Revd Vanessa Conant, Rector of St Mary’s and the Parish of Walthamstow, writes: 

I grew up in a household that was always attentive to the news. I remember my Dad sinking into our faded armchair at the end of his working day and crawling into his lap as pictures of the Falklands War played across the screen. The Sunday paper would be strewn across our living room and picked over through the week. The radio was a constant background murmur, the hours punctuated by the familiar beeps announcing the headlines. 

So perhaps it is no surprise that I have grown up similarly drawn to news coverage – from my first waking moments, through the day and often just before I close my eyes, I find myself checking and checking again. And now, of course, I can consume news across multiple platforms, in multiple forms. Headlines are selected for me by an algorithm and forced into my attention by systems that have learned my habits of thought – my loves, my concerns, my anxieties.  

There have been many gifts of this news-conscious life. From an early age, I was taught an awareness of a wider world, had both my horizons and my compassion expanded and learned to see my own life in a different perspective. I have found it helpful as a tool to pray, knowing the suffering of the world gives shape to my intercession and a sense of the world around me challenges and enlarges my faith. 

But it may come as no surprise to know that I have been finding the news increasingly problematic. Overwhelmed by dire headlines – AI will kill us all! A Godzilla El Niño is on its way! Prepare for war! – I am aware of a constant low-level anxiety humming in the background and sometimes a gripping existential fear that keeps me awake at night. 

Perhaps you have known glimpses of this too. 

A Reuters Digital News Report last year said that globally, 40% of respondents were so overwhelmed by bad news that they were avoiding it entirely. This is the highest number recorded. Some psychological researchers have also introduced a new term, ‘Problematic News Consumption’, a pattern of news engagement that results in preoccupation, dysregulation and disruption to daily functioning. 

With brains wired to scan for threat, humans can have strong physiological responses to the news even before being able to determine whether they themselves are in danger. For most of human history, the threats we processed were almost entirely local – news took time to travel. Today, our neurological systems can be overwhelmed by catastrophe around the world before we have even fully woken up. 

Neuroscience and psychology both offer helpful remedies for Problematic News Consumption: manage the window of time in which you read, limit the sources, select long form over short to allow deep awareness rather than nervous system alarms. And others suggest balancing bad news with good news: read the whole newspaper, read neutral, good, or gentle things. In this way, neuroscientists say that you are broadening the evidence that your brain is using to make sense of the world.

In St Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he writes, 

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” 

Written to a community experiencing persecution and surrounded by many real and present dangers, St Paul urges some good neuroscience and nourishment for the soul. Root yourself in a joy that does not depend on circumstances, but instead in an awareness of the presence of God, in the deep peace that guards us. 

Sometimes, in the watches of the night, when the temptation is to stare in terror at the apocalypses everywhere, I try to read the words of Night Prayer instead, or to find a story about profound goodness. Sometimes, I turn to accounts of regeneration, healing and restoration: of forests, rivers, people. Non-problematic news consumption.

The whole of the letter to the Philippians offers a remedy, too: treasure the life you share in Jesus Christ. The antidote to constant fear, anxiety and threat is a joyful peace which is to be found both in the presence of Jesus and in one another. Belonging to a church community means that our eyes and hearts are directed towards love in the midst of violence. 

As a worshipping community, we rewire our perception of threat through loving service, mutual support and by trusting in a larger story of hope. 

In the coming weeks, beginning with our Climate Sunday/Harvest service this Sunday, we will be thinking about what it looks like to build inner resilience to cultivate strong communities in times of crisis and to nurture a faith which endures in good times and in bad. 

I hope it will be soothing for our anxious nervous systems, gentle on our troubled hearts and inspiring for our hungry souls. I hope it will feel like good news in a world of bad. I hope it creates a background hum of peace. I hope you will join us.