Almighty God, who didst give to thy servant Thomas Ken grace and courage to bear witness to the truth before rulers and kings: Give us also thy strength that, following his example, we may constantly defend what is right, boldly reprove what is evil, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and ever.

12 Feb 1689: Having refused to swear allegiance to William III & Mary II, Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells leaves the House of Lords – never to return (New College, University of Oxford) pic.twitter.com/en8b4S60wR

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) February 12, 2020

O Eternal God, who through thy Son our Lord hast promised a blessing upon those who hear thy Word and faithfully keep it: Open our ears, we humbly beseech thee, to hear what thou sayest, and enlighten our minds, that what we hear we may understand, and understanding may carry into good effect by thy bounteous prompting; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Good morning! It was a photographer's dream at #sunrise this morning, with a hoar frost causing atmospheric mist and general gorgeousness! This was my first shot (at 5:40am!😴), there will be more…
🌅🦌🌳📸@metoffice @bbcweather @itvweather @SallyWeather @theroyalparks pic.twitter.com/2uZz9oOseD

— Scot Down South (@LesleyAM13) March 21, 2022

Restore us, O God of hosts;
let thy face shine, that we may be saved!

–Psalm 80:7

As winter fades and spring begins, black bears emerge from their dens and new cubs get their first glimpses of the outside world.

Photo @ShenandoahNPS by Joel Brown pic.twitter.com/7onpsFdhkV

— US Department of the Interior (@Interior) March 19, 2022

The vital nature of the railways has transformed the way they are run. When the war started on February 24th, the system’s management triggered a secret plan worked out in advance for a national emergency. Female staff with families were evacuated abroad. Train drivers were recalled from retirement. Meanwhile a core management team packed suitcases for an as yet unclear period on the road. That central team has been in charge of strategy for the past 22 days, making decisions from aboard randomly chosen trains to avoid being hit by the Russians. Operational decisions have mostly been delegated to station managers, who work with military police around the clock to ensure as safe a passage for staff and passengers as they can.

Petro Stetsuk, the controller at Kyiv’s central station, is but one of a number of war heroes keeping the railways running. The former head of Ukraine’s transport police and a 30-year veteran of the railways, 60-year-old Mr Stetsuk has been camped alongside the tracks for the past three weeks. It has been a constant battle, fought alongside a slimmed-down staff of 60 railway workers. They have repaired the station after it was damaged by a falling rocket; turned the station’s east vestibule into a soup kitchen, field hospital and psychological clinic; and put more than 2m frantic fellow Ukrainians on evacuation trains to the west. Passenger flows are now less than the highs of late February, when close to 80,000 flowed through the station daily. But the work continues to be taxing. “My main job is keeping my people calm so they can make good decisions,” Mr Stetsuk says. He laughed: “Plus, of course, finding the train drivers, the carriage assistants, preparing the trains, calling the end stations, and making sure people aren’t blown up en route.”

Read it all.

I spent some time talking to the little heroes of Ukraine’s rail system — the brave drivers and staff moving refugees, the wounded and essential supplies. https://t.co/YuydE5BVMY

— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) March 18, 2022

Heavenly Father, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you: Look with compassion upon the heartfelt desires of your servants, and purify our disordered affections, that we may behold your eternal glory in the face of Christ Jesus; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Robin in Shelf Woods, Halifax. #ThePhotoHour #TwitterNatureCommunity #wildlifephotography #nature #birds #DDOR pic.twitter.com/kdFuBWItYV

— Rodshelf (@rodshelf) March 20, 2022

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

–John 5:25-29

Good morning and happy sunday, hope you have a good day ahead whatever you do 🙂 #Sunday #SundayMorning #yorkshire #sunrise pic.twitter.com/tMs2mr9feh

— David Oxtaby (@Disc_light) March 20, 2022

‘Man does not know in what rank to place himself. He has plainly gone astray and fallen from his true place without being able to find it again. He seeks it anxiously and unsuccessfully everywhere in impenetrable darkness’–Pascal Pensées, VII

"…Who put me here? By whose command and act were this place and time allotted to me?"

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) pic.twitter.com/PhwB8qN4Nc

— Nature 🌔✨Hope (@nature_meditati) March 19, 2022

ZENIT spoke with Father Tarcisio Giuseppe Stramare of the Congregation of Oblates of Saint Joseph, director of the Josephite Movement, about Tuesday’s feast of St. Joseph the Worker….

ZENIT: What does “Gospel of work” mean?

Father Stramare: “Gospel” is the Good News that refers to Jesus, the Savior of humanity. Well, despite the fact that in general we see Jesus as someone who teaches and does miracles, he was so identified with work that in his time he was regarded as “the son of the carpenter,” namely, an artisan himself. Among many possible activities, the Wisdom of God chose for Jesus manual work, entrusted the education of his Son not to the school of the learned but to a humble artisan, namely, St. Joseph.

Read it all.

Joseph the Carpenter by Georges de La Tour, circa 1642.#YearofStJoseph pic.twitter.com/bzbZRYUnuk

— Brant Law (@Mr_BLaw) July 29, 2021

O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

St Joseph with the Infant Christ in his Arms
by Guido Reni who was born #otd 4 Nov 1575

(The Hermitage Museum) pic.twitter.com/HW95UjCVg4

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) November 4, 2020

Almighty God, you show those in error the light of your truth that they may return into the way of righteousness. Grant to all that are admitted into fellowship with Christ the power to avoid all things that are contrary to the faith and to follow you according to the will of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The beach on Bude breakwater at very low tide , I love standing here watching the waves 🌊 … 🇺🇦 💙💛🙏 #beaches #bude #Cornwall #seascape #photography #ThePhotoHour .. pic.twitter.com/X4y90wi1vt

— Gary James (@Gazpics76) March 19, 2022

We give thanks to thee, O God; we give thanks; we call on thy name and recount thy wondrous deeds.

–Psalm 75:1

🌅 A beautiful #sunrise, the first miracle of the day. 🙌#GoodMorning #Mar19th #StormHour
Valentia, Co #Kerry, #Ireland pic.twitter.com/7ogms6ZVMX

— Margaret O'Connell🌻 (@MargaretOC6) March 19, 2022

Archbishop Stephen Cottrell joined the Bishop of Carlisle, the Rt Rev James Newcome, who is currently completing a Lent walk across the Diocese of Carlisle, with the two meeting a local marathon man fundraiser and spending time with members of West Cumbria Ukrainian Appeal.

The Rev Nicky Pennington hosted the pair as they also met parishioners and school children in the Crosslacon Team (Cleator Moor, Cleator, Arlecdon and Frizington) before later heading to Ennerdale.

Archbishop Stephen and Bishop James were able to bless two vans laden with goods and medical supplies just before local people waved the drivers off on their journey to a refugee camp in Poland.

Archbishop Stephen said: “There’s nothing good about this war in Ukraine: it’s barbaric, it’s evil and I pray that it will soon stop. But what I see time and again is that where there is horror and evil, good can come from it. That’s been shown by this community who have come together and said ‘The people in Ukraine are our sisters and brothers’. Those vans will be a lifeline to some refugee families.”

Read it all.

Archbishop of York praises Cumbrian community spirit | The Archbishop of York https://t.co/YuSIxcrNrN

— phil edwards (@edwasp) March 18, 2022

Listen to it all (just under 2 minutes).

Meet the next Bishop of Ripon, Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley https://t.co/AQ6gyxGwNY pic.twitter.com/f0nIPxP1wy

— Diocese of Leeds (@LeedsCofE) November 9, 2017

Standing atop an approximately 8-foot-high ladder, Evan Clark tugged at a sign tightly nailed to a utility pole on the intersection of Echo Park and Bellevue avenues, just beyond the 101 freeway ramps.

The sign quoted John 14:6, and as Clark spun and pulled it to loosen it from the pole, a man in a car shouted, “The way. The truth. The life!,” quoting the words from the Bible verse emblazoned on the placard Clark was trying to take down. The man, Clark said, likely assumed he was placing the sign, not removing it.

“People put a lot of passion behind these signs and their messages and ideas about Jesus and God,” Clark said. “I don’t like to be confrontational about any of that. I just wanted to do this as a casual thing to keep our streets secular.”

Read it all.

Religion in Southern California is being reinvented “as religious ‘nones’ create new forms of purposeful community.”

Thanks to @alemolina for referencing @usccrcc sociologists @richardflory @shindostreet @naligee & Andrew Jackson in this @RNS piece. https://t.co/B4YJmKR5nP

— USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture (@usccrcc) March 17, 2022

The story began in 2021, when Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, which uses computers to help its customers identify molecules that look like potential drugs, was invited to present a paper on how such drug-discovery technologies might be misused. The venue was a conference organised by the Spiez Laboratory, in Switzerland. This is a government-funded outfit that studies risks posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. To prepare for the presentation some of Collaborations’ researchers carried out what they describe as a “thought exercise” that turned into a computational proof of concept for making biochemical weapons.

Their method was disturbingly simple. They took a piece of drug-discovery software, called MegaSyn (a piece of artificial intelligence, ai, which the company has developed for the purpose of putting virtual molecules together and then assessing their potential as medicines), and turned one of its functions upside down. Instead of penalising probable toxicity, as makes sense if a molecule is to be used medically, the modified version of MegaSyn prized it.

The result was terrifying. Trained on the chemical structures of a set of drug-like molecules (defined as substances easily synthesised and likely to be absorbed by the body) taken from a publicly available database, together with those molecules’ known toxicities, the modified software required a mere six hours to generate 40,000 virtual molecules that fell within the researchers’ predefined parameters for possible use as chemical weapons.

The list included many known nerve agents, notably vx, one of the most toxic. But the software also came up with not-yet-synthesised substances predicted to be deadlier still.

Read it all.

How to tweak drug-design software to create chemical weapons https://t.co/g3B5UcUBW1 #strategy #competitiveintelligence #marketing #pharma #productmarketing #biotech #pharmaceutical #healthcare pic.twitter.com/46VyMIRsKE

— Dr Timos Papagatsias (@_timos_) March 16, 2022

Strengthen, O Lord, we beseech thee, the bishops of thy Church in their special calling to be teachers and ministers of the Sacraments, that they, like thy servant Cyril of Jerusalem, may effectively instruct thy people in Christian faith and practice; and that we, taught by them, may enter more fully into celebration of the Paschal mystery; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

St Cyril of Jerusalem was forced to live in exile for seventeen years. Having served as Patriarch for many years, for many years, disputes with heretics and others left him exiled. He was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1882, thanks to his catechetical instructions. pic.twitter.com/dopNOO0iMO

— Catholic Truth Society (@CTSpublishers) March 18, 2022

O God, who through thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised help to man according to his faith: Grant us the freedom of the children to taste the food of eternal life, and to share with others what we ourselves receive; through the merits of the same thy Son, our Lord.

The Full Moon setting behind the Ship of the Fens this misty spring morning 🌕.
Ely Cathedral, Cambridgeshire #FullMoon #WormMoon #Stormhour pic.twitter.com/NVkFCOImep

— Veronica in the Fens 🧚🏼‍♀️ (@VeronicaJoPo) March 18, 2022

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great storm of wind arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” And they were filled with awe, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even wind and sea obey him?”

–Mark 4:35-41

Beautiful sunrise over the Charleston Harbor on this Friday morning! #chswx pic.twitter.com/T7zelGorzA

— JoeyLive5 (@JoeySovine) March 18, 2022

Developments in artificial intelligence and human enhancement technologies have the potential to remake American society in the coming decades. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that Americans see promise in the ways these technologies could improve daily life and human abilities. Yet public views are also defined by the context of how these technologies would be used, what constraints would be in place and who would stand to benefit – or lose – if these advances become widespread.

Fundamentally, caution runs through public views of artificial intelligence (AI) and human enhancement applications, often centered around concerns about autonomy, unintended consequences and the amount of change these developments might mean for humans and society. People think economic disparities might worsen as some advances emerge and that technologies, like facial recognition software, could lead to more surveillance of Black or Hispanic Americans.

This survey looks at a broad arc of scientific and technological developments – some in use now, some still emerging. It concentrates on public views about six developments that are widely discussed among futurists, ethicists and policy advocates. Three are part of the burgeoning array of AI applications: the use of facial recognition technology by police, the use of algorithms by social media companies to find false information on their sites and the development of driverless passenger vehicles.

The other three, often described as types of human enhancements, revolve around developments tied to the convergence of AI, biotechnology, nanotechnology and other fields. They raise the possibility of dramatic changes to human abilities in the future: computer chip implants in the brain to advance people’s cognitive skills, gene editing to greatly reduce a baby’s risk of developing serious diseases or health conditions, and robotic exoskeletons with a built-in AI system to greatly increase strength for lifting in manual labor jobs.

Read it all.

NEW: Americans see promise in the ways developments in artificial intelligence and human enhancement could improve daily life and human abilities, yet public views are tied to how they would be used and what constraints would be in place. https://t.co/rxywi55QA5

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) March 17, 2022

The war, the dictator insisted, was “going to plan”. If that is his opinion then his minions are keeping him from the truth. According to American defence sources, 10% of Russia’s invasion force has been lost, presumably either killed or wounded. It is shy at least 233 tanks, 32 surface-to-air missile launchers and 41 planes, drones and helicopters, according to Oryx, a blog which tracks such weapons using pictures made public on the internet. On top of that which has been destroyed, a fair bit of workable Russian kit has been captured—much of it towed away gleefully, and on video, by farmers with tractors.

These are severe losses of men and materiel. What is more, they seem to have fallen disproportionately on elite units such as the vdv airborne forces, Spetsnaz special forces and the First Guards Tank Army, an armoured force purportedly both well trained and equipped. British defence intelligence says that these losses are so severe that they have left Russia “struggling to conduct offensive operations”. It has been forced to redeploy forces from its eastern military district (which stretches to Vladivostok), from its Pacific fleet and from Armenia; it is also recruiting Russian and Syrian mercenaries.

This is a high price for what are, as yet, relatively scant gains.

Read it all.

Where Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to listeners around the world in the name of all Ukrainians, Vladimir Putin has set Russian against Russian https://t.co/rknjDxQhf9

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) March 17, 2022

The convention elected the following individuals to serve in the diocese:
Standing Committee: The Rev. Gary Beson, the Very Rev. Peet Dickinson, Wynne Boone and Judy McMeekin

Diocesan Council: The Rev. Chance Perdue, the Rev. Matthew Rivers, Janis Brazeale and Gill Frierson

Diocesan Trustees: Alonzo Galvan

Ecclesiastical Court: The Rev. Jeremy Shelton, the Rev. Greg Smith and the Rev. Nelson Weaver, Rick Adams and Seth Whitaker

ACNA Provincial Council: The Rev. Bob Lawrence (delegate), the Rev. Tyler Prescott (alternate), John Benson and Justin Johnson (delegates), Johnny Wallace and Dave Wright (alternates)

Missions Transition to Parish Status:
Congratulations to The Well, Myrtle Beach and Holy Apostles, Barnwell

One of the highlights of the convention was the welcoming of two missions which transitioned to parish status: The Well, Myrtle Beach and Holy Apostles, Barnwell. The clergy and representatives of the two churches received a standing ovation for their new status.

Read it all.

Despite his success as a missionary, Patrick was self-conscious, especially about his educational background. “I still blush and fear more than anything to have my lack of learning brought out into the open,” he wrote in his Confession. “For I am unable to explain my mind to learned people.”

Nevertheless, he gives thanks to God, “who stirred up me, a fool, from the midst of those who are considered wise and learned in the practice of the law as well as persuasive in their speech and in every other way and ahead of these others, inspired me who is so despised by the world.”

Over and over again, Patrick wrote that he was not worthy to be a bishop. He wasn’t the only one with doubts. At one point, his ecclesiastical elders in Britain sent a deputation to investigate his mission. A number of concerns were brought up, including a rash moment of (unspecified) sin from his youth.

His Confession, in fact, was written in response to this investigation. Reeling from accusations, Patrick drew strength from God: “Indeed he bore me up, though I was trampled underfoot in such a way. For although I was put down and shamed, not too much harm came to me.”

If Patrick was not confident about his own shortcomings, he held a deep sense of God’s intimate involvement in his life. “I have known God as my authority, for he knows all things even before they are done,” he wrote. “He would frequently forewarn me of many things by his divine response.”

Read it all.

Saint Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17th March.

The @ConnectintNorth team would like to wish everyone who is celebrating today a very happy St. Patrick's Day.#StPatricksDay#StPatricksDay2022 pic.twitter.com/vIBudKXvUH

— Connect in the North (@ConnectintNorth) March 17, 2022