“Anthony Swann knows that educators have a big impact on their students. A teacher from his youth inspired him to choose education as his career, and now Swann strives to affirm his students every day.”
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Daily Archives: December 18, 2020
(WSJ) Timothy Dolan and Toufic Baaklini–Remember the Persecuted at Christmas
For the first time in their lives, millions of Americans have been ordered by their government not to attend church. For millions of persecuted Christians across the globe, this is the only reality they know.
The theme of persecution lies at the heart of the Christmas story. The Holy Family were forced to flee their native land due to state-sponsored oppression. As citizens of a global superpower whose lawmakers are responsive to their citizens, we are called to stand in solidarity with persecuted Christians. The U.S. government has shown during this difficult year that it is responsive to such advocacy.
The House unanimously passed a resolution in November calling for continued humanitarian assistance to Christians, Yazidis and other communities that survived the ISIS genocide in Iraq and Syria. Also last month, the State Department and the Polish government hosted the third annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, an international forum for governments and civil society.
At the same time, 2020 has presented unprecedented challenges for persecuted Christians world-wide.
All over the world, Christians are barred from worship, arrested and murdered. We can’t stand idly by. https://t.co/Yy6wNNiKls
— Alessandra (@alessabocchi) December 17, 2020
The Latest Issue of the Diocesan Newspaper of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina, the Jubilate Deo
Including: An Advent Meditation
The Marriage
of the Virgin
By The Rt. Rev. Mark J. Lawrence, Bishop, The Anglican Diocese
of South Carolina
(Church Times) Church in Wales issues draft Bill on same-sex blessings
The Bishops of the Church in Wales have published their proposals to authorise formal blessings in church of same-sex partnerships and marriages.
A draft Bill that would permit the blessing in parish churches of same-sex couples after a civil partnership or civil wedding has been circulated to members of the Church’s Governing Body ahead of a debate in April.
In an explanatory memorandum, the Bishops acknowledge that scripture and Christian tradition have previously understood unions of one man and one woman as the only context for sexual relationships.
“However, with new social, scientific and psychological understandings of sexuality in the last one and a half centuries, we believe that same-sex relationships can be understood in a radically different way, and that the teaching of Scripture should therefore be re-interrogated,” the Bishops write.
(Bloomberg) Russia-Linked SolarWinds Hack Ensnares Widening List of Victims
It was clear from the start that a cyber attack by suspected Russian hackers aimed at several U.S. government agencies was going to be bad. One clue: National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien cut short a trip overseas early this week to rush back to Washington to help manage the crisis.
But on Thursday, the reality of just how sprawling — and potentially damaging — the breach might be came into sharper focus. It started with a bulletin from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, warning that the hackers were sophisticated, patient and well-resourced, representing a “grave risk” to federal, state and local governments as well as critical infrastructure and the private sector. It didn’t take long to see how accurate the agency’s assessment was.
Bloomberg News reported that at least three state governments were hacked. That was followed by reports of other breaches: the city network in Austin, Texas, and the U.S. nuclear weapons agency. Late in the day software giant Microsoft Corp. said its systems were exposed.
Excerpt:
… effect of Thursday’s revelations was confirmation that no single person or agency — including the highest reaches of the U.S. government — is certain of exactly what the hackers had infiltrated, let alone the full extent of what was taken.https://t.co/vm8C7Ay8i2— Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman (@RhiFionn) December 18, 2020
(WSJ) Nigerian Boys Taken in Kidnapping Claimed by Boko Haram Are Freed
More than 300 schoolboys kidnapped by gunmen from their boarding school in northwest Nigeria last week were handed over to security agencies late Thursday, Nigeria’s government said, prompting outpourings of relief and joy across Africa’s most populous nation after fears they would become long-term hostages of jihadist militants.
Shortly after 8 p.m. on Thursday, Aminu Bello Masari, the governor of Katsina state, announced in a televised interview that 344 of the boys had been handed over in the forest of neighboring Zamfara state and would be immediately driven to Katsina for medical treatment.
The release comes six days after the students were seized from their dormitories at the Kankara Government Science Secondary School in Katsina and driven into the nearby forest, marking one of the largest mass school kidnappings in history. President Muhammadu Buhari praised the military and security agencies in a statement that offered prayers for the full recovery of the victims. They “endured significant hardships in the course of their ordeal,” the statement said.
Local newspaper The Katsina Post tweeted images of dozens of schoolboys jammed onto the back of trucks, some looking dazed, but others sporting wide smiles for the camera as they headed toward home. Government officials said the boys would be given new clothes before an audience with the president on Friday.
Good news Kidnapped Nigerian Boys Are Freed https://t.co/3MegJMgMsW
— paolo ignazio marong (@paoloigna1) December 18, 2020
A Prayer to Begin the Day from the Pastor’s Prayerbook
O Lord our God, Who hast chased the slumber from our eyes, and once more assembled us to lift up our hands unto Thee and to praise Thy just judgments, accept our prayers and supplications, and give us faith and love. Bless our coming in and our going out, our thoughts, words, and works, and let us begin this day with the praise of the unspeakable sweetness of Thy mercy. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
–Robert W. Rodenmayer, ed., The Pastor’s Prayerbook: Selected and arranged for various occasions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960)
— Sezgin Keskin (@sezginkeskin719) December 18, 2020
Posted in Uncategorized
From the Morning Bible Readings
Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.”
As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? Why then did you go out? To see a man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those who wear soft raiment are in kings’ houses. Why then did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written,
‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way before thee.’
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Eli′jah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
–Matthew 11:2-15
Ladybird Artists Advent Calendar,
window 18.
‘Winter Sunshine at Nether-Alderley’#SRBadmin pic.twitter.com/mt9goqnhbI— Helen Day (@LBFlyawayhome) December 18, 2020
Posted in Theology: Scripture