In early 2020, Wood was one of the first publicly known figures to contract COVID-19. In the hospital, he was placed on ventilation for 10 days.

After relying on scripture, his family, the faith and perseverance of his congregants and the diligent efforts of hospital staff, Wood made a recovery. 

Now he’s slated to take on the prestigious role of archbishop, which means accepting the responsibility of several leadership duties. Wood will serve a five-year term with the possibility of one reelection.

Current archbishop Beach said he is looking forward to the future of the Province, the press release states. “Bishop Wood is an incredible leader and the ACNA is going to be blessed in this next season of our life together.”

Read it all.

Let’s pray for Steve Wood, the new archbishop of the ACNA.

St. Andrews Church reverend elected archbishop of the Anglican Church https://t.co/BGBGEx60dw via @postandcourier

— Timothy Tennent (@TimTennent) June 23, 2024

(Via email; KSH).

June 22, 2024 

Brothers and sisters, 

Grace and peace to you in the name of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ.

Bishop Bill Love, Bishop Dave Bena, and I have been sequestered within a conclave in Latrobe, PA since Thursday with our brother bishops to pray and seek guidance from the Holy Spirit in selecting the third archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America. Many of you have been praying and fasting for a significant season in the weeks leading up to this important decision.

I am pleased to inform you that our prayers have been answered, and Bishop Steve Wood, the Diocesan Bishop of the Carolinas has been chosen as our next archbishop. I have had the immense privilege to serve beside Archbishop-elect Wood for many years and know him to be a faithful man of God, a passionate defender and proclaimer of the Gospel of our Lord, and an effective and caring pastor and leader. It is my firm conviction that the Lord will continue to cause the ACNA to grow and flourish underneath Archbishop Wood’s leadership as our next Primate.

I know this email comes late on a Saturday evening, but I come to you asking once more for prayer in this momentous season of change in the life of our beloved Province. As we continue to pray for our current Archbishop Foley Beach in tomorrow’s Prayers of the People, I also request that you add Archbishop-elect Steve Wood to your petitions.

Additionally, the important mission of the Anglican Church in North America continues this week. We have numerous delegates and attendees from across the Anglican Diocese of the Living Word travelling to Latrobe to participate in the ACNA’s Provincial Council and Assembly. Please pray for all those involved in these important meetings and services of worship. 

“O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

Diocesan Bishop Julian M. Dobbs

Anglican Diocese of the Living Word

Tonight ⁦@The_ADLW⁩ bishop the right reverend Julian Dobbs addresses congregants of Holy Trinity Anglican and First Presbyterian Hillsdale on “Calvin, Cranmer, and CS Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.” pic.twitter.com/EzUp90lESE

— Miles Smith IV (@IVMiles) September 8, 2023

Latrobe, Pennsylvania – The College of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America has elected its next archbishop, the Rt. Rev. Steve Wood, bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas. The College met in conclave in the crypt of St. Vincent’s Basilica at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania from Thursday, June 20 through Saturday, June 22, 2024.

Bishop Wood will serve as the third archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America which was founded in 2009 and now has over 128,000 members in over 1,000 congregations across Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

The archbishop convenes the meetings of the Provincial Assembly, Provincial Council and College of Bishops, represents the Province in the Councils of the Church, serves as chairman of the Executive Committee (board) of the Church, serves as the President of the Anglican Relief and Development Fund, and undertakes other duties as prescribed by the Canons of the Church. He serves a five-year term and can serve a maximum of two terms.

The Most Rev. Dr. Foley Beach is completing his second term and tenth year as archbishop, after having been elected by the College in 2014 at St. Vincent’s College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. After transferring authority to Archbishop-elect Wood, Beach will take a sabbatical before continuing as bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the South.

Read it all.

Steve Wood Elected Third Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North Americahttps://t.co/weSyf8dAXL

— ACNA (@The_ACNA) June 22, 2024

What’s been most interesting to me about Shuttlesworth is how he personified the mixture of Christian orthodoxy and freedom fighting that characterized the primary stream of the Black church’s social action tradition. As a pastor and leader, he called himself a biblicist and an actionist, meaning he had a devout faith in the authority of Scripture while believing right doctrine compelled the Christian into social action.

In February, I preached one of the Black History Month sermons at Zion Baptist Church, a traditional Black church in Cincinnati. After the service, Judge Cheryl Grant, a longtime congregant, thanked me for delving into the legacy of civil rights advocate Fred Shuttlesworth.

Grant had been very close with the Shuttlesworth family after they moved from Birmingham to Cincinnati in 1961, and she was working on a documentary about him with filmmaker Mark Vikram Purushotham and biographer Andrew M. Manis. Her personal testimony about Shuttlesworth and his story of redemptive action has been more than inspiring for me, and now I’d like to share his story with a wider audience.

Shuttlesworth is an unsung hero of the civil rights movement. A cofounder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he faced and ultimately outwitted Birmingham’s infamous commissioner of public safety, Eugene “Bull” Connor, to advance racial justice in one of America’s most obstinately segregated environments.

What’s been most interesting to me about Shuttlesworth is how he personified the mixture of Christian orthodoxy and freedom fighting that characterized the primary stream of the Black church’s social action tradition. As a pastor and leader, he called himself a biblicist and an actionist, meaning he had a devout faith in the authority of Scripture while believing right doctrine compelled the Christian into social action.

Read it all.

“The American church’s sins regarding race are a product of its failure to follow the Bible’s mandates, not the consequence of following them too closely.”@JustinEGiboney this Juneteenth: https://t.co/2qk8JhX4QW

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) June 19, 2024

Stephen said: “Ever since arriving in Worcester five years ago I have loved this amazing Cathedral and have grown in deep affection for the people and city as well as the wider diocese. It is now a privilege and joy to be appointed as Dean of Worcester and I look forward to continuing to develop the Cathedral’s ministry and position as a place of prayer, learning and welcome.”

Bishop John said: “I am delighted with this appointment. Stephen is an exceptionally gifted priest who is much loved in Worcester and beyond. He has been a brilliant Interim Dean, and we are very blessed that God has called him to be the next Dean.”

Stephen was ordained in 1996, serving first in the Church in Wales and then in the Diocese of Manchester, where he was Rector of the inner-city parish of St Agnes’, Longsight and then Team Rector of Wythenshawe. Stephen was also the Bishop of Manchester’s adviser for liturgy and worship as well as the co-ordinator of the Manchester Estate Ministry Network. As a Residentiary Canon of Worcester Cathedral, Stephen has also been involved in the Cathedral and diocesan Eco groups and the diocesan Racial Justice Forum. He is the independent chair of the Worcester Cares forum for homelessness and vulnerable people. His interests include architecture, ales and a love of dogs!

Read it all.

"Architecture, ale and a love of dogs!"

He's our kind of Dean

The King has approved the nomination of The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Edwards, Interim Dean of Worcester, to be appointed as the new Dean of Worcester#DogLovers @worccathedral https://t.co/x3NfEHoxgX

— English Cathedrals (@engcathedrals) June 19, 2024

Beginning August 18, the people of Holy Trinity, Windemere will begin worshipping with the community of St. John’s Chapel on Hanover Street. The Revd David Dubay will lead the united congregations in discerning a new future together that will include outreach to the Hispanic community in downtown Charleston. The Bishop and Standing Committee have worked with all parties to discern a path forward that it is believed will lead to renewed and fruitful ministry for all.  Please keep them in your prayers as they begin this next season of life together.

Read it all.

You may listen directly here:

or you may download it there.

Gospel: Today's stunning Gospel reading often shocks people: Jesus's relatives, including Mary, come to Capernaum to "restrain" or "seize" him (κρατῆσαι) because they thought "he was out of his mind." Everyone faces opposition, even Jesus. Don't let it deter you. (Mk 3:21-25) pic.twitter.com/jjKUXksH9B

— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 20, 2018

The status of the clergy as office-holders “must not be used to place increasing demands and expectations on clergy without offering reciprocal support structures and accountability of those making the demands”, the chair of Church of England Clergy and Employee Advocates (CEECA) has said.

The Revd Sam Maginnis, who chairs CEECA, part of Unite the Union’s Faithworkers’ Branch, is the Team Vicar of Horsham. He was responding to a letter in today’s Church Times requesting a discussion about “whether parish priests really are ‘office-holders’ with less job security than most secular workers, or whether it is a convenient management fiction”.

The letter, from a parish priest who requested anonymity, lists working conditions for the clergy, including: working “on average longer hours than most employees”; being “canonically obliged to remain within certain forms of wording in carrying out certain duties”; and being “compulsorily subject to both a draconian disciplinary system and a system of particular action outside that system without any appeal or redress rights”.

The status of the clergy as office-holders “must not be used to place increasing demands and expectations on clergy without offering reciprocal support structures and accountability of those making the demands”, the chair of CEECA has said https://t.co/Zh6JBVTnv1

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 3, 2024

[Henry] Sacheverell’s analysis was clear: the Church had taken into its bosom, or — worse — given positions of power to, people who were totally inimical to the worship, doctrine, and position of the Church of England itself. It had got into bed with a governing class that, in fact, hated it and sought its destruction. A misplaced attempt to broaden the Church’s appeal meant giving place and precedence to those who in their practice were antithetical to how the Church had always acted.

They were now calling the shots, and were dismantling from the inside all that had, “in living memory” — a reference to the horrors of the Civil War — been fought for so painfully. She had taken “into her bowels” those who “neither believe her faith, own her mission, submit to her discipline, or comply with her liturgy”. As he put it, “if the Church can’t be pulled down, it may be blown up.”

What Sacheverell found particularly repugnant was the dishonesty of those who sought to do this. While there was a certain grim integrity to Roman Catholic or Presbyterian attempts to do down the Church of England, Sacheverell viewed the “religious Trojan Horse” that he discerned at the heart of early-18th-century Anglicanism as wicked first and foremost because of its dishonesty: “What they could not do by open violence, they will not fail by secret treachery to accomplish.” Nobody could accuse him of not being plain-speaking, and it was the verbal dissembling of the powers that were which so riled him.

I wrote a piece about the most important celebrity Vicar you’ve never heard of, who died 300 years ago this week. https://t.co/diESz7aRS2

— Fergus Butler-Gallie (@_F_B_G_) May 31, 2024

Or you can listen to it all here. The sermon itself starts around 17:45.

For those interested in downloading you may find the link there.

Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles,empowering them with divine inspiration&guidance.Just as flames danced upon their heads,let this Pentecost renew our faith&fill our hearts with the warmth of divine love.#Pentecost #feastofpentecost pic.twitter.com/v4usaCfCut

— The John Bradburne Memorial Society (@BradburneJohn) May 19, 2024

Sitting in the front row of a supervisor training in 2016, Stamford Police Sgt. Sean Boeger raised his hand every time the instructor asked who had dealt with a particular experience, including homicides, fatal accidents, and child deaths.

During his nearly 30 years as a police officer, 48-year-old Boeger had helped with body recovery efforts at Ground Zero after 9/11. When 20 children were killed by a lone shooter in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, just 40 miles from Stamford, Boeger volunteered to help the small Newtown police department. He covered midnight shifts as officers took time to recover.

The instructor at the training triggered something in Boeger. Until that class, he had never dwelt much on the effect of witnessing so much trauma. Driving home that evening, he also thought back to another incident, when he responded to a report of a small child falling out of an eighth-story window.

“I felt overwhelmed, kind of panic-stricken,” he recalled of that evening. “I think I was more in shock from the stuff I’d never contemplated and the trauma impact it had on me. Because you don’t stop to think about it.”

Read it all.

Around the country, chaplains are serving police departments: not just showing up for ceremonies and funerals, but providing counsel for the traumatic incidents police so often face.https://t.co/Vaiq3VnlGi

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 17, 2024

In answers to British magazine Evangelicals Now, Rico Tice underlined that it is “vital” form him to express a “clear separation from a church that no longer affirms Biblical orthodoxy, especially with regard to preaching repentance”.

The fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury had not given “a substantive response” to the call by Rico Tice and others to “resist the influence of cultural values when they are in opposition to those of the Bible” led him to this decision.

The author and evangelist described himself as “a cradle-to-grave Anglican” who identifies most with Anglicans in the Global South when it comes to the authority of the Bible.

Anglican Communion movements such as Gafcon and GSAFC have been very critical with what they understand as a shift in Christian doctrine of the Church of England on issues like human identity, sexuality and marriage.

Read it all.

The well-known author of ‘Christianity Explored’ says he has not received “a substantive response” from the Archbishop on where the Church stands on issues of marriage and sexuality. https://t.co/SqtgG7QbVA

— Evangelical Focus (@Evan_Focus) April 29, 2024

First, LET THE STONE PREACH.
It is not at all an uncommon thing to find in Scripture stones bid to speak; great stones have been rolled as witnesses against the people; stones and beams out of the wall have been called upon to testify to sin. I shall call this stone as a witness to valuable truths of God of which it was the symbol. The river of our thought divides into six streams.

1. First, the stone rolled must evidently be regarded as the door of the sepulcher removed. Death’s house was firmly secured by a huge stone; the angel removed it, and the living Christ came forth. The massive door, you will observe, was taken away from the grave, not merely opened, but unhinged, flung aside, rolled away! And now death’s ancient prison is without a door! The saints shall pass in, but they shall not be shut in, they shall tarry there as in an open cavern, but there is nothing to prevent their coming forth from it in due time. As Samson, when he slept in Gaza, and was beset by foes, arose early in the morning, and took upon his shoulders the gates of Gaza—posts and bars and all—and carried all away, and left the Philistine stronghold open and exposed, so has it been done unto the grave by our Master, who, having slept out His three days and nights according to the divine decree, arose in the greatness of His strength, and bore away the iron gates of the sepulcher, tearing every bar from its place.

The removal of the imprisoning stone was the outward type of our Lord’s having plucked up the gates of the grave—posts, bars, and all, thus exposing that old fortress of death and hell, and leaving it as a city stormed, and taken, and bereft of power. Remember that our Lord was committed to the grave as a hostage. “He died for our sins.” Like a debt they were imputed to Him; He discharged the debt of obligation due from us to God on the cross; He suffered to the full the great substitutionary equivalent for our suffering, and then He was confined in the tomb as a hostage until His work should be fully accepted. That acceptance would be notified by His coming forth from vile imprisonment, and that coming forth would become our justification! “He rose again for our justification.” If He had not fully paid the debt, He would have remained in the grave; if Jesus had not made effectual, total, final atonement, He would have continued a captive. But He had done it all! The “It is finished,” which came from His own lips, was established by the verdict of Jehovah, and Jesus was set free. Mark Him as He rises—not breaking out of prison like a felon who escapes from justice, but coming leisurely forth like one whose time of release from jail is come. Rising, it is true, by His own power, but not leaving the tomb without a sacred permit—the heavenly officer from the court of heaven is deputized to open the door for Him by rolling away the stone; and Jesus Christ completely justified, rises to prove that all His people are in Him completely justified, and the work of salvation is forever perfect!

Read it all.

Resurrezione di Cristo
Pieter Paul Rubens,1616
Galleria Palatina,Palazzo Pitti, Firenze
Happy Easter 🔔💙🔔@Asamsakti pic.twitter.com/8wfXWGjNOh

— Lucia Tassan Mangina🐦🇪🇺#FBPE (@LuciaTassan) April 4, 2015

From there:

Whoever is a devout lover of God, let him enjoy this beautiful bright Festival!

Whoever is a grateful servant, let him rejoice and enter into the joy of his Lord!

And if any be weary with fasting, let him now enjoy what he has earned.

If any have toiled from the first hour, let him receive his due reward.

If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast.

If any have come after the sixth hour, let him not doubt, for he too shall be deprived of nothing.

And if any have delayed to the ninth hour, let him not hesitate, but let him come too.

And he that has arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be troubled over his delay, for the Lord is gracious, and received the last even as the first.

He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour as well as to him that has toiled from the first.

Yea, to this one he gives, to that one he bestows; he honors the former’s work; the latter’s intent he praises.

Let all then enter the joy of our Lord!

Read it all.

Happy Easter all! From the exuberant brush and generous heart of early American ex-pat painter Benjamin West. pic.twitter.com/AF64WLmTxD

— Kathleen Helewa (@KathleenHelewa) April 12, 2020

You may listen directly here

or you may download it on spotify there.

Willem Drost (19 April 1633 – 25 February 1659) was a Dutch painter.Saint John pic.twitter.com/qEIhl182eK

— Yiannis Einstein-Ιωάννης Αρβανιτάκης (@yianniseinstein) March 30, 2020

[19/20] Ver. 16. ‘Jesus said to her, Mary; she turned herself, and said to Him, Rabboni, that is to say, Master.’

Now magnes amoris amor; ‘nothing so allures, so draws love to it, as doth love to itself.’ In Christ especially, and in such in whom the same mind is. For when her Lord saw there was no taking away His taking away from her, all was in vain, neither men, nor Angels, nor Himself, so long as He kept Himself gardener, could get anything of her but her Lord was gone, He was taken away, and that for want of Jesus nothing but Jesus could yield her any comfort, He is no longer able to contain, but even disclosed Himself; and discloses Himself by His voice.

For it should seem before, with His shape, He had changed that also. But now He speaks to her in His known voice, in the wonted accent of it, does but name her name, Mary–no more, and that was enough. That was as much to say, Recognosce a quo recognosceris, ‘she would at least take notice of Him who showed He was no stranger by calling her by her name;’for whom we call by their names, we take particular notice of. So God says to Moses, Te autem cognovi de nomino, ‘thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name.’ As God Moses, so Christ Mary Magdalene.

And this is indeed is the right way to know Christ, to be known of Him first. The Apostle saith, now we `have known God,’ and then correcteth himself, ‘or rather have been known of God.’ For till He know us, we shall never know Him aright.

And now, lo Christ is found; found alive, That was sought dead. A cloud may be so thick we shall not see the sun through it. The sun must scatter that cloud, and then we may. Here is an example of it. It is strange a thick cloud of heaviness had so covered her, as see Him she could not through it; this one word, these two syllables, Mary, from His mouth, scatters it all. No sooner had His voice sounded in her ears but it drives away all the mist, dries up her tears, lightens her eyes that she knew Him straight, and answers Him with her wonted salutation, Rabboni. If it had lain in her power to have raised Him from the dead, she would not have failed but done it, I dare say. Now it is done to her hands.

Read it all.

Happy Easter!!

"On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures." Nicene Creed#EasterSunday #Resurrection

🎨 The Empty Tomb by Mikhail Nesterov, 1889 pic.twitter.com/bSmMtCuRoV

— McCrimmons (@Mccrimmons) April 20, 2019

George Augustus Selwyn was a very active man. This table is to enable students to pinpoint where he was at any particular time….

Take a look at it all.

Today the Church of England commemorates George Augustus Selwyn, first Bishop of New Zealand, 1878

Selwyn was 1st Bishop of New Zealand (1841-68) before being appointed Bishop of Lichfield on his return to England; @Selwyn1882 was established in his memory

Engraving 1842 (ALT) pic.twitter.com/qbUI48AEn7

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) April 11, 2024

You may listen directly here
or you may download it on spotify there.

An early 16th century representation of Christ on the back of a donkey. Part of the collections at the Bode Museum in Berlin. #PalmSunday 📸 My own. pic.twitter.com/AauiId9Lpf

— Kevin Wilbraham (@KPW1453) March 24, 2024

A priest who has broad experience of both chaplaincy and teaching, as well as in the ministering and leading of others to help God’s church to grow, has been chosen as the next Suffragan Bishop of Burnley.

Edinburgh-born Rev. Dr Joseph Kennedy, 55, is currently Vicar of Oxton St Saviour in the Diocese of Chester.

He was educated at Edinburgh University (Mathematics and Theology) and then Oxford University where he trained for ordination; later beginning his ministry in Oxford Diocese.

The Bishop-designate is married to Emily who is Head of External Financial Reporting for Oxfam and they have two children: David, 13 and Mary, 7.

Read it all.

A warm Lancashire welcome to Rev. Dr Joe Kennedy, our next Bishop of Burnley, seen here with @bpblackburn and @JillLCDuff. More details: https://t.co/wZMcXOOyPo @churchofengland @BDBofE @cottrellstephen @BurnleyExpress @leponline @BBCLancashire @lancstelegraph pic.twitter.com/IQMuJTmlLW

— The CofE in Lancashire (Blackburn Diocese) (@cofelancs) March 22, 2024

Increasing the number of stipendiary priests in the diocese of Truro is the “top operational priority”, the Acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, who is the Bishop of St Germans, said this week.

His comments followed claims by the campaign group Save the Parish Cornwall (STP) that the number of stipendiary priests in the diocese had fallen to 38, and that there were 19 vacancies to be filled. The group says that the diocese is “struggling to recruit new priests to undertake the unrealistic roles proposed by the restructuring plans — in particular ‘oversight ministers’ . . . in giant benefices”.

A diocesan spokeswoman said this week that there were 58 stipendiary clergy in post at the end of last month, including incumbent-status clergy, assistant curates, and archdeacons. In addition, eight new appointments had been made in the past three months. The plan was to increase the number of stipendiary clergy to about 85, “dependent on clergy being attracted to our posts”.

Read it all.

Increasing the number of stipendiary priests in the diocese of Truro is the “top operational priority”, the Acting Bishop of Truro, the Rt Revd Hugh Nelson, who is the Bishop of St Germans, said this week https://t.co/Xg8Zz5KOH7

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 15, 2024

Bishop Chip Edgar called the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina to exercise hospitality in his address to the 2024 Convention. The event, which drew more than 300 clergy, delegates and guests to the Cross Schools in Bluffton, was held March 8-9.

“If we are true to our nature as the people God has called to himself, keeping our blessings to ourselves is not an option,” he said.

He urged those present to be ready to welcome the stranger.  “People by the thousands continue to move to South Carolina… Many are unchurched, and study after study suggests that unchurched folks are more likely to visit a church plant than an established church,” he said. “But many are churched, too, and churched folks are more likely to look for churches. To be hospitable, we have to both strengthen our existing churches and plant new ones.”

He made three proposals: “One, that we continue to encourage deaneries to work together to strategize church planting, and we set the goal for ourselves to add a new congregation to our diocese each year going forward; two, we reestablish our Congregational Development Committee to help our existing congregations; and three, that we, as a diocese, continue to raise up and emphasize the ministry and work of deacons in our diocese.”

Read it all.

Join us this Sunday, July 23, 2023 as we, in The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, pray for Bishop Chip Edgar and Bishop Emeritus Mark Lawrence as they begin their summer respites. #ACNA #ADOSC pic.twitter.com/ipSeFrsA13

— Anglican Diocese of SC (@anglican_sc) July 21, 2023

Ed Lloyd Owen, a society wedding photographer, described the initiative “as a storm in a teacup”: he had not signed the petition and did not intend to, he told the Church Times this week. He saw the issue as a matter of co-operation.

“There is always going to be some friction between two people trying to do their jobs and getting in each other’s way slightly,” he said. “It’s overcome by simply making sure you speak to each other. I also observe the rule of no flash and don’t go near ‘the bubble’. I wear smart clothes (usually tails) and rubber-sole shoes, only move during hymns, and use silent cameras with long lenses.”

His view was not far from that of the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, who told The Sunday Times this week: “While some vicars can be a complete pain and over-controlling to a degree, clergy too need to be able to do their jobs.”

It was reasonable, he said, for officiating clerics to ask photographers “not to be intrusive during a service when something significant is supposed to be taking place at the spiritual level”.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

A petition to “improve working conditions for wedding photographers in churches” — who have been accusing clerics of “abusive” behaviour towards them — has attracted almost 1000 signatures https://t.co/aiPUPXuo5s

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 5, 2024

The first woman Bishop of Peterborough has been installed in an “uplifting and inspiring service”.

The Right Reverend Debbie Sellin was welcomed as the 39th bishop in the diocese during a 90-minute service at Peterborough Cathedral.

The 59-year-old will lead the Anglican communities across Northamptonshire, Rutland and Peterborough.

She previously acted as Bishop of Southampton after the sudden retirement of the Right Reverend Tim Dakin.

Read it all.

New female bishop installed in 'inspiring service' https://t.co/y8H4akRr4z

— صحيفة مباشر العربية (@mubasheer2022) March 3, 2024

Read it all.

The Living Ministry study of clergy has been running since 2017. The latest report highlights that more than a third of the incumbents responding reported levels of mental health that indicate possible depressionhttps://t.co/roew8BtSId

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 22, 2024

When the late Federico “Fred” Mission Magbanua Jr. preached a radio sermon on offering one’s body as a living sacrifice, he probably didn’t imagine he’d one day hear these words again as a 10,000-watt radio frequency current surged through him in a near-death accident.

It happened one night in early 1961, while Magbanua was working at the Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) gospel radio ministry. He was mulling over a job offer in the United States with a salary far greater than what he currently made as an FEBC engineer and as a pastor of a small Baptist church.

Suddenly, the warning lights on the 308-foot radio tower went out. Magbanua loaded some new bulbs into a bag and began climbing the structure. From his home nearby, his daughters and his wife, Aliw, watched him scale the tower.

What Magbanua didn’t realize was that the grounding system—which diverts energy to the ground to prevent surges—wasn’t working. A radio frequency current “hit his head using his body as a lightning rod,” his friend Harold Sala later told God Reports. “Literally, he was being executed by the tremendous surge of electrical power.”

Read it all.