ADVENTURES WITH PEN AND PENCIL

1. The Strange Church of St Mary, Burgh St Peter (Norfolk)

2. Boston Stump (Lincolnshire)

3. “An Historical Cameo of Old Hastings”

4. Truro Cathedral

5. Hereford Bridge

6. Whitby

7. “The Handsomest Barn in England”, St Paul’s, Covent Garden

8. The Angel Tower, Canterbury Cathedral

THE BIBLE

1. (a) Molech: Ammonites (b) Marduk: Babylonians (c) Baal: Canaanites (d) Chemosh: Moabites (e) Dagon: Philistines (f) Diana: Ephesians

2. Thomas Hardy

3. Apple

4. (a) four (b) three (c) two (d) 450,000

5. (c) butter dish

6. (d) Damascus

7. Ezra and Daniel

8. (c) 1902


ANIMALS

1. Sinbad the teddy bear was com­pletely restored by Canon Eleanor Rance, a former RAF chaplain, after he was washed up on a beach in Cornwall.

2. Chichester Cathedral

3. A squirrel

4. The cat-flap is in use at Exeter Ca­­thedral by Audrey, who lives with the Director of Music, Timothy Noon

5. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski was criticised by an animal-rights group for taking the group to a circus, where he took part in a stunt involving an elephant.

6. St John the Evangelist, in Edin­burgh, worked with Project Harmless to create a biodegrad­able dog-waste bag, Harmless Poop Bag, which is given free to dog-owners.

7. The bumblebee, according to a survey by the conservation charity Caring for God’s Acre

8. Canon Edward Carter designed a game, Serengeti Sanctuary, which was a finalist in an international board-game-design competition run by Ravensburger.


BOOKS

1. The Road to Grantchester

2. The Chronicles of Narnia

3. Unapologetic, by Francis Spufford

4. Kirrin, which is the name of the Island and the cottage in which the family live.

5. Barbara Pym and Rose Macaulay

6. Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris)

7. Silverview

8. The years between the two World Wars.


CHURCH NEWS

1. Sandi Toksvig had tea with Arch­bishop Welby to discuss the Church’s position on sexuality.

2. The Secretary General of the General Synod, William Nye, and the chief executive of the Corpora­tion of Church House, Stephanie Maurel, apologised for a rainbow flag flashing up on screen at the end of the Living in Love and Faith debate on the General Synod live stream in February.

3. Church leaders in Turkey, who said that distributing Bibles as part of relief efforts after February’s earthquake was “not the way of Jesus”, but “opportunistic”.

4. The Archdeacon of Macclesfield, the Ven. Ian Bishop, who is now Suffragan Bishop of Thetford, and so Bishop Bishop.

5. The Association for the Defence of the French Language took legal action against the cathedral for translating its signs into English only, saying that this one translation increased the international dominance of English.

6. The charity Friends of the Holy Land launched an appeal for more sheep to help to expand a cheese business set up by a Roman Catholic priest, in Jordan.

7. Dawn French, as the Revd Geraldine Granger, gave a eulogy in a private “living funeral” at Truro Cathedral for a friend, Kris Hallenga, who has breast cancer.

8. Abbi Lawson, of St James’s, Tebay, in Penrith, was a contestant on The Great British Bake-Off.


MUSIC

1. John Rutter was 16 when he wrote “The Nativity Carol”.

2. Peter Auty

3. Thomas Trotter has been Organist of St Margaret’s, Westminster, for 41 years.

4. György Ligeti

5. J. R. R. Tolkein, The Road Goes Ever On

6. Joan Armatrading

7. The Beatles

8. “Flowers”, by Miley Cyrus

CHURCH HISTORY

1. The Bishop of Rome

2. Justa (just), before the word bella (wars)

3. (a) nightcap with needlepoint decoration and (b) light-coloured stockings

4. (c) Benjamin Jowett

5. St Joan of Arc, in 1920. St Thérèse of Lisieux was canonised in 1925.

6. (a) Duns Scotus: Franciscan (b) Martin Luther: Augustinian (c) St Thomas Aquinas: Dominican (d) St John of the Cross: Carmelite

7. The 11th century and the 14th century

8. (a) St Polycarp: Smyrna (b) St Ignatius: Antioch (c) St John Chrysostom: Constantinople (d) St Fulbert: Chartres (e) Thomas Ken: Bath & Wells (f) Frank Weston OBE: Zanzibar

HYMNS

1. “Onward, Christian soldiers” by Sabine Baring-Gould.

2. 12. The author is Jan Struther. Mrs Miniver originated in her column in The Times.

3. V. S. Stuckey Coles, “We pray thee, heavenly Father”.

4. Charlotte Elliott, “Just as I am with­­out one plea”. Her grandfather was Henry Venn

5. “Full in the panting heart of Rome” (“God bless our Pope”) by Cardinal Wiseman

6. Blake’s “Jerusalem” (“And did those feet in ancient time”). The famous tune is by Parry.

7. “Captains of the saintly band”; “O sacred head, sore wounded”; “Jesu, son of Mary”; “Guide me, O thou great Redeemer”.

8. The 20th Century Church Light Music Group, 1960.


THE ROYAL FAMILY

1. The Prince met the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks, after he sought “absolution” for his decision to wear a Nazi uniform to a party in 2005.

2. Roses were stolen from a memorial garden at Lincoln Cathedral. They were later recovered by police and returned.

3. In the editing process to change references to Queen Elizabeth II to King Charles III, the name of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1571 ratification of the Thirty-Nine Articles was replaced with that of the King, declaring him ruler of “England, France and Ireland”.

4. As the longest-serving chorister in the Chapel Royal, Samuel Strachan welcomed the King on his arrival at Westminster Abbey.

5. The Archbishop in Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

6. Julian of Norwich: “All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.”

7. The Bishops of Hereford and Norwich

8. Salisbury Cathedral

FOOD AND DRINK

1. Goose.

2. A bequest or donation to a reli­gious house to provide extra food and drink on high days and holy days, including Christmas

3. Oblong, to represent the manger, often with a baby Jesus on the lid

4. Cahors Malbec

5. In the 17th century in Chiapas, Mexico. The bishop who banned his congregation from drinking chocolate during services was himself poisoned by chocolate.

6. Chateau Haut-Brion, which Pepys calls Ho Bryan

7. Originally an oval, i.e. plum-shaped, hard sugar ball, some­-times surrounding a nut, fruit, or spice

8. “Wassail” comes form the Old Norse “waes hael”, meaning “Be well”

CURRENT AFFAIRS

1. Mike Johnson

2. Nagorno-Karabakh

3. James Cleverley and David Cameron

4. ChatGPT

5. Germany

6. Spain

7. 3: Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury; Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary; Minister of State for Health.

8. Taylor Swift

THE ARTS

1. Everything Everywhere All At Once

2. Imelda Staunton.

3. St Francis of Assisi

4. The Rolling Stones

5. Barbie

6. Sweden

7. Simon Armitage

8. Sir Michael Gambon

GENERAL

1. Edward V and Edward VIII, neither of whom were crowned

2. Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission, in December 1972

3. Sciatic nerve, running from the hip to the foot

4. Apollo

5. Glasgow

6. Mary Elizabeth Jenkins Surratt, who was part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln

7. The Royal Mint

8. (c) Stalin

WHO SAID WHAT?

1. Bill Gates BBC interview, 3 Feb­­ruary

2. James O’Brien, Twitter, commenting on the sentencing of the Revd Mark Coleman, activist for Insulate Britain, 21 April.

3. Nick Cave, Hay Festival, quoted in The Times, 30 May.

4. Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London, General Synod, 8 July.

5. Alan Shearer, Match of the Day pundit, referring to Gabriel Jesus, BBC Sport website, 11 August.

6. Sally Phillips, Radio Times, 1-7 April.

7. Miriam Coates MP, speaking at fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference, 3 October.

8. Justin Welby, interview, The New Statesman, 6 October.