The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, said on Friday morning: “I was pleased to hear Boris Johnson say that he was determined to use his majority to ‘change this country for the better’. I am sure we will all work and pray for this, watching closely what is offered.

“In particular, I will continue to raise the pressing issues of homelessness and rough sleeping, which are causing misery in many parts of our country. In-work poverty is also likely to be high on the agenda of many people in the poorer parts of our country.”

Dr Innes said: “The new Government faces big issues around economic and social justice, and national cohesion, that Brexit has revealed over the past three-and-a-half years.

“I pray that the new UK Government and Parliament will address these formidable challenges in ways that will unify, not divide, and which will seek to find common ground for the common good.”

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NEW The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, should seek to address the country’s “formidable challenges” in a way that will “unify, not divide”, the Bishop in Europe, Dr Robert Innes, has saidhttps://t.co/3aUsH20mPA

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 13, 2019

“Professor David Wright has been sharing his love of physics with students at Tidewater Community College since 1974. Wright became a viral sensation in just one day after a student shared a video of his passionate teaching methods — using fire, slingshots and a bed of nails — on Twitter.”

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Heavenly Father and gracious God, we give thee thanks for the life and ministry of your servant Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, through whose vision, perseverance and strength, a legacy of education was provided for generations then unborn, and we pray for your Holy Spirit’s inspiration to follow her example, through the same Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, #Tuskegee alum, in 1906 founded #Denmark Industrial Institute in #Denmark, #SC, start of #Voorhees College (#HBCU). #Humanitarian and #educator, #founder of several #schools for black #children. #teacher #alum #Unsung #BlackGirlMagic pic.twitter.com/cLhkI0B8eq

— HBCU Alum Gives (@HBCUGIVES) July 2, 2018

Lord, Who hast given all for us: help us to give all for Thee.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

–Revelation 3:1-6