The Anglican parish formerly associated with what is now St. James the Great Episcopal Church in Newport Beach will move to a permanent location in Costa Mesa in the fall.
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The soon-to-be St. James Anglican Church building at 22995 Airway Ave. in Costa Mesa is being remodeled. The one-story space will include classrooms, a kitchen and pantry, a nursery, a multipurpose room, office spaces and a sanctuary. The congregation is expected to move into the building in October, according to a news release.

“St. James church is in a season of growth and new life that opens the doors for people of all generations to experience,” said the Rev. Richard Crocker, the senior pastor. “We are building upon our core strengths of strong ministries which continue to serve our parishioners, the local community and global needs as well.”

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Today the greatest Christian evangelism movement ever to occur in any country in the world is taking place in China. It’s one of the most exciting developments to be happening on the world stage right now and most American and western Christians do not seem to be aware of it. In part I think that the reason why we are not is because the media that surrounds us in our electronically saturated culture is focused so much on other things. Perhaps in part also the reason why we Christians in the west are not aware of it is because we are so busy slugging it out in the trenches, trying to save the moral and logistical remnants of our Christian past in a western culture that seems rapidly to be turning in a different direction. To be sure, slugging it out for the gospel in the west is a valuable mission. It’s a mission to which I am currently dedicating my life. But at the same time I do think that a case could be made for saying that we Christians in the west are needed every bit as much on the mission field in China. At the very least our financial resources are needed on that mission field. Consider the following points…

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Two well-loved, historic Far North churches have dubious futures as the The Anglican Diocese of Auckland discuss their sale.

St Catherine’s at Okaihau and St Stephen the Martyr’s in Kaikohe may get new owners if the decision goes ahead.

Anglican manager Kevin Third says the diocese is concerned about declining congregation numbers and the cost of keeping the churches open.

But member of Pakaraka Holy Trinity Anne Herbert is against selling them.

“All these churches are without debt, they are in good order because we’ve kept them so. We’re not quite sure what’s behind the thinking there.”

“I dont want the church hall and the church closed down. We have an op shop there that’ll be affected and the church also caters to the stockyard.

“So it means we’re not helping the community. Kaikohe is a community that needs help.”

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The Anglican Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Reverend Nicholas Okoh, has urged churches nationwide to give wide support to President Muhammadu Buhari’s ”˜Anti-corruption Agenda’.

The Archbishop described the behaviour of some public office holders as a huge disappointment to Nigeria, emphasising that Nigeria had garnered enough international support to enable her address squarely the rot in the system.

According to him, the church has always been in the vanguard of anti-corruption crusade.

“The Church has been preaching and teaching that people should live right.

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…Grainy security camera footage showed Khadiza and her two 15-year-old friends, Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, calmly passing through security at Gatwick Airport for Turkish Airlines Flight 1966 to Istanbul and later boarding a bus to the Syrian border.

“Only when I saw that video I understood,” Ms. Khanom said.

These images turned the three Bethnal Green girls, as they have become known, into the face of a new, troubling phenomenon: young women attracted to what experts like Sasha Havlicek, a co-founder and the chief executive of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, call a jihadi, girl-power subculture.
An estimated 4,000 Westerners have traveled to Syria and Iraq, more than 550 of them women and girls, to join the Islamic State, according to a recent report by the institute, which helps manage the largest database of female travelers to the region.

The men tend to become fighters much like previous generations of jihadists seeking out battlefields in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. But less is known about the Western women of the Islamic State. Barred from combat, they support the group’s state-building efforts as wives, mothers, recruiters and sometimes online cheerleaders of violence.

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There was a miserable stint in the Army, mercifully shortened by a psychiatrist who thought I had no business being a soldier. There were a couple of romantic relationships with married women. Casting about for something to do, I eventually settled on studying journalism at San Francisco State University.

That’s where I found Islam. A friend introduced me to the Qur’an, and I was entranced by its words, which speak of a God who cares a great deal about the men and women he created. But it was also the people: the Palestinian and African American Muslims who first taught me what it meant to surrender. They welcomed me as no one else had before.

Some people look to faith for ideas of right and wrong, or some understanding of good and evil, or a set of principles with which to order the world. Not me. What I sought, what I ached for, was meaning and belonging. And Islam gave me both.

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Almighty and everlasting God, who resisteth the proud and givest grace to the humble: Grant, we beseech thee, that we may not exalt ourselves and provoke thy indignation, but bow down to receive the gifts of thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Surely the righteous shall give thanks to thy name; the upright shall dwell in thy presence.

–Psalm 140:13