I laughed out loud when I first read Elizabeth Gilberts description of her and a friend eating a margherita pizza with double mozzarella in Naples, Italy. But there is a seriousness to this book.

Sydney churches have seen good attendance this Christmas season with St Andrew's Cathedral using a seating reservation system for Christmas Eve carols for the first time.

When popular surveys were conducted for the best book of the last millennium and of the last century The Lord of the Rings was at the top much to the dismay of many a literary critic. It was indicative of the popularity of the fantasy genre of which Tolkien is a founding father and perhaps also of the movies that had captured the popular imagination.

The theme of this book is the Christian and suffering. Six Christian writers are examined on various subjects: Lactantius on anger, Augustine on obsession, Luther on despair, Kierkegaard on anxiety, Bonhoeffer on disappointment and CS Lewis on pain.

Archbishop Dr Peter Jensen has delivered his Christmas message, stressing that commitment, compassion and 'generous care' will be needed in the year ahead.

As of this morning $40,000 has been raised to support Free Money for New Lives, but a lot more is needed to change a nations opinion on abortion, says the movements founder.

The Rev Ian Barnett, senior minister at Figtree Anglican Church, has planned and run grand-scale carols events for the past three years, two them at his former post at St Pauls Anglican Church Castle Hill. While the sun has shone on two of these events, last years carols was washed out and 300 cars were hail damaged after a storm broke during the final volunteers planning meeting a week beforehand.

Carols may be a traditional event for a church to run, but through different measures of innovation, these events have drawn visitors to church in their thousands this year. While many carols are hundreds of years old, this years turnouts show that it is still hip to sing them at events which are, for many churches, the main outreach event of the year. This week, we ask three different Sydney Anglican churches how carols led to a ripper catch of new Christmas connections.