This means that the established Church has lost its place as the nation's most popular Christian denomination after more than four centuries of unrivalled influence following the Reformation. Last night, leading figures gave warning that the Church of England could become a minority faith and that the findings should act as a wake-up call.

The rise of Catholicism has been bolstered by an influx of immigrants from eastern Europe and Africa, who have packed the pews of Catholic parishes that had previously been dwindling.

It is part of the changing face of churchgoing across Britain in the 21st century which has also seen a boom in the growth of Pentecostal churches, which have surpassed the Methodist Church as the country's third largest Christian denomination.

Worshipping habits have changed dramatically with a significant rise in attendance at mid-week services and at special occasions - the Church of England expects three million people to go to a parish church over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

In an attempt to combat the declining interest in traditional religion, the Anglican Church has launched radical new forms of evangelism that include nightclub chaplains, a floating church on a barge and internet congregations.

Churchgoing in Anglican and Catholic parishes had stood at about a million each for the past 10 years, though the relative equality in their numbers over recent years is surprising considering that there are 25 million people who regard themselves as Anglicans, and only 4.2 million Catholics.

Marks & Spencer, Halfords, PC World, Argos, Comet and Dixons launch web sales at 0001 GMT on 25 December. Industry body the Interactive Media in Retail Group predicted 3.57m Britons will hunt for deals on Christmas Day. The IMRG's CEO, James Roper, said: "The desire to shop doesn't go away and the web fills a niche when stores close."

BY CONTRAST, ONLY 2.8M PEOPLE ATTENDED A CHURCH OF ENGLAND SERVICE ON CHRISTMAS DAY 2006.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Conner, who led the service on Friday in which Mr Blair became Catholic, said he was "very glad" to welcome him. Last year, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops into Iraq. And one of Mr Blair's final official trips while prime minister was a visit to the Vatican in June where he who met Pope Benedict XVI.

Catherine Pepinster, editor of Catholic magazine, The Tablet, said Mr Blair's conversion was "not a surprise" but was a "momentous step" for him. She said: "It would have been rather different if he had become a Catholic when he was still prime minister. I understand that one of the issues he was concerned with, because he was so closely involved in negotiations over peace in Northern Ireland, that perhaps some people there might have been uncomfortable with the prime minister converting to Catholicism at such a time.

"This situation is different. Although he remains a public figure now, and clearly has a role to play in the Middle East, it isn't perhaps quite the same." The former Conservative government minister, Ann Widdicombe, who is also a Catholic, told the BBC that Mr Blair would have made specific commitments at the reception into the Catholic faith. "If you look at Tony Blair's voting record in the House of Commons, he's gone against church teaching on more than one occasion. On things, for example, like abortion.

Earlier this year, the former prime minister told the BBC that he had avoided talking about his religious views while in office for fear of being labelled "a nutter". His ex-spokesman Alastair Campbell once told reporters "We don't do God," but has since said that his former boss "does do God in quite a big way".

"We call upon all nations who cherish freedom and who believe in the word of God as manifest in the Torah of Israel and its prophets to rebuke the government of Israel for its disgraceful treatment of all that is holy to the Jewish people before the eyes of the entire world," said a statement by the New Jewish Congress, the Sanhedrin and the Holy Temple and Temple Mount movements.

Continued the statement: "The contemptible and vile consent of the government of (Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert for the Hamas terror organization to broadcast from the Temple Mount endangers and weakens Israel's peace and security. "Whoever cooperates with the Israeli government in its campaign to banish the Jewish people from the Temple Mount and close it before Jewish worshippers is party to bloodshed, negates any chance for peace in the future and fosters war and strife in this region and throughout the entire world."

The joint statement was read earlier today by Rabbi Chaim Richman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute and an English spokesman for the various groups that issued today's call. But the Israeli government barred all non-Muslims from ascending for the rest of the week due to a Muslim holiday. Along with the Jewish fast day, today also marked the start of Ein ul-Adhaa, which commemorates the Islamic belief of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael for Allah. According to the Jewish and Christian tradition, Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Isaac, not Ishmael.

"Our broadcast is a victory for the Al Aqsa Mosque, which is suffering from Judaization efforts imposed by the Zionist government. Broadcasting daily radio is a way to bring Al Aqsa to the Gaza Strip and challenge the siege imposed on us by the Zionist entity," said Rami Kaoud, a manager at Al Aqsa Radio, Hamas' official radio network.

The ECB allotted $10bn (€7bn, £5bn) on Friday in funds to eurozone banks in its second dollar tender, which was made possible by a currency swap with the Fed. Demand for the latest funds, which saw 27 banks offering bids totalling $14.1bn for the 35-day money, was more modest than a similar operation ­earlier this week.

The ECB's boldest step was its decision at the start of the week to launch an unlimited offer of two-week funds covering the end of the year, which saw it pumping in almost €350bn ($502bn, £253bn) - the largest amount in an ECB money market operation. It then launched operations to mop up excess liquidity to ensure very short-term market interest rates did not fall below its main policy rate of 4 per cent.

The bank even managed to make money in the process. It said yesterday it had managed to reabsorb €141.6bn for six days at an interest rate of 4 per cent. That represented a profit-making move, as it had lent funds in this week's record two-week operation at 4.21 per cent. The results highlighted banks' apparent willingness to, in effect, pay for a guarantee that they would have sufficient funds at the end of the year, when they are under pressure to show strong liquidity positions.

At a summit of his growing regional energy alliance, Petrocaribe, the leftist firebrand attacked the United States and other rich consumer nations for squandering their unfair share of world resources. "In spite of the Yankees, our oil and gas will always be at the service, first of Venezuela, and at the same time of our brother nations of Latin American and the Caribbean," he said. "We have begun to create a new geopolitics of oil that is not at the service of the interests of imperialism and big capitalists," Chavez said in a speech.

Chavez, the fiercest antagonist of the United States in the region despite being a major U.S. oil supplier, opened a revamped Soviet-era refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba that will supply diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to members of Petrocaribe. The Petrocaribe alliance, which has bolstered Chavez's regional influence since it started in 2005, grew to 17 countries on Friday with the entry of Honduras, a traditional U.S. ally. Guatemala's president-elect also wants to join.

He proposed debts be offset by local products and services, following the example of Cuba, which has sent 20,000 doctors and teachers to Venezuela in exchange for crude and refined products now estimated to value $3 billion a year.

Approximately 53 million travelers expect to go by motor vehicle (approximately 81 percent of all holiday travelers), a 0.9 percent increase from the 52.5 million who drove in 2006.

AAA expects 8.9 million Americans (13.7 percent of holiday travelers) to travel by airplane, a slight decrease of 0.3 percent from last Christmas holiday. A projected 3.3 million travelers will go by train, bus, or other mode of transportation.

1. VIRGINIA TECH KILLINGS: Seung-Hui Cho, 23, who had avoided court-ordered mental health treatment despite a history of psychiatric problems, killed two fellow students in a dormitory on April 16, detoured to mail a hate-filled video of himself to NBC News, then shot dead 30 students and professors in a classroom building before killing himself. It was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

2. MORTGAGE CRISIS: A record-setting wave of mortgage foreclosures, coupled with a steep slump in the housing market, buffeted financial markets, caused multibillion-dollar losses at major banks and investment firms, and became an issue in the presidential campaign.

3. IRAQ WAR: The "surge" that sent more U.S. troops to Iraq was credited with helping reduce the overall level of violence. But thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of U.S. personnel were killed nonetheless during the year, and Iraqi political leaders struggled to make meaningful progress toward national reconciliation.

4. OIL PRICES: Oil prices soared to record highs, at one point reaching nearly $100 a barrel. The high prices, which burdened motorists and owners of oil-heated homes, nudged Congress to pass an energy bill that ordered an increase in motor vehicles' fuel efficiency.

5. CHINESE EXPORTS: An array of Chinese exports were recalled, ranging from toys with lead paint to defective tires to tainted toothpaste and food. Despite the high-profile problems, America's trade deficit with China was running at record-high levels.

6. GLOBAL WARMING: Warnings about the consequences of global warming gained intensity with new reports from scientific panels and a Nobel Prize to Al Gore for his environmental crusading that included the film "An Inconvenient Truth." Across the U.S., many state governments sought to cap emissions blamed for global warming.

7. BRIDGE COLLAPSE: An Interstate 35 bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush hour on Aug. 1, killing 13 people and injuring about 100. The disaster fueled concern about possible structural flaws in other bridges nationwide.

8. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: In a yearlong drama with shifting subplots, large fields in both major parties battled for support ahead of the caucuses and primaries that will decide the 2008 presidential nominees. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama led among the Democrats; some polls showed five Republicans with double-digit support.

9. IMMIGRATION DEBATE: A compromise immigration plan, backed by President Bush and Democratic leaders, collapsed in Congress due to Republican opposition. The plan would have enabled millions of illegal immigrants to move toward citizenship, while also bolstering border security. The issues remained alive in the presidential campaign.

10. IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM: Worried that the ultimate goal is a nuclear arsenal, the United States and other countries pressed Iran to halt uranium enrichment. Iran said it never had a weapons program. A U.S. intelligence report concluded there was such an effort, but it stopped in 2003.

Just missing the Top 10 were the Southern California wildfires and the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.

A crowd of druids, pagans and tourists braved the fog and cold at the prehistoric Wiltshire site to witness the light shine through the ancient stones. The winter solstice is a pagan celebration which marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year.

Reverend Lakshmi Love, a shaman, said the winter solstice was the most important of the four, because it announced the return of the sun. Mr Love, from Glastonbury, SAID HE WAS 36 IN HUMAN YEARS BUT BELIEVED HIMSELF IMMORTAL.

"I'm an ordained priest in the universal Life Church, a Shaman and a practitioner of tantric yoga," he said. "I've been coming here for many years to help the druids. Being a Celt I come to celebrate all four parts of the solstice, and I think today is the most important one, because it heralds the return of the sun. I performed a weather ritual this morning."

Global warming stopped? Surely not. What heresy is this? Haven't we been told that the science of global warming is settled beyond doubt and that all that's left to the so-called sceptics is the odd errant glacier that refuses to melt?

Aren't we told that if we don't act now rising temperatures will render most of the surface of the Earth uninhabitable within our lifetimes? But as we digest these apocalyptic comments, read the recent IPCC's Synthesis report that says climate change could become irreversible. Witness the drama at Bali as news emerges that something is not quite right in the global warming camp.

With only a few days remaining in 2007, the indications are the global temperature for this year is the same as that for 2006 - there has been no warming over the 12 months. But is this just a blip in the ever upward trend you may ask? No. The fact is that the global temperature of 2007 is statistically the same as 2006 as well as every year since 2001. Global warming has, temporarily or permanently, ceased. Temperatures across the world are not increasing as they should according to the fundamental theory behind global warming - the greenhouse effect. Something else is happening and it is vital that we find out what or else we may spend hundreds of billions of pounds needlessly.

I have heard it said, by scientists, journalists and politicians, that the time for argument is over and that further scientific debate only causes delay in action. But the wish to know exactly what is going on is independent of politics and scientists must never bend their desire for knowledge to any political cause, however noble. The science is fascinating, the ramifications profound, but we are fools if we think we have a sufficient understanding of such a complicated system as the Earth's atmosphere's interaction with sunlight to decide. We know far less than many think we do or would like you to think we do. We must explain why global warming has stopped.

Hamas proposed to stop all attacks from the Gaza Strip once Israeli army halts its strike against the coastal enclave, Israeli Channel 10 news reported. The Islamic movement also vowed to force other Gaza terror groups to comply with the eventual deal, which would not apply to the West Bank, Channel 10 said. Some 10 Israeli officials were purportedly in contact with the group over the offer submitted by Egyptian mediators.

The strike came after Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said Wednesday that Israel would accept the "mediation" with Hamas in an effort to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haneya told Israeli Channel 2 that he was prepared to negotiate an end to the rocket attacks and Israeli strikes.

Israel has stepped up ground and air operations in the past few days against Islamic Jihad (Holy War). The IDF launched an offensive in Gaza from Monday to Tuesday that left 11 Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants dead.

Zhang Jiatuan, director of the drought prevention department of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said the drought is the most serious of the decade and is affecting almost the whole country. About 400,000 hectares of cropland have been affected by drought this year, leading to total grain losses of 37.4 billion kg, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"Drought has caused more damage to industry than to agriculture," Zhang said. "Since the 1990s, losses from drought have been equivalent to 1.1 percent of China's average annual gross domestic product, or about 300 billion yuan ($41 billion)". The country has witnessed consecutive droughts over recent years, which have posed a serious threat to water security, he said.

About 30 million people in rural areas and more than 20 million in urban areas face drinking water shortages every year, despite the government investing millions of yuan annually to address the problem. Earlier this year, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, the country's largest freshwater lake, was reported to be shrinking fast. Its surface area fell to the smallest on record - less than 50 sq km, from a maximum of several thousand square kilometers.

According to the official, speaking prior to the imminent release of the Foreign Ministry's strategic assessment for 2008, as long as Hamas is in control of Gaza, there will be negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, but no real "diplomatic process." A diplomatic process requires the ability of both sides to compromise, something that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will be unlikely to do as long as Hamas controls Gaza, the official said.

Despite post-Annapolis talk of reaching an agreement with the Palestinians by the end of 2008, the assessment will say that the prospects in the coming year are "bleak". The official said there was nothing to signal that Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh might be interested in some kind of truce, adding that Hamas had made it clear that it had no intention of stopping its arms buildup via smuggling from Egypt or stopping terrorist attacks elsewhere.

Regarding the bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the official said Jerusalem had not yet made a decision regarding the establishment of working groups, something the Palestinians are pushing. As to Syria, the official said Damascus had made it clear that it didn't want to talk to Israel unless two conditions were first met: Israel saying it is willing to withdraw from the Golan, to the June 4, 1967, lines; and the US being fully involved in the process. Since neither of those conditions are likely to be met any time soon, the official said there was little chance of any progress on the Syrian track in 2008.

Every town hall has been ordered to send out surveys demanding local residents' personal information and opinions. The forms will ask householders to give details of their children, mortgage, ethnic background, religion and sexual orientation.

Civil rights campaigners yesterday called the survey 'intrusive and very sinister', pointing out that any information handed over will not be kept confidential. The New Place Survey - which is expected to be launched next autumn after trials in the spring - is likely to cost at least £15million by 2012.

Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said the operation was a "pointless waste of money". "Councils should be trying to make people's lives better by reducing the burden of taxes and improving crumbling services, not poking their noses into our lives," he added. Christine Melsom of the council tax protest group Is It Fair? said: "This is highly intrusive and very sinister. I can think of an awful lot of other things they could do with the money."

But skeptics question whether such a move is politically and legally tenable - or wise. "There are a lot of pedophiles in the Catholic Church but no one is talking about outlawing" the church, notes Ulrich Battis, professor of constitutional law at Berlin's Humboldt University.

Scientology's claim to be a church despite the German courts' ruling denying it such status could also cause problems for the government at home, where many Germans believe the question of what qualifies as a religion is a matter of personal conscience rather than government authority. Skeptics warn that taking steps to ban Scientology could backfire by making them appear as victims of state persecution. The 1997 government probe prompted several Hollywood stars, including Dustin Hoffman and Goldie Hawn, to sign an advertisement printed in German newspapers comparing the move to the repression of Jews under Nazism.

Still, the state interior ministers appear determined to press ahead, portraying themselves as protectors of their citizens from a "threat," and suggesting, in the words of one government statement, that Germany's Nazi past obliges the government "TO MONITOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANY EXTREME GROUPS WITHIN ITS BORDERS - EVEN WHEN THE GROUP'S MEMBERS ARE SMALL IN NUMBER."