“It has been a privilege to serve as bishop in this diocese for over a decade,” he said. “Because we are a small diocese with a family feel, our clergy and lay people have been able to collaborate effectively and respond quickly to changing circumstances – as the past year has shown.

“Over the past 10 years, I have seen courage, generosity and resourcefulness as our congregations have faithfully shared God’s love, through prayer, worship and serving others. I look forward to working with those fellow disciples over the coming months to continue discovering what the post-Covid Church will look like as we renew our commitment to respond collaboratively in changing times.

“It may seem surprising that I should make this announcement just before Christmas, but the timing means that the period that the Diocese of Portsmouth will be without a diocesan bishop will be as short as possible.

“Thank you to all those who have prayed for us and worked alongside us over the past 10 years, in the churches and communities of south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Sally and I will be sorry to leave so many valued friends and colleagues.”

Read it all.

This week in the Lords the Bishop of @CofEPortsmouth Christopher Foster is on duty & reading prayers at the start of daily business pic.twitter.com/KmspN94x3a

— Church of England in Parliament (@churchstate) October 24, 2016

Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, have developed a method to produce customizable engineered lysins that can be used to selectively kill bacteria of interest while leaving others unharmed. The discovery presents a promising alternative to antibiotics for treating existing drug-resistant bacteria and bacterial infections without the risk of causing resistance.

Lysins are enzymes produced by bacteriophages to break open the bacteria cells while treating infections, and have demonstrated potential as a novel class of antimicrobials. A major advantage of lysins is that they allow fast and targeted killing against a specific bacterium of choice without inducing resistance.

The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has left even minor bacterial infections incurable by many existing antibiotics, with at least 700,000 deaths each year due to drug-resistant diseases, according to the World Health Organization.

Read it all.

RT SMART researchers use lysins to selectively target bacteria https://t.co/3JC9GZqRir pic.twitter.com/zhquqp8mTx

— Reluctant Quant (@DrMattCrowson) December 10, 2020

John le Carré was the pseudonym of the author David Cornwell, judged by many to be the master of the spy novel.

Meticulously researched, and elegantly written, many of his books reached a wider audience through TV and film adaptations.

Le Carré stripped away the glamour and romance that were a feature of the James Bond novels and instead examined the real dark and seedy life of the professional spy.

In the twilight world of le Carré’s characters the distinction between good and bad, right and wrong was never that clear cut.

Read it all.

BBC News – Obituary: John le Carréhttps://t.co/2AnOoBCgnj

— Caroline Liquori (@CarolineLiquori) December 13, 2020

The sermon starts about 27:10 in–listen carefully for a great story from the state of New Hampshire which you likely haven’t heard.

In the Anglican Communion, we hope to see the restoration so pleaded for in the Scriptures,

“Restore our fortunes, LORD,
like streams in the Negev.
Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them.” (Psalm 126:4-6)

This is the cry of our hearts. We lament the fractured church, and division between the followers of Jesus. We grieve for those in Australia, Wales, and England who have recently determined they will now embrace teaching which contradicts the clear laws of God. For we too, long for a unified, Christ-centered, orthodox, and missionary Church. We long for the impairment of broken promises, failed leadership, and relational walls to come down. We long for the Anglican Communion to be strong in Christ Jesus and abiding by the Scriptures. We don’t long for the glory days, but rather we long and wait for the Lord, as J.R. R. Tolkien quipped, to make all the sad things come untrue.

The irony of the Faith is that we wait. We wait for restoration. But our waiting is not without action. The most important activity of a waiting church is repentance – turning from our known sins and disobedience to God’s Word and walking from this day forward in holiness and righteous living in Him. In his great work, God is in the Manger: Reflections of Advent and Christmas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer says,

“God can make a new beginning with people whenever God pleases, but not people with God. Therefore, people cannot make a new beginning at all; they can only pray for one. Where people are on their own and live by their own devices, there is only the old, the past.”

This is why repentance is crucial.

Read it all.

Click here to read in English: https://t.co/B2cr5yxmbg
Cliquez ici pour lire la Lettre en Français: https://t.co/w7y94e0Jxa
Para ler a carta em Português, clique aqui: https://t.co/ZmAaBdnpub
Para leer la carta en Español, haga clic aquí: https://t.co/UuCtfXdMyX

— GAFCON (@gafconference) December 14, 2020

Judge eternal, throned in splendor, who gavest Juan de la Cruz strength of purpose and mystical faith that sustained him even through the dark night of the soul: Shed thy light on all who love thee, in unity with Jesus Christ our Savior; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

"Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction." -St. John of the Cross#saintoftheday pic.twitter.com/cMaqHcKGum

— Cchs Omole (@CchsOmole) December 14, 2020

O Christ our God, who wilt come to judge the world in the manhood which thou hast assumed: We pray thee to sanctify us wholly, that in the day of thy coming we may be raised up to live and reign with thee for ever.

3rd Sunday Of Advent pic.twitter.com/xisSBsSjF5

— Cris Allen Santos (@Cris86471367) December 12, 2020

Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature.

For this very reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these things are yours and abound, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall; so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

–2 Peter 1:1-11

Kazan Cathedral. Saint Petersburg, Russiahttps://t.co/LtFJI3KBH5 pic.twitter.com/R4whevKY8u

— Architecture Hub (@architecturehub) December 14, 2020