The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Alan Smith swapped snacks for seeds at a Church of England Secondary School today with a summer challenge – get growing for harvest and don’t take ‘five a day’ for granted.

The Bishop of St Albans has sent a message for St Albans day to the ship's company of HMS St Albans, a type 23 Frigate in the Royal Navy.

The Bishop of St Albans, The Rt Revd Alan Smith, says that the way Lent is observed is changing and he is encouraging this with a new project of his own – Challenge, which starts tomorrow, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.

Downing Street announced today, Tuesday 9th February that the Rt Revd Christopher Foster, the Bishop of Hertford, is to be the next Bishop of Portsmouth.

In his new role he will lead the ministry of the Church of England in the Portsmouth Diocese after 16 years in the Diocese of St Albans first as Sub-Dean of St Albans Cathedral and since 2001 as one of two Suffragan Bishops in the Diocese.

The Catholic Church and the Church of England in the Bedfordshire area have jointly written to Members of Central Bedfordshire Council to object to the Council’s withdrawal of free school transport for children attending faith schools in the authority. The proposal could affect hundreds of children at middle and secondary schools within Central Bedfordshire.

The Bishop of St Albans, The Rt Revd Alan Smith, visited St Lawrence’s Primary School in Ardeley, last Tuesday during a visit to Buntingford, Royston and the surrounding area. He joined the Key Stage 2 children’s story circle to hear how they had made up a story with storyteller Danya Miller, using only their imaginations and a few objects they provided.Danya is part of a Creative Partnership project designed to bring creativity into classrooms.

The Rt Revd Alan Smith, The Bishop of St Albans, has spoken in a sermon this morning Sunday 17^th January of the Christian response to the Haiti Earthquake. In a service in St Mark’s Church, Barnet Vale, Hertfordshire, there were prayers for the people of Haiti and the rescue efforts. Bishop Alan wrote to clergy and others on Friday, asking them to pray and give generously for the people of Haiti.

The chill winds of winter brought not only snow and ice in the days before Christmas, but also fear and a sense of foreboding. Many uncertainties loom ahead, gathering like storm clouds on the horizon. The failure of the Copenhagen Climate Summit to produce binding agreements hangs over us, and the prospect of a General Election by May, followed by stringent cuts in public spending, fills many with apprehension. As 2010 begins, and the memory of Christmas fades, we need to think about what we want for our society in the coming year.

In this year’s family Christmas film ‘Nativity’, you might spot a fourth wise man and camel. Don’t worry. It doesn’t affect the real Christmas story one bit.

Shepherds, Wise Men and the Holy Family will be unmissable in St Albans this Christmas, thanks to an initiative from the Cathedral – or should that be in-knitiative?

Over three hundred and sixty people aged from around nine to over sixty-five, with 50% under 18, succeeded in sleeping the whole night out in St Albans Cathedral precincts to raise money for six homeless charities in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire on 4th December 2009.

The Rt Revd Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans has responded to the detail of the Apostolic Constitution, published by the Vatican today, 9 November 2009. He said:

During one of his first visits around the Diocese of St Albans since his service of inauguration on 19th September, The Bishop of St Albans, The Rt Revd Alan Smith has been to Potters Bar and met some of those affected by the Potters Bar rail crash in 2002.

Visiting Elstow Deanery, Bishop Alan went to Ursula Taylor VA School in Clapham. He saw bread that had been made for the Harvest Celebrations focussing on Uganda (where a teacher had made a visit), an RE class and got photographed with a scarecrow and the children who shared their classroom with him.

The Rt Revd Alan Smith began his ministry as tenth Bishop of St Albans on Saturday 19th September 2009 in St Albans Cathedral with two thousand people. The service of welcome and inauguration began with a three-quarter mile procession through St Albans and ended with around100 children from ten Church of England schools releasing 100 bio-degradable balloons each carrying a prayer.

Photographs of Bishop Alan's inauguration can be viewed here.

The Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Alan Smith visited Watford General Hospital to meet staff and patients at the hospital on Thursday 4th September as part of a series of visits around Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire in the run up to taking up his post on 19th September. The visit to Watford General is his first in Hertfordshire.

In the last few weeks before his inauguration as Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Alan Smith is making a number of visits around Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire beginning on 2 September in Bedford.

Pioneering work amongst a Romany-Traveller community is documented in a new book, by the The Revd Martin Burrell, Vicar of Bushmead, Luton. The book, The Pure in Heart, An Epistle from the Romanies, is about the awakening of Christian faith amongst the Romany-Traveller community in Cranbrook, Kent, where Martin was based until Spring 2009. It reveals an unseen side of the Romany-Traveller community.