Look, we beseech thee, O Lord, upon the people of this land who are called after thy holy name, that they may ever walk worthy of their Christian profession. Grant unto us all that, laying aside our divisions, we may be united in heart and mind to bear the burdens which are laid upon us, and be enabled by patient continuance in well-doing to glorify thy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Good Morning Twitter friends.. pic.twitter.com/LDl2PE74YX
— Anika (@AnikaFrancina) May 4, 2022
Retirement is the start of a fresh chapter for many, offering a new lease of life to travel the world, pursue hobbies, hang out with the grandchildren or, for a growing band of people, join the priesthood.
Retired city workers, head teachers and police officers are being fast-tracked into the clergy to bring a “lifetime of work experience” to rural churches and share the load with overstretched vicars.
It is hoped that up to 8,000 Church of England worshippers in their late fifties, sixties or seventies, particularly those with managerial experience from their careers and a track record of serving as church wardens or lay ministers, could be tempted to train as priests to serve in their local parish after retirement.
Read it all (subscription).
Older men with lifetime of experience, proven character & spiritual maturity are an untapped potential for pastoral ministry. It is biblical to expect ‘elders’ to be older & normal to raise up leaders from within congregation. Many FIEC churches do this. https://t.co/950hKc1OBW
— John Stevens (@_JohnStevens) May 1, 2022
The Archbishop of Canterbury has apologised for the “terrible crime” of the Anglican Church’s involvement in Canada’s residential schools – and for the Church of England’s “grievous sins” against the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
The Archbishop spent this weekend visiting Indigenous Canadian reserves, meeting with Indigenous leaders and Anglicans, and listening to residential school survivors, as part of a five-day visit to Canada.
Addressing survivors and Indigenous elders in Prince Albert on Sunday, the Archbishop said: “I am so sorry that the Church participated in the attempt – the failed attempt, because you rose above it and conquered it – to dehumanise and abuse those we should have embraced as brothers and sisters.”
He added: “I am more than humbled that you are even willing to attempt to listen to this apology, and to let us walk with you on the long journey of renewal and reconciliation.”
The Archbishop is visiting Canada to repent and atone for the Church of England’s legacy of colonialism and the harm done to Indigenous peoples – and to share in the Anglican Church of Canada’s reconciliation work with Indigenous, Inuit and Métis communities.
The Anglican Church committed grievous sins against the Indigenous, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.
I commit to walking with you on the long journey of renewal and reconciliation for as long as the Lord gives me strength to do so.https://t.co/KiAUOKtT5R
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) May 2, 2022
A cross-departmental strategy with formal government structures and the “active commitment of the Prime Minister” is needed to address rising levels of child poverty in the UK, a new report from the Church of England concludes.
The report, published on Thursday, is based on consultations with 14 charitable organisations, which were contacted by the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Revd Paul Butler, and the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Andrew Selous MP, in January 2021. The organisations, which include the Children’s Society and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, were invited to submit their ideas for a child poverty strategy, focused on tackling the underlying or systemic causes of poverty.
The consensus was that child poverty was a serious issue that was already on the rise before the pandemic, but had worsened during it: 4.3 million children were living in poverty in 2019 to 2020 and at least 120,000 more children were drawn into poverty as a result of Covid-19.
The Prime Minister and MPs, the report explains, have quoted from absolute poverty measures, which suggest that child poverty has remained stable since 2010, rising by only 100,000 between 2010 and 2020. This is measured against a substantial fall of 1.2 million (1.8 million before housing costs) over the previous decade (2000 to 2010), when Labour was in Government.
Read it all (registration or subscription).
LATEST. A cross-departmental strategy with formal government structures and the “active commitment of the Prime Minister” is needed to address rising levels of child poverty in the UK, a new report from the Church of England concludeshttps://t.co/9KNsozsgAa
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 28, 2022
Brought up in rural Staffordshire, Bishop Michael attended a small Church of England primary school and a rural church. Bishop Michael was ordained in 1999 and until his appointment as Director of Mission in the Diocese of Oxford in 2010, he combined his scientific work 50:50 with work in Christian ministry as a missioner and theological educator.
The Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans “I am delighted to receive the news that Michael Beasley is to be the new Bishop of Bath and Wells. Michael has served with distinction as Suffragan Bishop of Hertford in this diocese since mid-2015, and he will leave an impressive and long-lasting legacy here.”
Bishop Michael and Lizzie have two young children. In his spare time, he enjoys tending his garden and his bees.
His appointment follows the retirement of the Rt Revd Peter Hancock, who stood down as Bishop of Bath and Wells in May 2021 due to ill health.
Downing Street has announced today (10am, 28 April 2022) that the Rt Revd Michael Beasley will be the next Bishop of Bath and Wells. Read the full announcement. #NewBish https://t.co/B9lqJgsAeK pic.twitter.com/eu2V33hDoA
— Diocese of Bath & Wells (@BathWells) April 28, 2022
For the past few years, Bible teacher and best-selling author Beth Moore has been one tweet away from disaster.
Moore, perhaps the best-known ex-Southern Baptist in the country, will recount her Twitter battles, her split with her former denomination and, more importantly, her lifelong journey with Jesus, in a new memoir titled “All My Knotted-Up Life,” due out from Tyndale in April 2023.
News of the memoir was first reported by Cathy Lynn Grossman of Publishers Weekly. Tyndale publisher Karen Watson told PW that the memoir will be a “southern literary reflection on an unlikely and winsomely remarkable life.”
Jesus saved @BethMooreLPM's life. Twitter blew it up. Now she's writing all about it https://t.co/QYP90bTzrb via @RNS
— Bob Smietana (@bobsmietana) April 26, 2022
From there:
The state Supreme Court got it right, and the state Supreme Court got it wrong when it came to the opinion issued last week regarding the former Episcopal Church parishes in South Carolina.
The court got it right when it quoted the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1979 case of Jones v. Wolf: “(The) constitution of the general church can be made to recite an express trust in favor of the denominational church.”
The state Supreme Court got it wrong when it relied upon the canons — not the constitution — of the Episcopal Church to determine that some of the parishes had “acceded” to the Dennis Canon.
Anyone who looks at the constitution of the Episcopal Church will find no provision in it addressing trusts for real estate owned by any church.
Such language is in the canons, which are analogous to an entity’s bylaws or operating rules, of the Episcopal Church but not in the constitution of the church, as required in the Jones v. Wolf decision.
The language was put into the canons because adopting those is a much simpler process that can be accomplished quickly.
ROBERT M. KUNES
South Carolina Supreme Court divides the babyhttps://t.co/PRC8oR4jqh pic.twitter.com/wCeIc8cce3
— Anglican Ink (@anglicanink) April 22, 2022
He starts a little past 20 minutes in.
The sermon starts some 32 minutes in.
There is also still more there.
Wednesday after Easter …..
Painting by Rembrandt – Christ at Emmaus ,1648
Louvre pic.twitter.com/o8c3hiWMat— anisja rossi (@anisja_rossi) April 20, 2022
The unanimous decision announced on April 20, 2022 by the South Carolina Supreme Court fulfilled (by its unanimity) at least one of the predictions made in the previous post on this blog after the oral arguments last December. Unanimity, however, in this instance served not to resolve thorny issues of South Carolina law, but rather sent a strong signal that the collective Justices were circling their wagons around their own, in a somewhat transparent attempt to recover the Court’s dignity lost in the fiasco created by its disgraceful disunity in 2017.
The result (reached by implicit design) can, alas, bring peace to neither of the litigating factions. Applying extremely arbitrary criteria of its own devising, the Court decided that of the twenty-nine individual parishes before it, fourteen (by the documents they adopted) allowed the nationwide trust specified in the Dennis Canon to be applied to their properties, while fifteen did not. The hair-splitting on display here is best illustrated by the following passage from footnote 12 of the main opinion by Justice Few:
The analysis of whether Holy Cross, Stateburg satisfied the second element discussed above—intent to create a trust—is the same as our analysis for St. Paul’s, Bennettsville, but the outcome of the case for the two Parishes is different. This is because Holy Cross, Stateburg took affirmative present action in its 2011 Bylaws to “accede[] to the . . . Canons of the [National Church],” but St. Paul’s, Bennettsville merely stated it was “organized under” and “subject to” the Canons.
This strained construction transforms the English word “accede” (“join in, agree and consent to”) into a poison pill that forever dooms the property of the parish using it to belong to the national Church rather than to the parish itself and its members — the latter are entitled to make use of their own property only for as long as they agree to remain with the sinking ecclesiastical shipwreck that is the current Episcopal Church in the United States of America.
The construction has acquired its severity by a questionable legerdemain performed by Justice Few and his colleagues.
A Pastoral Letter To The Clergy And People Of The #Anglican Diocese Of South Carolina in the light of today's #SouthCarolina Supreme Court ruling https://t.co/v6zbK37lCk #law #history #parishministry #religion #lowcountrylife pic.twitter.com/YF8TGr2604
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) April 20, 2022
A Petition for Sunday Prayers
Gracious God, every morning your mercies are new, and your faithfulness is great. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us, comfort us in our losses, and fill us with a desire to serve each other in these challenging days. Make known your will and plan for us as we seek to follow the path you prepare.
Lord in your mercy…
Beautiful circumhorizontal arc over Bennettsville right now. 📸 via Connie Freeman. #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/wiVS6P0BVs
— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) April 21, 2022
1 Corinthians 12:26
If one member suffers, all suffer together;
if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is part of it.
1 Corinthians 7:26
Dear St. Michaelites and Friends,
As you may have heard, the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a decision earlier today in the church property case between our diocese and the national Episcopal Church. The opinion is lengthy, and both we and the diocese’s legal team are still digesting it.
What we know so far is that the decision is a mixed bag. We rejoice to read the Court’s determination that St. Michael’s real property is not held in trust for the Episcopal Church or any of its dioceses. That means that our Vestry continues to own and control our real property. At the same time, we are grieved to read the Court’s determination that the real property of 14 churches in our diocese are held in trust for the Episcopal Church, as is Camp St. Christopher, and we lift up in prayer all of the clergy, staff, and congregants affiliated with those churches.
It is too early to know the full ramifications of this decision or what other legal options may exist, and we await further guidance from the diocese on those matters. We will communicate additional information when it becomes available.
In the meantime, we urge you to remain in prayer for our diocese and all of its churches. And we thank you for your incredible faithfulness to doing the work of spreading the Gospel here at St. Michael’s throughout this process.
Blessings in Christ,
The Rev. Al Zadig, Jr+ Rector
Mr. Lee Cox, Senior Warden
Mrs. Laura Waring Gruber, Junior Warden
Saint Michaels Charleston SC #southcarolina #charleston pic.twitter.com/c1FDb5xZua
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) August 10, 2015
From there:
Wednesday after Easter Day,
20 April 2022Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, the Supreme Court of South Carolina published their opinion on the matter of our legal dispute with the Episcopal Church over property owned by parishes, the diocese, and the Trustees of the diocese. The court affirmed Judge Dickson’s ruling for some parishes and reversed his findings for others.
The ruling raises many issues that will have to play out in the coming weeks before any actions are taken, so our first response must be to quiet our hearts before the Lord as we pray for grace to meet the days ahead. Some of our churches are relieved that the court ruled their property does indeed belong to them. Some are grieving deeply, as the courts ruling went the opposite direction. If we take seriously St Paul’s admonition to rejoice with those who rejoice while we weep with those who weep (Romans 12.15), we will find this to be a season marked by both, regardless of how it affects us personally. So, lift each other up in prayer as we enter the complex emotions of these days.
Finally, I urge you to remember that when Jesus, early in his earthly ministry, first entrusted the mission of the gospel to his disciples he sent them out with, “…nothing for your journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money… not even a change of clothes!” (Luke 9.3) We must remember that while we have enjoyed the benefits of rich resources for gospel ministry, none are actually required. The Lord has provided—and always will provide—all we need to proclaim the gospel, bind up the brokenhearted, heal the sick, set the captives free, do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with our God. The ministry of this diocese to a confused and broken world is dependent on God’s mercy and call, not on our property and resources.
I ask your prayers for those of us who are called to lead as we sort through the difficult decisions of the days ahead.
Blessings,
The Rt Revd Chip Edgar, The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina
What must the consecration experience have been like for our new Bishop? Just a few days after Bishop Edgar’s consecration as Bishop of the ADOSC, Communications Director, Joy Hunter, sat down to chat with him about the experience. To read, go to: https://t.co/gF9a20rWYR #ADOSC pic.twitter.com/zPFGXBq33p
— Anglican Diocese of SC (@anglican_sc) March 24, 2022
In this exile for the past two years and in this fast, everything that challenges our world and everything that we depended on to sustain our Christian life was suspended, but Christ remained. His love endured.
There we were, on our own, cut off in the upper rooms of our homes and unable to go to church, and Christ found us.
I see this in Craigie Aitchison’s images of the isolated Christ, who comes to us in our isolation, showing us that we don’t actually need anything else, and that in the end all the things we enjoy – material blessings, other people, the worship and comfort of the church, the sacraments themselves – all of them will cease.
Or to put it another way; He is Risen. This is the great Easter hope. In his dying and rising, we find our identity as those who are redeemed and restored by Christ. We find ourselves within the life of the God who now bears the scars of passion.
Or rather, Christ finds us. He comes to us, as he came to Mary Magdalene, and he asks why we’re crying and who we’re looking for.
He has returned to take us with him. Like Mary and like Elizabeth who will be baptised in just a moment, He know us by name. He shows us what really matters.
We greet the risen Lord with joy, proclaiming Alleluia, Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! To read my Easter Day sermon @York_Minster https://t.co/GaxGi4QQ8B
— Stephen Cottrell (@CottrellStephen) April 17, 2022
But the Easter message is that what we cannot do has been brought into the world by God.
For Christ Jesus is alive with the life of the world to come. A life where every tear is wiped away, every injustice righted, every evil exposed and judged and banished. And through Jesus a new future is set for the whole world. The resurrection promises each nation, and every victim and survivor, that the injustices, cruelties, evil deeds and soulless institutions of this world do not have the last word.
Not only his blood stained grave clothes are left behind in the tomb but all of our grave clothes.
This is what we proclaim at Easter. It is a season of life and hope, of repentance and renewal. This week in the Eastern Orthodox world it is Holy Week, the greatest time for repentance. Muslims are in Ramadan, a time for purification and change, coming to Eid. Jews celebrate the Passover and liberation. Let this be a time for Russian ceasefire, withdrawal and a commitment to talks. This is a time for resetting the ways of peace, not for what Bismarck called blood and iron. Let Christ prevail! Let the darkness of war be banished.
The resurrection is the conquest of death and the opening of eternal life – through Jesus a gift offered to every human being who reaches out to him.
My sermon at the Easter Day Sung Eucharist at @CburyCathedral this morning: https://t.co/6SqsKBioDn
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) April 17, 2022
In this resurrection the world knows fully and finally that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God: an absolutely unique person in the whole of the human story. We have remembered in Holy Week and on Good Friday his death on the cross for the sins of the whole world – so that we might be forgiven. We recognise that God is at work in Christ to love and redeem the world and that the power of the resurrection is able to transform every life, every place and, ultimately, the whole of creation.
This is a moment and a season to travel deeper into Easter joy – perhaps deeper than we have ever journeyed in our lives before – because the need in the world is so great.
St. Luke tells the story of the resurrection in a particular way across the final chapter of the gospel. Luke’s account is framed in a single day, the day of resurrection.
We begin at the empty tomb in the early morning. The women come and meet the angels who give them the glorious news of resurrection. We continue through the middle of the day with the two disciples walking to Emmaus and the risen Christ draws near, an unseen stranger, recognised as hearts are set on fire and eyes opened in the breaking of the bread. In the evening, the disciples gather in the upper room and Jesus appears with them and leads them out to the Bethany and blesses them.
This great good news is hard to take in. This is how Luke describes the response of the disciples in the Upper Room when he shows them his hands and his feet: “While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering…” (Luke 24.41). Big truths need time.
#HappyEaster everyone!
Christ is risen as he said,
He is risen indeed! #Alleluia!#Easter#ChristIsRisen #AlleluiaAlleluiaAlleluia! #LordJesusChrist pic.twitter.com/Q5iwQW0BGX— PrayeroftheChurch (@Neddamred) April 16, 2022
For then he opened their vnderstanding, that they might perceiue the Scriptures, and sayd vnto them: Thus it is written, and thus it behooued Christ to suffer, and to rise from death the third day, and that there should be preached openly in his name pardon and remission of sinnes to all the Nations of the world (Luke 24.45-47). Yee see (good Christian people) how necessary this Article of our faith is, seeing it was prooued of Christ himselfe by such euident reasons and tokens, by so long time and space. Now therefore as our Sauiour was diligent for our comfort and instruction to declare it: so let vs be as ready in our beliefe to receiue it to our comfort and instruction. As he died not for himselfe, no more did he rise againe for himselfe. He was dead (sayth Saint Paul) for our sinnes, and rose againe for our iustification (1 Corinthians 15.3-4). O most comfortable word, euermore to be borne in remembrance. He died (saith he) to put away sinne, hee rose againe to endow vs with righteousnesse. His death tooke away sinne and malediction, his death was the ransome of them both, his death destroyed death, and ouercame the deuill, which had the power of death in his subiection, his death destroyed hell, with all the damnation thereof. Thus is death swallowed vp by Christs victory, thus is hell spoyled for euer.
Tintoretto's Resurrection
Powerful Renaissance depiction of the central core of the Christian Gospels, The Resurrection of Tintoretto: https://t.co/AAC9lbVlaQ pic.twitter.com/mC3L1OSamt
— Caperton Classic Art (@CapertonFineArt) April 1, 2021
The supper at Emmaus
Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588–1629)http://t.co/ANE5aEuLaM pic.twitter.com/1ZY612660E— Jacek z Kalisza (@JacekzKalisza) April 7, 2015
I appeared on Question Time in Canterbury, the diocese I serve. It was the first time an Archbishop of Canterbury has been on the programme, so no pressure there. There were impassioned discussions about the appalling atrocities in Ukraine, the cost of living crisis, the government’s energy strategy and the impact of lorry tailbacks on the people of Kent. There were also lots of sharp disagreements, but I came away with a strong sense that so many of us share a deep desire for justice, fairness and the common good.
Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived in nearby Thanet in 597 ad. Being in this diocese, surrounded by reminders of my predecessors, I’m struck by the history of this church in this country – from the violent death of Thomas Becket on the orders of Henry II to the welcome of French Huguenot refugees in the 17th century. Our calling has remained the same: to be the Church for England, making the good news of Jesus Christ known, serving those on the margins and loving our neighbour. As I celebrate this Easter Sunday, I will do so with the suffering of people at home and abroad on my mind and the hope of the risen Christ in my heart.
This is a really endearing, and profound, set of reflections by @JustinWelby. A good way to kick off the most holy days of the year.https://t.co/PWEhZGYMVN
— Marcus Walker (@WalkerMarcus) April 14, 2022
As we begin Holy Week, I continue to be moved to prayer by the stories I am hearing from around the world. Some of these stories are front-page news, coming out of the war in Ukraine, while other stories come from quieter conflicts in places like Myanmar, Northern Nigeria, and South Sudan. In these moments, when it is sometimes hard to put into words what our hearts are feeling, I am thankful for the richness of our tradition which provides proven pathways for prayer – because God uses prayer to change things!….
9pm in Jeremy Taylor country, 35 minutes after sunset. A beautifully quiet, gentle dusk in the midst of Holy Week. pic.twitter.com/xfoII2iRuv
— laudablePractice🇺🇦 (@cath_cov) April 13, 2022
There is also still more there.
Entry of Christ into Jerusalem is a 1617 oil painting by Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It depicts #Jesus entering Jerusalem as described in the Gospels, the event celebrated on Palm Sunday. pic.twitter.com/luB13CgNYl
— EUROPEAN ART 💙💛 (@EuropeanArtHIST) February 12, 2019
The true size and importance of a medieval church has been revealed following an archaeological survey by Historic England.
Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire was founded by Henry I in 1132 for the Augustinian Canons.
It was the location of the court which annulled Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
The church survived his dissolution of the monasteries, but was once “grander and more elaborate”, the survey shows
Archaeological surveys at Dunstable Priory @diostalbans reveal larger church. https://t.co/IPZsNku1Fq
— Janet Gough (@Gough_Janet) April 8, 2022
Churches across the UK are continuing their efforts to assist refugees from the war in Ukraine.
The latest figures from the United Nations show that almost 4.3 million people have left Ukraine since the outbreak of war. The International Organization for Migration says that 7.1 million are displaced within the country.
In rural North Yorkshire, the Rector of the Whorlton Benefice, the Revd Dr Robert Opala, has been involved in helping several Ukrainian families find sanctuary.
Dr Opala, who is originally from Poland, has been working with the Middlesbrough-based charity Investing in People and Culture, which has facilitated the connections needed for refugees to apply for a visa under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
The application process, Dr Opala said, has proved “difficult and complicated”, and has created “a lot of frustration and even anger”.
Parishes navigate obstacles to help refugees arriving in UK https://t.co/0KDIXArKRA
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 8, 2022
The Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, has criticised the Government’s Spring Statement for not doing enough to alleviate pressures on the poor, and said that the Church was “reaching the limit” as to what it could do to cover the shortfall.
Dr Inge was speaking in a debate on the Spring Statement in the Grand Committee of the House of Lords on Thursday.
“While it is clear that the measures announced in the Spring Statement and previously by the Chancellor on energy prices and other measures will help lower-income families, it is far from clear that they will compensate for price inflation,” he said. “The fact is that they most likely will not. It is also the case that, while the increase in prices is universal, the support offered by these measures is not, and there will be vulnerable groups who will not feel their impact.”
Dr Inge said that the Church had been “very active in seeking to alleviate poverty and everything associated with it since the crash of over ten years ago”, but it needed more support from the Government.
Church ‘reaching the limit’ on what it can do to alleviate poverty, says Bishop of Worcester https://t.co/OHl6fYLCSO
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 5, 2022
The Bishop of Birkenhead, Julie Conalty, has been appointed a deputy lead bishop for safeguarding with a focus on survivor engagement. She takes over from the Bishop of Southampton, Debbie Sellin.
Bishop Julie said: “It is a huge privilege to take on this role and to work for and alongside survivors. I won’t always get it right, but I am committed to the making the Church of England safer and to creating a better safeguarding culture. When meeting and speaking with individual survivors of Church-context abuse, I am often struck by how much grace is shown to me and I have found their insight and challenge to be invaluable. We, the Church, need to listen more and to respond with equal grace – only then will we make the changes that are needed.”
New deputy lead bishop for safeguarding in the Church of England. @JulieConalty who is Bishop of Birkenhead. Good appointment of a survivor focussed Bishop. She will have her work cut out though https://t.co/4SvZNirSnc
— Richard Scorer (@Richard_Scorer) April 5, 2022
""Churches across the Anglican Communion are deeply affected by climate change." – https://t.co/rzGRWt8qqn
— St Eds Cathedral (@stedscath) April 4, 2022