Going viral

TikToking for Jesus, one dance meme at a time, while the C of E is either dying or coming back to life, or possibly both at the same time...

Hello! Our top story this week is all about the app your teenage kids are losing their lives to. TikTok, it turns out, is not just a mental-health-sapping timesink of adolescent angst (and a political football in a new Sino-American Cold War), it’s also the arena for a new kind of evangelism and ministry. And it’s working - at least that’s what the Christian influencers think.

Then we look at what future the C of E might have, through the lens of a melancholy take from The Economist magazine and the only slightly contradictory new attendance statistics released this week.

There’s also my latest podcast (Why do so many people feel like the world is coming to an end these days?) and the usual list of links to interesting church news stories from around the internet, including this week a controversial slave trader church memorial, unexpected perks of being in a conclave, and the angriest open letter I’ve ever read.