Only New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving interrupt the daily 6 am prayer meetings that Pastor David Galvan has held since 5 February 1996 at New Life Church in Dallas. On Thanksgiving, the church holds an annual baptism in an area lake, incorporating prayer into the meeting. On New Year’s Day, the church is in worship and fellowship from 7 pm on New Year’s Eve to the early hours of the New Year, including prayer. Other holidays, including Christmas, are included in the daily schedule. When Covid-19 restrictions briefly limited gatherings to ten people months ago, Galvan transitioned the daily prayer hour from the church’s 190-seat chapel to a conference call. Attendance has more than quadrupled. ‘All these years up to the pandemic, it attracted from 5 to 12 people on weekdays and on Saturday it was about 70. Now we’re averaging 35 to 50 daily’.

Ofsted's chief inspector revealed there was an alarming 20% rise in babies being killed or harmed during the first lockdown. Out of 64 babies which were deliberately harmed in England, eight died. Some 40% of the 300 incidents reported involved infants, up by a fifth on 2019. The ‘toxic mix’ of isolation, poverty and mental illness caused the March to October spike. Health staff and social workers were hampered by Covid restrictions. Many regular visits could not take place; others were carried out by telephone or video links. When schools closed in March, children's charities and teachers expressed fears that children at risk would be left even more vulnerable under lockdown. This was one reason why schools stayed open for vulnerable children, but babies can't tell an adult if there's a problem. Often, abuse is only uncovered when there's a critical injury, or it's too late - another young life damaged or lost.

Most people haven’t heard of Lee Cain but the resignation of the prime minister's top aide raises the question of whether it heralds a changing of the guard and a new Johnson era, now that Brexit is almost done. Mr Cain is part of the Vote Leave team that has dominated the PM’s first 18 months in office. He and Dominic Cummings have shaped his premiership more closely than anyone else, with an iron grip on the operation of No 10. But during that time, relations have soured between Downing Street and many ministers, as well as many Conservative MPs concerned about the leaks, the U-turns and the way things are run. Pray for the Holy Spirit to make a clean sweep through parliament, replacing ‘power struggles’ with harmony and positive influence based on facts. Pray for a new era in which government ministers practise peaceful relationships where there has been tension.

Revd Naomi Nixon, CEO of the Student Christian Movement, has criticised the Government's plans to get English university students home before Christmas. This was in reaction to a travel window, between 3 and 9 December, for students to go home in evacuation-styled staggered time slots. In-person teaching is also due to end. She said the procedure is brutal and confusing; treating students differently from everyone else in society. What if students have exams after the cut-off date, or live off-campus? Are students living in regular housing and streets to be treated differently from other people living in that street travelling at Christmas? Will students who have expensive train or plane tickets falling outside the travel window be refunded? There will be students isolating after a positive test, and students who have left foster care and are now 18 with nowhere to go.