Services to Mark Year Since Madeleine Vanished

Church services will be held in Portugal and the UK today to mark a year since Madeleine McCann disappeared from her parents' Algarve holiday apartment.

In Rothley, Leicestershire, where the family live, prayers will be said "for all missing children" at the parish church of St Mary and St John, while a mass will also be held in the Liverpool church where Kate and Gerry McCann were married and Madeleine was baptised.

In Praia da Luz, the town where Madeleine, three, was apparently kidnapped, members of the McCann extended family will attend a service at the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, where the couple attended regular services before returning to the UK in September.

The McCanns, who have spent the past week giving interviews to publicise a fresh appeal for information, will spend the day at home but have said they do not know whether they will attend the service.

"We haven't decided for certain," Mr McCann said on Thursday. "The build up to this week has been particularly stressful - there has been an awful lot of work for us. And in the background there has also been huge media pressure as well. We'll do what is right for ourselves and Sean and Amelie as well."

His wife added: "It's funny in some ways, because you kind of think it's just another day, really, almost like a media landmark than anything else. But I think we've maybe underestimated it, and it's probably more significant than we felt. I don't think we'll know until the morning really what feels right."

Supporters have been urged to light a candle this evening as a mark of solidarity. Everton Football Club, Kate McCann's local team, will switch on its floodlights between 9.30pm and 10pm, roughly the time at which Madeleine vanished.

The couple will be represented in Portugal by Mr McCann's brother John, his sister Trish Cameron, her husband Sandy, and Mrs McCann's cousin Michael Wright. They have said they will not return to the country while they remain official suspects in Madeleine's disappearance. They continue to deny any involvement, while the investigation appears to have stalled.

Earlier this week the couple launched a fresh appeal for information, calling for all those who had given statements to the Portuguese police to also speak to their own private investigators.