From Rev Dr Johann W H van der Bijl
Would y’all consider joining us in urgent prayer for Gambella? We simply cannot find a venue acceptable to both groups. While the students have no problem with each other, they are fearful of those who might seek to harm them if they should come into the other group’s territory”¦which is a legitimate fear. The costs involved in renting space are astronomical and therefore not an option. We have asked the local force if it would be possible to guard the compound while classes are in session. There just doesn’t seem to be an obvious or easy solution to this vexing problem, but we know that the Lord is able to change the hearts of even the most stubborn and to turn tragedy into triumph for His kingdom. So, please consider praying with us for peace.

This is something only our sovereign God can do”¦

Read it all and there is background here and here

Russian warplanes have made several “aggressive” passes near a US guided missile destroyer, according to US military sources. The jets carried no visible weapons but failed to respond when hailed, officials say.

The pilots flew “dangerously close” to the US destroyer Donald Cook in Baltic Sea, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday.

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Look around. Three in 10 people you see claim they are pretty satisfied with life, happy, healthy and moral, too.

They’re the “highly religious,” 30 percent of U.S. adults who say they pray daily and attend church at least once a week.

“Religion in Everyday Life,” a new survey from Pew Research released Tuesday (April 12), teases out the particular ways they differ from the majority of U.S. Christians who are less observant and from non-Christians, including the “nones” who claim no religious identity.

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O Lord God, we pray thee to keep us from all self-confidence and vainglory, and to bestow upon us thy great grace of humility and self-forgetfulness. To thee may we look, in all that we do, both for the will and for the power; and to thee may we ascribe with a sincere heart all the praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.

–Psalm 37:3-5

In early April, 2016, more than 100 parishioners and clergy from the Diocese of South Carolina attended the New Wineskins missions conference in Ridgecrest, NC., where they not only learned about missions but connected with Anglican missionaries from around the world. Just prior to and immediately after New Wineskins the Diocese hosted numerous visiting Anglican Bishops and leaders who spoke in Diocesan churches. On April 11, the Cathedral hosted “Voices of the Anglican Communion: a Gathering of Friends from Africa and South America” where 10 Bishops and Anglican leaders from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Bolivia, Brazil, and Chile spoke about the ongoing ministries in their own countries.

What is the impetus behind this movement?

In part it’s driven by Bishop Mark Lawrence’s vision to “Make Biblical Anglicans for a Global Age,” and his challenge for our Diocese to pursue mutually enriching missional relationships which help shape emerging Anglicanism in the 21st century.

“It’s about relationships,” said the Rev. Bob Lawrence, Chair of the Diocese’s Anglican Communion Development (ACD) Committee. “These experiences give us an opportunity to know people face-to-face, person-to-person

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..What I find most striking about these recent events is not the dysfunction and disobedience of Bishop Waweru (one would expect as much of a “bishop” involved in “dialogue” with heretics), but the political ineptitude and foolishness of Archbishop Idowu-Fearon. Does he really want to stand behind a lie or a liar? Does he really want to accept a delegation to the ACC that sits in defiance of its own province? Isn’t seating this delegation at ACC16 an open affirmation of Bishop Waweru’s deception? Isn’t the ACC now taking an active role in the subversion of a legitimately elected Anglican Communion Primate?

On what basis or foundation can any ACC official decry colonialism? One does not need to be a prophet to see that this is nothing less than a bald shameless attempt to undermine a sitting Anglican primate who does not toe the Canterbury line and replace him with a toady.

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ALL Saints’ College is to be sold to help the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst repay a multi-million dollar debt to the Commonwealth Bank.

Plans to sell the school were confirmed on Saturday during the first day of a local synod meeting. Nine other unidentified church properties across the diocese have also been earmarked for sale to repay the debt.

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