Her Majesty the Queen has spoken of her Christian faith in her Christmas message.” In her annual message, the Queen focused on the theme of ‘home,’ and praised volunteers who were providing meals to the homeless of Christmas Day. “We remember the birth of Jesus Christ, whose only sanctuary was a stable in Bethlehem. He knew rejection, hardship and persecution,” the Queen said.”And, yet, it is Jesus Christ’s generous love and example which has inspired me through good times and bad. Whatever your own experience is this year, wherever and however you are watching, I wish you a peaceful and very happy Christmas.

The Queen also praised London and Manchester for pulling together after terror attacks this year, hailing the cities’ “powerful identities.” Her Majesty, her husband the Duke of Edinburgh and family members attended an Anglican Church service on Christmas morning near the Queen’s country estate in Sandringham. Afterwards, the Royal Family had a private lunch. Prince Harry’s fiancée Meghan Markle joined the family for the first time this year.

“Let us take pride in our Christian heritage,” Prime Minister Theresa May has said in her Christmas message.

In an address that stressed the role of the emergency services and volunteers, the Prime Minister thanked “all those whose service to others means they will be spending time away from their loved ones this Christmas.”

She also praised the Churches Together initiative, an ecumenical organisation that brings together the vast majority of Christian denominations in Britain.

“As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let us celebrate all those selfless acts – and countless others – that epitomise the values we share: Christian values of love, service and compassion that are lived out every day in our country by people all faiths and none. “Let us take pride in our Christian heritage and the confidence it gives us to ensure that in Britain you can practice your faith free from question or fear. “Let us remember those around the world today who have been denied those freedoms from Christians in some parts of the Middle East to the sickening persecution of the Rohingya Muslims.

The ‘Passion of the Christ’ actor talks about the challenges of playing iconic roles, why pious films are often lame and why good movies aren’t always family-friendly.

Actors who play iconic roles sometimes regret it afterward, not least because their careers often suffer later. Jim Caviezel has said Mel Gibson warned him that playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ would hurt his career — but he has no regrets about playing the most iconic role of all time.

Caviezel never again played a central role in a Hollywood film like Frequency, The Count of Monte Cristo or High Crimes, though he did find mainstream success on the small screen as the lead in the critical and popular hit series Person of Interest, which ran five seasons. On the big screen, he played a terrorist in the Denzel Washington thriller Déjà Vu and has taken a number of roles in indies and faith-based films like When the Game Stands Tall.

Now, for the first time since The Passion, Caviezel has returned to the Bible-film genre to play the role of St Luke the Evangelist in the upcoming film Paul, Apostle of Christ, written and directed by Andrew Hyatt (Full of Grace) and produced by Sony’s faith-based label Affirm Films.

Caviezel recently spoke: “Going into that world — playing Our Lord — was … I didn’t know how to do it, and I said, “I’m not going to play Jesus. I want him to play me.” It’s the same thing with Luke. I’m praying very deeply.

Recently, I was watching one of the players of the Dallas Cowboys making the Sign of the Cross before they kicked off to him. I guess when you’ve got those guys running at you, going at full speed, and a collision could happen and you could tear your knee, you gotta go into it knowing [the challenge]. I do the same thing on my films. I am praying for the audience — that what I read on script is conveyed to the person in the theatre, and that they have the possibility of changing their lives. When you are playing Jesus or Luke or Paul … it just requires someone like me to get out of the way. And that’s what I pray about.”

“I think one part of it is that he was a physician, and he had this particular lifestyle — he was wealthy, and he left it all. Why? He saw Paul speak. Was it Paul who spoke, or was it Christ speaking through him? I believe it was the latter, and that changed his life. So that’s kind of where I started.”

At least nine people including three police have died in an attack on a Coptic Christian Church south of Cairo.

Two gunmen opened fire at the entrance to the church of Mar Mina in Helwan district on 29 December, which was being guarded by police in the run-up to Orthodox Christmas celebrations.

One attacker was shot dead by security forces. The gunmen is said to have been wearing an explosives belt, suggesting an even more deadly attack was planned, reports BBC correspondent Radwa Gamal in Cairo. The second gunman has been detained.

Islamist militants have claimed several attacks on Egypt’s large Christian minority in recent years, including two deadly bomb attacks on Palm Sunday in April and an explosion at Cairo’s largest Coptic Cathedral last December that killed 28 people.

At least 29 Copts were killed on a bus in May and a Coptic Orthodox priest was stabbed to death in Cairo in October.

Police have stepped up security measures around churches ahead of the Coptic Christmas celebrations on 7 January, deploying officers outside Christian places of worship and installing metal detectors at some of the bigger churches.