Rev Canon Dr Jennifer Smith - 09/09/2026

Available for over a year

Amidst all the conflicted news of our present, yesterday the Office for National Statistics published data that invite us to dream about the future: the final figures for ‘Births in England and Wales during 2025.’ The data show 585,396 live births in the two nations, each one an ordinary miracle. One was my own granddaughter, much beloved. Apparently the 28th of May was the date with most births last year, which perhaps says something about the August bank holiday in 2024. And I spare a thought for those whose pregnancies had harder outcomes, also recorded in the data – the numbers represent real people and real lives, joy and sorrow both. I give thanks to God for each child, and feel accountable to each one and their parents. These babies will be our neighbours, carers, teachers and politicians in years to come. As such the data should feel personal to each of us. And, there are fewer births, a drop of 1.6% from 2024. On current trends with only 1.39 births per woman of childbearing age, our population is not replacing itself through the birth of children. The reasons why or why not may have common themes but will be personal to each household. But the numbers say to me that we have more, not less, shared responsibility for each baby’s future. Bishop David Wilson, the first Native American to become a Bishop in the United Methodist Church, has spoken from his indigenous culture about a ‘seven generation sensibility’ when making decisions: he asks us to measure impact not just today but seven generations in the future. This is both caution and confidence: Bishop David takes our power to bless the future seriously, even if it will be a world we find hard to imagine. More than a third of all babies born in England and Wales in 2025 had a mum who, like me, was born outside the United Kingdom. This fact may become political, used to serve wildly diverse agendas. However, I take heart with the world as divided as it is that I will grow old (God willing) in a country where like me, many neighbours have roots in different cultures and nations: this feels to me a protection and a gift from God. St Paul reminded early Christians they were ‘no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free,’ no longer foreigners to one another. Jesus came into the world as a baby – a baby’s need (at best) draws together a community of care around it made up of parents, aunts and uncles, neighbours, even strangers. I hope it may still be so for each baby born today, and their parents.