can join us via this Zoom link.<a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09">https://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09</a><br>Also, don't forget that Sheila Jones is hosting our next Lent lunch, next Thursday. She still has some places available so please call her on 200204 and you can help our parish raise funds for the Bishop of Guildford's Communities Fund.
The Chair of England’s Cathedral Deans has called on all who value cathedrals to visit them and assist their recovery in the aftermath of Covid-19.The Dean of Leicester, David Monteith, who Chairs the Church of England’s College of Cathedral Deans, was speaking as data from the height of Covid-19 restrictions was published, showing an expected fall in visitors and on-site worshippers.“The simple message for everyone is 'come and visit your cathedrals!'” he said.“Cathedrals across the country are working hard to welcome back more visitors and worshippers and the picture has improved in the time since this data was gathered, but It remains a challenging environment not least because of current utility cost increases.“Cathedrals and churches are here to support their communities including people who are still struggling following Covid-19, and as focal points for prayer and reflection and action in light of world events including the war in Ukraine.“Local people have supported their cathedrals throughout, and we are grateful for the emergency grant funding which the Government and Church have provided, but this has now ended.“Cathedrals serve congregations and wider communities through worship, heritage, education and civic events.“They are landmarks which characterise our regions and are testaments to faith and witness across the centuries. We are committed – with the help of all who visit, worship, and value them, to ensuring they continue long into the future. We exist for God’s glory, for all the peoples of England and for those who join us from further afield.”He was speaking as the Church of England published Cathedrals data from 2020, and – separately - the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) published visitor numbers from 2021, showing a 57 per cent reduction across all attractions, with St Pauls Cathedral and Westminster Abbey both named in the report.The Church of England’s Cathedrals Data from 2020 showed a 64 per cent reduction between 2019 and 2020 in on-site worshippers throughout the week, largely owing to the Government’s closure of buildings for much of the year.The data also showed that cathedrals stepped up to the challenge of providing worship and support remotely during the pandemic, through an increase in reaching congregations via online, telephone, email and postal means. By October 2020, when most buildings had reopened for worship, online services were still being offered in the vast majority of cathedrals, many of which continue to the present.Cathedrals have now streamed thousands of online services to people around the world, while elsewhere the Church of England’s national online services have been seen more than 16 million times since the start of the pandemic, with many more services broadcast by local churches.In recent weeks cathedrals have become the focus of prayer vigils and community gatherings following the invasion of Ukraine, with many lighting up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag.Cathedrals will also host services and prayer events for the National Day of Reflection on March 23, marking two years since the first Covid-19 lockdown in EnglandA 2021 study by the economic research agency Ecorys showed that cathedrals attracted over 9.5 million tourist or leisure visitors in 2019, an increase of 15 per cent on the 2014 total of 8.2 million.The additional expenditure generated by these visitors was estimated to be £128 million in the local economies concerned which, combined with employment, resulted in a total of approximately £235 million in local spending per year.
THE released Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori have finally been reunited with their families in the UK after years of detention in Iran.The two British-Iranian nationals were met by their families at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire in the early hours of Thursday after flying home via Oman.Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s seven-year-old daughter, Gabriella, was heard asking: “Is that mummy?” before her mother walked down the steps from the plane.Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori finally left Tehran on Wednesday, after months of negotiation.Supporters of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was detained in Iran in 2016 on charges of plotting to overthrow Iran’s government — which she has always denied — expressed their delight and relief as the news of her release emerged on Wednesday afternoon.Pictures of a smiling Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe taken inside the plane were widely shared across news outlets and social media. “It’s going to be the beginning of a new life,” her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, told the media when the news was confirmed.The Zaghari-Ratcliffe family have been supported by their parish church, Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead, throughout her detention. A lighted candle burns in front of a picture of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family, and she has been prayed for daily.In the eucharist on Wednesday morning — when Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was still at Tehran airport, awaiting her release — the Vicar, the Revd Jonathan Kester, said: “We come together in cautious but great rejoicing that Nazanin is on the way home. And we pray that she will later be reunited with Richard and Gabriella here in this community in West Hampstead. We pray for her well-being.”Once the news that she was on the plane home was confirmed, he described her release as “wonderful news”.This was echoed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who wrote on Twitter: “Rejoicing in this wonderful news and praying for Nazanin and her family as they prepare to be reunited at long last”; and by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, who simply said: “What wonderful news!”The Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, herself Iranian, spoke out strongly on behalf of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe in the House of Lords in December (News, 10 December), describing her as “a pawn in a political struggle between Britain and Iran”, and calling her detention “a terrible wrong” that must be put right.“Absolutely wonderful,” Dr Francis-Dehqani said on Wednesday. “I cannot fully express how overjoyed I am by this news. My very best wishes to Nazanin and Richard and their family.”Mr Ratcliffe told journalists on Wednesday afternoon that he and his daughter would really believe the news only when they saw “Mummy”. He thanked people up and down the country who had supported his campaign for her release, which included his going on hunger strike.“Ours has been a cruel experience in some ways, but it’s also been an exposure to such a level of kindness and care,” he told the BBC. “This will be a chapter in our lives, but there are many more chapters to come.”The Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, Tulip Siddiq, speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, paid tribute to Mr Ratcliffe, saying: “I also think he’s really set the bar high for all husbands.”
