St Paul in his letter to the Galatians says to them at one point, “Love one another, cease to tear at one another, lest at the end you consume one another.” We are in danger of that in the way that our politics is developing at the moment.

If we are to tackle that, we have to look at some of the fundamental issues which must be put in place if we are to have a society that is capable of creating the agile, flexible, creative, entrepreneurial, exciting society, full of the common good, of solidarity, of love for one another, that is the only way that this country will flourish and prosper for all its citizens, in the world outside the European Union of the future.

The biggest thing it seems to me that we must challenge, my Lords, if we are to be effective in this creation of a new vision for Britain ”“ a vision that enables hope and reconciliation to begin to flower ”“ is to tackle the issues of inequality. It is inequality that thins out the crust of our society. It is inequality that raises the levels of anger and bitterness.

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Whether officially recognized or not, Stedman’s life looks much like that of a chaplain. He convenes like-minded people, invites speakers, coordinates discussion groups, organizes activism. He offers one-on-one pastoral counseling and couples counseling. He officiates at weddings, succors the grieving, helps students resolve conflicts with their families. His flock steadily grows, with more than 900 people now on the YHC mailing list.

And members of the humanist community find that it manages to fuse and catalyze various aspects of their personalities””some might even say souls””in a way that other secular groups can’t. “I appreciate having a place to tackle big, hard questions with people coming at them from a similar perspective to mine,” says Chelsea Blink ’21PhD. She admits she wouldn’t mind if YHC were “churchier,” replete with singing and preaching, but she acknowledges she may be in the minority in that regard.

“Something enviable about religious communities is the regularity of that weekly religious service,” says Stephen Goeman ’17MDiv, who interns with YHC, “and how that can drive people in the congregation to hold others accountable for ethical positions.”

“I love that language of accountability,” adds Stedman, citing a study showing that even nonreligious spouses who attended church regularly were more civically engaged. “We have collectively agreed to these certain moral views. We’ve made a commitment to one another.”

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Selimah Harmon is a freelance photographer and vet student at Tufts University beginning Fall 2016 where she will focus on wildlife medicine.

Check it out from our youngest daughter.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and DP William Ruto have urged religious leaders to help to fight corruption.

This comes after hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money have been lost in graft scandals.

The two spoke yesterday during the enthronement of the sixth ACK Archbishop at All Saints Cathedral.

They called on religious leaders to play a central role in the country’s economic agenda to ensure stability and unity.

“Let us work together to deal with other human needs and appreciate this partnership because we all want a better place than we found it,” President Uhuru said.

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The vibrant and colourful service was attended by the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta; his Vice President, William Ruto; Anglican primates from Africa and beyond; ambassadors, Mothers’ Union representatives, various clergy and laity, and many other notable guests and dignitaries.

Speaking during the service, Archbishop Justin said: “Your Grace, you will find a church that has been loved, served and taught by your distinguished predecessor and indeed those before him. It is a church springing in its strength, full of the life of Christ, full of the truth of the scriptures and the love of God.”

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“The Anglican Church in Kenya has always been at the forefront in the fight against corruption in Kenya and has never compromised in rebuking corrupt leaders in the country,” said the preacher of the day, Archbishop and Primate of Tanzania the Most Revd Jacob Chimeledya. “As a leader you cannot remain quiet because being in the top leadership of the church means you have to rebuke and correct whenever necessary.”

Archbishop Chimeledya reminded Archbishop Ole Sapit that he has to be prepared to preach the word at all times. “You cannot choose, whether it’s a good season or bad one you still have to preach. Remember that the kingdom of God is near but it has not fully come because of all the evil that is still happening in the world today,” he said. “Therefore the Church under your leadership has an important role to play. You have to safeguard the Christian faith by safeguarding the orthodox Christian teachings.”

After his recognition and enthronement, accomplished after taking the necessary vows and undertakings, Archbishop Ole Sapit gave his charge which covered a wide range of issues including the importance of peace in the country, his vision for the Anglican Church of Kenya and the need for the church to “remain true to her calling.”

“A lot of questions are being asked about the role of the church in the world today. If Christians form 80 percent of our population, why the corruption, the environmental degradation?” he asked.

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O Holy Spirit of God, very God, Who didst descend upon Christ at the River Jordan, and upon the Apostles in the upper chamber, we have sinned against heaven and before Thee; purify us again, we beseech Thee, with Thy Divine fire, and have mercy upon us; for Christ’s sake. Amen.

–James Manning,ed., Prayers of the Early Church (Nashville: The Upper Room, 1953)

What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,

“For thy sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

–Romans 8:31-39

On this day, 240 years ago, the visionary gentlemen of the 13 colonies pledged their fortunes and their very lives to the cause of liberty.

Given the incredible forces arrayed against them ”“ the British Navy was the dominant sea force of the time, and the British Army dwarfed the ragtag militia forces which combined to make the Continental Army.

Those 56 delegates to the Continental Congress were the co-founders of the greatest and riskiest startup of all time, one in which the battles were drawn not with marketing, product and engineering but with artillery and infantry and navies, in which loss meant not bankruptcy and “working for the man”, but brutal repression and many lives lost.

These founders truly believed in making the world a better place, not the tired line spouted by every startup that creates a new gaming app or development language, but creating real liberty, true representative government that is by its very nature constrained from exercising undue control.

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Long, too long America,
Traveling roads all even and peaceful you learn’d from joys and
prosperity only,
But now, ah now, to learn from crises of anguish, advancing,
grappling with direst fate and recoiling not,
And now to conceive and show to the world what your children
en-masse really are,
(For who except myself has yet conceiv’d what your children en-masse
really are?)

–Walt Whitman (1819-1892)