President Xi has presided over a rare public display of China’s growing naval strength by unveiling three new warships — one an amphibious helicopter carrier, hailed as the most advanced vessel in the nation’s fleet — amid growing concern that he is building a force capable of retaking Taiwan.

The carrier, named Hainan, is designed as an offensive platform from which to launch an amphibious or airborne assault and can transport up to 1,200 troops as well as dozens of helicopters and jump jets. The second vessel, the Dalian, is a guided-missile cruiser with stealth technology; the third is an upgraded Type 094A nuclear-powered submarine, the Changzheng-18, believed to be capable of carrying 12 JL-2 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The ceremony, in a military port in the southern city of Sanya, coincided with a warning from Wang Yi, the foreign minister, that the US would have to accept China’s rise if it wanted to co-exist peacefully. “Democracy is not Coca-Cola, with the US producing the syrup and the whole world has one single taste,” he said.

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President Xi has presided over a rare public display of China’s growing naval strength by unveiling three new warships amid growing concern that he is building a force capable of retaking Taiwan https://t.co/NLv1MgMmX8

— The Times (@thetimes) April 26, 2021

Both the Task Force and the Commission are now mandated to help us implement ‘significant cultural and structural change.’ It has our support. As Arun Arora has said: ‘Apologies and lament must now be accompanied by swift actions leading to real change. And as Graham Tomlin pointed out yesterday in a blog Grace and Race, ‘It is the gospel, not a secular agenda that drives the Church’s vison for racial justice so that the Church genuinely reflects and demonstrates the varied and multi-faceted wisdom and grace of God in Christ.’

I say this to you as a white man who has been on a long journey of learning, and still has, I’m sure, some way to go. But let me finish with a little story that radicalised me. Before I went to ordination training I worked at Saint Christopher’s Hospice in South London for a year. I was a ward orderly. I was the only white man on a team of amazing black women. We became good friends. They taught me a great deal. It was the time of the Brixton riots – only a couple of miles down the road. One of the women I worked with, Grace, was my partner on the Monday after the weekend riots. One by one, throughout the day, a succession of white men stopped her in the corridor and made the same demeaning joke, asking her whether she had been throwing bricks or smashing up bus shelters. Each time, she would patiently smile at their inappropriate joke. But in the afternoon, when a senior consultant made the joke for the umpteenth time, she snapped. She told this so-called senior man what she thought of his derisive humour. She stomped off. He turned to me and said – and I quote – “What is it with these people. Can’t they take a joke?”

I took a deep breath. The deep breath that I can make as a privileged white man even though I was in a very low position compared to him, and I said that I’d been working with Grace all day and had been given the tiniest glimpse of the horrifying, persistent, degrading drip, drip of demeaning racism and how I was surprised she hadn’t snapped earlier and that he owed her an apology.

The Church of England owes some of our sisters and brothers in Christ a much greater apology than this; and for much greater wrongs. But most of all we owe it to the nation we serve and to the God we love, that in this watershed moment – the week when George Floyd’s killer was brought to justice – we will now commit ourselves to change.

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The Most Rev and Right Hon Archbishop of York @CottrellStephen pictured with the 1000 year old York Gospels at a service today to install eight new Honorary Canons at York Minster. @York_Minster pic.twitter.com/qU8qKZmEyS

— Ravage Productions Photography (@ravagephoto) April 25, 2021

The sermon starts about 26:20 in.

“He calls His own sheep by name.” You Thomas, you Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus, and you Matthew, the publican, yes, and you, Mary of Magdala; He calls you all by name. What does this imply?

The first thing that it means is intimate knowledge. Beloved friends, I used to have such a trustworthy memory that I not only knew the nearly six thousand members of this church by face, which I am still able to do, but I knew them all by name, and it was a rare thing for me to ever forget or make a mistake, save when certain ladies changed their names, and I had not been made aware of it, but even then I soon rectified the error. But now, sometimes, I find myself unable to remember all your names; perhaps it is because I do not see you often. Our Lord knows all the myriads of His redeemed by name. There is no failure of memory with Him, and He sees them always. His eye and His heart are towards each one of His people both night and day: “He calls His own sheep by name.” I do not wish so much to preach upon this passage as I want you to put it into your mouth, or rather, to taste it with your spiritual palate, so as to get the flavor and sweetness of it.

“I know My sheep,” says the good Shepherd; He knows not only who they are, but what they are, and where they are. “He calls His own sheep by name.” This implies His intimate knowledge of them.

–From a sermon in 1888, and quoted by yours truly in yesterday morning’s sermon (emphasis mine)

OTD in 1854, the New Park Street Chapel invited C.H. Spurgeon to be their pastor. One of the oldest Baptist congregations in London, the church called the 19 year old preached with a prayer that the Spirit would bring revival. The Lord answered that prayer! pic.twitter.com/1GXPN8cH2R

— Jake Stone (@jake_stone89) April 20, 2021

Almighty God, who by the hand of Mark the evangelist hast given to thy Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank thee for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

#OTD feast of Saint Mark. Seen here with an excitable lion. Add 18850 f 24r. Send us images of Mark & #notalion pic.twitter.com/kqNXjCEdsI

— Medieval Manuscripts (@BLMedieval) April 25, 2016

O Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, nor shadow of turning; who abidest steadfast as the stars of heaven: Give us grace to rest upon thy eternal changelessness, and in thy faithfulness find peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

Who needs coffee when #OuterBanks sunrises bring this much magic? ✨ (📸: Justin Potter Photography) pic.twitter.com/AUvaZ9DlvT

— The Outer Banks (@theouterbanks) April 26, 2021

Blessed is he who considers the poor!
The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness thou healest all his infirmities.

–Psalm 41:1-3

013 Arches National Park, The Organ #travel #sunrise pic.twitter.com/C0rmOSuqLe

— Larry Tyner (@LarryTyner1) April 26, 2021