You may listen directly here:
Or you may download it there.
Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Bishop of Jos, General secretary of Gafcon:
— Gafcon (@GafconGBE) April 17, 2023
Our priorities-
The primacy of scripture
The power of salvation to transform lives
The priority of evangelism and mission pic.twitter.com/0CU803Fxvi
“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.”
"We want to show people what can be done in a small place."
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) February 21, 2025
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.
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.
How to engage with the non-churchgoing public
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 18, 2025
Sally Welch continues her series exploring practical ideas for Lent and Easterhttps://t.co/hUxKr4235W
The former site of a 24 Hour Fitness gym soon will become a spiritual home for hundreds of Anglican Christians in southwest Fort Worth.
Members of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church gathered on Feb. 2 for a ceremonial groundbreaking for the congregation’s new place of worship at 5001 Overton Ridge Blvd.
With hard hats, plastic shovels for kids and a disco ball, the ceremony marked the culmination of a 17-year search for a permanent location for the church plant to call home, said the Very Rev. Chris Culpepper, rector of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church and canon for church planting for the Anglican Diocese of Fort Worth.
“I just told everybody, ‘Bring a shovel because we’re all in this together,’” Culpepper said.
Tony Rutigliano was one of over 200 people who attended the groundbreaking ceremony. He grew up nondenominational and Baptist while his wife grew up in the Western rite Orthodox faith. When searching for a place for the family to worship together, Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church offered a “happy medium,” Rutigliano said.
Melissa Greene, reporter for the Ft. Worth Report, wrote an article about Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church finding a new permanent home. Read it here: https://t.co/OtWbug9eRQ
— ACNA (@The_ACNA) February 19, 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.
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
In Uganda, during the eight years in the 1970’s when Idi Amin and his men slaughtered probably half a million Ugandans, “We live today and are gone tomorrow” was the common phrase.
We learned that living in danger, when the Lord Jesus is the focus of your life, can be liberating. For one thing, you are no longer imprisoned by your own security, because there is none. So the important security that people sought was to be anchored in God.
As we testified to the safe place we had in Jesus, many people who had been pagan, or were on the fringes of Christianity, flocked to the church or to individuals, asking earnestly, “How do you prepare yourself for death?” Churches all over the country were packed both with members and seekers. This was no comfort to President Amin, who was making wild promises to Libya and other Arab nations that Uganda would soon be a Muslim country. (It is actually 80 per cent Christian)….
It became clear to us through the Scriptures that our resistance was to be that of overcoming evil with good. This included refusing to cooperate with anything that dehumanizes people, but we reaffirmed that we can never be involved in using force or weapons.…we knew, of course, that the accusation against our beloved brother, Archbishop Janani Luwum, that he was hiding weapons for an armed rebellion, was untrue, a frame-up to justify his murder.
The archbishop’s arrest, and the news of his death, was a blow from the Enemy calculated to send us reeling. That was on February 16, 1977. The truth of the matter is that it boomeranged on Idi Amin himself. Through it he lost respect in the world and, as we see it now, it was the beginning of the end for him.
For us, the effect can best be expressed in the words of the little lady who came to arrange flowers, as she walked through the cathedral with several despondent bishops who were preparing for Archbishop Luwum’s Memorial Service. She said, “This is going to put us twenty times forward, isn’t it?” And as a matter of fact, it did.
More than four thousand people walked, unintimidated, past Idi Amin’s guards to pack St. Paul’s Cathedral in Kampala on February 20. They repeatedly sang the “Martyr’s Song,” which had been sung by the young Ugandan martyrs in 1885. Those young lads had only recently come to know the Lord, but they loved Him so much that they could refuse the evil thing demanded of them by King Mwanga. They died in the flames singing, “Oh that I had wings such as angels have, I would fly away and be with the Lord.” They were given wings, and the singing of those thousands at the Memorial Service had wings too.
–Festo Kivengere, Revolutionary Love, Chapter Nine
Today, we celebrate the life of Archbishop Janani Luwum, a martyr who stood for truth and justice against all odds.
— Booked! Children's Library (@SoooManyStories) February 16, 2025
His story is a beacon of hope for Uganda and beyond.pic.twitter.com/E2tzFgPblB
O God, whose Son the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep: We give thee thanks for thy faithful shepherd, Janani Luwum, who after his Savior’s example gave up his life for the people of Uganda. Grant us to be so inspired by his witness that we make no peace with oppression, but live as those who are sealed with the cross of Christ, who died and rose again, and now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.O God, whose Son the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep: We give thee thanks for thy faithful shepherd, Janani Luwum, who after his Savior’s example gave up his life for the people of Uganda. Grant us to be so inspired by his witness that we make no peace with oppression, but live as those who are sealed with the cross of Christ, who died and rose again, and now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga-Zaire, was killed #onthisday in 1977 after protesting against acts of violence which had been carried out across Uganda.
— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) February 17, 2025
He is one of ten 20th-century Christian martyrs whose statues stand above the Abbey's West Door.… pic.twitter.com/cIdX4QV0oV
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.
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.
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
A suggestion that a “big stick” be deployed by the Archbishops’ Council to ensure that the Lowest Income Communities funding (LINC) reaches the poor parishes for which it was intended was heard by the General Synod on Tuesday.
Delivering an update on the work of the diocesan finances review, the chair of the Archbishops’ Council’s Finance Committee, Carl Hughes, reported that only two-thirds of LINC funding was reaching parishes in the 25 per cent most deprived areas. This was something that he felt “very strongly about”, he said; and a “light-touch” reporting framework was being proposed for dioceses, to “improve transparency and accountability”.
In the ensuing debate, speakers expressed concern about the statistic and the sufficiency of the proposed approach. The Revd Jonathan Macy (Southwark), who chairs the National Estates Churches Network, suggested that the figure was “absolutely shocking. . . You speak of things that are ‘light touch’, and I get why, but would you consider with that light touch an extra option akin to a big wooden stick to ensure that money actually goes to where it should be going?”
Only two-thirds of Lowest Income Communities Funding is reaching parishes in the 25% most deprived areas – up from 35% when it was launched in 2017. Synod raised concerns about properly holding dioceses to account after "light touch" reporting was proposed https://t.co/ZzBG07XwLz
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 12, 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.”
General Synod backs strategy to encourage working class vocations#Synod https://t.co/yMhoph1kJ3
— General Synod (@synod) February 12, 2025
The Church of England’s governing body has rejected a fully independent safeguarding model to deal with abuse cases.
Synod members instead adopted an alternative proposal described as a “way forward in the short term” ahead of a move to full independence in the future.
But child safety expert Prof Alexis Jay – who had called for a fully independent model – described the decision as “deeply disappointing” and “devastating for victims and survivors”.
The vote comes after a turbulent period for the Church, which has seen the resignation of former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby over his handling of an abuse case and criticism of Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell’s links to another.
This is disappointing, short-sighted, and very concerning. Fully independent oversight of safeguarding is essential.
— Prof Michael Green FCCT (@Michael_S_Green) February 11, 2025
BBC News – Church of England rejects fully independent safeguardinghttps://t.co/2IzYb8sKYN
“Where does Jesus want to take us in the adventure of discipleship? Where does Jesus want to take us in the adventure of discipleship?
Every word in that question is carefully chosen. I want to focus in on that little word, adventure. Most of us don’t think of discipleship and following Jesus as an adventure, but the Bible does.
There is a great moment in Jeremiah early on in the story. Jeremiah has been called, and the Lord has known him since he was in his mother’s womb. But things have gotten started, and there have been ups and downs, and Jeremiah feels like there’s been more downs than ups. And he’s getting tired. So he prays to the Lord, and he basically says, This is getting too hard. What do you think you’re doing? Can you make it a little easier? And the Lord responds in this way, chapter 12, verse 5. If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan, (where there may be things like lions roaming around)?
“Eugene Peterson wrote a whole book on that verse and that theme. Its title is Run with the Horses, the quest for life at its best. That is the way that discipleship has been understood in the tradition that’s handed down to us. An incredible adventure, a breathtaking life of excitement and thrills, an unpredictability, a life which is full of deep purpose and faith.
Oh, it sounds like our Lord even. The glory of God, Irenaeus once said, is a human being fully alive. Well, if you want to know what God wants for humanity, look at Jesus, he’s fully alive, all the time. He’s giving life, he’s living life, he’s being life, he’s life incarnate. That’s what God wants for us.
Jesus says it this way in John 10, verse 10. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. You all with me so far? Okay, so here’s the question. How do we do that? How do we get that kind of life? How do you live a life that is an adventure of discipleship? All right, well, I appreciate you asking a question. Turn to Luke chapter 5 and this magnificent story of the miraculous catch of fish…
You may listen directly here:Or you may download it there.
— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) February 11, 2025
where will your adventures take you today?
Richmond Park
James Kliffen pic.twitter.com/KbSmZp3QxB
Every week, behind a half dozen security doors that lead to Unit 2—Tennessee’s death row—Kevin Burns holds a worship service. He leads Communion, prayer, liturgy, and a sermon with men who share his sentence.
Burns, 55, has been on death row at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville for 30 years, convicted of felony murder in two young men’s deaths in 1992. A group that included Burns robbed another group and shot Damond Dawson, 17, and Tracey Johnson, 20. This particular murder charge, felony murder, applies to those present during an inherently dangerous crime even if they did not kill. Burns maintains his innocence in their killing.
For years, Burns has led Bible studies and prayed with other men on death row, going on to become an ordained minister in 2018 and start The Church of Life within prison walls.
The Church of Life might be the only congregation planted on death row by a prisoner serving a death sentence.https://t.co/9RSgYKZMtE
— kate shellnutt (@kateshellnutt) February 10, 2025
“Detaching the Church of England’s safeguarding staff from their current employers will almost inevitably create additional barriers to communication and cooperation, harming service delivery. Given that ‘service delivery’ in this context involves protecting children and vulnerable adults, any barriers whatsoever could have the most serious consequences,” the letter says.
“There is no doubt that transferring staff from 85 current employers to one yet-to-be-created employer will be destabilising, expensive, and likely to take far longer than expected,” the letter argues. “No other equivalent organisation in the UK employs its safeguarding staff in a separate body.”
It continues: “The disruption to recruitment and retention of staff, to existing relationships, and to morale would be considerable. Moreover, new structures bring new problems: a large national organisation is at least as likely to multiply layers of management as it is to improve frontline service delivery.”
Safeguarding professionals across the Church of England have urged the General Synod’s members not to back a proposal to outsource their work to a new national body https://t.co/aXrKJSuLfH
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 5, 2025
“The entire town feels like it is in a pandemic, locked up without being able to go out and enjoy our lives due to violence.”
That is how “Jorge” – not his real name – feels about his neighbourhood of Guayaquil, a city in southern Ecuador.
His father, Marcos Elías León Maruri, was kidnapped there by the Los Tiguerones gang.
A person is killed every two hours in Ecuador and seven are kidnapped daily, according to government figures.
That’s why security is the top issue for voters ahead of the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, in which incumbent Daniel Noboa is being challenged by 15 other candidates.
Whoever wins will be tasked with restoring security to the country, which has gone from being one of the safest to among the most dangerous in the region.
Read it all (Hat tip-BBC World News America).
Ecuador chooses president against backdrop of gang violence https://t.co/LGXIXTbUaa
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 7, 2025
Independent safeguarding was once unthinkable, but today few observers think the Synod can afford to vote down the proposals. Given the revelations of the past few months, it would be approaching institutional suicide for the Church to reject the opportunity to rebuild trust and demonstrate its determination to stop abusers and keep vulnerable people safe.
But in the desperate rush to be seen to be doing something to stop the relentlessly critical headlines, few have considered what independence will not fix. The same people who investigated Perumbalath and concluded there was no evidence he was a safeguarding risk will still constitute the safeguarding team; they will just work for a different employer. Safeguarding cases will still be based on the often-conflicting accounts of the only two people in the room at the time of the alleged incident. There will still be cases that cannot be resolved in the way survivors and their increasingly vocal advocates would like. Who will listen to and support dissatisfied and wounded survivors, if not the Church? And what happens when the independent safeguarding authority clears someone the CofE hierarchy believes to be guilty?
Safeguarding independence will not be an end the Church’s state of permacrisis. In fact, the Synod vote will probably create as many new problems as it solves old ones. The weary vicars wondering when they can stop bracing for the next scandal cannot relax yet.
"If the Church of England was not in crisis before, it certainly is now."
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) February 6, 2025
Tim Wyatt: There is no solution to the Church of England permacrisis https://t.co/T7bXLQP72Y
Rudenstrand, who is deputy general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, explained that “Örebro is a church-dense city”, and that it is encouraging to see that “many churches have opened for counseling and prayer. This is our task as the Body of Christ: to weep with, mourn with, and comfort those who suffer”.
“My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time”, he added. “That Jesus will make his presence felt to those who are grieving, especially those who have lost family members”.
Asked what the attacker’s motives might be, Jacob Rudenstrand remarked that police have found no evidence of an ideological motivation for the attack so far. But “even if an investigation may provide some answers, many questions will not be satisfied”, he said.
In a time in which Sweden has “experienced a sharp increase in bombings in recent years, mainly related to conflicts between warring criminal gangs, this will leave a mark for a long time. Now is a time for mourning”.
Kommenterar attacken på min gamla gymnasieskola i @Evan_Focus:
— Jacob Rudenstrand (@JRudenstrand) February 5, 2025
”My prayer is that both those who were wounded and those who have lost loved ones will find comfort and strength during this difficult time.” https://t.co/f2zXwDOYY8
O God our Father, who art the source of strength to all thy saints, and who didst bring the holy martyrs of Japan through the suffering of the cross to the joys of life eternal: Grant that we, being encouraged by their example, may hold fast the faith that we profess, even unto death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Martyrdom of 23 Franciscan friars in Nagasaki #otd 5 February 1597, this image probably made for their beatification in 1627. (British Museum) pic.twitter.com/WmqmO3UReq
— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) February 5, 2025
“The Makin Review already made clear that information about Smyth’s abuse was reported to the police (on a number of occasions) and to ACSA. ACSA’s own review confirms today that they did receive this information from the Diocese of Ely in 2013. While they state that they have not found any evidence of abuse by Smyth within their churches, they do admit that the Diocese of Cape Town’s communication of the danger which Smyth posed between when they were informed of that danger (2013) and when he died (2018) fell short of what the circumstances demanded.
“This is sobering to read. I am glad both that ACSA rapidly commissioned their own review in response to the Makin Review, and that they are now transparent about its findings. We join them in penitence for the failings of our Churches and in redoubling our efforts to care for and listen to victims and survivors, and to take all necessary and possible steps to respond well to all allegations of abuse.”
The Panel of Inquiry into the Anglican Church of Southern Africa's handling of serial abuser John Smyth’s presence in South Africa has noted a disturbing delay in fully implementing measures evolved over decades to grapple with abuse within the church
— Cape Times (@CapeTimesSA) February 4, 2025https://t.co/mHIeJRMche
Bishop Philip North said: “I’m just devastated, really, that this mess that we’re seeing unfolding since the publication of the Makin review undermines good work.
“Tremendous, heroic work was going on at ground level with parish safeguarding officers and clergy going to tremendous lengths and taking safeguarding seriously.
“I can totally get why trust in bishops is at such a low ebb. It really is at a low ebb. And there are reasons for that. We’ve seen poor judgment. We’ve seen, quite possibly, poor behaviour. We felt trapped, I think quite often, by systems and structures.
“I can’t deny there’s huge reputational damage done to the church at a national level, to the standing of bishops and to the perception of the church and the Church of England, and we feel still to be very much on the back foot, very much on the defensive”.
Asked whether the bishops’ moral authority had gone after the scandals, he said most people had a knowledge of the Church of England through the parish church. Nationally, reputation needed to be restored.
College of Bishops ‘very, very deeply shaken’ by recent events in the diocese of Liverpool, media briefing hears https://t.co/g8xWYE4UZP
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 5, 2025
Almighty and everlasting God, who didst strengthen thy martyr Agatha with constancy and courage: Grant us for the love of thee to make no peace with oppression, to fear no adversity, and to have no tolerance for those who wouldst use their power to abuse or exploit; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
Today is the feast of St Agatha, 3rd Century Sicilian martyr. Here she is on a 15th Century rood screen panel from St John Maddermarket, Norwich, now in the @V_and_A Museum, London. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/oNykmiulUr
— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) February 5, 2025
Drawing on focus groups and interviews with 55 clerics, it highlights the extent to which the Church’s wider challenges, from financial deficits to division over the Living in Love and Faith process, are impacting on clergy well-being.
The report notes “the extremely difficult financial situation of many parishes” — described by one participant as “hugely, hugely horrible” — and the “high awareness of stipendiary ministers of the relationship between their stipend and parish finances, via the parish share”. This is, it says, “often emphasised to local churches by dioceses to incentivise them to pay their parish share in full, and, amid the current economic challenges, some participants report that their dioceses are reviewing the viability of parishes that do not do so.”
For stipendiary clergy, this could provoke concern for their parish. One participant described thinking: “If we don’t pay our common fund, then when I move, then are they going to say, ‘Well, you can’t have a vicar any more?’ And I feel the responsibility for that.”
For some, the question of parish share could “provoke a sense of shame within the diocese”. One commented that, when the diocese set out the cost of a stipendiary priest in a parish share request, they were “made to feel really expensive”. There was an assumption that the priest was the recipient of the cost (£70,000).
Always interesting reading latest from the Living Ministry study tracking clergy over 10 years. One finding was the impact of parish share requests on clergy themselves, including feeling "expensive" when the cost of the stipend is set out by the diocese https://t.co/fXiRDNpqJW
— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 4, 2025
But when our institutions are weak and frayed, as many say they are now, the mature response is to root out bureaucratic rot while also strengthening our common bonds—the approach of a spade in one hand and sword in the other we see in Nehemiah 4:17. We defend and build simultaneously. We cannot simply critique church without seeking its peace and purity. We cannot tear down without also building up. We cannot sever spiritual growth from the manner and place in which Jesus says it takes place: the church.
Yuval Levin recently reminded us in the journal The New Atlantis that such institutional building is others-centered. We must take attention away from self to build for other (future) people. Levin’s criticism is sharp: “The inability to value those other people and judge them worthy of our work and sacrifice is a characteristic failing of a decadent society.” When we focus exclusively on our self-experience to the detriment of others, in the present or future, our cultural artifacts resemble a stagnant pond. There is no life there.
In 2020, Ross Douthat identified American society as being in a period of decadence, “something that comes on civilizations when they’ve reached a certain stage, and it’s not clear where they go next.” Decadence, Douthat believes, happens after the ladder of success has been climbed: a sort of stalemate of cultural production and dialogue. Movies rehash the same stories, and sequels rule the day. We often see this stagnation in form before we see it play out in content.
Blue Like Jazz’s form felt new and edgy for young millennials and Gen Xers in 2003. In hindsight, the fruit it bore is that of a decadent society where the self is ultimately authoritative, where individuals self-select into churches that feed their values (rather than sharpen like iron on iron), and where our Christian message is no different from the world’s—if we stay in the church at all.
Bishop Allison’s Book Recognized in 100 Classics The Right Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison’s most recent book, Trust in an Age of Arrogance, was recently recognized by Dr. Robert Yost, Emeritus Vice President of Academic Affairs at Charlotte Christian College and Theological Seminary, in his new book 100 Christian Classics – A Literary Bucket List for the Thoughtful Christ-Follower. Dr. Yost says, “I can guarantee that you will not be the same after reading it. You may, indeed, finish it on your knees.”
"I started this book in an arm chair and finished it on my knees. Here is a rich treasury of insights and observations from a life well lived and thought, one that adds up to a profound and moving testimony to the wonder of the gospel and God's grace." –Os Guinness #books… pic.twitter.com/HkhnDyj7Rh
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) February 4, 2025
(Received via email-KSH).
To the Rectors and Vicars of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina,
The Lord’s Table is not ours. It is a gift given to the Church, instituted by Christ himself as a means of grace, a participation in his body and blood, and a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet of Revelation 19. Changing its form is no light matter; what we do reflects what we believe about God and his Church.
In centuries past, the Church—universally—shared this sacred meal in a way that reflected its unity and holiness. Wine, as ordained by Christ, was drunk, as ordained by Christ, from a common cup, signifying one sacrifice for one body. This was not mere tradition, but a theological proclamation: that we, though many, are one Body, and that his blood cleanses and sustains us all.
The well-intended innovations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries began to erode this sacred symbolism. Driven by fears of human frailty—whether the moral frailty addressed by the Temperance Movement or the physical frailty feared in the spread of disease—some departed from the elements and methods instituted by Christ.
The introduction of grape juice (Dr Welch’s Unfermented Wine, 1869) and individual communion cups (churches in Denmark, circa 1910) were pragmatic responses to perceived threats—at the expense of good theology.
Anglicans resisted these changes for principled reasons. The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral of 1886/1888 reminds us of the essential elements of our faith, including the sacraments administered “with unfailing use of Christ’s words of institution and of the elements ordained by him.” Wine drunk from the common cup is not simply a matter of preference; it is a faithful enactment of the sacrament as Christ gave it to us.
In the sacrament, ordinary elements are consecrated—set apart to a holy purpose—to communicate God’s grace to his people. Regardless of how one interprets the mystery of “This is my body” and “This is my blood,” it is a profound truth that the consecrated elements are no longer common bread and wine. They are holy, and they must be handled accordingly.
This reverence extends not only to their reception but also to their disposal. What remains after Communion must not be treated as ordinary waste. It must be consumed, reserved for pastoral use, or reverently returned to the earth (the piscina for example), reflecting the honor due to the sacrament and aligning with the Reformation’s rejection of practices like Eucharistic Adoration (Article XXV).
The use of disposable, individualized communion kits complicates this reverence. It introduces a casualness that obscures the sacred. It fragments the unity of the Body by reducing the shared cup to a collection of individual portions. It is, in short, a compromise that diminishes what the sacrament is meant to proclaim.
The recent pandemic compelled us to make difficult decisions. In the face of uncertainty, many of us adapted practices to ensure the continuation of our Eucharistic life. But as the crisis has passed, we must now return to the practices that most faithfully express the theology of Holy Communion. The sacrament is not ours to adapt due to fear; it is Christ’s gift to his Church, and requires our fidelity.
Even though the COVID crisis is behind us, some still feel hesitant about returning to the shared cup. Let’s not allow misplaced fears to lead us astray. The CDC has confirmed that no disease transmission has ever been traced to the common cup. (Managan L, Sehulster L, Chiarelo L, Simonds D, Jarvis W. Risk of infectious disease transmission from a common communion cup. Am J Infect Contr 1998;26: 538e9.) In fact, intinction—dipping the bread into the cup—theoretically poses a greater risk for contamination than sharing the cup. More than that, though, our fidelity to Christ’s command to “drink this” is a part of the Eucharistic mystery—we are sharing Christ’s meal as Christ’s body—that should not be avoided.
I will no longer permit the use of individualized communion kits (the little cup of juice or wine with a wafer on top). And I encourage you to reduce the use of intinction as on par with sharing the common cup. Encourage parishioners to share the common cup as both obedient to the clear teaching of Christ, and, in fact, the more hygienic method of distribution. Multiple stations allow the efficient administration of Communion, but all stations must be visibly tied to the consecration of the elements at the altar.
This transition will require patience and teaching. The common cup is not a trivial matter of tradition; it is a visible sign of our unity in Christ and of his abiding presence with us. The table of the Lord is a place of peace where God’s grace is communicated, and we are united in Christ’s meal as his Body.
The table of the Lord is not ours to reshape but his to give; we approach it with humility, faithfulness, and joy, proclaiming the mystery of Christ’s death until he comes again.
Blessings,
(The Rev. Rev.) Chip Edgar, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of SC
Therefore, rejecting modernist revisions of Orthodoxy, let us draw near to Holy Communion with fear of God and faith, holding fast to the teachings once and for all delivered to all the Saints. pic.twitter.com/Z4JGZH7mtY
— Maksimologija (@maksimologija) January 26, 2025
Or you may download it there.
#Candlemas is also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ.
— The Visual Commentary on Scripture (@TheVCS) February 2, 2025
The Sienese painter Duccio placed the Presentation at the centre of the predella of the huge altarpiece commissioned for Siena Cathedral in 1311. pic.twitter.com/FcKwEpIJ5k
