Britain has sunk deeper into debt. Three years after bubble burst, the UK has barely begun to tackle the crushing burden left by Gordon Brown. The contrast with the United States is frankly shocking.

The latest report on “Debt and Deleveraging” by the McKinsey Global Institute shows that total public and private debt in the UK is still hovering at an all-time high. It has risen from 487pc to 507pc of GDP since the crisis began….

It is a very different picture in the US where light is emerging at the end of the tunnel. American banks, firms, and households have been chipping away at their debts, more than offsetting Washington’s double-digit deficits.

Read it all.

Courage…is the indispensable requisite of any true ministry…. If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinion, go and do something else. Go make shoes to fit them. Go even and paint pictures you know are bad but will suit their bad taste. But do not keep on all of your life preaching sermons which shall not say what God sent you to declare, but what they hire you to say. Be courageous. Be independent.

—-Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching, the 1877 Yale Lectures (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969), p. 59

O everlasting God, who didst reveal truth to thy servant Phillips Brooks, and didst so form and mold his mind and heart that he was able to mediate that truth with grace and power: Grant, we pray, that all whom thou dost call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in thy word, and conform their lives to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

O Lord, who hast pity for all our weakness, put away from us worry and every anxious fear; that having ended the labours of the day as in thy sight, and committing our tasks, ourselves, and all we love into thy keeping, we may, now that night cometh, receive as from thee thy priceless gift of sleep; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

17 After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-lao’mer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). 18 And Mel-chiz’edek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth; 20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!” And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. 21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have sworn to the LORD God Most High, maker of heaven and earth, 23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal-thong or anything that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’ 24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me; let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share.”

–Genesis 14:17-24

Mitt Romney needs a big idea. And it’s not the one he cited at the beginning of his speech after his humiliating loss to Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina primary Saturday. Executive experience matters, Romney said. He has it and Gingrich, like President Obama, doesn’t.

That’s not a winning argument””far from it. Voters in South Carolina rallied to Gingrich because his campaign is based on a big idea: he’ll crush Obama in debates and win the White House. And he’s fervent and tough in pursuing the presidency, as he showed in denouncing CNN debate anchor John King for raising charges by his ex-wife that he wanted an “open marriage.”

A big idea and passion trump experience….

Read it all.

Read it all.

The General Synod, the national assembly of the Church of England, released a report this week providing further clarity on its working relationship with the Anglican Church in North America, and encouraged an “open-ended engagement with ACNA on the part of the Church of England and the (Anglican) Communion.”

“We are encouraged by the desire of the Church of England to continue to embrace the Anglican Church in North America and remain in solidarity with us as we proclaim the Gospel message and truth as revealed in Scripture in the way it has always been understood in Anglican formularies,” said Archbishop Duncan.

Read it all.

BOB ABERNETHY: The last of the U.S. troops in Iraq came home last month, and we want to explore today how they are being received. Are they getting the help they need? How do they feel about the violence in the country they left behind? Meanwhile, what can be said about the incident in Afghanistan when four Marines defiled the bodies of Taliban fighters, and the picture of that went online around the world? Kim Lawton, managing editor of this program, joins me to talk with Nancy Sherman, a University Professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Her specialty is the ethics of war, including what she has called “moral wounding.” Her most recent book is The Untold War. Nancy, thank you for being with us.

NANCY SHERMAN (University Professor, Georgetown University): My pleasure.

ABERNETHY: When people see the pictures of the Marine incident, everybody says that’s terrible, reprehensible, no excuse for it. But, you know, here are guys who may have been on several tours, they’re tired, they see their friends, their buddies, blown up, killed, maimed. It would seem to me a fairly natural reaction to demonize the enemy, hate the enemy and want to do something despicable to express your feelings about this enemy.

Read [or watch] it all.

A couple of dozen years ago the Anglican Church of Nigeria was a sleepy outpost of British colonialism. White bishops from England presided over tea-sipping ex-pats and a few hundred thousand middle-class Europe-gazers from among the Nigerian population. All that changed when the Holy Spirit began reviving the Nigerian church””largely through a youth movement.

Into the Anglican Church of Nigeria poured young people eager to share their newfound love of Jesus with the staid, Anglicized believers in the pews. Eventually many of them rose to leadership, and today the Anglican Church of Nigeria is completely Nigerian, and alive with evangelistic zeal.

In 1990 when the global Anglican Communion announced a “decade of evangelism” the Nigerians responded by electing and consecrating ten priests as bishops and sending them into the north of the country to bring the Good News to Muslims there. Within a decade there were a dozen new dioceses formed, and today there are many converts from Islam in the northern part of the country. Today overall there are some 19 million Anglicans in Nigeria ”“ many more than in all of Europe, North and South America combined.

And this has hardly pleased the Mullahs and their followers….

Read it all.

This past week I went to Mere Anglicanism, a gathering of evangelical Anglicans in Charleston. It was like a reunion being able to visit with some of my heroes in the modern Anglican movement: Bishop Fitz Allison, Bishop Alec Dickson, Bishop Ed Salmon. The event was held at historic St. Philip’s Church, a vibrant in the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina.

Titled “The Once and Future Church,” we heard some great presentations on the evangelical contributions of Anglicanism. Richard Turnbull, the Principal of Wycliff Hall in Oxford highlighted the eighteen and nineteenth centuries.

The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, spoke on a previous bishop of London, Henry Compton, and his emphasis on missions in the colonies back in the late 1600’s.

Read it all.

The message [of the conference] was unified and simple.

1. From the time of Augustine and Cuthbert to the great reformers of the 16th, 18th, and 19th centuries, to today, men and women who answer the call of Jesus to turn from their former ways and follow God have been used to transform not only lives, but societies.
2. As those same people forsook their sinful ways and conformed their lives to the clear teaching of Scripture, which is the example of our Lord, God used them, and he will use us, to bring the most obdurate sinners to personal confession, repentance, and moral transformation.
3. The cost of following Christ in this way is high, but the results are far-reaching, and ultimately eternal.
4. We who name Christ as Saviour are called to follow him in the knowledge that through us, through our hard work and sacrifice, God will transform the world and to bring all people to himself.
5. It is for this reason that he has called us and redeemed us by his blood.

Read it all.

Southwark Cathedral’s new dean, the Very Revd Andrew Nunn, used the sermon at his induction service on Saturday to affirm Southwark and South London’s role at the heart of national life.

“This cathedral community is proud to be the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark for south London and East Surrey,” he told a large Southwark Cathedral congregation on Saturday afternoon.

In comments prompted by recent press comment on the church’s activities in south London, he said: “We are proud to be part of the melting pot of south London and stand proudly on the south bank looking across to the City of London and our sister cathedral St Paul’s.

Read it all.

Read it all and check out all that is available.

“This is our big, grand celebration to kick off all the other things that will be happening throughout the year,” explained Jan Pringle, tricentennial standing committee co-chairwoman with Bob Barrett. “There is a tremendous amount of excitement among our parishioners, and I personally am overjoyed because this is just an incredible opportunity to glorify God for the 300 years our church has withstood so many things.”

“I have never been to a church that seems to be so full of the Holy Spirit with teachers and preachers that lift you up every time you are there,” Pringle said.

It is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the country and is the oldest public building in Beaufort with the original building completed in 1724.

Since its establishment in 1712 as a colonial parish of the Church of England, the church has withstood the 1715 Yemassee Indian War, Civil War encampment by federal soldiers, service as a hospital, the Great Depression and even hurricanes.

Read it all.

What a difference a week makes.

Newt Gingrich completed his miraculous come-from-behind charge Saturday, surging to a commanding victory over a wounded Mitt Romney to win the South Carolina Republican presidential primary.

“The biggest thing I take from the campaign in South Carolina is that it’s very humbling and very sobering to have so many people who so deeply want their country to get back on the right track,” Gingrich told a crowd of cheering supporters in Columbia.

Read it all.

Read it all.

Newt Gingrich surged to victory in the South Carolina presidential primary, batting back questions about his personal life and riding a pair of strong debate performances to overtake Mitt Romney and slow his seeming march to the GOP nomination.

Romney finished more than 10 percentage points behind the former House speaker Saturday, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul a distant third and fourth, respectively.

Gingrich, flashing just an occasional smile, marked his victory with a sober address to supporters in Columbia, praising each of his opponents and returning to a favorite tack ”” bashing the media and “the elites in Washington and New York [who] have no understanding, no care, no connection, no reliability” and fail to represent the American people.

Read it all.

Lord Jesus Christ, who began your ministry by proclaiming the Kingdom of God in Galilee, grant that this day I may both in word and deed reflect your divine realm and goodness whereever and with whom thou dost call me to be, to my great benefit and to your honor and glory.

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory. Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee.

–Psalm 63:1-3

The United States is currently in what some have called the “Mormon Moment” ”“ a time when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is gaining attention due, in part, to the popularity of Mormon celebrities and politicians. Many Mormons, however, are leaving the church to embrace traditional Christianity, but such radical shifts in thought don’t come easily.

The Western Institute for Intercultural Studies (WIIS), a think-tank organization dedicated to helping Christians understand and witness to those of other religions, has come up with a program which includes DVDs and a workbook that are designed to help ex-Mormons have an easier transition into Christianity.

Nearly 70,000 people left the Mormon Church in the U.S. in 2007, according to the Mormon Social Science Association via the first Transitions DVD. Some of the thousands of Mormons who have left the church have turned to Christianity, which is why WIIS created “Transitions: The Mormon Migration from Religion to Relationship,” a six-part program that helps “immigrants” to Christianity address both personal and doctrinal issues.

Read it all.

S. admits it. She and her husband have been lying to her in-laws about going to church. I suggested they were fibbing, but whatever you call it, the truth remains: it’s so much easier to pretend, on the phone to her husband’s minister father and his wife, that the religion S. and her husband both grew up in remains a part of their daily life. But as S. said when she described her quandary to me, the differences between the way she and her husband practice their religion and the way his parents do can’t be tiptoed around for long ”” not with a chatty toddler in the mix.

S. wanted to know how she and her husband could navigate this generational divide without alienating his parents (and although S.’s husband wasn’t the writer, he’s trying to figure this out, too). And (as many of you suspected) she was kind of hoping for a bigger endorsement of taking the easy way out: teaching her daughter the art of evasion, and dancing around the subject forever more.

Read it all.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul calls attention to the vigorous training of the athlete. The Christian is challenged to follow the example of the athlete and to strive for the crown which lasts: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24”“27).

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, said at a banquet in London for the members of the International Olympic Committee attending the 1908 Olympics: “The importance of these Olympiads is not so much to win as to take part”¦The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have won but to have fought well”. Those words have become effectively an Olympic motto.

What is less known is that de Coubertin was inspired by a sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral by the Bishop of Central Pennsylvania.

Read it all (requires subscription).

From the beginning of Christian history until the 19th century, the teaching held that contraception was sinful, says Allan Carlson, the author of “Godly Seed: American Evangelicals Confront Birth Control, 1873-1973.” “ ”˜Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’ ”” until the 1920s, all Protestants formally read that as being a ban on contraception,” Dr. Carlson says, “and all Protestants held to the Christian convention that birth control was sinful, for the same reason and in the same way abortion was.”

But that consensus “started to break down in the 1920s,” Dr. Carlson says. The Church of England accepted birth control in 1930, and American Protestant bodies soon followed. As recently as “10 or 20 years ago,” Mr. Santorum’s rejection of birth control “would have been an immediate no” for nearly all Protestants.

Today, however, even those evangelical Protestants who use contraception ”” the vast majority, it would seem ”” have developed a cultural respect, in some cases a reverence, for those who do not.

Read it all.

Four churchwardens have resigned from a small rural parish in Kent in a long-running saga in which the diocesan bishop was forced to intervene.

In their extraordinary joint letter of resignation the four churchwardens accuse their rector, Dr David Attwood, of “poor personal relationships with several leading parishioners” and of being “extremely verbally aggressive” on a visit to one former churchwarden.

The four ”” Penelope Bell, Trevor Champ, Roger Flint and Michael Moore ”” say that when he arrived in 2002, having overcome an original rejection, the three parishes of Sundridge, Ide Hill and Toys Hill near Sevenoaks were thriving, with growing congregations and healthy finances.

Read it all (requires subscription).

Like many Roman Catholic men who feel called to the priesthood, the Rev. Jim Hearne wrestled with whether ordination was right for him.

The youngest of seven in an Irish Catholic family, he saw the joy of family life firsthand and never could quite extinguish the desire to one day have children of his own. But spurred to help stem the priest shortage and strengthen the integrity of the cloth, Hearne donned a priest’s collar in 2005 at age 25.

Now he wonders if his six years in the pulpit as “Father Jim” might have been preparation to become Jim, the father. After a six-month leave of absence from St. Giles Roman Catholic Church in Oak Park, Ill., Hearne has decided he will not return to the pulpit, but he will stay in the pews and pray to one day start a family of his own.

Read it all.

..Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the state’s Republican presidential primary, …[Heidi Trull’s] ban on political talk did not matter one bit.

No one had found a candidate they liked enough to argue for.

From country restaurants like this one to suburban shopping malls in Spartanburg and espresso bars in Greenville, voters facing four options in the Republican primary seemed to shrug and say, “I haven’t decided.”

As South Carolina residents began voting today, polls were showing Newt Gingrich gaining ground on Mitt Romney while Ron Paul and Rick Santorum battled for third place. But those polls do not always reflect what is happening on the ground, particularly in a region that has emerged as a coveted electoral battleground.

Read it all.