Christian feast day: Nicholas Ferrar (Anglicanism)

Nicholas Ferrar was an English scholar, courtier and businessman, who was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. He lost much of his fortune in the Virginia Company and retreated with his extended family in 1626 to the manor of Little Gidding, Huntingdonshire, for his remaining years, in an informal spiritual community following High Anglican practice. His friend the poet and Anglican priest George Herbert (1593–1633), on his deathbed, sent Ferrar the manuscript of The Temple, telling him to publish the poetry if it might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul." "If not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies." Ferrar published the verses in 1633; they remain in print.

Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the largest branches of Christianity, with around 110 million adherents worldwide as of 2024. Most are members of national or regional ecclesiastical provinces of the international Anglican Communion, one of the largest Christian bodies in the world, and the world's third-largest Christian communion. Research from the Center for the Study of Worldwide Christianity, based at Gordon Conwell, found that there were nearly 91 million Anglicans worldwide in 2015, not including the United "churches on the Indian Sub-Continent" as they "are ecumenical federations." In 2025, the Church Times reported that, according to research conducted by researchers at Durham University and Gordon Conwell, using 2020 data provided by member churches and not counting the United churches, there were nearly 95 million Anglicans worldwide within the Anglican Communion. When united churches in the Anglican Communion and the breakaway Continuing Anglican movement were not counted, there were an estimated 97.4 million Anglicans worldwide in 2020.