Speaking about her new position as an archdeacon, she said: “I am a bridge between the diocese and the parish.

“So I talk to the parishes about what the diocese is saying and what they have to offer. I then go back to the diocese centrally and say what the parish and clergy are saying.”

The Venerable Ruth Newton explains one of her biggest challenges will be addressing the recruitment crisis within the clergy.

She said: “There are a lot of vacancies. People are working on a shoestring.

“The pressure on clergy is to work and work and work is really extensive so hopefully get a better work life balance than I presently see in some areas.”

Read it all.

The Venerable Ruth Newton has been named as the Archdeacon of Carlisle as she looks to reduce a large number of vacancies within the church.https://t.co/hIgBLyWpTx

— ITV News Border (@ITVborder) September 25, 2024

The top translator and overseer of the KJV translation, Lancelot Andrewes was perhaps the most brilliant man of his age, and one of the most pious. A man of high ecclesiastical office during both Elizabeth’s and James’s reigns, bishop in three different cities under James, Andrewes is still highly enough regarded in the Church of England to merit his own minor feast on the church calendar.

Though Andrewes never wrote “literature,” modern writers as diverse as T. S. Eliot and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. have called him one of the great literary writers in English. His sermons feel too stiff and artificial and are clotted with too many Latin phrases to appeal to most today, but they are also filled with strikingly beautiful passages. Eliot, a great modern poet in his own right, took a section of an Andrewes sermon and started one of his own poems with it (“The Journey of the Magi”):

A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year for a journey,
and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.

Andrewes served not only as the leader of the First Westminster Company of Translators, which translated Genesis – 2 Kings, but also as general editor of the whole project. He very likely, as Benson Bobrick suggests, drafted the final form of “such celebrated passages as the Creation and Fall; Abraham and Isaac; the Exodus; David’s laments for Saul, Jonathan, and Absalom; and Elijah’s encounter with the ‘still small voice.’”

Read it all.

25 Sept 1626: d. Bishop Lancelot Andrewes #Southwark #otd translator, devotional writer, he is buried in #Southwark cathedral ( photo:@rhetorician ) pic.twitter.com/vQ5UAuY6Ls

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) September 25, 2024

Almighty God, who gavest thy servant Lancelot Andrewes the gift of thy holy Spirit and made him a man of prayer and a faithful pastor of thy people: Perfect in us what is lacking of thy gifts, of faith, to increase it, of hope, to establish it, of love, to kindle it, that we may live in the life of thy grace and glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The calendar of the Church of England commemorates today Lancelot Andrewes.
See here for T. S. Eliot's essay on him from 1926: https://t.co/igskxtmUyv pic.twitter.com/OtGomr4lSb

— Tim Howles (@AimeTim) September 25, 2024

O God, Who art man’s sovereign good, and dost seek the love of Thy children: deliver us from sloth in Thy work and coldness in Thy cause; rekindle in us love by our looking unto Thee, and by our waiting upon Thee renew our strength; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Site majestueux au cœur des montagnes, Lac de Zeuzier 🧡🍁💙🏔️🇨🇭#valais #suisse #switzerland @MySwitzerland_e @Anzere365 pic.twitter.com/aQkDFxjSAW

— Délèze Dominique (@DelezeD) September 26, 2024

A body has been found in the search for the Revd Captain Katherine Watson, a former army officer and hospital chaplain who was reported missing on Thursday, Northumbria Police reports.

Captain Watson, aged 50, was last seen in the Heaton Road area of Newcastle, at about 1 p.m. on Thursday. “Extensive searches have been carried out since then to locate her,” the police said in a statement posted on social media on Friday.

“Sadly, this morning a body was discovered in the Jesmond Dene area. Formal identification has yet to take place, however it is believed to be Katherine. Her next of kin have been made aware and are being supported by specially-trained officers.

“This is an incredibly sad outcome, and our thoughts are with Katherine’s loved-ones at this difficult time. We continue to support them and we ask that their privacy is respected. Thank you to everyone who supported our search.”

Read it all.

A body has been found in the search for the Revd Captain Katherine Watson, a former army officer and hospital chaplain who was reported missing on Thursday, Northumbria Police reports https://t.co/BkwKpcEtj7

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 23, 2024

Blessed Lord, who putteth down the mighty from their seat and exaltest those of low degree: Save us, we beseech thee, from pride and vainglory, from self-seeking and false ambition.  Give us a humble and contrite spirit, that we may think less of ourselves, more of others, and most of all of thee, who art our mighty God and Saviour; to whom with thee and the Holy Spirit we ascribe all praise and glory, now and for evermore.

"Fall Color Down by the Riverside"#AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/358RwzXvT1

— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) September 25, 2024

O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst pray for thy disciples that they might be one, even as thou art one with the Father: Draw us to thyself, that in common love and obedience to thee we may be united to one another, in the fellowship of the one Spirit, that the world may believe that thou art Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

….he believes that there are good reasons to challenge simplistic accounts of Christianity’s rise and fall. For a start, it is enjoying significant numerical growth globally and, closer to home, the crises engulfing organised religion do not necessarily translate into an equivalent embrace of atheism or wholesale rejection of Christian beliefs and values. The contribution made by Christian agencies to aid and development work around the world is immense even if seldom acknowledged. He robustly challenges secularisation theories prevalent among sociologists since the 1960s. He maintains that we are “metaphysical animals . . . unlikely to abandon age-old quests for a fundamental and inclusive context of meaning”.

Nevertheless, “mainstream European culture is hurtling forward largely without the fuel that Christianity has historically supplied”. This has disturbing consequences acknowledged even by avowed atheists. But the question remains whether Christianity’s credal credentials can enable it to fuel a sustainable culture into a future threatened by complex existential crises facing humanity and the environment.

Shortt responds to such a challenge, first, with an exposition of just how shallow and insipid so much atheist polemic has been of late. He eloquently defends both the meaning and the mystery of Christian beliefs founded upon scripture and tradition as objectively credible even if, as the biblical critics and liberal theologians for whom he has little affection attest, it is ultimately unfathomable. Shortt entitled one of his books The Hardest Problem and tackled head-on the problem of evil with appropriate humility. while confident that it does not hole Christianity below the water line — a case that he succinctly summarises here.

Read it all (subscription or registration).

"He believes that there are good reasons to challenge simplistic accounts of Christianity’s rise and fall."

John Saxbee reviews The Eclipse of Christianity: And why it matters by Rupert Shortt https://t.co/oRYQTpKpas

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 21, 2024

“Ecclesiology has really become the driving doctrine,” said Holy Joys board member David Fry, who is also senior pastor of Frankfort Bible Holiness Church in Frankfort, Indiana. “We want to write theology for the church and developing healthier churches.”

Chris Lohrstorfer, associate professor of Wesleyan theology at WBS, said Wesleyan ecclesiology offers a vision of the church as a community. Many people, in recent years, have craved a community-oriented Christian life, he said, and that has only increased in response to what some experts have called an “epidemic of loneliness.”

“The Wesleyan understanding of church and Christianity is … what our society is looking for,” Lohrstorfer said.

Read it all.

Nearly 20 years after the rise of New Calvinism, a movement among today's young people is turning to Methodist tradition and Wesleyan theology. @CTmagazine reports: https://t.co/pKBkr936ce

— kate shellnutt (@kateshellnutt) September 17, 2024

Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips. One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men’s toes and stealing other men’s money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured

He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history. Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is “humble and meek” and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.

—Mere Christianity, Book II.3

Sunday Food for Thought from #CS Lewis 'In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms”
–Mere Christianity (chapter 4) #theology #churchhistory #anthropology pic.twitter.com/nBRtjewUtO

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 3, 2021

O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you; grant this for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you:
pour your love into our hearts and draw us to yourself,
and so bring us at last to your heavenly city
where we shall see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Grand Rising.
Good Sunday lovely people in my phone.#weekendsunshine #sundayvibes #sunrise #Autumn #ThePhotoHour #GoodVibesOnly #StormHour #jefinuist #outerhebrides #Scotland pic.twitter.com/gZ5dWcKlQJ

— DaliMach (@frenchscotjeff) September 22, 2024

Enlarge Thy kingdom, O God, and deliver the world from the tyranny of Satan.  Hasten the time, which Thy Spirit hath foretold, when all nations whom Thou hast made shall worship Thee and glorify Thy Name.  Bless the good endeavours of those who strive to propagate the truth, and prepare the hearts of all men to receive it; to the honour of Thy Name.     

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Morning everyone hope you are well. Blue skies and perfectly still conditions, then head over to Blea Tarn for the best reflections. Have a great day. #LakeDistrict @keswickbootco pic.twitter.com/9iEeXXG2SN

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) September 21, 2024

Almighty God, who didst call thy faithful servants John Coleridge Patteson and his companions to be witnesses and martyrs in the islands of Melanesia, and by their labors and sufferings didst raise up a people for thine own possession: Pour forth thy Holy Spirit upon thy Church in every land, that by the service and sacrifice of many, thy holy Name may be glorified and thy kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

20 September 1871: death of the Rt Revd John Coleridge 'Coley' Patteson, aged 44. The first Bishop of Melanesia (consecrated 1861), he was killed on the island of Nukapu in what is now the Solomon Islands. #anglican #153years Biography: https://t.co/chTCB7hAHx pic.twitter.com/nuvCGtGzcL

— AustralianAnglican (@AustAnglican) September 19, 2024

Almighty God, Who hast enabled Thy faithful soldiers and servants to play the man, to endure hardness, to love mercy, to fight the good fight of faith, and to refuse no service in the Name of Christ: grant unto us whom Thou hast called to serve under our Saviour’s banner a single heart to spend and to be spent for Thee and for those whom He has loved even unto death; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

Happy Friday 🌿🌺🌿 #FlowereOnFriday pic.twitter.com/AL9fRptqoe

— Margaret O'Connell🌻 (@MargaretOC6) September 20, 2024

Almighty God, who didst call thy servant Theodore of Tarsus from Rome to the see of Canterbury, and didst give him gifts of grace and wisdom to establish unity where there had been division, and order where there had been chaos: Create in thy Church, we pray, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, such godly union and concord that it may proclaim, both by word and example, the Gospel of the Prince of Peace; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today the Church of England commemorates Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 690

Image: Window in the Chapter House of Canterbury Cathedral. Photo by Lawrence OP, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, via flickr pic.twitter.com/KkjqSzXmec

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) September 19, 2024

O Thou who dwellest in every humble heart, and dost consecrate it for thy sanctuary: Hallow, we pray thee, our hearts within us, that they may be houses of prayer, the dwelling-places of thy Spirit, wherein thou dost reveal thy holy mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Who's been enjoying this weather? 🌞 We enjoyed #Malham Tarn on this beautiful morning recently.

The tarn is said to be the highest limestone lake in Britain at 380 metres above sea level and is rich in submerged aquatic plants.

Wendy McDonnell I #YorkshireDales #NationalPark pic.twitter.com/ct0bMWPhcF

— Yorkshire Dales National Park (@yorkshire_dales) September 19, 2024

I want to address the third and fourth “existential crises” Warren Cole Smith suggested we address in his public letter to the ACNA on “Why the Anglican Church faces existential challenges.”. Under the challenge of “Theological Education,” he writes:

“Because ACNA has so many refugees from other denominations, it is tempting to call it a ‘melting pot.’ But the current reality is less a melting pot than a salad bowl.

That is a glib way of saying that a lot of Anglicans are not … well … truly formed in the Anglican faith. They have retained the spiritual formation of the tradition from which they came — everything from Calvary Chapel and Vineyard to high church Episcopalians and Catholics. Again, that diversity can be a strength, but it is a diversity that must be more intentionally integrated into Anglican theology and polity.”

He goes on to note that many nationally recognized seminaries offer a course or two that allow them to claim they have an “Anglican Track” but that these courses are minimal at best. And so, he concludes that this lack of Anglican formation in the clergy presents a vulnerability to leaders at odds with the history and fundamental doctrines of the ACNA. He then goes on in his fourth crisis to cite the recent problem with the Luminous Church in the ACNA diocese of C4SO as Exhibit A, a congregation whose clergy and website affirmed LGBTQ Pride events and played “fast and loose” with fundamental Anglican doctrines of baptism—among other things.

Read it all.

A wonderful end to a great week of @The_ACNA Provincial Council and Assembly! Praying for God's continued guidance for Abp Wood and the province moving forward. pic.twitter.com/LNQQF5u5ot

— American Anglican (@AnglicanCouncil) June 28, 2024

The bells of St Wendreda’s church have not rung for almost two years after a piece of metal fell to the spire floor in 2023. Now, its vicar fears that the church, famous for its ‘heavenly host’ ceiling, could be put on an at-risk list unless £250,000 is raised to pay for its repairs.

Rev Ruth Clay discovered that metal bars in the spire of St Wendreda’s, Cambridgeshire, were corroding. Engineers estimate the damages and scaffolding needed will cost £250,000.  

The church is unique – firstly in its stunning ceiling of carved angels, dating over 500 years.  It is also the only church to be named after St Wendreda, an Anglo-Saxon nun. Thought to be the daughter of King Anna of the East Angles, Wendreda used her knowledge of herbs to help heal sick people and animals.

Read it all.

Today I fulfilled a 20-yr-long wish & went to see the double-hammer-beam roof of St Wendreda’s Church in March.

118 oak angels soar aloft in it, carved in the early 1500s, their wing feathers modelled on those of the Marsh Harriers that wd have been abundant there 500 yrs ago… pic.twitter.com/MDThOOQy55

— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) April 16, 2023

Grant unto us, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know thy presence and obey thy will; that, following the example of thy servant Edward Bouverie Pusey, we may with integrity and courage accomplish what thou givest us to do, and endure what thou givest us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Church of England also commemorates Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, Tractarian, 1882

Image: Dr Pusey in a detail of the East window (Ninian Comper, c.1935–9) of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament at Pusey House, Oxford. Photo via https://t.co/kdBn9nXyLO pic.twitter.com/vyQzgAJs8a

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) September 16, 2024

O Spirit of the living God, who dost sanctify the lives of thy people, and dost build them up into a holy temple for thy habitation: Grant us so to know thy indwelling presence that we may be set free from lesser desires, and by thy grace may be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

—New Every Morning (The Prayer Book Of The Daily Broadcast Service) [BBC, 1900]

The stags are ramping up for the Rut now. It's an experience to witness them walking side by side, sizing each other up, throwing their huge antlers back as they out-bellow each other, deciding if their response will be 'fight or flight'. Watch this space as the drama unfolds! pic.twitter.com/b2kdFKeyJ3

— Scot Down South (@LesleyAM13) September 18, 2024

I’d like to offer a different perspective. It isn’t exactly a theological case, though not because there isn’t one. As I’ve written elsewhere, theologically speaking, there is one reason and one reason only to go to church: God. 

If the God of the gospel is the one true and living God, then every one of us should be at church every Sunday morning (and more). If not—if Jesus did not rise from the dead—then the church is built on a lie, our faith is futile, and “we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:16–19). If the gospel were false, church would be a waste of time, even if it added decades to our lives and absolutely ensured our total personal flourishing. If the God of Abraham is fictional, if he is not the maker of heaven and earth, it would be better to live in the truth and be miserable than to playact the liturgy and be happy.

But by definition, Christians believe the gospel is true. And if it is true, then church—“the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15, NET) and Christ’s “body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23, ESV)—is a vital element of human life lived to the utmost. 

That’s why the instinct to meet our culture’s critique or ignorance of the church by downplaying its import is so misguided. Church is not an optional add-on to Christian faith. It is how we learn to be human as God intended. Indeed, it makes possible truly human life before God. 

Read it all.

“The church is the selling point. I don’t mean that we want people joining churches for the social perks. I mean that Christ himself has made the offer of the gospel one and the same as the offer of joining a people.”

– Brad East https://t.co/ZMItRtYUmW

— Andrew Noble (@nobullnoble) September 14, 2024

O God, by whose grace thy servant Hildegard, enkindled with the fire of thy love, became a burning and shining light in thy Church: Grant that we also may be aflame with the spirit of love and discipline, and may ever walk before thee as children of light; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.

Cycle of the Seasons by Hildegard of Bingen, 12th c. pic.twitter.com/u85Oy32F6I

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) May 25, 2024

Lord, who hast warned us that without thee we can do nothing; and by thy holy apostle hast taught us that in thy strength we can do all things: So take and possess us, that our weakness may be transformed by thy power; that we be no longer our own, but thine; that it be not we who live, but thou who livest in us; who now reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

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

A golden start to the day here in Glastonbury and even a bit of a sun pillar. pic.twitter.com/zrf3ot4eeY

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) September 17, 2024

The Rev. John Parks was taking his first sabbatical in 40 years of ministry when he got a call from his church’s accountant with some bad news.

Church Mutual, the church’s insurance company, had dropped them.

“This does not make sense,” Parks, the pastor of Ashford Community Church in Houston, recalls thinking at the time. “We’ve never filed a claim.”

Five months and 13 insurance companies later, the church finally found replacement coverage for $80,000 per year, up from the $23,000 they had been paying.

“It’s been an adventure,” said the 69-year-old Parks from his home in Houston, where the power was out after Hurricane Beryl. “That’s putting it politely.”

Parks and his congregation are not alone. An ongoing wave of disasters — Gulf Coast hurricanes, wildfires in California, severe thunderstorms and flooding in the Midwest — along with skyrocketing construction costs post-COVID have left the insurance industry reeling.

Read it all.

The same factors that have caused a crisis in the homeowner's insurance market are also affecting churches, who have to choose between paying for insurance or running programs.https://t.co/EZuQfur4d8

— RNS (@RNS) July 10, 2024

O God, who by the preaching of thy blessed servant and bishop Ninian didst cause the light of the Gospel to shine in the land of Britain: Grant, we beseech thee, that, having his life and labors in remembrance, we may show forth our thankfulness by following the example of his zeal and patience; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today the Church of England celebrates Ninian, Bishop of Galloway, Apostle of the Picts, c.432

Image: Detail of the St Ninian window (D. Marion Grant, 1954) in @GlasgowHighKirk. Photo by Lawrence OP, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, via flickr pic.twitter.com/9wUH1tmf93

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) September 16, 2024

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Morning everyone hope you are well. I think we are in for a nice week!! Warnscale Beck leading into Buttermere and beyond. Have a great day. #LakeDistrict @keswickbootco pic.twitter.com/4Iv4HFaSug

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) September 16, 2024

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.