1 in 3 Britons believe in the Virgin Birth

More than a third of Britons believe that the virgin birth really happened, according to new research published today by Theos, the public theology think tank.

In the poll of over a thousand adults, undertaken for Theos by ComRes, 34% of people agreed that the statement "Jesus was born to a virgin called Mary" was historically accurate. Only 32% considered it fictional. Women are more likely to believe in the virgin birth (39%) than men (29%).

56% of Britons believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Surprisingly, the research reveals that people are more likely to believe in the virgin birth than angels. Only 28% believe the Bible's account of angels visiting shepherds to announce the birth of Christ actually happened, compared with 32% who think it is fictional. 37% of people believe that Herod ordered the death of infant boys in an attempt to kill Jesus.

In terms of the significance of Christ's birth, 52% agree or strongly agree that the birth of Jesus is significant to them personally. 72% of people think that the birth of Jesus remains significant culturally.

The research may support recent reports that carol services are growing in popularity. 44% of Britons plan to attend a Christmas church service this year. St Paul's Cathedral is holding identical carol services on the two days before Christmas in order to accommodate the number of people wishing to attend.

57% of people will be celebrating Christmas as a religious festival. Significantly more men (48%, compared with 36% of women) do not celebrate Christmas as a religious festival. Scotland ranks as the most religious nation. 66% of Scots celebrate Christmas as a religious festival.

Commenting on the research, the Director of Theos, Paul Woolley said:

"The extent of religious belief will no doubt surprise people, but these
findings are consistent with other research we have undertaken.

The number of people who believe the birth of Christ is significant to them
personally is especially striking. In periods of financial uncertainty, when
there is concern about losing jobs or homes, perhaps people are more open to
thinking about life’s ultimate questions.

Despite all of the hype around the recent success of recent books promoting
atheism, it is clear that, for most people, religious belief cannot be explained
away so easily."

To read the full findings of the poll, click here.

Back from CRE

The LightLive team took to the road last week and headed off to sunny Sandown. There, they showed off LightLive to the masses who attended the Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE). The response was very, very positive and it was great to meet one or two users who had already found the site useful, 'Hello to you!'

Now the team are back at Bletchley HQ, busily looking for ways to make the LightLive experience even better. What we have now is only the beginning, so if there is anything that you would like to see on LightLive then leave us a comment on the blog or use the contact form on LightLive itself. LightLive is there to resource the church, Lightlive is there for you.

It's Live!

LightLive, the online service that puts Bible-based learning material at the fingertips of children's and youth workers, went live today (Thursday May 8). We'd love you to have a look at it and then pass the news around your networks.

Just to refresh your memories: LightLive gives children's and youth leaders free-of-charge access to a weekly syllabus of downloadable material following Scripture Union's Light programme, for groups aged up to 14. It also gives access to all-age materials.

Pssst...

... don't tell anyone, but all being well LightLive will go live today... I'll tell you more when I know for sure. Keep praying that all the testing and server moves go according to plan, it is quite important.

Pray for today

We have a progress meeting this afternoon, so please pray that we will have made some progress :-) and that everything that needs to be done will have been done.

Praying for the LightLive launch

The change in the go-live date to May 8 gives more time to refine some aspects of LightLive. Pray for wisdom in discerning the priorities and deciding which features are essential to launch and which can be developed later.

Pray, too, that everything essential will be in place by May 8.

Prayer for LightLive

After Baigent’s work on LightLive yesterday, we’ve received their suggestions. We now have to decide what it’s appropriate to take full steam ahead and make available from launch and what should wait for to add (even greater!) value to the site later!

Pray for real wisdom for those deciding - and for those working on the ‘full steam ahead’ bits!

Pray for LightLive

Yesterday’s meeting gave lots of good ideas and possibilities which Baigent will be looking at right now to see what can be turned into practical realities (and when!). We’ll be hearing back from them soon.

Pray that the work they’ll be putting in will result in a LightLive that is even better than we could possibly imagine!

Prayer for today

This afternoon there’s an important meeting with web partners Baigent to consider and work on the findings from LightLive beta testing.

Pray that the outcomes will take us forward in the right direction – and quickly would be good!

Prayer for LightLive

By the end of today we anticipate that Baigent will have done their stuff with LightLive and it will be ready for the link to be set to Beta-testers…..

On Saturday…
We’ve been thrilled by the financial support given to the digital project through the latest appeal. Thank God for it –and pray that the ongoing need for financial support will be met. We’ll need people to continuously notice and respond to the ‘support’ button!

On Sunday…
Pray that those leading children’s and youth groups today will know God’s blessing… and a hunger to do their best for their groups. Pray that in God’s goodness we are preparing to scratch where they are actually itching!!

Please pray for

Pray for marketing manager Kate Beaton as she works with design consultancy firm ‘ie Design’ to take forward the LightLive marketing plan.

All those involved in the launch campaign need to work together superbly well at this critical point!

Prayer for today

Here’s the feedback from yesterday’s meeting with Baigent:

“Give thanks that LightLive is looking good and is almost there in terms of delivery to the functionality spec, but Baigent still have plenty of work to do!

There are also some changes to the database that Eddie has to make in the next day or two, which are going to put some pressure on him until the end of the week.

But we’re hugely encouraged”

We pray on!

Prayer for today

The team from Baigent working on technical development is coming in today to show us what LightLive looks like now! The ‘tour’ which will guide users through the site is also being scoped.

We'd love it all to go smoothly.......

In addition to the above, the 'tour' is perhaps the most difficult thing for us to get right at this point. We know what the site will do and we know how to use it, but we need to pass that information on to the users. It is the 'tour' that will do that. LightLive is way more complex than WordLive, so it is vital that we make the 'tour' simple and yet complete.

BTW, we are also quite excited about this!

Prayer for today

There have been some technical delays which means we have moved the beta testing period back by one week. Please pray that the technical issues will be resolved - and that we will still have enough people available to participate for the revised dates of April 7–17.

In an update to the above prayer the technical issues are primarily about the scale of the work to do and also when the best time to begin beta is. All being well we will be getting access to the site tomorrow, and it is very exciting. But please do pray, the development team are very, very busy.

Prayer for today

Thank God for the great team of temporary staff who are coming to the end of their time with us – they’ve helped us to tag and upload a massive amount of Light content.

And in case you won’t be logging on to your computer over the weekend:

On Saturday Pray that once it’s out there, many people who currently aren’t Light users will discover LightLive – and find it invaluable!

And on Sunday let’s remember before God everyone who is using Light printed material today – that the efforts of both users and producers of it will be greatly blessed by God -and many folk of all ages will grow closer to him.

Prayer for today

LightLive still needs beta-testers who can give a bit of time between Monday and Friday next week and the week after to help iron out any glitches.

Pray for enough people to be in place for the testing to be done thoroughly!

Gearing up for beta testing

Beta testing is only a couple of weeks away for LightLive, the latest digital offering from Scripture Union. We'll let you know all the news here first as we take each step to the full release... coming very soon.

LightLive is coming

Imagine a filing cabinet of creative activities and ideas.
Imagine Bible-based activities and ideas.
Imagine ideas for all-ages.
Imagine it all online.



You don't need to imagine for long...