Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that as a tree is known by its fruit, so we may be recognized as thy children by our obedience to thy will. Help us to put away all hypocrisy and self-seeking, that we may truly set forth thy glory and extend thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sunrise at Capital Reef NP#photography #landscapephotography pic.twitter.com/C0YvU77uOX
— Thelma Kelly Photography (@ThelmaKellyPho1) July 29, 2021
Now when they had passed through Amphip’olis and Apollo’nia, they came to Thessaloni’ca, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and for three weeks he argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded, and joined Paul and Silas; as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
–Acts 17:1-4
This morning’s sunrise pic.twitter.com/DSKAT4unjq
— loki Highlock (@LokiHighlock) July 28, 2021
Today we are living with instant messaging in which many people document their every thought – almost in real time – on various social media platforms. There is no time to reflect on the impact of their words on the unsuspecting world. When they are feeling angry or hurt, social media is ready 24 hours a day to pass along the pain-filled sentiments to everyone. This is already generating unprecedented levels of depression and self-harming behavior among teenagers – both boys and girls. I have witnessed the potential for serious damage with our own grandchildren.
When I was a child – light years ago – we had a childhood chant: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me!” It was intended to increase resiliency and avoid physical retaliation, but, sadly, it is simply not true. Hurtful words – uttered in person or via social media – can leave deep wounds long after physical scars might have healed. By way of response to this reality, our son and his wife have not only restricted the hours that social media is available in their home but also denied their 15-year-old son his own mobile phone – over considerable protestations!
I readily admit that the social media explosion has produced remarkable benefits. We are able to communicate with friends and family in ways that we never imagined. Angela serves as our family social media queen and stays in regular contact with our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and our rapidly growing global extended family. She passes along photographs, family news, and prayer needs, and because of her good efforts, we have stayed well connected throughout the pandemic lock down. We have even located high school friends with whom we had lost contact. I am also able to learn a great deal about the various clergy and churches that I now serve as interim bishop, because I can read through their websites and social media posts. But there is a dark side to all of this.
Pittsburgh ad clerum on anti-social mediahttps://t.co/E4i5UnVUZ5 pic.twitter.com/0pHfFOTPF5
— Anglican Ink (@anglicanink) July 21, 2021
“If only you would listen to these laws…” (Deut. 7:12). These words with which our parsha begins contain a verb that is a fundamental motif of the book of Devarim. The verb is sh-m-a. It occurred in last week’s parsha in the most famous line of the whole of Judaism, Shema Yisrael. It occurs later in this week’s parsha in the second paragraph of the Shema, “It shall be if you surely listen [shamoa tishme’u]” (Deut. 11:13). In fact, this verb appears no less than 92 times in Devarim as a whole.
We often miss the significance of this word because of what I call the fallacy of translatability: the assumption that one language is fully translatable into another. We hear a word translated from one language to another and assume that it means the same in both. But often it doesn’t. Languages are only partially translatable into one another.[1] The key terms of one civilisation are often not fully reproducible in another. The Greek word megalopsychos, for example, Aristotle’s “great-souled man” who is great and knows he is, and carries himself with aristocratic pride, is untranslatable into a moral system like Judaism in which humility is a virtue. The English word “tact” has no precise equivalent in Hebrew. And so on.
This is particularly so in the case of the Hebrew verb sh-m-a. Listen, for example, to the various ways the opening words of this week’s parsha have been translated into English:
If you hearken to these precepts…
If you completely obey these laws…
If you pay attention to these laws…
If you heed these ordinances…
Because ye hear these judgments…
There is no single English word that means to hear, to listen, to heed, to pay attention to, and to obey….
Rabbi Sacks transformed the notion of covenant for us. https://t.co/JxUZNWFUzi
— First Things (@firstthingsmag) December 1, 2020
How many people in our country go about their lives burdened with the well-founded suspicion that their human-looking fellow citizens are not true humans at all, but partisan automata? We are a nation of human beings who constantly, conspicuously fail the Turing Test. The possibility conceived in that test — of a world in which human and machine behaviors are effectively indistinguishable — was inherent in the project of creating lifelike machines from the outset. But it goes back further. Thomas Hobbes, who proposed that mechanical automata “have an artificial life,” also treated them as the paradigm for human life. And we’re familiar with the descendants of this anxiety in the work of Philip K. Dick. For the most part, we have imagined that it would be machines whose behavior would become indistinguishable from humans, not the other way around.
Perhaps the first work of art to take the latter tack — unsurprisingly, a product of the MySpace era — was Basshunter’s 2006 Eurodance hit “Boten Anna,” which tells the story of a young woman mistaken for a chatroom bot. Something similar is at work in the popular “pitchbot” Twitter accounts — New York Times Pitchbot, Federalist PitchBot, and so on — which mock those publications for their rote predictability. These are instances of art-imitating-life-imitating-art: people pretending to be bots imitating human writers who write like bots.
More seriously, Will Arbery’s play Heroes of the Fourth Turning, the finest work of art to come out of 2019, offers an explicitly demonological presentation of media-saturation. Each of the play’s young conservatives is possessed: veteran and Catholic convert Justin is possessed by his complicity in violence, Simone Weil–like Emily by the world-embracing sympathy engendered by her own chronic illness, developmentally-arrested Kevin by something like sexual pathology, and far-right media influencer Teresa by her inner pitchbot. While the other forms of possession on display are more spectacular, finding at times somewhat Exorcist-like modes of expression, Teresa’s is perhaps the most profound. Her friends all have inner lives, albeit vexed and fraught. Teresa, by all appearances, has none. She’s been hollowed out. This is horror as harrowing as anything supernatural, courtesy of our decade’s own peculiar demons.
From the new issue:
What happens to public discourse when everyone fails the Turing Test?https://t.co/6ONNQAZ7AZ
— The New Atlantis (@tnajournal) June 9, 2021
A tidal-powered turbine, which its makers say is the most powerful in the world, has started to generate electricity via the grid in Orkney.
The Orbital O2 has the capacity to meet the annual electricity demand of 2,000 homes for the next 15 years.
In May, it was sailed out of Dundee, where it was assembled over 18 months.
The 680-tonne turbine is now anchored in the Fall of Warness where a subsea cable connects the 2MW offshore unit to the local onshore electricity network.
Orbital Marine Power said its first commercial turbine, which will be powered by the fast-flowing waters, is a “major milestone”.
It is also providing power to an onshore electrolyser to generate green hydrogen.
A tidal-powered turbine, which its makers say is the most powerful in the world, has started to generate electricity via the grid in Orkney https://t.co/DxPp83dIPY
— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) July 28, 2021
O God, heavenly Father, whose Son Jesus Christ enjoyed rest and refreshment in the home of Mary and Martha of Bethany: Give us the will to love thee, open our hearts to hear thee, and strengthen our hands to serve thee in others for his sake; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Today is the Feast of Mary, Martha and Lazarus, companions of Christ, here in a masterwork by Sebastiano del Piombo at the @NationalGallery. pic.twitter.com/SAV6HxbPyK
— The Roman Anglican (@RomanAnglican) July 29, 2017
O ALMIGHTIE and mercifull Lord, which givest unto thy elect people the holy Ghost, as a sure pledge of thy heavenly kingdome : Graunt unto us, O Lord, thy holie spirit, that he may beare witnesse with our spirit, that wee be thy children, and heires of thy kingdome, and that by the operation of this thy spirit we may kill all carnall lusts, unlawfull pleasures, concupiscences, evill affections, contrarie unto thy will, by our Saviour and Lord Iesus Christ. Amen.
Good Morning.
— Only In Boston (@OnlyInBOS) July 29, 2021
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one’s fetters were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their wounds, and he was baptized at once, with all his family. Then he brought them up into his house, and set food before them; and he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God.
But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” And the jailer reported the words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now cast us out secretly? No! let them come themselves and take us out.” The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens; so they came and apologized to them. And they took them out and asked them to leave the city. So they went out of the prison, and visited Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they exhorted them and departed.
–Acts 16:25-40
BEAUTY of a morning view from Ogunquit! #maine #sunrise pic.twitter.com/EaG7Juz8sP
— Cristina Frank (@CristinaWMTW) July 29, 2021
The issue is not that modern life comes with paperwork hassles. The issue is that American benefit programs are, as a whole, difficult and sometimes impossible for everyday citizens to use. Our public policy is crafted from red tape, entangling millions of people who are struggling to find a job, failing to feed their kids, sliding into poverty, or managing a disabling health condition.
The United States government—whether controlled by Democrats, with their love of too-complicated-by-half, means-tested policy solutions; or Republicans, with their love of paperwork-as-punishment; or both, with their collective neglect of the implementation and maintenance of government programs—has not just given up on making benefits easy to understand and easy to receive. It has in many cases purposefully made the system difficult, shifting the burden of public administration onto individuals and discouraging millions of Americans from seeking aid. The government rations public services through perplexing, unfair bureaucratic friction. And when people do not get help designed for them, well, that is their own fault.
The time tax is worse for individuals who are struggling than for the rich; larger for Black families than for white families; harder on the sick than on the healthy. It is a regressive filter undercutting every progressive policy we have. In America, losing a job means making a hundred phone calls to a state unemployment-insurance system. Getting hit by a car means becoming your own hospital-billing expert. Having a disability means launching into a Jarndyce v. Jarndyce–type legal battle. Needing help to feed a toddler means filling out a novel-length application for aid.
1/5 How did the U.S. government turn into one giant DMV? Read @annielowrey on the “time tax”—“a levy of paperwork, aggravation, and mental effort imposed on citizens in exchange for benefits that putatively exist to help them”: https://t.co/lQvllNxEvw pic.twitter.com/5qmVvmInnX
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) July 27, 2021
The Reverend Davies was one of 15 members of the community, many of them from Bungonia, to speak during open forum.
He said he wasn’t from Bungonia but “breathed the same air.” In addition, parishioners in the area were “very distressed about the proposal to process up to 330,000 tonnes annually of Sydney’s waste in the rural zone. The Reverend Davies took the matter to Dr Short, who wrote that he had become keenly aware of the importance of environment and air quality, particularly to Goulburn Mulwaree residents.
“This was highlighted in the lead-up to Christmas, 2019 when we were unable to go ahead with an outdoors carols program because of the impact of smoke from the bushfires,” he wrote.
Dr Short noted Jerrara Power’s scoping report had mentioned residents’ concerns about air quality, health and drinking water impacts associated with industry, including quarries in Goulburn Mulwaree.
“Noting the concerns that are acknowledged here and the fact that the vast majority of waste to be processed at the facility would come from outside the local government area, I support any process that would allow the interests and concerns of local residents to be fully heard and evaluated,” the letter stated.
Bishop speaks up for residents affected by waste to energy proposal https://t.co/7hykKgLEwx
— Goulburn Post (@GoulburnPost) July 28, 2021
Echols comes with experience not only in teaching in theological settings but also with experience in recruiting teachers, building teams and developing educational programs. She taught Pastoral Theology for 3.5 years at Ridley Hall in Cambridge and ran the Perspectives course at Trinity School for Ministry in Pittsburgh. She taught public reading and worship at Union Biblical Seminary in India and also taught Cross Cultural Communication at Jeffery Seminary in Indonesia. While a full-time student at Trinity, Echols ran the Jan Term program and started the June Term program.
Alan Smith, Senior Advisor – ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Risk and Inclusion, and former Global Head of Risk Strategy at HSBC, is to be the next First Church Estates Commissioner, Downing Street announced today. Alan has also been a Church Commissioner since 2018.
The First Church Estates Commissioner chairs the Church Commissioners’ Assets Committee, a statutory committee responsible for the strategic management of the Church Commissioners’ £9.2 billion investment portfolio.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Chair of the Commissioners’ Board of Governors, said: “I am delighted that Alan has chosen to use his skills and experience to serve the Church and greatly look forward to working with him. Climate change is the most urgent challenge we face, and Alan’s knowledge of environmental issues and risk management will be critically important for the Commissioners’ work. I’d also like to thank Loretta Minghella for her hard work and leadership during her time at the Church Commissioners.”
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said: “We are pleased that Alan will succeed Loretta. Alan’s experience as a Commissioner and his role on the Commissioners’ Audit & Risk Committee means he’s extremely well suited for this leadership role.”
The Church Commissioners are delighted to announce Alan Smith as next First Church Estates Commissioner.
Read more on our website 👇https://t.co/VykZFgy9QV
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) July 27, 2021
She was a gifted agricultural scientist educated at prestigious universities in Shanghai and Tokyo. She said she wanted to help farmers in poor areas, like her hometown in Xinjiang, in western China. But because of her uncle’s activism for China’s oppressed Muslim Uyghurs, her family and friends said, the Chinese state made her a security target.
At first they took away her father. Then they pressed her to return home from Japan. Last year, at age 30, Mihriay Erkin, the scientist, died in Xinjiang, under mysterious circumstances.
The government confirmed Ms. Erkin’s death but attributed it to an illness. Her uncle, Abduweli Ayup, the activist, believes she died in state custody.
Mr. Ayup says his niece was only the latest in his family to come under pressure from the authorities. His two siblings had already been detained and imprisoned. All three were targeted in retaliation for his efforts to expose the plight of the Uyghurs, he said.
Uyghur activists overseas who denounce China’s repression have found that their relatives back home have been imprisoned, or worse. https://t.co/rR5HcUJ8Za
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 28, 2021
Almighty God, beautiful in majesty and majestic in holiness, who dost teach us in Holy Scripture to sing thy praises and who gavest thy musicians Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frederick Handel and Henry Purcell grace to show forth thy glory in their music: Be with all those who write or make music for thy people, that we on earth may glimpse thy beauty and know the inexhaustible riches of thy new creation in Jesus Christ our Savior; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
28 July 1750. German classical music genius Johann Sebastian Bach died (aged 64). He’s one of the greatest classical composers of all time. His best known works include the Brandenburg Concertos and the Goldberg Variations. pic.twitter.com/za1gWaBcBC
— Prof Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) July 28, 2021
O God, who hast given us not the spirit of bondage, but the Spirit of adoption into thy family: Grant us the witness of thy Spirit within our hearts, testifying that we are thy children; and give us that fellowship with the sufferings of Christ which shall end in our being glorified with him; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Cape Lookout State Park, Oregon Coast. pic.twitter.com/IBFOmZotuy
— Tracy Hogan (@HoganSOG) July 27, 2021
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by soothsaying. She followed Paul and us, crying, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days. But Paul was annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the rulers; and when they had brought them to the magistrates they said, “These men are Jews and they are disturbing our city. They advocate customs which it is not lawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in attacking them; and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
–Acts 16:16-24
At the end of an extraordinary year, we thank all Christ Church tutors, staff and students for their hard work and resilience, and we wish everyone a happy and healthy summer. #ChristChurchTogether #TomTower9o5 📷 by @LucyATaylor pic.twitter.com/TLIn98emQz
— Christ Church (@ChCh_Oxford) July 16, 2021
Earlier this month, Archbishop Beach announced that, at the request of the Diocese of the Upper Midwest, the Province would undertake oversight of the independent investigation into allegations of abuse within the diocese, ensure that pastoral care for survivors is offered, and conduct a review of diocesan structures and processes. Below are some recent developments in that unfolding situation:
Executive Committee expresses sorrow, calls for prayer, and approves formation of Provincial Response Team
Meeting on Monday, July 26, 2021 the Executive Committee of the Anglican Church in North America responded to the concerns raised by survivors of abuse in the Diocese of the Upper Midwest. The members of the Committee expressed “deep sorrow for all survivors who have suffered harm and pain as a result of abuse and/or misconduct and for their families and loved ones,” approved the formation of a Provincial Response Team, and called for “prayer for healing and justice for all affected by this tragic situation, for wisdom for those dealing with it, and for a spirit of grace, humility, and repentance throughout our Church.”
The Executive Committee is the Anglican Church in North America’s Board of Directors and is made up of clergy and laity elected from across the Province. Read more from the Executive Committee here.
Archbishop Beach appoints Bishops Miller and Atkinson to assist Diocese
Read it all and please note the diocesan website is there.
“Among the 11 teenagers swimming for Team USA is Regan Smith, who set three world records in backstroke when she was just 17. Ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, she spoke with NBC News’ Vicky Nguyen about her journey to the pool, how the pandemic affected her and what it takes to become an Olympian.”
Watch it all.
New research indicates that some stained glass windows from Canterbury Cathedral may be among the oldest in the world.
The panels, depicting the Ancestors of Christ, have been re-dated using a new, non-destructive technique.
The analysis indicates that some of them may date back to the mid-1100s.
The windows would therefore have been in place when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was killed at the cathedral in 1170.
Léonie Seliger, the head of stained glass conservation at the cathedral, and part of the research team, told BBC News that the discovery was historically “hugely significant”.
Research shows Ancestors of Christ stained glass figures @No1Cathedral likely to date to mid 12th century before the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 and rebuilding of the Romanesque cathedral after a fire in 1174. https://t.co/whXReKD5qF
— Janet Gough (@Gough_Janet) July 27, 2021
Several hours each week, Bill Glover visits Jean-Marc Bollag at the apartment he and his wife share on Daniel Island.
He works on exercises with Jean-Marc and they take walks. They spend time together on the computer, answering emails, a lot of time talking. Sometimes Glover drives Bollag to Shem Creek or to Starbucks or to run errands.
“He is a very good teacher. And I’m a very bad student,” Jean-Marc, 86, said with a smile.
Glover is a 67-year-old professional caregiver — one of relatively few men in the industry — who launched a second career in 2014 after retiring as a clinical mental health counselor. These days, he works almost exclusively with clients like Jean-Marc Bollag who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.
Nearly 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that number is expected to triple in the next 30 years.
Bill Glover was recently named North American Caregiver of the Year by Home Instead, the home care firm where he works.
He beat out 65,000 other caregivers for the top honor. https://t.co/xpdvZl0DH1
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) July 26, 2021
The Bishop of Huddersfield, in his capacity as the lead bishop for safeguarding then updated the House on the Safeguarding National Casework Management System. The House agreed additional steps to help the project become more fully embedded in dioceses, with the National Safeguarding Team available for discussions regarding any particular concerns or issues for dioceses.
The Archbishops’ Adviser on Racial Justice then addressed the House on the next stage of the Commission of Racial Justice, commissioned by both Archbishops. The House was updated and invited to note the progress outlined so far towards implementing the recommendations from the Lament to Action report. In addition, the House also noted and commented upon the draft terms of reference for the Commission on Racial Justice.
The Bishop of London, in her capacity as Chair of the Recovery Group (now concluded) then updated the House on what is now permissible since 19th of July and confirmed that she and her colleagues will continue to monitor the Covid-19 situation carefully as it continues to evolve.
The House of Bishops met on Monday 26th of July 2021 via Zoom | The Church of England https://t.co/UJVBRg8hWV
— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) July 26, 2021
Dissatisfaction is the one word that best expresses the state of mind in which Christendom finds itself today. There is a wide-spread misgiving that we are on the eve of momentous changes. Unrest is everywhere. We hear about Roman Councils, and Anglican Conferences, and Evangelical Alliances, about the question of the Temporal Power, the dissolution of Church and State, and many other such like things. They all have one meaning. The party of the Papacy and the party of the Reformation, the party of orthodoxy and the party of liberalism, are all alike agitated by the consciousness that a spirit of change is in the air. No wonder that many imagine themselves listening to the rumbling of the chariot- wheels of the Son of Man. He Himself predicted that ” perplexity” should be one of the signs of His coining, and it is certain that the threads of the social order have seldom been more seriously entangled than they now are.
A calmer and perhaps truer inference is that we are about entering upon a new reach of Church history, and that the dissatisfaction and perplexity are only transient. There is always a tumult of waves at the meeting of the waters; but when the streams have mingled, the flow is smooth and still again. The plash and gurgle that we hear may mean something like this.
At all events the time is opportune for a discussion of the Church-Idea; for it is with this, hidden under a hundred disguises, that the world’s thoughts are busy. Men have become possessed with an unwonted longing for unity, and yet they are aware that they do not grapple successfully with the practical problem. Somehow they are grown persuaded that union is God’s work, and separation devil’s work ; but the persuasion only breeds the greater discontent. That is what lies at the root of our unquietness. There is a felt want and a felt inability to meet the want; and where these two things coexist there must be heat of friction.
Catholicity is what we are reaching after….
–William Reed Huntington The Church Idea (1870)
William Reed Huntington, Pach Brothers Studio, c. 1900 https://t.co/Dl9pQIhLof #smithsonian #pachbrothersstudio pic.twitter.com/l6buAr8gfX
— SI: National Portrait Gallery (Bot) (@si_npg) June 24, 2020
O Lord our God, we thank thee for instilling in the heart of thy servant William Reed Huntington a fervent love for thy Church and its mission in the world; and we pray that, with unflagging faith in thy promises, we may make known to all peoples thy blessed gift of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RT @eccalendar "Feast of William Reed Huntington, Priest, 1909. … pic.twitter.com/oYJ2Cm9j9Q" http://t.co/RWjUrLkIo7
— St Philip's Nash (@StPsNashville) July 27, 2015
Lord God our Father, your Son left the riches of heaven and became poor for our sake:
by your Holy Spirit when we prosper save us from pride, when we are needy save us from despair, that we may trust in you alone;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen (slightly edited–KSH).
Enigmatic sunrise with some hints of smoke and haze this morning. Nauset beach, Orleans, Cape Cod. #capecod #StormHour #sunrise pic.twitter.com/sAjJc3STWy
— Darius Aniunas (@dariusaniunas) July 27, 2021
Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to thee, when my heart is faint. Lead thou me to the rock that is higher than I; for thou art my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in thy tent for ever! Oh to be safe under the shelter of thy wings!
–Psalm 61:1-4
Oh what a beautiful morning here at Roman Vindolanda. #sunrise pic.twitter.com/WsZ8xBaHYP
— Vindolanda Trust (@VindolandaTrust) July 27, 2021
Who will say that a man is thankful to his friend for a past kindness, if he nourishes an ill opinion of him for the future?…He is the most thankful man that treasures up the mercies of God in his memory, and can feed his faith with what God hath done for him so as to walk in the strength thereof in present straits
–as cited by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) on Psalm 78 in his Treasury of David
The United States will today declare an end to combat operations in Iraq, asserting that the fight against Islamic State can be led by local forces.
The announcement will be part of a deal signed with Iraq’s prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who is in Washington and will meet President Biden.
It will state formally that US combat troops will be withdrawn from Iraq and the forces that remain will perform only training and advisory roles. Its aim is to help Kadhimi to argue that he is no longer beholden to western military interests, and that attacks by pro-Iran militias on US targets, often bases shared with Iraqi troops, are illegitimate.
Read it all (subscription).
The United States will today declare an end to combat operations in Iraq, asserting that the fight against Islamic State can be led by local forces https://t.co/uPy3Jlo4RQ
— The Times (@thetimes) July 26, 2021
Months before the megachurch Hillsong opened its new outpost in Atlanta, its pastor sought advice on how to build a church in a pandemic.
From Facebook.
The social media giant had a proposition, Sam Collier, the pastor, recalled in an interview: to use the church as a case study to explore how churches can “go further farther on Facebook.”
For months Facebook developers met weekly with Hillsong and explored what the church would look like on Facebook and what apps they might create for financial giving, video capability or livestreaming. When it came time for Hillsong’s grand opening in June, the church issued a news release saying it was “partnering with Facebook” and began streaming its services exclusively on the platform.
Beyond that, Mr. Collier could not share many specifics — he had signed a nondisclosure agreement.
The company is intensifying formal partnerships with faith groups across the United States.
Facebook’s Next Target: The Religious Experience https://t.co/ZmuZJG2p5c
— DavidW (@DavidW_340) July 25, 2021