Hannah Rich
@hannahmerich
Followers
4,489
Following
3,694
Media
77
Statuses
11,896
Director @ChrLeft . Senior researcher @TheosThinkTank . Mixing faith & politics for a living. Fan of good stories, big earrings, football & oatcakes. Views mine.
Staffordshire/The South
Joined May 2012
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Cohen
• 217942 Tweets
$GME
• 131023 Tweets
Aziz Yıldırım
• 73027 Tweets
GameStop
• 61293 Tweets
Ali Koç
• 41489 Tweets
Roaring Kitty
• 37665 Tweets
Vance
• 36028 Tweets
gracie
• 34139 Tweets
सुशील मोदी
• 32790 Tweets
Mourinho
• 30644 Tweets
Hot Sale
• 27513 Tweets
Atiku
• 26504 Tweets
Square Enix
• 25974 Tweets
$AMC
• 24534 Tweets
GPT-4o
• 23257 Tweets
DIAMOND HANDS
• 20821 Tweets
Tuberville
• 19393 Tweets
Deco
• 19082 Tweets
Carlos Vives
• 17149 Tweets
सुशील कुमार मोदी
• 16896 Tweets
TREASURE IS COMING
• 15835 Tweets
McDavid
• 15713 Tweets
Vitor Roque
• 14378 Tweets
Bronny
• 11653 Tweets
John Fury
• 10209 Tweets
Assassin's Creed Shadows
• 10084 Tweets
Last night I was explaining to a new gym instructor about how I've got metal rods along my spine, and she replied, "oh, so you're like a kebab" and I don't think I'll stop thinking about that for a while.
190
12K
97K
Half the carriage is lads with tinnies off to Twickenham dressed as nuns, and a group of actual nuns have just got on. More as we have it.
185
695
19K
‘When people say that the Bible and politics don't mix, I ask them which Bible they are reading.’ - Desmond Tutu, RIP.
7
233
1K
This reminds me of the best thing my parents have ever done: the time they phoned the BBC to complain that Spooks had 'turned into a farce' because of lines like 'Harry is looking out the window', only to be told that Dad had sat on the audio description button on the remote.
BBC boxsets coming to iPlayer:
Spooks / The A Word / Waking the Dead / French and Saunders / Baptiste / Wallander / The Missing / The Honourable Women.
Already there: Line of Duty / Torchwood / Call The Midwife / Our Girl / Snowfall / Last Tango / Pose / Guilt / Luther / Capture
19
66
305
24
137
930
Happy Christmas to everyone but especially my mum who gave me a pack of tights then asked for one pair back for herself 'because they were cheaper in a multipack'.
12
59
808
Thirty years ago this week, a group of older church ladies ran the rota of prayers and casseroles when I was a tiny baby in intensive care. They're nearly all gone now, but they're who I think of on All Saints and All Souls.
9
19
693
I cannot wait to see the size of the GDPR fine for this one.
14
236
663
I don't have a soundcloud etc etc but if you wanted to throw a fiver at
@ScoliosisUK
for me and my kebab stick spine, that'd be nice.
0
20
498
Some news from me - I'm thrilled to be the new Director of
@ChrLeft
, the corner of UK politics which brings me most hope. (Happily, I'll still be doing Theosy stuff part time too.)
81
17
468
This is the greatest Maguire performance in Rome since Lizzie went on tour.
9
64
439
I'm not sure this is quite the evidence of Change from outside the establishment that Heidi Allen thinks it is.
23
84
396
Define penal substitution in a tweet.
Jesus has just taken one of the worst penalties you’ll see.
577
356
8K
11
106
417
@jackamayorcas
Genuinely amazed that in 15 years not one of my friends has come up with this one.
3
2
330
The more I read about the '£30k = low income' immigration policy, the more I realise how few people realise what a genuinely average salary is. I know people who think their family background is 'average' when their school fees alone were more than half the country earn.
12
74
330
“You must speak not only of great devastation.” - every bit of
@ilya_poet
’s ‘Deaf Republic’ is beautiful but this especially so today.
3
74
314
I've visited numerous church holiday clubs over the last few summers and I will never forget the boy I met who, when given a hot dog, tried to share it with siblings and had to be convinced there was enough to go round. It doesn't have to be this way.
5
54
210
Yes, and I actually believe her. This is such a silly and clickbaity way to report ‘Christian prays about massive life decision’. It’d be weirder if she had a faith and didn’t find guidance in it over stuff like this.
BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨
Kate Forbes claims Jesus will tell her whether or not to run for SNP leader.
482
74
681
2
14
195
Oh so they like finding safe routes for displaced people now, do they?
NEW: Conservative MPs defending slim majorities have accused colleagues of "gaming the system" to try and move to safer seats.
I’m told around 15 parliamentarians have applied to be declared "displaced" due to upcoming changes to constituency boundaries.
24
84
150
1
55
191
Five years I've run this account and this is the second time I've had to find words for the unthinkable. Lord have mercy.
Utterly tragic news about David Amess MP. We're praying for his family, his team and the whole community of Southend. May he rest in peace.
2
27
207
2
22
184
I can’t speak for the sister here, but I think every woman will recognise the resigned waiting for it to be over in her eyes.
I’m here with Sister Mary Juan at the Casa Santa Maria, which is not only a residence for priests but also the visitor’s office for Americans visiting Rome!
@thegnewsroom
722
59
858
9
16
182
My nephew called today ‘Happy Hallelujah Day’ so I’m passing that sweet bit of toddler theology to you all.
3
9
174
There is no way to say this that won't sound like whiny whataboutery, but I'm going to go there - when politics starts putting marriage & family on a pedestal in the same way the church does, it hurts a bit to be a single, childless Christian working in politics.
18
4
171
I must have missed the part where synod agreed that having a sense of humour rules you out of episcopal office.
The Archbishop of Canterbury posing, grinning, next to a depiction of himself as Satan, with an inverted pentagram to boot.
If the
@churchofengland
can confirm this image is real, how can anyone support
@JustinWelby
holding this office?
72
96
443
6
12
164
‘God had come down to earth and was everywhere or nowhere. If God was everywhere, politics was a crucial activity in our response to this wonderful fact.’ - Frank Field.
An absolute titan of the Christian left and the fight to end child poverty. Rest in peace & rise in glory.
Frank Field , former Labour minister and anti-poverty campaigner, dies aged 81
10
24
85
2
42
156
Once more for the people at the back: 'average' income is lower than most of you seem to imagine.
Median income in London is £35k. Median income in the UK is £28k. Those are actually the points at which you have a "middle class tax cut".
17
135
487
8
50
150
A shop I visited at the weekend was advertising its involvement in 'Tract and Trace', which sounds like a pretty terrifying way of following up on people you've tried to evangelise.
4
17
149
I see you're all massive fans of the Bishops now. Name me three of their albums.
16
10
143
@Soph_Warrener98
@MrSpiggot
Fwiw you were right first time and it should be 'me and Rose' :)
1
1
131
The gas man came today and tried making conversation by asking if the pandemic had disrupted my A Levels & he is without a doubt the hero of my final week of being a twenty-something.
0
0
134
I am pretty confident there’s grace for not giving anything else up this Lent, when last Lent feels like it’s lasted a whole twelve months.
12
11
134
A few years ago I’d had a really bad day and a cleaner heard me sobbing in the toilet at Waterloo and offered me a big bear hug. There’s no big reunion or point to this story, and not to get all soppy, but I think about her and smile every time I pass through Waterloo.
2
2
135
I'm in a pub where the loos are called 'brilliant boys' and 'gorgeous girls' and to be honest, it's almost ruined my birthday.
8
5
123
It's almost as if those of us who do do God and politics weren't mad after all.
Yesterday the bishops set the moral tone. Today a vicar sets the government policy. Might be an idea if
@BorisJohnson
moved out and we let
@JustinWelby
take over.
108
284
2K
7
10
123
There are some grim replies to this suggesting religion doesn't belong in politics. We saw a similarly poor response when
@Chinese4Labour
announced their nomination. The thing that really doesn't belong in politics is the inability to disagree well without turning so nasty.
Christians on the Left nominates:
• Keir Starmer to be leader of the Labour Party
• Angela Rayner to be deputy leader of the Labour Party
15
39
232
5
15
122
"The poor you will always have with you" wasn't a challenge to keep it that way, in case we were at risk of forgetting that.
2
31
119
My dad has texted with all the optimism of a man who’s never been to conference that he hopes it is ‘restful in every way and full of hope’.
5
2
118
This hits a decade earlier if you were in the Christian Union.
Up until now I have been to six weddings in my entire life. In the next 12 months, not counting my own, I have seven. SEVEN. It can’t all be pandemic postponement. Is this what happens when you hit 30? Is there some new craze for legal commitment? What is going on???
87
6
354
6
0
116
@poornabell
It's a luxury of sorts to even find this annoying, but hotel rooms (especially for weddings that are out in the sticks). Also the two-together rail card when you're out of the age brackets for individual ones.
3
0
115
I really don't think enough has been made of the fact that community spaces like church halls and scout huts, where people might go to keep warm, don't have an energy cap.
Last month my churches electricity costs were £1000, up from £70 last year. We are facing £4000 *a month* for energy in the winter, up from £300.
Charities, churches and voluntary organisations have no cap as we have to be on business rates.
I don’t know how we will survive.
25
81
245
7
48
109
My 4yo nephew is obsessed with Big Ben* - at nursery, he wrote that his favourite thing about me was that I send him pictures of it - and tomorrow he's coming to see it for real & the excitement is off the charts.
*do not 'it's the bell not the tower' me, I will block.
12
0
107
The amount of whining I’ve heard about Labour’s long overdue policy on private schools really does highlight how disproportionately everywhere the 7% are.
6
21
106
I just signed off an email with 'very beset' instead of 'very best' and if that isn't 2020 in a typo, I don't know what is.
7
5
103
My piece on Mo Salah, Jürgen Klopp & personal faith on a public pitch - huge thanks to
@Theosthinktank
colleagues for humouring me & letting me write about almost everything I love all in one go:
9
30
101
More evidence that Sure Starts were one of the biggest policy successes of recent decades and closing them one of the most needless & short-sighted calls under austerity.
Children living near Sure Start centres did better at GCSEs, study suggests
41
188
470
4
21
104
If you're sharing those messages asking Christians to lobby their MPs on abortion, a. read the amendments and b. do it on bills about benefits, housing, asylum & other life issues too.
6
17
102
Today is three years to the day since I passed out on the way to an interview, tied my hair up on the bus to hide the sick, turned up semi-delirious and miraculously still got the job, for which I'll be forever grateful to God and
@Theosthinktank
.
6
0
98
My dad has informed me he always likes to read
@Theosthinktank
articles because he 'once learned a new word from one that turned out to be a crossword answer the next day', which is exactly why we write them.
1
3
97
Something I only learned about on a first aid course but which should be common knowledge is this map of all the public defibrillators in the UK:
5
48
91
Really don't think we've grasped this - this week, Southampton FC announced players can now receive bonuses via bitcoin, at the same time they're planting loads of trees in a bid to be the most sustainable club in the league.
Difficult to quantify what an ecological disaster Bitcoin is, but this comes close.
616
27K
87K
5
28
91
Two weeks ago, on what I didn't quite realise would be the last day in the office, I bought some really nice yoghurt and left it in the office fridge. Not a day has gone by since when I haven't thought about that yoghurt.
9
1
93
I promise this isn't as glib as it sounds, but today I am just really glad that Jesus being born and all that means is as good and true now as ever.
3
4
95
More like a busilica.
This week, we have opened a new multi-faith area in the free waiting zone.
Located just off the Silver Zone roundabout, the new area provides customers with a private space to reflect and pray whilst waiting to collect friends, family or loved ones.
3K
626
3K
9
9
93
A privilege to be called to speak about the work of churches and communities in running food banks. It should not take a miracle for no one to go hungry.
#Lab21
Our vice chair
@hannahmerich
addressing conference this morning about the right to food and the hope of a future without the need for food banks.
#Lab21
0
12
49
4
6
92
Girl next to me on the train kept asking her friend if she ‘wanted a cheeky Col’ and I thought it was maybe drug slang I didn’t know, then they got out a bag of Colin the Caterpillars.
5
5
89
We had the reading in fifteen languages at church this morning for Pentecost. Amanda Holden would never have handled it.
0
5
90
'Hearing your voice is nice enough, Han, but seeing your face is a whole other world.' - my grampy, 94, after we video called him for the first time.
4
1
90
My mum's take is that 'taking a knee' sounds much better than 'kneeling down' and she intends to suggest it to all the Catholic grannies, which I guess would make it a mass protest.
3
4
89
In a truly unexpected turn of events, I spent this evening at
#Lab22
being interviewed by
@timfarron
about
@ChrLeft
and being known for love not judgment in politics.
5
2
88
In what I'm fairly sure is a misunderstanding of the not-at-all-confusing new rules, a family member has emailed me to explain at great length why I'm not one of the 6 people they're choosing to see for the rest of the year.
5
1
84
I am an absolute broken record on this, but this country would do well to realise that combining faith and politics isn't just about being interested in other people's sex lives.
1
8
81
Seen a few of these now, in different places. Hard not to think they massively underestimated the impact of this vote even before deciding to tank the whole economy.
1
35
79
Hearing about volunteers who have quietly used their own cars to deliver food parcels for years but now can't afford the petrol. You might not see that in any funding bids, but the margins keeping communities going are small & being squeezed smaller.
3
23
80
Here for this. A real low in my twenties was when I admitted I couldn't afford to go on one, and the bridesmaids came back with the suggestion that I could save £50 if I didn't use the hired hot tubs along with everyone else.
I wrote about why women must rise up, as one, to abolish hen weekends. Apart from the reductiveness (women-only!) and weird competitiveness of them, I refuse to spend £400 on a weekend of penis straws and prosecco that largely resembles living in Clapham x
45
46
927
17
2
80
Thanks to
@LSEChaplain
&
@lisanandy
for a brilliant, thoughtful discussion of building the country we’ve always believed in (and Wigan Athletic) at tonight’s
@ChrLeft
Tawney Dialogue, and to the best second half sub
@jreynoldsmp
🌹
5
12
80
‘There’s a better world and on a quiet day, if I hold my breath, I can hear her say she’s on her way.’ -
@GracePetrie
summing up this
@Greenbelt
better than I can.
1
9
79
'What's your economic policy?'
'The Milky Bars are on me.'
This is Piotr Patkowski, Poland’s deputy finance minister. He looks *extremely* like a 12-year-old playing dress up as a kid’s idea of a grown man. He’s 29.
1K
8K
77K
4
3
76
Yesterday I had a pandemic birthday and it was unexpectedly the best ever. Thankful for wonderful people, flasks of coffee and three decades of grace.
6
1
77
Who knew the Christian Union lads were so far ahead of the curve?
3
2
76
Gordon Brown called child poverty 'a scar on the soul of Britain'. That was in 2001; it's time we committed once again to ending it & I'm proud to be part of this campaign to do just that.
Exclusive:
@LabourChildPov
campaign has been launched to urge Labour to commit to repealing the two-child limit on benefits immediately on entering government after Keir Starmer was widely criticised for saying the party plans to retain the Tory policy:
3
27
50
0
14
76
The cost of living crisis is threatening the charities & faith groups that are our last line of defence against it. Really pleased to be launching this important
@Theosthinktank
report today & grateful to
@GordonBrown
& Rowan Williams for their support:
1
32
77
It is not Christmas until my mum has sorted all the cards into two piles based on whether she deems them religious enough to go on the wall.
1
2
75
In 2017, at 9pm on the day of the most all-consuming, exhausting, unexpected general election, I knocked on a door and spoke to a man who didn't know there was an election on and I've envied that man a bit ever since.
1
2
75
The main problem I have with wearing masks is that it makes it really hard to smile at babies on the bus.
11
2
76
I can't see how this is anything other than an excellent policy idea. I'm still bitter about the time one of my teachers asked if she could predict me a lower grade because it would be easier for us all if no one in the class was targeting an A.
Labour is calling for university applications to be based on actual grades, rather than predictions.
Shadow education sec
@AngelaRayner
says students from poorer backgrounds often get lower predicted grades, making the system "unfair".
Read more here:
63
277
853
1
13
71
I've spent the last three years exploring the paradox of a church with declining national attendance and a growing social footprint. Really excited to be finally launching this report next month - come and join us!
How should England's national church respond to the growing needs of the people it exists to serve?
Join us and
@churchurbanfund
for insights into how churches can meaningfully engage with the needs of communities as we launch The GRA:CE Project report:
0
10
31
0
14
75
I flipping love the NHS. Just got my jab in the same building as my first Saturday job & where I once heard
@JustinWelby
do a seminar at Soul Survivor.
1
0
74
My
#IWD2020
heroes are the older women at a church I visited today who remembered a recently departed friend with a red rose on her hymn book and a shot of Bailey's in their after service coffee.
2
4
73
'Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses, too.'
Marcus Rashford launches book club so children can experience 'escapism' of reading
479
2K
19K
1
15
72
I wrote for
@Theosthinktank
on clinical vulnerability, grace and the pandemic. (It's the sort of piece that needs a bit of a deep breath before sharing, so be kind.)
12
8
71
Just watched a primary school kid on the train proudly try out his first 'your mum' joke in the wild, and his mate just looked blank and went, 'bit disrespectful'. Extraordinary.
2
2
71
Marcus Rashford is singlehandedly achieving the sort of attention for stats like this that campaigning charities would dream of, and it's incredible to see.
3. And when you head to the fridge to grab the milk, stop and recognise that parents of at least 200,000 children across the country this morning are waking up to empty shelving
#maketheuturn
164
6K
38K
1
7
70
339 interviewees, 66 parishes, thousands of miles of train journeys, dozens of church hall lunches & countless examples of amazing hospitality and vicarage spare bedrooms... the
#graceproject
qualitative research: done.
@theosthinktank
@churchurbanfund
🎉🍾
8
3
71
This feels a lot like every September when children dye their hair blue then parents do sad face news stories about how unfair the school's well-publicised ban on blue hair is.
Former Downing Street communications director Alastair Campbell says he has been expelled from the Labour Party
378
340
1K
1
15
63
My piece in this week’s
@ChurchTimes
on why ending child poverty, beginning with scrapping the two-child limit, should be a moral and political priority:
0
21
69
Now conference season is over, I’d like to spend a good chunk of my first few months as
@ChrLeft
director having coffees, interesting chats & hearing from members/friends. DMs open.
10
2
67
Thrilled for my work of the last three years to finally be out in the world, along with a massive thank you to the countless brilliant people who have made it possible.
Today we launch the
#graceproject
final report 'Growing Good; Growth, Social Action and Discipleship in the Church of England' in partnership with
@churchurbanfund
.
Author
@hannahmerich
introduces the report which you can download here:
8
32
88
2
4
67
I’m reading a novel which I’m sure is actually good, but I can’t get beyond the character who says they’d ‘never met anyone Muslim or black’ until they went to a uni which was the height of diversity and the uni is Durham.
15
1
65
Someone at today's
@ChrLeft
exec meeting prayed for protection against dogs & brush letterboxes and I can only say Amen to that.
4
11
66
Some news etc. etc.
Congratulations to our VC
@hannahmerich
on being elected as one of the
@SocialistSocs
reps on
@UKLabour
's National Policy Forum, and thanks to all our SocSoc friends for the support! 🌹
0
6
18
6
0
66