Apostasy and blasphemy may seem to many like artifacts of history. But in scores of countries around the world, laws against apostasy and blasphemy remain on the books – and many are enforced to various degrees.

A new Pew Research Center analysis finds that 79 countries and territories out of the 198 studied around the world (40%) had laws or policies in 2019 banning blasphemy, which is defined as speech or actions considered to be contemptuous of God or of people or objects considered sacred. Twenty-two countries (11%) had laws against apostasy, the act of abandoning one’s faith. The analysis draws on the Center’s wider body of research on global restrictions related to religion.

These laws were most common in the Middle East and North Africa, where 18 of the 20 countries (90%) in the region have laws criminalizing blasphemy and 13 of them (65%) outlaw apostasy. In Saudi Arabia, an Indian national was charged with blasphemy in 2019, fined, and sentenced to 10 years in prison for tweeting criticism of Muhammad and Allah, as well as of the Saudi government.

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Apostasy and blasphemy may seem to many like artifacts of history. But in scores of countries around the world, laws against apostasy and blasphemy remain on the books – and many are enforced to various degrees. https://t.co/3bLLGYS0vi

— Jeff Diamant (@jeffdime) January 26, 2022

In the spring of 388, a rebellion erupted in Antioch over the announcement of increased taxes. Statues of the emperor and his recently deceased wife were desecrated. Officials of the empire then began punishing city leaders, killing some, for the uprising. While Archbishop Flavian rushed to the capital in Constantinople 800 miles away to beg for clemency, John preached to a city in turmoil:

“Improve yourselves now truly, not as when during one of the numerous earthquakes or in famine or drought or in similar visitations you leave off your sinning for three or four days and then begin the old life again. . . . Stop evil slandering, harbor no enmities, and give up the wicked custom of frivolous cursing and swearing. If you do this, you will surely be delivered from the present distress and attain eternal happiness.”

After eight weeks, on the day before Easter, Flavian returned with the good news of the emperor’s pardon.

John preached through many of Paul’s letters (“I like all the saints,” he said, “but St. Paul the most of all—that vessel of election, the trumpet of heaven”), the Gospels of Matthew and of John, and the Book of Genesis. Changed lives were his goal, and he denounced sins from abortion to prostitution and from gluttony to swearing.

He encouraged his congregation not only to attend the divine service regularly but also to feed themselves on God’s written Word. In a sermon on the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, he said, “Reading the Scripture is a great means of security against sinning. The ignorance of Scripture is a great cliff and a deep abyss; to know nothing of the divine laws is a great betrayal of salvation.”

His applications could be forceful. About people’s love of horse racing, he complained, “My sermons are applauded merely from custom, then everyone runs off to [horse racing] again and gives much more applause to the jockeys, showing indeed unrestrained passion for them! There they put their heads together with great attention, and say with mutual rivalry, ‘This horse did not run well, this one stumbled,’ and one holds to this jockey and another to that. No one thinks any more of my sermons, nor of the holy and awesome mysteries that are accomplished here.”

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"Passing over the miracles they were to perform, he makes love the distinguishing mark of his followers . . . Miracles do not attract unbelievers as much as the way you live your life. And nothing brings about a proper life as much as love."
– John Chrysostom pic.twitter.com/G1D17mL8ac

— Matthew Gunter (@FondduLacBish8) January 27, 2022

O God, who didst give to thy servant John Chrysostom grace eloquently to proclaim thy righteousness in the great congregation, and fearlessly to bear reproach for the honor of thy Name: Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellency in preaching, and fidelity in ministering thy Word, that thy people shall be partakers with them of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Thursday 27th: St. John Chrysostom, BpCD. pic.twitter.com/8isEvSngo1

— Zoe King (@ZoeKing_1958) January 27, 2022

Almighty God, your Son revealed in signs and miracles the wonder of your saving presence: renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your mighty power; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Good morning (Camp Saint Christopher, Seabrook Island #Southcarolina) pic.twitter.com/nkbzQxJWOA

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 27, 2022

A Psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes, he does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, round about him a mighty tempest.

–Psalm 50:1-3

Good morning from North Yorkshire 😊 pic.twitter.com/XBxzl7nSnl

— Nicky (@Nicky13Johnson) January 27, 2022

We recently learned we missed the news (announced this past summer) that the Rev. Arthur Jenkins, Rector of Saint James, Charleston, intends to retire on June 5, 2022. In a note to the congregation he wrote, in part, “God willing, I have been called and allowed, challenged and blessed to serve as the Rector of Saint James Anglican Church for the past 24 years. It has been an amazing journey. It has been as the journey of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis. Day by day we have traveled to a place God has shown us. We have shared life and ministry in the Name of Jesus Christ. Now, God willing, on June 5th, Pentecost Sunday this year I will retire as rector of Saint James Anglican Church. It will be the 31st anniversary of my ordination and my joining you as your assistant in 1991. You are the people with whom I began this great journey of ordained ministry. You are the people that together we will move on to our next season of life and ministry as, God willing, you will welcome your next rector.”

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Today is the 14th Anniversary of the Consecration of Bishop Mark Lawrence! We give thanks for his leadership & his ministry among us! If you haven't yet, we encourage you to sign up for the Evening with the Lawrences, which will be held February 4. https://t.co/uOiBn3vQhu #ADOSC pic.twitter.com/0R1Od3rZhW

— Anglican Diocese of SC (@anglican_sc) January 26, 2022

The Tablet understands that the issue has been raised directly with the Pope in recent months, who in turn asked for the question to be considered by Vatican officials. While there is no sign that Apostolicae Curae will be overturned, for several decades Rome has been moving away from the language used by Leo XIII and towards a recognition of the fruits of Anglican ministry. It is already a very different approach to the one found in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 1998 document, Professio Fidei, which claimed the teaching on Anglican orders was one of the “truths connected to revelation” and was to be held definitively.

The shift draws on the teaching of Vatican II, which recognised the “significant elements” that build up the Church outside of the “visible boundaries” of the Catholic Church, and on the many agreed statements on doctrine that have emerged from the formal dialogues between Anglican and Catholic theologians since the council.

“This issue causes hurt, and the Anglicans are diffident about raising it,” one Church source told The Tablet. “It’s a wound in the relations between the Churches and it would be great if a small step could be taken to healing the wound particularly as Pope Francis in practice recognises Anglican bishops through his joint initiatives with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

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As Churches pray for Christian unity, a re-appraisal of the Catholic position on Anglican orders is once again on the agenda. I understand it has been raised directly with Pope Francis. #25January #ChristianUnity https://t.co/gEZCVACNeR

— Christopher Lamb (@ctrlamb) January 25, 2022

Bishop Sarah, who chairs the Church of England’s Covid Recovery Group, was speaking as new advice was published by the Church of England ahead of Thursday’s change of national rules.

She said: “When the first measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 were introduced in March 2020, few would have imagined that we would still be making adaptations to the way we live our lives – including our worship – almost two years on.

“It has been a very challenging time.

“People have made huge sacrifices to protect one another – not only those they know and love but strangers they might never meet. We’ve learnt again as society something of what it means to love our neighbour, as Jesus taught.

“And it has certainly not been without cost.

“The loneliness and isolation many have experienced; the impact on people’s mental health; the lost jobs and failed businesses and strained relationships must not be overlooked.

Read it all.

@bishopSarahM thanks parishes and the public as Covid-19 measures lift in England.

"As we can begin to look forward with cautious hope, we once again thank those who have done so much to protect us all."

Read more at https://t.co/HqAGk3Fdz5.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) January 26, 2022

Middle age is a crowded time. It’s also a lonely one. Work and family demands leave little time for nurturing friendships, particularly for women.

Pre-pandemic, conversations about loneliness often centered on men, with talk of a “loneliness epidemic.” But during lockdown, Generation X women, who range in age from 41 to 57 years old, reported the sharpest rise in loneliness, according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted in the spring of 2020 by the Roots of Loneliness Project, a research organization. And the increase in social isolation reported by women living with children was also greatest among those from Gen X, according to an unpublished portion of the survey shared with The Wall Street Journal.

For women feeling burned out from holding family life and work together, social media has typically been the most convenient place to vent and seek connection. But going online has surfaced feelings of inadequacy and loneliness, many say.

Read it all.

Middle age can be lonely. Moms in this often overlooked age group are struggling to find meaningful connections. “Social media has made me feel less isolated, but more lonely,” one said https://t.co/BT00ByollP

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 23, 2022

Almighty God, who didst call Timothy and Titus to do the work of evangelists and teachers, and didst make them strong to endure hardship: Strengthen us to stand fast in adversity, and to live godly and righteous lives in this present time, that with sure confidence we may look for our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

In @DioceseinEurope, the Anglican Church in Tallinn is dedicated to Saint Timothy and Saint Titus https://t.co/eai9EJiWRo

A daughter congregation of @anglicanfinland, it meets in the C13th Church of the Holy Spirit

Photo: DDelso, CCBY-SA 3.0 pic.twitter.com/sVcowo2kTQ

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) January 26, 2022

O God, the God of all goodness and of all grace, who art worthy of a greater love than we can either give or understand: Fill our hearts, we beseech thee, with such love toward thee that nothing may seem too hard for us to do or to suffer, in obedience to thy will; and grant that thus loving thee, we may become daily more like unto thee, and finally obtain the crown of life which thou hast promised to those that love thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mist In The Valley. 2°C after early frost. Pheasants galore pic.twitter.com/o4qfJ3ObKD

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) January 26, 2022

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

–Hebrews 9:15-28

#Winter a few years ago @SnowHour @ThePhotoHour @StormHour #snow #bluesky pic.twitter.com/amxwVoSDSA

— Mary Reed Runyon📷 (@MaryReedRunyon1) January 26, 2022

The clash between socialist and liberal economics defined the late twentieth century, and this century brings a cultural version of that struggle. Today’s culture wars pit advocates of equal outcomes and special protection for identity groups against defenders of due process, equal treatment, scientific reason, and free speech. Our political map is taking shape around this new divide between what I will call cultural socialism and cultural liberalism.

Cultural socialism, which values equal results and harm prevention for identity groups over individual rights, has inspired race-based pedagogies and harsh punishments for controversial speech. Rooted in the idea that historically marginalized groups are sacred, this view is no passing fad. Letters, associations, universities, and media defending free speech notwithstanding, the young adherents of cultural socialism are steadily overturning the liberal ethos of the adult world.

Survey data from my new Manhattan Institute report, “The Politics of the Culture Wars in Contemporary America,” show the scale of the challenge. While the American public leans two-to-one in favor of cultural liberalism, a majority of Americans under 30 incline toward cultural socialism. For instance, while 65 percent of Americans over 55 oppose Google’s decision to fire James Damore for having questioned the firm’s training on gender equity, those under 30 support the firing by a 59–41 margin. Similar gaps separate young and old people on similar instances of cancel culture, such as the oustings of Gina Carano (an actor fired from Star Wars for social media posts) and Brendan Eich (the former CEO of Mozilla forced out in 2014 for opposing gay marriage in 2008). Only part of this disparity stems from the fact that young people lean left: centrist young people, for instance, support Google over Damore by a 61–39 margin, while centrists over 55 support Damore over Google 58–42.

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A Generational Threat to Free Expression: Survey data show that Americans under 30 prize cancel culture over liberty | @BirkbeckUoL Professor @epkaufm in @CityJournal on his latest @ManhattanInst research report https://t.co/RSVZ1k4tSg

— Brandon Fuller (@fuller_brandon) January 25, 2022

Work is well underway for Lincoln Cathedral to become scaffolding-free for the first time in 36 years.

The structure is being removed and a spokesman for the venue said it will be complete by Friday, February 4.

It will mark the first time in five years of restoration work on the West Front that the Cathedral will be free of its scaffolding.

On its Facebook, visitors are advised to enter the Cathedral via a separate location for the next two weeks while the scaffold is removed.

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Minster Yard – Lincoln, England
Lincoln Cathedral pic.twitter.com/1BqOS71Q2x

— Gothic Esthetic (@Gothic_Esthetic) January 22, 2022

China has launched a month-long campaign to clean up online content during next week’s lunar new year festival, in its latest effort to reshape behaviour on the internet.

The Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top internet regulator, has instructed officials to sweep away “illegal content and information” and target celebrity fan groups, online abuse, money worship, child influencers and the homepages of media sites.

The campaign will apply the tradition of cleaning house before the new year, the most important holiday in China, to the internet, envisioning a “purification” of the online world.

The edict is the latest step in Beijing’s clampdown on the entertainment industry as authorities purge content deemed immoral, unpatriotic and non-mainstream from online culture.

Read it all.

China has launched a ‘purification’ campaign to clean up online content ahead of next week’s lunar new year.

Officials have been instructed to target celebrity fan groups, online abuse, money worship, child influencers and the homepages of media sites https://t.co/L35zqtTjSJ

— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) January 25, 2022

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has set a new record in the power conversion efficiency of solar cells made using perovskite and organic materials. This technological breakthrough paves the way for flexible, light-weight, low cost and ultra-thin photovoltaic cells which are ideal for powering vehicles, boats, blinds and other applications.

“Technologies for clean and renewable energy are extremely important for carbon reduction. Solar cells that directly convert solar energy into electricity are among the most promising clean energy technologies. High power conversion efficiency of solar cells is critical for generating more electrical power using a limited area and this, in turn, reduces the total cost of generating solar energy,” explained lead researcher Presidential Young Professor Hou Yi, who is from the NUS Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and also leading a “Perovskite-based Multi-junction Solar Cells group” at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore at NUS.

“The main motivation of this study is to improve the power conversion efficiency of perovskite/organic tandem solar cells. In our latest work, we have demonstrated a power conversion efficiency of 23.6% – this is the best performance for this type of solar cells to date,” added Dr Chen Wei, Research Fellow at the NUS Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the first author of this work.

Read it all.

NUS researchers have set a new record in the power conversion efficiency of solar cells made using perovskite and organic materials, paving the way for flexible, light, low cost and ultra-thin photovoltaic cells. #NUSInnovation #NUSSustainability https://t.co/BgrQ34Bp9F

— NUS (@NUSingapore) January 21, 2022

O God, who by the preaching of thine apostle Paul hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Let us celebrate the conversion of Saint Paul the apostle. He was transformed from being a persecutor of Christ into a vessel of His grace. #Morningprayer #ConversionofStPaul pic.twitter.com/KoiK7SaOfP

— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) January 25, 2022

Serene Son of God, whose will subdued the troubled waters and laid to rest the fears of men: Let thy majesty master us, thy power of calm control us; that for our fears we may have faith, and for our disquietude perfect trust in thee; who dost live and govern all things, world without end.

–Robert W. Rodenmayer, ed., The Pastor’s Prayerbook: Selected and arranged for various occasions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960)

Sunrise in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee …https://t.co/KH4FTYSfSW pic.twitter.com/9V3ML38iEU

— Edgar Allen Lee (@edgarallenlee) January 25, 2022

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the Holy Place, taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

–Hebrews 9:11-14

It has been so grey here these last few days, not seen any decent light for a while. Here's an angle I don't normally post but it does have sunshine, light and a journey involved in the scene (with a rest stop included). Mystical sunrise. pic.twitter.com/Q6TcYMVTbG

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) January 25, 2022

Shelley’s disdain for religion, or, more specifically, Christianity and Judaism, is evident from his earliest writings, indeed, from the moment when, as an undergraduate, he and his friend Thomas Jefferson Hogg authored the pamphlet The Necessity of Atheism and were expelled from Oxford for their pains. In his early poem Queen Mab, the fairy guide launches a powerful attack on the Jews as they howl “hideous praises to their Demon-God.”

For Shelley, religion is a means of manipulation by which the powerful keep others subjugated. God himself is the very prototype of human tyranny, a willful, arbitrary, unaccountable despot. But most importantly, there is a clear connection in Shelley’s mind between religion, political oppression, and norms restricting sexual activity. Queen Mab includes a vision of the future in which men and women return to a state of nature. The happy denizens of this poetic Eden behave in a manner that he characterizes as follows:

Unchecked by dull and selfish chastity,
That virtue of the cheaply virtuous,
Who pride themselves in senselessness and frost.

The contempt for traditional sexual mores is obvious. And far from being unique in this, Shelley is somewhat representative of radical thought at the start of the 19th century. Traditional moral thought and practice regarding sex had undergone dramatic transformation in the previous decades.

In The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution, Faramerz Dabhoiwala summarizes this shift by pointing to three significant and closely related developments in the 1700s: (1) the increasing importance ascribed to conscience (basically understood as natural instinct) as a reliable guide to moral behavior, (2) a growing public distaste for judicial punishment of consenting heterosexual transgressors (such as adulterers), and (3) the rising view that the moral laws based on external authorities such as the Bible might in fact be social constructs that conflict with human nature.

Read it all.

The idea that Christianity—specifically, its sexual code—prevents people from living free and happy lives isn't all that novel. To find its source, we need to go back *way* earlier than the sexual revolution of the 60s: https://t.co/wzaqot76gJ

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) January 26, 2022

“I have just seen my brother’s face. Our faces are alike, even the mouth. I have also seen the legs, those are my brother’s. I have no doubt it’s him.”

A distressed Irene Waheto has just stepped out of the hospital mortuary in Yala, western Kenya.

At least 19 unclaimed bodies have been waiting for identification. They were retrieved over the past two years from the nearby River Yala in different stages of decomposition.

Ms Waheto is making frantic calls to her family in Nyeri, a town nearly 300km (185 miles) to the east.

“It is Ndirangu, I am sure it is him,” she cries down the phone.

But how his body ended up in a river so far from home is not clear.

Read it all.

The BBC’s ⁦@FerdyOmondi⁩ reports from Yala in western where over a dozen bodies have been retrieved from a river. Their deaths so far unexplained. Security forces deny they are behind the deaths. https://t.co/Lzui9vdnuZ

— Catherine Byaruhanga (@cathkemi) January 22, 2022

The Church of England keeps asking its gay members to go against their convictions and consciences.

Her most recent victim is the new Archbishops’ Appointments Adviser Stephen Knott. He is a gay man who has married his partner in another member church of the Anglican Communion, the Scottish Episcopal Church. He clearly disagrees with the Church of England’s apostolic teaching that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman: he has signaled that in what is surely the most public and permanent way possible. And yet the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have asked him to take charge of the process of appointing the Church of England’s most senior leaders (deans, bishops, and archbishops) who are all duty bound to teach that he cannot be married in the sight of God. How can they have asked him to do something that must be so troubling to his convictions and conscience?

Perhaps he feels, or they have indicated, that this situation won’t be for that long. That soon, post Living in Love and Faith, he will be able to help appoint people who will be able to “bless” his same-sex marriage (indicate the Church of England’s half-hearted acceptance of it), or even allow people like him to get married as Anglicans south of the border too. If so, it is my convictions and conscience that the Church of England is going to trample on next – I am a gay Anglican who lives in the light of historic teaching that marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. As a result, I am single and celibate, in the reassuring knowledge that this is what my church has consistently asked of people like me. Am I soon to be told that, somehow, we’ve got it wrong for centuries? At what cost to me and my many spiritual forebears? I’m increasingly uncertain as to whether that matters to the archbishops when they appoint someone like Stephen Knott to such a senior and influential position.

Some will say that neither Stephen Knott nor myself need to worry too much because neither of us are clergy and it is only the ordained, and not lay officeholders, in the Church of England, who need to live in the light of the Church’s official teaching on marriage. This is an idea that has gained traction in recent years as part of an uneasy unofficial settlement that has kept liberals and traditionalists together. The Church of England’s victims this time have been gay clergy who have been disciplined when they have, like Stephen Knott, entered into a same-sex marriage (celibate civil partnerships are permitted). He will now, in theory, be partly responsible for making sure that no ordained man or woman in his position gains preferment in the Church of England – unless his appointment signals a change in the rules. How he can be asked to do this beggars belief, how gay clergy can put up with one rule for him and another for them also strains too many people’s convictions and consciences once again. He, I, may not be ordained but we are both in positions of authority in the Church of England and so surely need to be living in the light of her teaching in all areas of faith and conduct?

What is the solution to this personal struggle for so many of us?

Read it all.

What key questions are raised, about the process and the Church as institution, by the recent announcement of the new Archbishops' Secretary for Appointments?https://t.co/dbbqTMmMbr

— Dr Ian Paul (@Psephizo) January 20, 2022

‘A Long Island woman received a scam call that her grandson was in a drunken car crash. She notified the police, who helped tackle the fraudster when he showed up demanding money.’ Watch it all.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington has laid out the likely options for the Kremlin in an essay by CIA veteran Philip Wasielewski and CSIS security chief Seth Jones.

Mr Putin could peel off the Black Sea coast and link up to the Crimea, perhaps pushing beyond Odessa to deprive Ukraine of its entire coast. However, the British warning on Saturday suggests that he aims for total decapitation of the Ukrainian state.

He could seize the whole of Orthodox Eastern Ukraine as far as the Dnieper River. But this would leave a large enough rump to survive as a viable state and permanent headache.

The conquest would have to include Kiev, the great prize for Mr Putin, who harks back to Kievan Rus as the ancient cradle of the Russian nation in his mythologised ethno-nationalist version of history. His 7,000 word manifesto published last year dismisses the Ukrainian state as the invention of Soviet cartographers.

Read it all (registration).

🇺🇦 "It is a fair bet that Europe will roll over as it did over Crimea, and despairing Washington might accept a fait accompli and cut its losses" | writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
https://t.co/TurAdSniMQ

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 24, 2022

O God, who art the God of peace, mercifully grant that, as much as lieth in us, we may live at peace with all men; and if our outward peace be broken, yet do thou preserve peace in our hearts; through him who is the Prince of peace, Jesus Christ our Lord.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

My entry to #WexMondays #WolfMoon #ElyCathedral

"Don't worry if you're making waves just by being yourself. The moon does it all the time." —Scott Stabile

Ely, Cambridgeshire pic.twitter.com/6mExWd3xvn

— Veronica in the Fens 🧚🏼‍♀️ (@VeronicaJoPo) January 24, 2022

After the two days he departed to Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Caper’na-um there was an official whose son was ill. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live”; and he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

–John 4:43-54

What a sky @Ruth_ITV @kelseyredmore @ChrisPage90 @DerekTheWeather @BBCWthrWatchers @AmandaHouston @Sue_Charles @S4Ctywydd @ThePhotoHour #Aberdare pic.twitter.com/uLLKPKYo93

— Kirsty (@Kirsti_86) January 24, 2022

God our Father, who hast created us in thine own image, with a mind to understand thy works, a heart to love thee, and a will to serve thee: Increase in us that knowledge, that love and that obedience, that we may grow daily in thy likeness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–W. E. Orchard, The Daily Service (Revised Edition); A Book of Public Worship; Divine Service (OUP, 1919 original)

☃️Guten Morgen ☀️ pic.twitter.com/t9fZtQzQrE

— 💫Stein_harmonie🍀🧚‍♀️ (@SteinHarmonie) January 23, 2022

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee,
my soul thirsts for thee;
my flesh faints for thee,
as in a dry and weary land where no water is.
So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary,
beholding thy power and glory.
Because thy steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise thee.
So I will bless thee as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on thy name.

–Psalm 63:1-4

#Vermont Landscapes #Vermont #Photography
#Nikon Z6 pic.twitter.com/FjVu2synyk

— keith bradley (@kbrad450) January 23, 2022

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

It was 1985, and our 18-year-old daughter Helen was transferring through Miami International Airport on her way back home to Lafayette, Louisiana, from a short-term mission trip to the Dominican Republic. She had been there leading a team of young people from our church, including our 16-year-old daughter Catherine and our 14-year-old son Jon, as part of a World Servants project. They had worked in a remote village with dirt roads and no running water. In two weeks they had built a simple church structure using concrete block and had also led a Vacation Bible School for the children of the community. It had been hard work, but they were thrilled by all that they had accomplished, and the villagers were overjoyed.

As she walked through the busy airport, Helen spotted “Charlotte” and a group of her old friends from high school. After the usual squeals of delight, Charlotte explained that they were on their way home from a week in Paris, where they had visited various museums and enjoyed many of the delights of that wonderful city. She asked Helen what she had been doing and looked appalled when our daughter described her two weeks of manual labor in the Dominican Republic.

“Why would you ever do such a thing?” Charlotte asked.

Short-term missions are not exactly new, but they have always been somewhat controversial….

Read it all.

Acts 17:15,22-18:1
“Paul’s escort took him as far as Athens, and went back…
So Paul stood before the whole Council of the Areopagus and made this speech:
‘Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how…’”

Saint Paul delivering the Areopagus Sermon in Athens
by Raphael, 1515. pic.twitter.com/S3CzrvJODN

— Kalina Boulter (@KalinaBoulter) May 9, 2018