Church tweets Xmas sermons

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has urged people to go and "join the human race" this Christmas and become agents of transformation and renewal.

The full-text of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Day sermon

In his Christmas Day sermon, the Archbishop of York's message, urged people to "feed the hungry".

John Sentamu told the congregation at York Minster: "God works through human agents to achieve his purposes.

"So let us feed those who hunger with the bread come down from heaven.

"Let us give shelter to the homeless with him who could find no room in the inn.

Dr John Sentamu - the second most senior cleric in the Church of England - also invoked PD James's novel The Children Of Men to send a message of hope and the power of humanity.

He said: "The novel ends with hope: brutality is turned into compassion, betrayal into loyalty, enmity into friendship, despair into hope, self-absorption into inter-dependence, death into life.

"How? Not by Western science discovering the solution, nor by the plans and schemes of those in power.

"But it's the vulnerable who rise up and neutralise the jealousy, treachery, violence, murder, evil and the intoxication of power."

St Paul's Cathedral tweeted a link to the Very Reverend Dr David Ison's Christmas address:

The next Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, has tweeted his Christmas sermon. He refers to his days in business and the 'baggage' people accumulate and carry round in life.

Senior church figures are expected to tweet their Christmas sermons for the first time today.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams (@lambethpalace), the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu (@johnsentamu) and Archbishop Designate Justin Welby (@bishopofdurham) will also be joined by congregations and clergy from across the Church of England (@c--of--e).

Churchgoers in the 16,000 parishes of the Church of England are being encouraged to tweet the meaning of Christmas using the hashtag #ChristmasStartsWithChrist