Awards of nearly £13 million have been made for dioceses to help churches reach more children, young people and families, from toddler groups to apprentice youth ministers, in the latest round of grants for mission from the Church of England.

The grants from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board of the Archbishops’ Council will revitalise parishes and start new congregations. The investments build on already successful projects to create new congregations and reach children and young people in areas including Bolton, Bournemouth, Guildford, Southampton and Wakefield.

In the Diocese of Guildford, £3.27 million has been awarded for the first phase of a nine-year project to reach young people of secondary school age with the good news of Jesus Christ in partnerships with schools.

Read it all.

Our latest grants for dioceses will help churches reach more children, young people and families.

Read more about the projects that will be funded at https://t.co/59728umQib.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) July 28, 2023

Evangelicals have very good retention rates — even in the last decade nearly three quarters were still part of the same faith tradition as adults. The overall retention decline for evangelicals is just five percentage points. For mainline it’s much worse. They started right around the same level as evangelicals (76%), but now it’s just 58%. That means that if you found five people who were raised in the mainline, two of them would no longer be mainline today.

Black Protestants have also seen a noticeable decline. It was 87% who stayed in the tradition. Now it’s just 71% — a 16-point decline. Catholics are in a similar boat, too. They started out pretty high at 85%; now that number is 67%, which means that about one-third of folks raised Catholic are no longer part of the church.

As previously discussed, the nones are doing better at retention, though, going from a low point of 36% in the 1970s to 66% in the last decade. That is obviously a partial explanation for why the overall share of Americans who identify with no religion has continued to rise. Their boat has become less leaky, and they have to replace fewer people who leave. For most Christian groups, there are more holes forming in the hull every year.

But so far, we’ve only discussed retention rates, not where people go when they leave their childhood religion behind. Let’s take a closer look at that now….

Read it all.

The Church of England has taken note. This week, a proposal suggested by members of the Blackburn diocese to trial waiving the statutory fees for couples planning a church wedding (up to £641), was voted through by the General Synod. “While everyone likes the principle of free weddings, there is understandable anxiety about the unknown effect on church finances of doing so: the amendment to authorise a regional trial means we can allay those concerns,” pointed out the Rev Tom Woolford, who originally raised the issue.

The Blackburn diocese cited a 50 per cent fall in Church of England weddings over two decades. Whether saving £641 if you marry in a church away from where you both live, or £539 if you marry in your home parish, on a day that, on average, costs £18,400, will encourage tens of thousands of couples to flock to churches remains to be seen.

“I’m hoping and praying the trial goes really well and we can bring a motion for the full abolition of wedding fees in due course,” the Rev Woolford said. The Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, described it as “a chance for us to do something which I believe could be really good for us, good for our soul”.

Read it all.

🔴 The General Synod has waived statutory fees – but will the new tactic work?https://t.co/GoAB1QjEdn

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 13, 2023

The key questions raised by this majority view are as follows.

First, on what issues are they proposing that it should be possible for those in the Church of England to disagree? Does this, as the context suggests, include the matters that are currently under dispute in the Church of England, namely, the nature of marriage, the proper context for sexual activity, and what patterns of personal life should be expected of the clergy?

If it does include these matters, on what basis do the majority of the bishops hold that it is legitimate for Christians to disagree about them? To use the traditional theological terminology, on what grounds can these matters be said to be adiaphora?

Secondly, what would a ‘generous theological, ecclesial and pastoral space’ mean in practice?

Is this code for saying that the teaching of the Church of England should be altered to officially encompass the view that same-sex marriages and same-sex sexual relationships are in accordance with the will of God, that the Church should provide recognition and liturgical affirmation for same-sex relationships (including same-sex marriages) and that clergy should be allowed to be in same-sex relationships?

Read it all.

We may subjectively dislike what God has said, but true Christian humility lies in accepting what God has said and acting upon it anyway' Martin Davie https://t.co/EUCULJ0Bk1 #anglican #marriage #theology #sexualethics #anthropology #scripture #religion #uk pic.twitter.com/WyjgnobT0k

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) February 10, 2023

The number of marriages in China declined for nine consecutive years, falling by half in less than a decade. Last year, about 6.8 million couples registered for marriage, the lowest since records began in 1986, down from 13.5 million in 2013, according to government data released last month.

Although the numbers have risen so far in 2023 compared with the year before, more marriages are ending, too. In the first quarter of this year, 40,000 more couples married compared with the same period a year earlier, while divorces rose by 127,000.

Surveys have shown that young people are deterred by the toll of putting a child through China’s cutthroat education system. As women in cities achieve new levels of financial independence and education, marriage is less of an economic necessity to them. And men say they cannot afford to get married, citing cultural pressure to own a home and a car before they can even begin dating.

The instability of the last three years has compounded these pressures, reshaping many young people’s expectations about building a family. China has imposed an increasingly tight grip over every aspect of society under its leader, Xi Jinping — with effects that could weigh on the marriage rate.

Read it all.

It has been brutal for China’s young adults as their unemployment rate soars amid a wave of corporate layoffs. For many people, the recent turmoil is another reason to postpone major life decisions — contributing to a record-low marriage rate.https://t.co/eOaYk6ITgp

— NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) July 10, 2023

Many—including a number of leaders of various networks in a letter, subsequently supported by 22 bishops—are arguing the only proper route, given the subject matter, is the usual process of Synodical scrutiny and approval under canon B2. This would require two-thirds support in each of Synod’s three Houses in order to determine the prayers had consensus and were not indicative of a departure from doctrine. This seemingly technical procedural matter raises important questions as to the sort of church we want to be—the update opens by talking about “inclusive participation” (para 1)—and whether any route other than B2 exceeds the powers of non-Synodical bodies on such a contentious matter and is unconstitutional. I have explored these questions in some detail here (with a summary here).

Third, it originally appeared the prayers might be offered for a wide range of non-marital committed relationships. This is now less prominent (although the still undefined and novel category of “covenant friendship” continues to be highlighted) with more focus on same-sex relationships and an emphasis on these being “demonstrably faithful, exclusive, and permanent” (para 12). How a relationship could prove it meets these three criteria remains unclear. Making a legal status act as the gateway is problematic because the service would then appear to be affirming that status and civil partnerships do not require vows. The most contentious matters here are whether they can be used for sexual relationships other than marriage and/or for those in a civil same-sex marriage.

It would appear the bishops originally thought that the prayers, as they are silent in relation to sexual intimacy or the legal status of the couple, had gained sufficient consensus but this now looks less secure. This is in part because while the prayers may be silent and hence ambiguous, to enable their use in such contexts would require a change in teaching relating to sex and marriage. This is something which cannot be so easily camouflaged, which many are unwilling to embrace, and for which there has not yet been sufficient legal and theological justification. The focus of attention has therefore moved from the prayers to the second area of work which was totally undeveloped back in February but where the bishops perhaps should have begun their discernment…’

Read it all (my emphasis).

As part of @churchofengland LLF, Rev Andrew Goddard @goddardaj and our assistant curate Rev Georgina @TechieGeorgina have been having conversations about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. View their latest conversation (link below) #LivingInLoveAndFaith pic.twitter.com/Ig3RCrzWON

— St John's Hyde Park (@StJohnsHP) January 31, 2023

The Church Times has seen a letter sent on Wednesday by a group of 22 bishops — including nine diocesans — who have written to their colleagues to welcome the letter from the “alliance of network leaders” and to support its call for the Prayers of Love and Faith to be returned to the Synod under Canon B2.

It is understood, however, that a larger group of bishops, believed to number more than 40, have warned against subjecting the prayers to a long, uncertain, and, they argue, unnecessary synodical process. Instead, they call for the prayers to be approved by the Archbishops under Canon B4.2.

(Canon B4.2 states: “The archbishops may approve forms of service for use . . . on occasions for which no provision is made in The Book of Common Prayer or by the General Synod under Canon B2 or by the Convocations under this Canon, being forms of service which in both words and order are in their opinion reverent and seemly and are neither contrary to nor indicative of any departure from the doctrine of the Church of England in any essential matter.”)

The larger group is also thought to suggest that, if a route is taken that delays the use of blessings, some diocesan bishops might break ranks and commend the prayers for immediate use.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

The Church Times has seen a letter sent on Wednesday by a group of 22 bishops — including nine diocesans — who have written to their colleagues to support calls for the Prayers of Love and Faith to be returned to the Synod under Canon B2https://t.co/A5CRZlViBI

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 7, 2023

The report of the Archbishops’ Commission on Families and Households, ‘Love Matters’, was launched by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on 26th April at Coram’s conference centre in London. This was a very appropriate venue in which to emphasise the importance of supporting children and families.

Over 120 people came to hear about the Commission’s messages and recommendations. It was a joyous occasion, rendered particularly special by the presence and contributions of pupils from four schools representing different faiths and members of the Family Justice Young People’s Board (FJYPB).  These schools and the FJYPB had previously taken part in the Commission’s evidence-gathering activities. Their personal stories and reflections demonstrated the enormous value of listening to and learning from young people. Their contributions at the launch can be heard on the Commission’s YouTube channel.

Read it all.

The concept of “Asian values”, once championed by leaders across the region, went out of vogue after the Asian financial crisis of 1997. The idea that East and South-East Asia’s disciplined governments had a unique economic edge over the decadent West suddenly seemed less compelling. Today in prosperous East Asia a different facet of those ballyhooed values is looking even more parlous. In China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, Asians’ supposed commitment to conservative family life is collapsing. As we report in our Asia and China sections this week, millions of young people are opting for looser, often lonelier and—in the East Asian context—less male-dominated arrangements. In a region that is home to over a fifth of humanity, the socioeconomic and demographic consequences will be vast, potentially destabilising and will shape millions of lives.

In Japan, where the shift first became evident, married couples with at least one child accounted for 42% of households in 1980, and single people 20%. That has flipped. In 2020 couples with children accounted for 25% of households, and singletons 38%. And the decline is continuing. Last year 17% of Japanese men and 15% of women aged 18-34 said they would not marry, up from 2% and 4% in the early 1980s, and China recorded its lowest-ever number of marriages, half as many as a decade ago.

In some ways young Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese and South Koreans are following a path charted in rich countries elsewhere.

Read it all.

Marriage rates across the region are dwindling and fertility rates are plummeting as a result. Governments’ response to this social change is only making things worse https://t.co/KTwGOdL9Ru

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 6, 2023

Her grandfather had been a mystery for as long as she could remember, his name an unanswered question, a frequent Google search.

All Sandra Sharpe knew about him was what others had told her.

“Good man,” they would say. “Fine soldier,” many recalled.

The rest was crumbs and brief glimpses of his life through out-of-place facts: He was a Marine and a general. He fought in World War I and II, and died suddenly of a heart attack in India during a round-the-world trip in 1965.

For decades that was all she could really find — nothing about a gravesite or even what town.

Until one day in 2012 when she discovered she wasn’t the only one looking for him.

Read it all.

The quest to find and bring home the remains of Maj. Gen. Harry K. Picket became an odyssey. A family looking for answers would join forces with a group of Citadel graduates determined to bring back one of their own. Soon it will reach its emotional end.
https://t.co/tpWrrxtFIW

— Caitlin Byrd (@MaryCaitlinByrd) July 4, 2023

As of 2021, 25% of 40-year-olds in the United States had never been married. This was a significant increase from 20% in 2010, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.

Marriage has long been a central institution in the lives of Americans. In 1980, just 6% of 40-year-olds had never been married. But people born from the 1960s onward have been increasingly delaying marriage, and a growing share are forgoing it altogether.

The 2021 data marks a new milestone in that decadeslong trend.

While many unmarried 40-year-olds are living with a romantic partner, most are not. In 2022, 22% of never-married adults ages 40 to 44 were cohabiting.

Read it all.

Incredibly bad news from Pew today:

“A record-high share of 40-year-olds in the U.S. have never been married.”

Poor, working-class, and black Americans hit hardest.https://t.co/EYhQGPkqX2 @r_fry1 @pewresearch pic.twitter.com/yRJudXb9Ti

— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) June 28, 2023

Jesus’ view of marriage as between a man and a woman was entirely typical of first-century Judaism, and consistent with the rest of Scripture. All ancient cultures (and many modern ones) recognised that a small minority of the population were different, in having a settled attraction to those of the same sex. In the ancient world, marriage and procreation were seen as key to the survival of society, so such people could be perceived as a threat, but there was often some sort of provision made for them. The Old Testament is unique amongst Ancient Near Eastern texts in not doing so—on the basis of God’s creation of male and female as the basis for sexual relationships. That is why all mainstream, critical scholars agree that the biblical texts and the teaching of Jesus is clear and consistent—though many of them think it is wrong.

Where the Bible mentions homosexual behavior at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether that Biblical judgment is correct (Walter Wink, “Homosexuality and the Bible”).

The task demands intellectual honesty. I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties. The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says. But what are we to do with what the text says?  I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good (Luke Timothy Johnson).

It is common to hear people claim ‘Jesus never said anything about homosexuality’. But he did not need to—just as he did not need to say anything about incest, or other specific aspects of sexual immorality, since there was a clear consensus in Judaism on these questions, rooted in the sexual prohibitions in Leviticus. Jesus was concerned about issues of sexual immorality, and his reference to porneia would have been heard by anyone listening to him as including same-sex sex within that category of immorality.

Read it all.

This is a good article from Ian Paul explaining why there's no 'agree to disagree' really possible on this debate. https://t.co/mn7buCOGPf

— Trevin Wax (@TrevinWax) June 26, 2023

Five years ago, Tiffany Gardner learned she had another father. She already had two.

One had colon cancer and died when Gardner was 4 years old. Her adoptive father taught her to drive and walked her down the aisle at her wedding. At 35 years old, when Gardner received news of a third, “I remember the room spinning,” she said.

Gardner had been in her mother’s kitchen. During the conversation, her mother let go of a long-held secret about the man Gardner had long believed to be her father. He was in an accident, her mother said. He had to relearn how to walk and talk. I couldn’t get pregnant. The doctors said the accident had likely left him infertile. We used a sperm donor.

“I felt I was falling backwards trying to process the moment,” recalled Gardner, a lawyer in the Atlanta area and the mother of three boys. Among her feelings was a desire to meet her newly uncovered biological father. It didn’t take long to find him online.

Read it all.

“There’s nothing comparable to your genetic parent breaking up with you." Amazing journey from @AmyDMarcus on how we're defining family in the age of assisted fertility technologies and DNA testing. https://t.co/bLm7bgMuzo via @WSJ

— Stefanie Ilgenfritz (@stefaniei) June 16, 2023

We, in Gafcon and GSFA had earlier declared unequivocally that we no longer recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury as the head, leader or spokesperson of the Anglican Communion. He has lost every power and authority to dictate to or advise other Primates and Provinces of the Communion who oversee 85% of the Global Communion. It is pertinent to remind Archbishop Welby that Africa is no longer a colony of the ‘British Empire,’ and the Church of England has no jurisdiction over the Anglican Provinces on the continent of Africa. As such, he should stop meddling with the internal affairs of the Anglicans on the continent of Africa.

We stand together in our commitment to the Bible and the essence of the Christian faith. We will stand together with Christ and shall resist all attempts to pollute our faith. The part of Lambeth Resolution I.10 which enjoins non-discrimination against persons who experience or practice homosexuality is not an endorsement of the sinful act, but a call for a normal pastoral approach and the responsibility of Church ministers to offer care and counsel to sinners of all categories.

Therefore, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NKJV).

Read it all.

https://t.co/V4K8FFW9l7

— Gafcon (@GafconGBE) June 14, 2023

Any decision at the end of the LLF process was going to face challenges but the responses to the bishops’ proposals suggest that there are four particular failures in their approach which have made matters worse. 

Firstly, in contrast to the detailed work of LLF, and failing to draw on that work, the bishops gave minimal explanation or theological justification for their proposals. Secondly, they proposed a liturgical response to different life situations without—as the ten points above demonstrate—offering any account of what pattern of same-sex relationship might be considered fitting within Christian discipleship. When asked about this the Bishop of London said in an answer (to Q163) in February, that we need to wait for the Pastoral Guidance as that “will include setting out unequivocally the necessary qualities for a relationship to be considered chaste, faithful and holy”. Thirdly, although committing to uphold the doctrine of marriage and thus rejecting a change to extend this to include same-sex marriage, the bishops were not clear as to what else—particularly in relation to sexual behaviour—should be considered as part of the doctrine of marriage. Nor were they clear whether they were proposing to change current teaching on sexual ethics. It was, for example, unclear whether what the Bishop of London had stated only in November last year in answer to a Synod question still applied: 

Canon B 30 does indeed continue to articulate the doctrine of the Church, including asserting that holy matrimony is the proper context for sexual intimacy. 

All three of these failings arose because it seems there was not sufficient time to achieve any consensus on them. The problem is that without any clarity and consensus in these areas, the proposals are inherently unstable and arguably incoherent. 

A further cause of instability and incoherence is a fourth feature of the proposals (number 7 above): to justify offering the prayers, including prayers of blessing, to couples in same-sex marriages the bishops, with the support of the Legal Office, offered a novel and contentious argument distinguishing holy matrimony from civil same-sex marriages. The relationship between civil marriage and holy matrimony after the introduction of same-sex marriage was not a question covered within LLF although it produced an invaluable “Brief History of Marriage Law” by Professor Julian Rivers. The answer now being offered represents a complete reversal of all previous legal and theological statements including in the Church of England’s successful case defending the refusal of Bishop Inwood, Acting Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, to give a licence to Jeremy Pemberton who was in a civil same-sex marriage. There, as set out in the original employment tribunal judgment of October 2015, the employment appeal tribunal judgment of December 2016 and the Court of Appeal Decision in March 2018, a key argument advanced was that the bishops’ actions were necessary because to be in a same-sex civil marriage was incompatible with the doctrine of the Church of England in relation to marriage.

Read it all.

The Prayers of Love and Faith put the practical cart before the theological horse. What questions do we first need to ask about the pattern of holy life God calls us to before we can discuss the Prayers with any coherence? @theologyethics1 @simonsarmiento https://t.co/i3nHup7SH1

— Dr Ian Paul (@Psephizo) June 2, 2023

In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution the world’s population, like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century, however, the number of people on the planet could shrink for the first time since the Black Death. The root cause is not a surge in deaths, but a slump in births. Across much of the world the fertility rate, the average number of births per woman, is collapsing. Although the trend may be familiar, its extent and its consequences are not. Even as artificial intelligence (ai) leads to surging optimism in some quarters, the baby bust hangs over the future of the world economy.

In 2000 the world’s fertility rate was 2.7 births per woman, comfortably above the “replacement rate” of 2.1, at which a population is stable. Today it is 2.3 and falling. The largest 15 countries by gdp all have a fertility rate below the replacement rate. That includes America and much of the rich world, but also China and India, neither of which is rich but which together account for more than a third of the global population.

The result is that in much of the world the patter of tiny feet is being drowned out by the clatter of walking sticks. The prime examples of ageing countries are no longer just Japan and Italy but also include Brazil, Mexico and Thailand. By 2030 more than half the inhabitants of East and South-East Asia will be over 40. As the old die and are not fully replaced, populations are likely to shrink. Outside Africa, the world’s population is forecast to peak in the 2050s and end the century smaller than it is today. Even in Africa, the fertility rate is falling fast.

Read it all.

"The world's population could shrink for the first time since the Black Death due to declining fertility rates"

Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences https://t.co/HksCFeSrpN pic.twitter.com/JMCcDEXZKx

— Paul Kedrosky (@pkedrosky) June 1, 2023

[Tim]…offered a radically different way. He pointed people to Jesus, and through Jesus’ example to a life of self-sacrificial service. That may seem unrealistic; doesn’t the world run on self-interest? But Tim and his wife, Kathy, wrote a wonderful book, “The Meaning of Marriage,” which in effect argued that self-sacrificial love is actually the only practical way to get what you really hunger for.

After some time in marriage, they counseled, you’re going to realize that the wonderful person you married is actually kind of selfish. And as you realize this about him, he is realizing this about you.

The only way forward is to recognize that your own selfishness is the only selfishness you can control; your self-centeredness is the problem here. Love is an action, not just an emotion, and the marriage will only thrive if both people in it make daily sacrificial commitments to each other, learning to serve and, harder still, be served. “Whether we are husband or wife,” the Kellers wrote, “we are not to live for ourselves but for the other. And that is the hardest yet single most important function of being a husband or a wife in marriage.”

Tim’s happy and generous manner was based on the conviction that we are born wired to seek delight, and we can find it. “Anybody who has tasted the reality of God knows anything is worth losing for this,” Tim preached, “and nothing is worth keeping if I’m going to lose this.”

Read it all.

We all tried to act cool around Tim Keller, but we knew we had a giant in our midst. https://t.co/J7Ft0Iqvrr

— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) May 23, 2023

A group of ten clerics in the the City deanery of the diocese of London have announced their decision to establish an alternative “deanery chapter”, in protest at the decision to allow church blessings for same-sex couples.

In a video released on YouTube on Thursday, the Senior Minister of St Nicholas’s Cole Abbey, the Revd Chris Fishlock, and the Guild Vicar of St Botolph’s without Aldersgate, the Revd Phil Martin, outline plans for a new “City Deanery Chapter”.

“We hope that what we’re doing is, among other things, a helpful demonstration of the kind of structural differentiation which will be needed for many of us within the Church of England,” Mr Martin says on the video.

A statement from the diocese on Thursday afternoon described the initiative as a “unilateral move” with “no legal substance”.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

(Church Times) Ten London clergy launch differentiated deanery chapter over the recent controversial+schismatic decision to bless same-sex unions https://t.co/FIKm6TlKFP #anglican #parishministry #marriage #religion #ethics #scripture #uk

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 31, 2023

On her daughter’s sixth birthday party, Sarah Pieper did what she has grown accustomed to as a mom of four kids. She held it together, masking the devastation she felt after getting life-changing news just a few hours earlier.

Pieper, a 33-year-old stay-at-home mom living in Summerville, kept busy during the party. Navigating through the maze of rambunctious 5- and 6-year-olds, she wondered what her world would look like and how the child gestating in her womb would be affected by it all.

Earlier that morning, doctors at Trident Medical Center diagnosed Pieper with stage 3 squamous cell carcinoma, a rare form of head and neck cancer that affects the tongue.

She was 14 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.

“It was probably the hardest thing for me to do,” Pieper told The Post and Courier.

Read it all.

The WSJ-NORC poll surveyed 1,019 adults from March 1 to 13, largely before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and subsequent turmoil in the financial industry. Roughly 4 in 10 cited healthcare and housing costs as big worries, and nearly two-thirds said inflation is a major concern.

“No matter how much they increase your pay, everything else is going up,” said Kristy Morrow, a coordinator for a hospital who lives in Big Spring, Texas. “I do fear that for the kids.”

Ms. Morrow, 37, said she’s concerned her children will be worse off because deep divisions in America have left people unable to fix the country’s problems. The single mother of two young boys and an adult daughter, who earns about $45,000 a year, said she traded her Chevrolet Tahoe for a GMC Terrain to lower her gas costs and is teaching her boys the importance of spending money on needs, not wants.

The findings showed fresh anxiety about the strength of the job market, which was a rare point of economic optimism as recently as last year. More than half of respondents said it wouldn’t be easy to find another job with comparable pay and benefits. That was the highest level since 2010, according to NORC’s General Social Survey.

Read it all.

“An overwhelming share of Americans aren’t confident their children’s lives will be better than their own, according to a new WSJ-NORC Poll that shows growing skepticism about the value of a college degree and record-low levels of overall happiness.” https://t.co/eaPXHI4vcJ

— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) March 24, 2023

It’s Mothering Sunday today. Curiously, along with Christmas, Easter, and Remembrance Sunday, Mothering Sunday stands as one of the four days of the year when Church of England churches are likely to be full. There’s something primal and visceral about going back to see one’s mother on Mothering Sunday, and somehow this manifests itself in a larger number of people than usual heading down to church with, or to remember, their mother.

Its significance was even sharper in 2020. We may have blotted it from our collective memories, but Mothering Sunday 2020 fell on that fateful weekend just as we began to realise the full horror of the Covid pandemic. Although formal social distancing legislation was not brought in until the following day, most people resolved not to make their annual pilgrimages that Sunday, choosing to protect those we loved in the most counter-intuitive manner possible.

Not that Mothering Sunday is ever uncomplicated….

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Mothering Sunday lives on because the dream of our familial relationships is worth honouring, even if most of the time we honour them more in the breach.

There is perhaps something similar in our relationship to the parish church. https://t.co/zG48STk4gg

— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) March 19, 2023

Last June, Keller participated in an inpatient immunotherapy trial at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, which he said had “shown great promise in potentially curing cancer.” The 72-year-old is returning to the Bethesda, Maryland, facility next month to do another variation of that immunotherapy on new tumors.

The tumors “are unfortunately in some fairly inconvenient places,” Keller said, “so the doctors encouraged us to go through the treatment again, this time targeting a different genetic marker of the cancer.”

“It was brutal last June, so we approach this with an awareness of how much prayer we need,” Keller wrote on Twitter. “Please pray for our trust and dependence on God, for his providential oversight of the medical preparations now in process, and for our desire to glorify God in whatever comes our way. Thank You.”

Read it all.

“Please pray for our trust and dependence on God, for his providential oversight of the medical preparations now in process, and for our desire to glorify God in whatever comes our way.”https://t.co/xhlyOxhdvA

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) March 13, 2023

The question of how to meditate effectively comes up often in Cave’s online forum, the Red Hand Files, which he launched in 2020. Named after one of his most famous songs, Red Right Hand (inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost, where the hand represents divine vengeance), it’s a place where a wide range of people, not only fans, write in to share their troubles and questions, and Cave writes back. The site has become almost a form of spiritual direction between Cave and his public. “One concern that comes through all the time,” he says, “is, ‘I want to be a creative person, but I don’t feel inspired.’ They’re just thinking that something’s going to drop out of the sky and sort of ignite their imagination. Creativity for me is a practice, a rite, an application.”

Its purpose is not self-expression, he says, but a way of “making space”. Cave talks in the book about how his 2019 album Ghosteen was an attempt to “make a space” for his son Arthur in the terrible period after his death.

“Yes, that is what I was doing,” he says. “Trying to find a place Arthur could inhabit. A place where his spirit could reside. Things, of course, are different now … I think I’ve learnt to both incorporate his absence and indeed his presence into my work, slowly finding other things to write about.” It’s become a question, he says, of finding a space “around” Arthur, not just “for” him.

This has led to him rediscovering what can only be described as joy, through “an altered connection to the world”: “spasms of delight”, a brightness uncovered in things, coexisting with the “dark, vacuous space” of loss. This is a joy that has nothing much to do with “feeling happy” or with satisfaction. “It’s there, despite ourselves … not attached to anything.” This double vision, Cave says, is fundamental to the religious impulse. It explains why in church he feels able to hold together both the doubt and pain and the sense of anchorage.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

‘The book reveals the way in which faith, without ever giving a plain, comforting answer, offers resources to look at what is terrible without despair or evasion. Cave’s faith is not that of a man looking for shortcuts or consolations.’ Wonderful interview https://t.co/QHcLj2hr8l

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) March 4, 2023

In March 2021, I made public my departure from the Southern Baptist Convention, the denomination I’d loved all my life and served since I was 12.

When we entered the foyer, the double doors to the sanctuary were 20 feet ahead of us and wide open. We were looking to slip subtly into a pew, but a whole handful of people were huddled at the door. A man around our age with a gentle face and warm, genuine smile was among them. He had on a white robe overlaid with a green stole bearing a grapevine pattern. He reached out his hand to me and, in a louder whisper, introduced himself as the rector. “Welcome to our church. And you are?”

“Beth—” I hesitated for half a second—“Moore.”

“Oh!” he said, tilting his head back with surprise and an infectious, harmless chuckle. “Like Beth Moore.”

“Unfortunately, yes.” The verger who’d worked with him for decades would inform me later with a wide grin that the rector was simply amused I had the same name as the infamous Beth Moore. Nothing further occurred to him.

“Come right on in,” he said in the dearest way. “We’re glad to have you.”

Somewhere around 120 people were seated in the pews of the sanctuary. We’d hardly sat down when a bell rang….

Read it all.

I love imagining @BethMooreLPM introducing herself to a rector who's familiar enough to say "like Beth Moore!" but not enough to know it's her https://t.co/CxAuG7UhOJ

— kate shellnutt (@kateshellnutt) March 6, 2023

Do not miss it.

“With the Church of England and the Archbishop of Canterbury forfeiting their leadership role,” they said, Anglicanism’s “orthodox” primates across the global communion will meet to “work out the shape and nature of our common life together” because “for us, and perhaps by his own reported self-exclusion, the present Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer the … Chair of the Primates’ Meeting by virtue of his position.”

Uganda Archbishop Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu stressed that there will be no Anglican compromise this time around.

“The only significant difference between a wedding and a service of ‘blessing’ is the terminology used,” he said in a public statement. “The Church of England insists it is not changing its doctrine of marriage. But, in practice, they are doing precisely that. …

“But, what I want you to know is that if it looks like a wedding, and sounds like a wedding … it IS a wedding.”

Read it all.

Bush never stipulates that the rest of the world must “become like America” in so many words. How could he? The whole point of his rhetoric was to assure himself that he was at the helm of the gigantic killing machine that is the United States military not merely to protect and promote American interests, but in order to bring the blessings of liberty to every corner of the earth. The final paragraph of Bush’s introduction reveals the self-deception:

Freedom is the non-negotiable demand of human dignity; the birthright of every person—in every civilization. Throughout history, freedom has been threatened by war and terror; it has been challenged by the clashing wills of powerful states and evil designs of tyrants; and it has been tested by widespread poverty and disease. Today, humanity holds in its hands the opportunity to further freedom’s ­triumph over all these foes. The United States welcomes our responsibility to lead in this great mission.

One is hard pressed to imagine a more utopian vision—freedom’s triumph over all its foes! But Bush was president of the United States, not of the world. Moreover, this document and its urgency stemmed from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. There can be no doubt that Bush was concerned for the weal and woe of Americans.

We can substitute America or American interests for the key word “freedom” in this final paragraph without altering the strategic implications. Indeed, if we make these substitutions, Bush’s words become more faithful to events. Here is my rendering in that spirit:

Being American is the non-negotiable demand of human dignity; the birthright of every person—in every civilization. Throughout history, American interests have been threatened by war and terror; they have been challenged by clashing wills of powerful states and evil designs of tyrants. . . . Today, humanity holds in its hands the opportunity to further America’s triumph over all these foes. The United States welcomes our responsibility to lead in this great mission.

To speak about America in this way seems rather grandiose. But in truth, both versions, Bush’s actual words and my rendition, border on the delusional. This is perhaps to be expected. Baby Boomers were intoxicated by the fusion of hard responsibilities with the most exalted moral idealism. An intoxicated person has blurred vision and a tenuous grasp on reality, and he often makes bad judgments.

Read it all.

Cursed by the Boomers by R. R. Reno | Articles | First Things https://t.co/qLylAU4XXl

— Allen Mendenhall (@allenmendenhall) February 14, 2023

Alongside essays from a diverse group of United Methodist leaders, he wrote that he believed the denomination should not split.

“Now, years later, I realized that my hope and my dream turned out not to be possible because the church has in fact, split this last year,” Jones told Religion News Service. “But it was a desire to try to do whatever I could to hold it together and point the way forward. It just didn’t work.”

It didn’t work, he said, because some church leaders and regional conferences have taken action to oppose the denomination’s official stance barring LGBT members from ordination and marriage.

“These doctrinal and moral disobedience questions have made it hard to keep the idea that we really are a church following the same Book of Discipline,” he said.

Read it all.

Scott Jones’s exit from the UMC is causing a stir, in part because of the unique position his family holds in Methodism. https://t.co/hQ54ziw7TP

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) March 1, 2023