The forced displacement and killing of Christians in Nigeria is not the product of climate change, or clashes between farmers and herders, but religiously motivated persecution, a bishop there said this week.

The RC Bishop of Makurdi, Dr Wilfred Anagbe, whose diocese is in the Middle Belt state of Benue, said on Tuesday that the international community needed to acquire a “clear narrative of what is going on. Previously it has been said it was based on climate change and farmers and herders clashing. . . That is not the reason.”

He spoke of a “clear, orchestrated agenda or plan of Islam to take over the territories” of people who were “predominantly Christian”. In some parts of Nigeria, villages were being given new Islamic names. “It is about the conquest and occupation of the land.”

Climate change was occurring in other countries, without simultaneous forced displacement, he said. Benue State was 99 per cent Christian; its economy was not based on rearing cattle.

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The forced displacement and killing of Christians in Nigeria is not the product of climate change, or clashes between farmers and herders, but religiously motivated persecution, a bishop there said this week.https://t.co/Qmiq0Lh1aE

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 28, 2025

Last week the most important Anglican conference that you have probably never heard of took place in Plano, Texas. G25 was a mini-conference organised by Gafcon, a movement which begin in 2008, when the Global Anglican Conference (Gafcon) was organised in Jersusalem.

In 2008, over 1,000 archbishops, bishops, clergy and lay people gathered to discuss the future for faithful Anglicans in a Communion in crisis. A crisis caused by those Gafcon describe as having “led the flock of Christ astray, diluted the authority of Scripture and distorted the gospel, endangering many souls.” 

Archbishop Akinola, one of its founding members, described the original conference as representing “a new dawn, a new beginning”, a means of, “gathering authentic Anglicans”, to, “reform”, “renew” and “reorder” the Anglican Communion. The Communique from the G25 mini-conference acknowledges that some have, however, considered Gafcon to be more controversial, “a sectarian and schismatic movement that has sought to undermine the unity of the Anglican Communion”.

The focus of G25 was to equip the next generation, so Gafcon took time to revisit the history. There was archive footage from the first conference, a video presentation from Archbishop Peter Jensen (the first General Secretary), and a panel discussion from those who were in the room (room 1614 to be precise) when the idea for a global gathering was first suggested.  

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If you're an Anglican this might be the year's most important conference you haven't heard of. Report from @AnglicanFutures https://t.co/42xdgT0BLp

— Dan Leafe (@DanLeafe1) March 23, 2025

Nearly four years ago, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from a list of countries whose threats to religious freedom are of “particular concern,” but continued attacks on Christians and other religious groups by Islamist militias have prompted calls from local faith leaders and members of the US Congress for the designation to be restored.

In Africa’s most populous nation, a deadly cycle of violence has unfolded for several years, with Christian clergy and laypeople as well as moderate Muslims falling victim to murder and kidnapping. The Christian nonprofit Open Doors recently reported that in 2024 some 3,100 Christians were killed and more than 2,000 kidnapped in Nigeria.

Last week, US Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, held a hearing on religious freedom violations in Nigeria that included testimony from Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, in central Nigeria, and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a former US Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner.

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After thousands of deaths and kidnappings, Nigerian Christians call on the US to recognize their persecution.

“We live in fear, because at any point it can be our turn to be killed.”https://t.co/ciqtVMB2Ls

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) March 24, 2025

At the beginning of March, Norwegian evangelist Jan Eriksen, a former criminal and drug addict, visited Czech prisons, again.

He has been visiting the Czech Republic for more than 20 years, and during that time he has addressed thousands of prisoners.

This time, Jan Eriksen told his life story in prisons in Karviná, Opava, Kuřim, Rapotice and Mírov. During these five visits, about 120 prisoners responded to his call to repent and follow Christ.

All who were interested could also take away from the meeting a copy of the New Testament and Eriksen’s autobiographical book I lived in the underworld (in Czech: Žil jsem v podsvětí, originally Handlager der Unterwelt in Norwegian). In the book, he describes how as a pimp and drug dealer he experienced the bitter reality of a world full of violence, murder, rape and prostitution.

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Jan Eriksen, a former pimp and drug addict, has been sharing his testimony of conversion with inmates in the Czech Republic and other countries for more than 20 years. https://t.co/0QJqo4MUud

— Evangelical Focus (@Evan_Focus) March 24, 2025

“Whoever becomes the next Archbishop of Canterbury will need to know, more than anything, that she or he can only undertake this role with the grace and comfort of Almighty God. I am praying that God calls a humble follower of Jesus who draws others to the abundant joy of Gospel life, a pastor and shepherd, and a gentle prophet for our time.”

The Archbishop of York will also sit on the CNC. Had he chosen not to, another bishop from the Province of York would have been elected to take his place.

The remaining membership of the CNC — including representatives of the diocese of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion — would be announced in early April, a Church House spokesperson said.

It is expected that the CNC will convene for its first meeting in May, and that at least two further meetings will take place in July and September. It is hoped that a new Archbishop of Canterbury will be announced in autumn.

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"Despite speculation in recent months, I have felt no sense of inner calling to be Archbishop of Canterbury," the Bishop of Norwich, Graham Usher, said today. He'd previously been considered among the front runners to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.https://t.co/C9YvwoR0gU

— Francis Martin (@PhrancisMartin) March 19, 2025

In recent years, Nigeria has seen a surge in kidnappings and violent attacks. Christians living in the country’s five southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo have said violence has affected their religious lives.

“Insecurity in the southeast affects religious activities. In some places in Imo State, especially in Orsu and some parts of Orlu, [most people] don’t attend church services on Sundays,” said Obi Ugochukwu, a Christian based in Imo State. “Even vigils are like things of the past because movement during the nighttime is not advisable.”

Experts said there are different groups responsible for the violence in the region.

“There are over 20 groups perpetrating violence in the southeast. We have Fulani herdsmen and street criminal entities,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi, founder of the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), a human rights and democracy advocacy organization.

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In recent years, Nigeria has seen a surge in kidnappings and violent attacks. Christians living in the country’s five southeast states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo have said violence has affected their religious lives.https://t.co/CMHR4s513b

— Religion Unplugged (@ReligionMag) March 19, 2025

The Church Commissioners’ control over dioceses has been criticised by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Jonathan Gibbs, who has warned of “significant and unsustainable annual deficits”.

The announcement this weekend that his own diocese had been awarded £11 million from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) Board did not deter Dr Gibbs from arguing that the increasing emphasis on grants “exacerbates the sense of control by the centre”.

“Everyone accepts that the Commissioners are brilliant at investing money and generating excellent returns,” he told his diocesan synod on Saturday. “But the reality is that the resources they now hold represent a significant net transfer not only of assets but also of financial control from the dioceses to the national Church, something which has become more and more evident over the last ten or so years.”

His comments echo those of other bishops in recent months. In the General Synod last month, the Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr Michael Beasley, expressed frustration after time ran out for a debate on a motion from Hereford diocese calling on the Commissioners to transfer £2.6 billion of assets to diocesan stipend funds to support parish ministry (News, 31 January). Gloucester, Coventry, Bath & Wells, Blackburn, Chichester, and Lincoln diocesan synods had all passed motions in identical terms to Hereford’s.

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Strong words from +Rochester this weekend, who says the renewed emphasis on grants from the central Church "with resources going only to special projects approved by the Board, further exacerbates the sense of control by the centre" https://t.co/6Q9o3320Qn pic.twitter.com/MM1et3BQyM

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) March 17, 2025

A Christian street preacher prosecuted after criticising Islam is celebrating a win for free speech after his case was thrown out by a judge this week. 

At a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Mr Recorder G Kelly dismissed the case against Karandeep Mamman, 33, on the grounds that the Crown Prosecution Service had failed to provide any evidence for the charges brought against him.

Mr Mamman was charged under section 28 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 for causing religiously aggravated harassment, alarm and distress after preaching in Walsall town centre on 14 January 2023.

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Mr Mamman said he was surrounded by a group of Muslims who threatened to take him away, beat him up and "cut his throat".https://t.co/t3B6oclWPI

— Christian Concern (@CConcern) March 11, 2025

By March 2025, the pews of America’s churches tell a story of absence. Five years after COVID-19 shuttered sanctuaries, the faithful have not fully returned. Barna Group’s 2023 data revealed that one in three practicing Christians stopped attending during the pandemic’s peak, and while some trickled back, weekly in-person attendance among evangelicals — once exceeding 50% — now hovers near 35–40%, per reasonable extrapolation. Online worship persists, with 15–20% of believers logging in rather than showing up. The decline is not a mere statistic; it is a clarion call — a spiritual and cultural crisis demanding a conservative Christian reckoning. The church, God’s embodied witness, risks fading into a digital mirage unless we reclaim its sacred purpose.

This is no benign adaptation to modernity. Scripture commands us, in Hebrews 10:24–25, to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some.” The early church of Acts 2 didn’t stream sermons—they gathered, broke bread, and lived faith face-to-face. Yet today, we’ve traded this divine mandate for the flickering glow of screens, seduced by a culture that prizes convenience over conviction. The pandemic was a catalyst, not the cause; it exposed a pre-existing drift toward a privatized, consumerist Christianity. As conservatives who cherish tradition and truth, we must name this exodus for what it is: a quiet rebellion against God’s design.

The culprits are manifold, woven into the fabric of a society unmoored from biblical moorings. Technology, our pandemic lifeline, has become a gilded cage. By 2025, churches boast polished livestreams — AI-enhanced, no less — offering worship on demand. Pew Research noted in 2022 that 30% of regular attendees shifted online, and many stayed. Why rise early when you can replay the sermon over coffee? This isn’t progress; it’s capitulation to a secular ethos that reduces faith to a commodity. Meanwhile, government overreach lingers in memory — 2020’s lockdown mandates, upheld by courts but decried by conservatives, bred distrust in institutions, including the church. Some still balk at returning, fearing control more than communion.

Younger generations amplify the crisis….

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The Vanishing Flock: Reclaiming the Church in a Post-Pandemic Wilderness https://t.co/NlX5JfUt0D

— RON BEATY (@ronbeatyjr) March 13, 2025

The new Interim Dean of Winchester, Canon Roland Riem, has promised transparency and “radical candour” in response to a review, published last week, which identified leadership failings at Winchester Cathedral (News, 3 March).

In a statement read out to the cathedral’s congregation on Sunday, Canon Riem said that the Chapter would publish updates on its response to the review at three-monthly intervals.

Canon Riem, who was previously Vice-Dean of the cathedral, was confirmed as Interim Dean after the Very Revd Catherine Ogle brought forward her planned retirement.

In a statement last week, she apologised on behalf of the Chapter, saying that, although it had to accept “collective responsibility”, as its leader, she had decided to step back immediately (News, 7 March), ahead of her planned retirement.

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The new Interim Dean of Winchester, Canon Roland Riem, has promised transparency and “radical candour” in response to a review, published last week, which identified leadership failings at Winchester Cathedralhttps://t.co/GbElq3J8JX

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 12, 2025

In her introduction to your latest book, Jesus Changes Everything, Tish Harrison Warren mentions something many Christians are concerned about: that we live in a post-Christian world. She’s wondering if we actually are living in a pre-Christian world and whether that might not be such a bad place to be. What’s your take on the time in which we live and the opportunities in front of the church?

Well, the mainstream Protestant church is dying. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It makes us free. I mean, for some time people argued that the world would go to hell if it were not Christian. That may be the case. But being Christian doesn’t mean you need a Christian America. 

What I think we’re experiencing is the ultimate working out of nihilism, which so often goes with liberalism. Liberalism is the presumption that you should have no story except the story you chose when you had no story.

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In an interview with @Plough’s Charles E. Moore, Stanley Hauerwas meditates on the necessity of the gospel, the politics of the kingdom, and the high demands of sanctification.https://t.co/XI9F2ySH5C

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) March 11, 2025

The question of which view of religious freedom—the Puritans’ or the Quakers’—was the more Christian one is a debate for theology; it seems plain to me at least that the Quaker view is more that of contemporary Christianity, especially as articulated in the Catholic Church’s Dignitatis Humanae. What the social science behind the Pew Religious Landscape Survey can suggest is that, at least in the long run, Quakers’ respect for freedom of conscience might be more effective than Puritans’ integration of church and state in maintaining a Christian society. Although the differences in Christian identification between New England and the Delaware Valley today are not so large in the case of certain states, the Delaware Valley still comes out on top; and its metropolis, Philadelphia, easily outdoes New England’s preeminent city, Boston. Moreover, the one outlier state in New England that does better than much of the Delaware Valley in Christian religiosity—Rhode Island—was precisely founded on the principle of religious freedom, in protest of Puritan rigidity. 

How might New England’s and the Delaware Valley’s different religious attitudes have accounted for their long-term religiosity? Although many New England Puritans were surely sincere, their harsh public policing of orthodoxy led many other Christians (like Roger Williams) to leave New England. Many who stayed perhaps conformed outwardly without interior sincerity. Some came to see Christianity cynically—as a tool of hypocritical political rulers who only wanted to control others—and they made little effort to pass on belief to their children. Others conformed out of fear and came to see Christianity as rules by which to live in order to survive, not a truth that sets one free; such religiosity was probably not very attractive to potential converts. Many later New Englanders, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, saw the society of their Puritan ancestors this way—as shown in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Speculations aside, both historical data and scholarship (such as Kevin Vallier’s book All the Kingdoms of the World) show how religiously authoritarian regimes tend to harm both religious and political culture in the long run.

In the Delaware Valley, on the other hand, religion and politics were clearly distinguished: people were given the freedom to open themselves genuinely to religious truth, without fear of political reprisal. Thus, as Dignitatis Humanae says, truth was allowed to enter their minds “by virtue of its own truth, . . . quietly,” and therefore permanently, “with power.” If religious truth is to take possession of a person, he has to make it his own, in love, until he says with the poet in the Song of Songs: “I have got him, and I will not let him go.”

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Society Stays Christian Longer If It Respects Religious Freedom: New Evidence from Pew https://t.co/6XZtA79pwL

— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) March 7, 2025

I have read many books by Alister McGrath, renowned scientist and theologian. I have appreciated all of them and, indeed, reviewed one very positively in these columns only a year ago (Books, 23 February 2024). This, though, is the best I have read (Feature, 21 February). It is quite simply brilliant, a must-read for those who want to reflect deeply on the whole question of belief. It will be particularly helpful to those who want to be able to defend their own. I remember Rowan Willams being quoted as saying something along the lines that it could be such a relief not to be made to feel foolish for embracing belief. No one who has read this book need do that.

The intention of the author is consider belief in general, not just religious belief. Demonstrating clearly that it just won’t do to pretend that we live in a “purely factual, belief-free world”, he concludes that “believing is not only intellectually defensible but existentially necessary” (his italics). He offers many fascinating references from a variety of disciplines as, with characteristic clarity and accessibility, he presents a highly sophisticated argument.

In powerful testimony, McGrath explains how, having been raised in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, he gave up on religion. His first love was the natural sciences; he became an atheist with a strong interest in Marxism. It was as an Oxford undergraduate — ironically, through reading the atheist Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy — that he began to realise that it was possible to hold beliefs without being able to prove them and, in fact, that to live life to the full it was imperative to do so. “Only shallow truths can be proven,” he writes, “not the profound existential, moral and spiritual beliefs that bestow dignity and significance upon human life.”

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"It is quite simply brilliant, a must-read for those who want to reflect deeply on the whole question of belief." @BishopJohnInge reviews Why We Believe: Finding meaning in uncertain times by @alisteremcgrath https://t.co/njISQN0hnN

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 7, 2025

The Synod’s failure to vote for such an approach, but to prefer more time to explore the legal and logistical barriers to outsourcing diocesan safeguarding teams while simultaneously creating a new, independent scrutiny body, was, Mr Myer said, “deeply disappointing”.

The decision, he said, “did not follow the recommendation from Professor Jay and many other specialists and professionals, or the preference of many survivors”.

Two separate surveys have suggested that about three-quarters of the victims and survivors questioned supported Professor Jay’s recommendations; but her advice was not supported by all safeguarding professionals.

Jim Gamble, the head of the INEQE Safeguarding Group, which is auditing all Church of England dioceses and cathedrals, was among those to disagree with Professor Jay. In a report published the day before the Synod’s debate, he wrote: “When it comes to delivering effective safeguarding practice — practice that genuinely works and makes a difference — it is most effectively delivered from within, not imposed from without”….

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In a House of Commons debate on Monday evening, MPs criticised the General Synod’s decision last month not to outsource all safeguarding functions immediately to an independent body https://t.co/phh7IAy7FJ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 6, 2025

In this light, we can see that the dizzying changes of the past decade represent the dying lurches of a postwar consensus and a re-enchantment of the West. History, contra Fukuyama, is not linear, and epochal shifts will often entail volatility as the old order grapples with its demise. In other words, Pew’s RLS data is more evidence of what N.S. Lyons called the “end of the Long Twentieth Century.” And it may be the strongest evidence yet that we’ve truly turned the page.

Lyons is following Rusty Reno, who sensed in his 2019 book Return of the Strong Gods that the era of a Western “open society” consensus was coming to an end. In its place, “strong gods” would return. These strong gods “are the objects of men’s love and devotion, the sources of the passions and loyalties that unite societies.” While the twentieth century saw an attempt to domesticate the strong gods through the promotion of weak ones like “inclusion” and “multiculturalism,” the quest has proved futile. These weak gods stand in negation to certain values—“anti-racism” or “anti-totalitarianism”—and are therefore incapable of stirring the aspirational loyalty necessary for a cohesive society.  

But not all strong gods are equally benevolent. Some can be quite destructive. Reno argued that to counteract the rougher edges of strong gods like nationalism, we will need “to nurture to primeval sources of solidarity that limit the claims of the civic ‘we’: the domestic society of marriage and the supernatural community of the church, synagogue, and other communities of transcendence.”

Thus, we can say that religion is perhaps the strongest of the strong gods….

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Read more in @commonplc, an essential journal: https://t.co/FNH7Z8pLNd

— Emile Doak (@EADoak) March 6, 2025

Martin Emil Marty, a notable former Riverside resident, religious historian and retired University of Chicago Divinity School professor, died in his Minneapolis care community on Feb. 25, 2025. He was 97. The family noted the cause of death as “old age,” though his trademark sparkle-in-the-eye and generosity of spirit remained with him to the end. 

In a 2014 column in the Landmark, JoAnne Kosey noted that Marty was returning to Riverside that January to for a Taize Prayer service at St. Mary Parish. He was to offer a personal reflection after the service. 

Kosey wrote, “Those who remember Dr. Marty from his time in Riverside might recall him walking around town, a man with a warm smile greeting those he encountered. Music was also a part of the Marty household with his wife, Harriet, being a musician.” 

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Martin E. Marty, an eminent church historian, prolific chronicler and interpreter of religion and its role in public life, died at the age of 97 on Feb. 25 in a Minneapolis care facility where he spent his final years. https://t.co/V0X86fSuGY pic.twitter.com/tE55asTdJx

— MinistryWatch.com (@MinistryWatch) February 28, 2025

Churches such as Holy Trinity, Brompton (HTB), are better at connecting with younger generations on social media. I would much rather repost HTB’s beautifully curated content, with thought-provoking questions and soothing low-fi beats, than the C of E’s reels about Anglican history or what has been going on as the Synod sits. Recent content has highlighted the goings-on in the House of Laity, which, I think, most of my friends would assume was a new reality-TV show.

Before even getting into debates over the place of liturgy or the finer details of Anglican theology, this is a generation who still struggle with the concept of “sin” and “salvation”. The rhetoric that they remember from religious-studies lessons at school (for many, the only time when they have encountered Christianity) is that of judgement and wrath. In conversations with my friends, church has become synonymous with guilt. It is not seen as a place of community or inclusion, but of ostracism and hypocrisy. As a generation who have come of age during a pandemic and a crippling cost-of-living crisis, we are all too acquainted with the reality of a fallen world. What Gen Z are looking for is a Church that will offer them leaders with integrity and a better plan for the world.

Looking to the Gospels, both Jesus’s leadership and the hope that he offers the world seem very far from the reality of organised Christianity which my generation see in the media. The Church’s reputation in the media is so important because Gen Z church attendance is staggeringly low. They are not sitting in churches or opening the Bible: they are opening Instagram and having their views formed by the snippets of news which they see on their feeds.

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Gen Z are open to faith — but not to the Church of England

When it comes to connecting with younger people, the Church has a communication problem, argues Abigail Kinghttps://t.co/Jj0uukXrGQ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 23, 2025

After many years of steady decline, the share of Americans who identify as Christians shows signs of leveling off – at least temporarily – at slightly above six-in-ten, according to a massive new Pew Research Center survey of 36,908 U.S. adults.

The Religious Landscape Study (RLS) is the largest single survey the Center conducts, aiming to provide authoritative figures on the size of U.S. religious groups because the U.S. census does not collect that information.

We have conducted three of these landscape surveys over the past 17 years, with more than 35,000 randomly sampled respondents each time. That’s enough to paint a statistical portrait of religion not only nationally, but also in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in 34 large metro areas.

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Whoa, new @pewresearch provides more evidence that the secular trajectory of American life has leveled off: "Decline of Christianity in the U.S… May Have Leveled Off" pic.twitter.com/MDsXc4zQd9

— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) February 26, 2025

Ten members of the clergy, including two bishops, could be subject to disciplinary proceedings in connection with the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, if the President of the Tribunals permits the National Safeguarding Team (NST) to bring complaints under the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM) out of time.

They include a former Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, and Lord Carey, a former Archbishop of Canterbury.

The announcement, made by the NST on Tuesday, concludes a four-stage process considering the actions of clergy named in the Makin review of Smyth’s abuse (News, 5 December 2024). The review culminated in recommendations by a panel; and these were reviewed by an independent barrister.

The Church House statement said that the panel had “considered the safeguarding policies and guidance which were in force at the relevant time, the facts of the particular case, the relevant legal considerations and whether there is sufficient evidence to justify proceedings”. The barrister had concurred with all of the panel’s decisions.

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NEW: Ten members of the clergy, incl Lord Carey and Bishop Paul Butler, could be subject to disciplinary proceedings in connection with the abuse perpetrated by John Smyth. I've had a look at the ten, & context for bringing such complaints under the CDMhttps://t.co/6xdMFl6x9v

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 25, 2025

Paul’s understanding of sin as a community problem demands that, in the words of Esau McCaulley, we go “beyond naming.” McCaulley adds, “There has to be some vision of the righting of wrongs and the restoration of relationships. The call to be peacemakers is the call for the church to enter the messy world of politics and point toward a better way of being human.”

For this reason, Paul warns that we as individuals can become weapons of injustice, so even those individuals who are not actively participating in a particular sin can be guilty of passivity toward it. Notice Paul’s words in Romans 6: He does not say to simply refrain from sin but says that we must not allow sin to reign in our bodies or allow any part of ourselves to be controlled by sin (vv. 12–13). This implies a need for active resistance to sin, not just avoidance of it. For instance, Paul directly calls out Peter, who had been an early advocate of Gentile inclusion, for remaining silent on this issue (Gal. 2:11–14). Paul’s command for churches to be holy is not just a call not to sin but a call to oppose sin in their midst. To be passive to sins in our communities is to be used by the Enemy for injustice.

Another example is when Paul admonishes a man who slept with his stepmother. Paul calls out the Corinthian church and not just the individuals involved (1 Cor. 5:1­–2), making it the responsibility of the entire congregation to deal with the sinner in their midst.

In Galatians 6, Paul advises the church to gently restore fellow members in sin by leading them to repentance while cautioning them against being tempted in the process. He makes a profound statement: “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (v. 2). Likewise, in Romans 14 Paul argues that reconciliation requires certain rights and freedoms be laid down by all for the sake of some weaker brothers and sisters.

Read it all.

Scripture is full of examples of communities and institutions being held accountable for their sinfulness.

D. T. Everhart on systemic sin in the Bible:https://t.co/NkvfX6GqCf

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) February 21, 2025

“We want to show people what can be done in a small place,” said Priest-in-Charge, the Rev Kay Jones. “So, we started with the church environment being different.”

Inside the building, a legacy provided for LED lighting and thermal boards, helping the church lower its carbon emissions, as well as providing a warm space for the community. “It’s not freezing anymore,” said Kay. “We can have warm-space activities. People like being here.”

And people are connecting with it. An open day to launch the potting shed brought 17 adults and 27 children together. “It was hard to get rid of them at the end,” Kay joked. “It is changing things for small numbers of people,” she added.

“What I’m seeing is people wanting to be part of what we do,” she said. “People are trying different foods grown in the garden, learning how – and what – to recycle in the church’s recycling bins, and crucially, learning where food comes from, helping to reduce their food bills.”

Read it all.

"We want to show people what can be done in a small place."

A church in one of the country’s most deprived areas is bringing people together and helping them with their wellbeing – thanks to the launch of a series of environmental projects.

Read more at https://t.co/Joa7q8MizC.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) February 21, 2025

Holy Week can sit strangely in the church year. It is the most solemn and significant of times in the church calendar, and yet, to all intents and purposes, ordinary life carries on undisturbed by it. Unlike Christmas, which bursts upon the scene in a riot of tinsel and fairy lights, demanding attention and pulling people in from the streets to enjoy carolling and mince pies, for most of the population, Holy Week passes unnoticed. Only the promise of hot cross buns and free childcare when schools are closed or a few eccentrics walking mournfully round the community on Good Friday may have any impact at all.

How, then, to engage with the non-churchgoing public? How to share the message of sacrificial love — an unpopular theme in today’s “Because I’m worth it”, “Go on, treat yourself” society? Perhaps by using the week to experiment and challenge, to offer services and events that are different from the norm, and to think carefully about all sectors of the community and explore ways in which they might become engaged, even briefly, with the drama of Holy Week and the life-changing effect of its events.

Your community might well be happily settled into a regular rhythm of services. It is to be hoped that the schedule is one that all can manage — ministry team, musicians, volunteers working within their capacity and capability, able to maintain the level of effort and energy required without collapsing with burnout. Nevertheless, we all know the dangers of complacency, of falling into a routine that becomes almost mindless in its familiarity. Holy Week offers an opportunity to try out new things in a way that is manageable (because it is only one week), understandable (it’s a special week), and unrepeatable, if necessary. If something completely new is too challenging or demanding, try and ring the changes with the established patterns, enabling your community to look with fresh eyes on familiar events.

Read it all.

How to engage with the non-churchgoing public

Sally Welch continues her series exploring practical ideas for Lent and Easterhttps://t.co/hUxKr4235W

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 18, 2025

Every few weeks, it seems, another AI achievement sets the world abuzz. It speaks! It paints! It digests a whole book and spits out a 10-
minute podcast! 

This is generative AI, the large computing models that dazzle and worry us with their humanlike output. We’ve become accustomed to hearing about AI, but have we considered what it really offers us? Most simply: a promise of ease and justice. 

With the proper application of AI, its enthusiasts tell us, we won’t have to work so hard. Our economy will be more equitable, our laws and their enforcement closer to impartial, the slow and faulty human element bypassed altogether. We will achieve a painless and mechanistic fairness. 

Here, rather than dwell on any individual technological feat, I want to examine those two tempting offers. Long before generative AI became a reality, these temptations were offered elsewhere: by science fiction villains and by the Devil when he came to Jesus in the wilderness. 

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“If we follow in Jesus’ steps—if we live slowly, do good things however inefficiently, and share the extravagant grace we’ve been given—the temptations of AI, like all false promises, will grow dim and unconvincing,” writes @jeff_bilbro.https://t.co/B2EDLsbPEo

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) February 17, 2025

What Ilyich faces in the final moment is grace. He is graced with the realization that he needs to offer care. Knowing that the real is compassion is not his accomplishment but is the gift of his son’s presence. We, who would so quickly assist him out of this life, would do so because we can bear with neither grace nor compassion. They ask too much of us for another. 

Because death is not taken from him by “assistance” that offers no real help, Ilyich is graced with realization that death is no more. “Instead of death there was light.” He sees this light and realizes that “death is over . . . there is no more death.” Ilyich’s realization echoes Revelation 21:4 that “death will be no more.” Only a culture that can see death and care for those who are dying can be a culture open to the One who bore all our burdens. Christ’s dying offers us abundant life even in our deaths if we are willing to face them. In his Good Death, death itself dies. Euthanasia denies us a good death because it is the denial of care, the denial of facing death authentically, and the denial of the goodness of life. It is thus the denial of the Author of Life—or of any possible spiritual breakthrough at all.

Each fall for many more years, my students and I will read a novella about a dying, loveless lawyer from Tsarist Russia. We will ask what the real life is and wonder if we are living it. We will consider what love and care look like and whether we live in a culture in which we bear each other’s burdens. To bear those burdens is to face our deaths together. The direction of our culture is increasingly toward “death pods” where we will die alone, because we, like Ivan, have refused to really live together. Resisting such a culture of solitary and uncared for assisted dying will take legislation, but it will also require that we spend some time with Ilyich and try to recover the goodness of a good life and of a good death. Someday I will face death. Someday my students will face it as well. Will we do so in a world detached from reality or attached to it? A culture that dispatches the burdensome or bears their burdens? A culture that offers care or that offers death? The euthanasia of Ilyich would have made impossible his eu thanatos. Our society’s growing practice of euthanasia may well prove to be the denial not only of our good deaths but also of the only real thing, a good life.

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Resisting the march of euthanasia will require numerous approaches. I hope this reflection on the good death of Ivan Ilyich contributes in some small way. https://t.co/wOO6VTKdnF

— Terence Sweeney (@TerenceJSweeney) February 19, 2025

Trends in liturgical revision since the late eighteenth century have moved away from the simplicity of this approach back toward the medieval model of more movable parts and more options in the discretion of the presiding minister. The proliferation of options, rather than being freeing, paradoxically tends toward choice paralysis. ‘Having choices is actually rare in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer’, as Sam Bray and I wrote in How to Use the Book of Common Prayer. ‘Later prayer books have a huge number of choices, making them complicated to use.’ In Morning and Evening Prayer in the 1662 Prayer Book, ‘the only choices you make are about the sentences and the canticles’ and, in both of those cases, the different ‘options serve the same function in the service.’²

The simple, usable design – the commodiousness of the use, as Cranmer put it – reinforces its profitability or usefulness to the praying Christian. A simple structural pattern recurs throughout the Prayer Book: a scripture is read aloud to the assembly and they respond appropriately, in several key places, like the daily confession of sin, by simply doing just what the scripture read aloud says to do. This pattern carries a clear meta-message about the holy scriptures: that they ought to be heard, that their core message is comprehensible, and that they require humble, grateful, obedient response. By scripting the appropriate response – in this case, the confession of sin – the liturgy inculcates its users in a transformative approach to scripture reading that minimizes the risk that God’s word will be profaned.

If reducing options enhances usability then one might conclude that printing a complete service booklet for each unique service, thereby eliminating from view any options that are not used for that particular occasion, is ideal. Moreover, the booklet eliminates the need to flip to proper collect of the day, the Psalms, or look up the scriptures for the day. From the narrow point of view of usability for a novice user in one particular church service, yes, the booklet is better. But the analysis that leads to that conclusion focuses too narrowly on one particular occasion and one particular kind of user – the novice user. But the Prayer Book is not just a manual for ministers planning Sunday morning worship; it has historically served as the rule of life for all Anglicans. Our aim for novice users is not just to facilitate easy participation in one particular service on one particular Sunday, but to draw them into the Prayer Book, to facilitate their familiarity with the Prayer Book and help them discover its value beyond the Sunday morning church service. Printing complete booklets for every service puts us on a trajectory away from those goals in at least three mutually reinforcing ways.

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Explore the viability of the Book of Common Prayer in today’s Anglican Communion. This insightful article by @d_n_keane examines the liturgical and theological richness of this powerful work.https://t.co/cGust1IiG9

— The Anglican Way (@TheAnglicanWay) February 13, 2025

The Anglican Church in Uganda has adopted a series of strategic measures to safeguard its vast tracts of land that are under threat from encroachers.

The church’s initiatives involve venturing into coffee farming to transform unused land into productive agricultural spaces, registering mass tracts of untitled church land, issuing spiritual warnings and pursuing legal action against land grabbers.

The church said the initiatives will safeguard property and contribute to economic growth and social stability — ensuring that church land remains a valuable resource for future generations.

For nearly four decades under President Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Movement government, land grabbing has remained a significant challenge, not only for the other sections of society but also for the church. This issue has led to the displacement of thousands of impoverished Ugandans and even the demolition of churches. In 2020, a renowned land grabber demolished 40-year-old St. Peters Church in Ndeeba, in Kampala, sparking outrage among Christians.

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The Anglican Church in Uganda has adopted a series of strategic measures to safeguard its vast tracts of land: transforming unused land into productive agricultural spaces, mass registration of untitled church land, spiritual warnings and legal action.https://t.co/OWkv1YpB5H

— Religion Unplugged (@ReligionMag) February 13, 2025

Writing in First Things (“Against Christian Civilization,” January 2025), Paul Kingsnorth proclaims an essential truth: the Christian faith must not be instrumentalized, and must not be made into a mere tool used in the defense of any earthly social order. The temptation to this misuse of the faith is particularly powerful, Kingsnorth observes, in times of apparent social decline—such as the present. He is to be commended for exposing some recent manifestations of the error of mere “civilizational Christianity” and for reminding us that Christians must hold their faith as true and good, and not simply as useful.  

Kingsnorth also, however, makes a much more far-reaching argument about the relationship of Christianity to civilization. Here he mixes his key truth with some serious errors which call for correction. Most of his mistakes arise from a persistent spirit of exaggeration and a failure to make the distinctions necessary to do justice to the issues with which he grapples.     

“Our work,” Kingsnorth announces, “is not to ‘defend the west.’ That’s idol worship. Our work is repentance, which means transformation.” Of course, any serious Christian will agree that a sinner’s personal repentance is more important than his defense of any worldly civilization. It does not follow, however, that a call to defend the West is a manifestation of idol worship. Christians may legitimately defend some earthly arrangements—and in some cases may have a duty to defend them—on the understanding that they are good and worth preserving and without mistaking them for the supreme good. A Christian citizen who wishes to preserve the civilization to which he belongs is no more guilty of idolatry than a Christian father who wishes to protect his family from worldly ruin.

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In Defense of Christian Civilization https://t.co/zdtfA2WiEd

— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) February 13, 2025

Members of the General Synod heard a debate brought by Burnley vicar Father Alex Frost, calling on the Church of England to be ‘bold and ambitious’ in its work to attract people from working class backgrounds to lay and ordained vocations.

He told the General Synod that ‘Jesus called the working class to be his apprentices’ and reminded them that the Disciples Andrew, Peter, James and John, were fishermen.

He said: “In many urban areas of our country, the Church of England ministry is vital. On the ground, in working class communities, there is some wonderful and outstanding work going on, that is fighting injustice, that is saving lives through foodbanks and community projects, that is educating children and standing up for the most vulnerable people in our society.”

But he added that in spite of this, “the Church of England in many places is speaking a completely different language.”

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General Synod backs strategy to encourage working class vocations#Synod https://t.co/yMhoph1kJ3

— General Synod (@synod) February 12, 2025

Ukraine sent its largest-ever delegation to Washington, DC, last week to rally support for more military defense and plead with Donald Trump not to pull the plug and make a deal that favors Russia. Pastors and religious leaders in the delegation fear that time is running out. 

“We know that President Trump is working on the new negotiations to help bring this war to an end,” said Igor Bandura, vice president of the Baptist Union of Ukraine. “We are here to pray, to advocate, to share our experience, and to remind the American people and American politicians that we are looking not just to end the war, but we need a just peace.”

American conservative and evangelical support for Ukraine has waned as the war has gone on and the Republican Party under Trump has grown increasingly skeptical of international alliances. Past efforts to shore up support for Ukraine among Republicans have yielded results, though, so the delegation remained hopeful, despite deep concerns.

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Ukrainian Christians are pleading with the Trump administration not to pull the plug on support and make a deal that favors Russia.

“We are looking not just to end the war, but we need a just peace.”https://t.co/wQ0WrrLZGI

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) February 13, 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic had an enormous impact on how religious communities gather for worship.

In a Pew Research Center survey in July 2020, a few months after the coronavirus struck the United States, just 6% of Americans who regularly attend religious services said their house of worship was open to the public and holding services in the same way as before the COVID-19 outbreak. The vast majority reported either that their house of worship was not open for in-person services (31%) or that it was open but with changes to limit the spread of disease (55%).

More than a year and a half later, in March 2022, fewer than half of regular worshippers (43%) reported that their church, synagogue, mosque or other house of worship had completely returned to normal, pre-pandemic operations.

Yet, despite COVID-19’s widespread effects on how houses of worship operate, most Americans say their religious and spiritual lives have not been changed by the pandemic, according to a Center survey conducted in October 2024.

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Despite COVID-19’s widespread effects on how houses of worship operate, most Americans say their religious and spiritual lives have not been changed by the pandemic. (2/5) pic.twitter.com/yOItnccrGF

— Michael (Chip) Rotolo (@mrotolo1) February 12, 2025