The Archbishops' Council and Church Commissioners have given £100,000 grants to 10 projects across nine dioceses where church projects have had a proven positive impact.

The grants are part of an ongoing research and development programme to assess church projects and their effectiveness.

Two of the grants are going to support projects in Liverpool.

One is Liverpool Cathedral's Mission Project, which uses the cathedral as a resource to support the replication of two examples of Fresh Expressions into deprived parishes.

The other has been given to St Andrew’s Clubmoor, situated in one of the most deprived parts of city and the UK.

Clubmoor serves the community by running a foodbank, debt advice, self help groups, and parent and toddler groups.

The church also runs missional communities that work alongside particular groups in the community.

The grant will be used to to bring the mission and practical work closer together by employing two people to work with local families and people in recovery, establishing work pattern and practices that can be used elsewhere.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, welcomed the grants.

“The support …

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How many of us wish that we could send a message directly to the government? That we could tell them the things we think are important and highlight what needs to change?

Well last Christmas, in a community playground in the heart of El Salvador’s capital city, 400 children let the leaders of their country know exactly what was on their minds.

The setting for this extraordinary opportunity was a Viva Christmas Party – international children’s charity Viva worked with a group of local organisations and churches to put on a festive celebration for San Salvador’s children. They forged a link with the country’s Ministry of Social Inclusion and together they developed the idea of allowing the children to send messages back to the wider government.

So amid the chaos of games, clowns, face painting and presents, a giant mural was created with hundreds of messages for the country of El Salvador. Every child at the party was encouraged to write or draw on the mural, which was delivered to the local government offices in the week following the party.

Despite their youth, the group seemed to have a pretty good grasp on the things …

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It’s been more than a year since an attack on a church in Baghdad left 58 Christians dead, but Christians in the Iraqi capital still fear for their lives, says one church leader.

Fr Amir Jaje, Superior of the Dominican Order in Baghdad, told Aid to the Church in Need: “Living in Iraq means living in fear. There’s no feeling safe and during the last two or three weeks the situation has got worse, because of tensions among political parties.”

Despite police protection outside churches, congregations still feel anxious and fear infiltration by extremists, he says.

Extremists were behind the horrific attack on Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad in October last year. The 58 victims included Fr Jaje’s cousin, Fr Wasim Sabieh.

A Mass was held to mark the one year anniversary of the attack and although members of the congregation came to pay their respects, they were fearful that something might happen.

"They were scared because every time there’s political tension, the extremists exploit it to cause violence and spread their message," he said.

Iraq faces an uncertain time as US troops prepare to withdraw completely from the country by …

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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is among the Christians praying for the world's children today.

The World Day of Prayer and Action for Children has the backing of UNICEF, Religions for Peace, and Save the Children.

The day serves as a reminder to adults of the preciousness of children and the need to ensure they grow up in loving and safe environments.

"In every faith community, our children are the treasure that we value beyond price," said the Archbishop.

"A child born into health and safety is a sign of hope in our common life. In children we recognise the preciousness and dignity of the human being as well as a vulnerability which calls for our care and protection."

This year's day of prayer is concentrating on an end to violence against children.

The Archbishop said all forms of violence against children demand action and prayer.

He said he would especially hold child victims of armed conflict in his prayers as he spoke of the children he had met in troubled eastern Congo earlier this year.

One group of young people he met had been taken into …

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The Queen was guest of honour at a service at Westminster Abbey yesterday to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

The Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales were also in attendance to mark 400 years since the completion of the historic translation, commissioned by James I in 1604.

The translation, the work of 54 scholars, was intended to unify various Christian factions and end two centuries of struggle to produce a Bible in English.

It went on to have a huge impact on the English language, coining many phrases still in use today, such as “writing on the wall”, “apple of his eye”, “the powers that be”, “signs of the times” and “from strength to strength”.

Some of the oldest copies of the King James Bible were carried through the Abbey in procession to the altar during the service.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said the King James Version was an “extraordinary text” of “abiding importance” that had not been rendered less relevant by subsequent translations.

“To celebrate the Bible of 1611 is not to genuflect before a timeless masterpiece, to salute a perfect translation - …

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