God of truth,
help us to keep your law of love
and to walk in ways of wisdom,
that we may find true life
in Jesus Christ your Son
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Slightly edited–KSH.
Just another beautiful sunrise ❤️#XalapaViews pic.twitter.com/ZV0VPKuAKN
— Christina Zurick (@ChristinaZurick) June 6, 2021
And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
–Revelation 12:1-6
Sunrise along Cabot Trail near Ingonish Ferry. Cape Breton Island. Nova Scotia, Canada. pic.twitter.com/rl7woee7p2
— Tracy Hogan (@HoganSOG) June 5, 2021
Churches Count on Nature, to run between 5-13 June 2021, is a citizen-science event covering churchyards across the England and Wales.
The project will see communities and visitors making a note of the animals, birds, insects, or fungi in their local churchyard.
Their data will then be collated on the National Biodiversity Network.
One church getting involved is St Pol de Léon’s Church, Paul, in Cornwall.
As part of their nature count the church will be marking Environment Sunday and be holding their morning service outside in their “Celtic Quiet Garden.”
Hundreds of churches are starting a week-long ‘nature count’.
The Churches Count on Nature will encourage communities to visit churchyards and record what they see.
What have you seen in your local churchyard? 🐾#WorldEnvironmentDayhttps://t.co/v7TwdEMapf
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) June 5, 2021
It also means companies thinking more expansively about who is qualified for a job in the first place. That is evident, for example, in the way Alex Lorick, a former South Florida nightclub bouncer, was able to become a mainframe technician at I.B.M.
Mr. Lorick often worked a shift called “devil’s nine to five” — 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. — made all the more brutal when it was interspersed with day shifts. The hours were tough, but the pay was better than in his previous jobs, one at a retirement home and another serving food at a dog track. Yet it was a far cry from the type of work he had dreamed about in high school, when he liked computers and imagined making video games for a living.
As a young adult, he took online classes in web development and programming languages, but encountered a Catch-22 many job seekers know well: Nobody wanted to hire a tech worker without experience, which meant he couldn’t get enough experience to be hired. College wasn’t for him. Hence the devil’s nine to five.
Until late last year, that is. After months on unemployment during the pandemic, he heard from I.B.M., where he had once applied and been rejected for a tech job. It invited him to apply to an apprenticeship program that would pay him to be trained as a mainframe technician. Now 24, he completed his training this month and is beginning hands-on work in what he hopes is the start of a long career.
“This is a way more stable paycheck, and more consistent hours,” Mr. Lorick said. “But the most important thing is that I feel like I’m on a path that makes sense and where I have the opportunity to grow.”
Sometimes as a writer, you sense that something big is changing before your eyes. Stray data points and anecdotes all point to a big shift.
I think this is one of those times: Workers are gaining the upper hand over employers for the first time in ages.https://t.co/M1uCvQcLcv
— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) June 5, 2021
Almighty God, who didst call thy faithful servant Boniface to be a witness and martyr in the lands of Germany and Friesland, and by his labor and suffering didst raise up a people for thine own possession: Pour forth thy Holy Spirit upon thy Church in every land, that by the service and sacrifice of many thy holy Name may be glorified and thy kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
“Let us preach the whole of God’s plan,
to the powerful and to the humble,
to rich and to poor,
to men of every rank and age,
as far as God gives us the strength, in season and out of season.”
St Boniface (672-754)
“The Apostle of Germany”,Bishop&MartyrSt Boniface, Pray for us! pic.twitter.com/gIBO5XkQ1n
— Kalina Boulter (@KalinaBoulter) June 5, 2021
To God the Father beyond us, creator of the cosmos and the vast reaches of interstellar space as well as this lovely earth, our home,
To God the Son alongside us, who shed his blood for the redemption of the world and all mankind,
and to God the Holy Spirit within us, who graciously gives us daily the power to live the good life which has been prepared beforehand for us to walk in,
be all glory, majesty, honor and praise, Holy Trinity one God, this day and forevermore, Amen.
Holy Trinity fresco by Luca Rossetti. pic.twitter.com/3oKrbL35Le
— Digby Dyke (@DigbyDyke) May 22, 2016
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them; and when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said, “All these I have observed from my youth.” And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard this he became sad, for he was very rich. Jesus looking at him said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” And Peter said, “Lo, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
–Luke 18:15-30
A Skegness sunrise. pic.twitter.com/fNzTEARWgo
— Dave Z Photography (@DaveZ_uk) June 4, 2021
An Anglican pastor was among 50 people killed in separate attacks in the troubled eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Local officials and monitor groups said on June 1 that the attacks on May 31 night were the worst seen in at least four years in the troubled Tchabi and Boga regions in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, bordering Uganda.
The army blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist armed group, for raiding villages.
Albert Basegu, head of a civil rights group in Boga, told Reuters that he came to know about the attack there by the sound of cries at a neighboring house.
An Anglican pastor among 50 people killed in separate attacks in the troubled eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Read more… https://t.co/G47eHJU2C3 #Congo #UnitedStates— UCA News (@UCANews) June 2, 2021
In keeping with A Call to Human Dignity, the Council of the General Synod of The Anglican Church of Canada expressed a commitment to ensuring that those who hold positions of trust or power in the church do not take advantage of, or abuse, that trust or power. It is with this commitment in mind that I share with you the difficult decision made today by Archbishop Lynne McNaughton to inhibit Bishop Lincoln McKoen from his duties as diocesan bishop of the Territory of the People, effective immediately.
Read it all and there is a letter to the diocese about the matter here.
Touch played a significant role in Jesus ’ ministry too. That he let a woman kiss his feet shocked the Pharisees, but he defended her actions as an appropriate response to forgiveness. Later, Jesus even invited Thomas to touch his wounds. Jesus’ example shows that our bodies are part of how we’re meant to commune with God and each other. How then do Christians balance love’s call to extend safety and welcome?
At Christ Church East Bay in Berkeley, Calif., the Rev. Jonathan St. Clair told me in an email that they encourage vaccinated singles to sit with families or other solo attendees. Ms. Kaiser hopes to do something similar with some of the other widows at her church. Reality SF, a church in San Francisco, took this one step further: Leading up to Easter, it urged the majority-single congregation to form Holy Week pods.
Longer-term use of pods could help singles feel more included in their churches. For most Christian singles I have interviewed, commitment in relationships proved elusive outside marriage; only Catholic priests consistently reported a sense of commitment within a community. Why should so few Christian singles find that?
Singles have the same needs as married people; we simply have different ways to meet them. By giving singles a committed group with which to sit, hug and maybe even eat, pods could help us participate more equally in God’s family.
The @CDCgov recommends socially distanced church services, but what does that mean for singles? In this piece for @WSJ, I draw on some of my #globalsinglenessproject research to describe how churches can address that challenge. (In print June 4.) https://t.co/ouRmzvchjq
— Anna Broadway (@annabroadway) June 3, 2021
Plaintiff Episcopal Church in South Carolina is embroiled in litigation…It filed this action against its own insurer—the Church Insurance Company of Vermont—after discovering that the company had reimbursed its adversaries’ defense costs. The district court dismissed the complaint for lack of standing. We agree with that assessment and affirm.”
“When you have experienced the power of the sea and storms at night it makes you open to something beyond the secular world.
“It is not difficult to have faith-based conversations”.
Describing his own faith, Lee explains, “When I am outside on a ship or a boat at night, I look at the night sky and I don’t have any doubts at all. It confirms my faith. I can see God in the stars; I can see His power and His love.”
It is at those times, Lee says, that he remembered the verses from Psalm 107: ‘Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep.’
Lee is currently on placement at Oldhams Church in Bolton, completing his studies at St. Mellitus College and will be ordained as Deacon in July.
“When you have experienced the power of the sea and storms at night it makes you open to something beyond the secular world.”
After a 22-year career at sea, Captain Lee Higson is training as an Ordinand with @DioManchester.https://t.co/jiplwex6xk
— The Church of England (@churchofengland) June 1, 2021
Cells normally only use 20 building blocks, called amino acids, to build all their proteins, but now, scientists can introduce “unnatural amino acids” for use in protein construction, which have the same basic backbone as all amino acids, but novel side chains. In this way, the team prompted their modified microbes to build macrocycles — a class of molecules used in various drugs, including antibiotics — with unnatural amino acids incorporated in their structures. In the future, the same system could potentially be adapted to make plastic-like materials, without the need for crude oil, Robertson said.
“This was unthinkable ten years ago,” said Abhishek Chatterjee, an associate professor of chemistry at Boston College, who was not involved in the study. Assuming the method can be adopted easily by other labs, it could be used for a wide range of purposes, from drug development to the production of never-before-seen materials, he said.
“You can actually create a class of polymers that are completely unheard of,” Chatterjee said. “When this [technology] becomes really efficient and all the kinks are ironed out, it could become an engine for developing new classes of biomaterials,” which could be used in medical devices that get implanted in the human body, for example, he said.
The genetic code of microbes have been re-engineered by researchers in Cambridge to create a synthetic cell with capabilities unlike anything in nature, opening up the possibility of new materials for everything from plastics to antibiotics https://t.co/Qfq8EsgPvp
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) June 3, 2021
Lord of all truth and peace, who didst raise up thy bishop John to be servant of the servants of God and bestowed on him wisdom to call for the work of renewing your Church: Grant that, following his example, we may reach out to other Christians to clasp them with the love of your Son, and labor throughout the nations of the world to kindle a desire for justice and peace; through Jesus Christ, who is alive and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Today the Church remembers St #JohnXXIII on the day he opened the #VaticanCouncilii. Here is his statue at the #OESSH Grand Magisterium pic.twitter.com/EB08Adjyyz
— Gran Magistero OESSH (@GM_oessh) October 11, 2016
O Lord God Almighty, eternal, immortal, invisible, the mysteries of whose being are unsearchable: Accept, we beseech thee, our praises for the revelation which thou hast made of thyself, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons, and one God; and mercifully grant that ever holding fast this faith we may magnify thy glorious name; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end.
Sunrise over the ruins of Rome pic.twitter.com/gJaOpk1Efk
— Michael Sidofsky (@therealmindzeye) June 3, 2021
Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. “And you shall make response before the LORD your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. Then we cried to the LORD the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
–Deuteronomy 26:4-9
Happy Friday, Good morning all… pic.twitter.com/pLQTP7M13N
— Jax (@Flickjax) June 4, 2021
“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then—to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn….”
–T.H. White, The Once and Future King
A drawing a day.
Day 437. Merlyn and Archimedes. “The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails…Learn why the world wags and what wags it.” (T. H. White was born OTD in 1906.) pic.twitter.com/rqWiPAegaT— Edward Carey (@EdwardCarey70) May 29, 2021
The U.S. economic recovery is unlike any in recent history, powered by consumers with trillions in extra savings, businesses eager to hire and enormous policy support. Businesses and workers are poised to emerge from the downturn with far less permanent damage than occurred after recent recessions, particularly the 2007-09 downturn.
New businesses are popping up at the fastest pace on record. The rate at which workers quit their jobs—a proxy for confidence in the labor market—matches the highest going back at least to 2000. American household debt-service burdens, as a share of after-tax income, are near their lowest levels since 1980, when records began. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 18% from its pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. Home prices nationwide are nearly 14% higher since that time.
The speed of the rebound is also triggering turmoil. The shortages of goods, raw materials and labor that typically emerge toward the end of an expansion are cropping up much sooner. Many economists, along with the Federal Reserve, expect the jump in inflation to be temporary, but others worry it could persist even once reopening is complete.
“We’ve never had anything like it—a collapse and then a boom-like pickup,” said Allen Sinai, chief global economist and strategist at Decision Economics, Inc. “It is without historical parallel.”
The U.S. economic rebound is unlike any in recent history, and its sheer speed is triggering turmoil. “A collapse and then a boom-like pickup.” https://t.co/mOEButrwPn
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) June 3, 2021
Louis Menand’s panoramic portrait of the Cold War years begins with a succinct overview:
This book is about a time when the United States was actively engaged with the rest of the world. In the twenty years after the end of the Second World War, the United States invested in the economy of Japan and Western Europe and extended loans to other countries around the world. With the United Kingdom, it created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to support global political stability and international trade. It hosted the new United Nations. Through its government, its philanthropic foundations, its universities, and its cultural institutions, it established exchange programs for writers and scholars, distributed literature around the globe, and sent art from American collections and music by American composers and performers abroad. … Works of literature and philosophy from all over the world were published in affordable translations. Foreign movies were imported and distributed across the country.
The preface continues with this reminder of the Utopian efforts of the immediate postwar era, remarking on the exponential rise in college attendance, the closing of the income gap, the absence of substantive difference between the two major political parties, and the collapse of colonial empires around the world. “Most striking was the nature of the audience: people cared. Ideas mattered. Painting mattered. Movies mattered. Poetry mattered. The way people judged and interpreted paintings, movies, and poems mattered. People believed in liberty, and thought it really meant something.”
I read these words with a shock of recognition because the years in question marked my own coming of age: I graduated from high school in 1949, college in 1953, and received my PhD in 1965. I recall only too well those days when studying literature was considered an important and valuable pursuit, when – yes – ideas mattered, poetry mattered. But I also remember the downside to which Menand turns next. Soon, he suggests, the beautiful cultural dream was fading, what with McCarthyism at home and military interference abroad, the continuing dominance of white men in all spheres of life, the widening of the income gap, the commodification of culture – and a “foreign war of national independence from which [the United States] could not extricate itself for eight years”. After the sorry tale of Vietnam, large-scale disillusionment about the character and role of the US set in, both at home and abroad, even as its assured military position and dominance of the global art world remained secure.
How and why did so momentous a change occur in so short a period? The Free World does not attempt to formulate answers to this difficult question: Menand’s narrative is more descriptive than analytic.
Read it all (subscription).
'I recall only too well those days when studying literature was considered an important and valuable pursuit, when – yes – ideas mattered, poetry mattered. But I also remember the downside to which Menand turns next.' – Marjorie Perloff https://t.co/qrnpZKNpnr
— The TLS (@TheTLS) June 2, 2021
A different tradition is that of the Eastern Orthodox church, which I mentioned in chapter 12. There the “Jesus prayer” has been rightly popular: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (There are variations, but this is perhaps the best known.) This, like the Jewish Shema, is designed to be said over and over again, until it becomes part of the act of breathing, embedding a sense of the love of Jesus deep within the personality. This prayer, again like the Shema, begins with a confession of faith, but here it is a form of address. And instead of commandments to keep, it focuses on the mercy that the living God extends through his Son to all who will seek it. This prayer has been much beloved by many in the Orthodox and other traditions, who have found that when they did not know what else to pray, this prayer would rise, by habit, to their mind and heart, providing a vehicle and focus for whatever concern they wished to bring into the Father’s presence.
I have a great admiration for this tradition, but I have always felt a certain uneasiness about it. For a start, it seems to me inadequate to address Jesus only. The Orthodox, of course, have cherished the trinitarian faith, and it has stood them in good stead over the course of many difficult years. It is true that the prayer contains an implicit doctrine of the Trinity: Jesus is invoked as the Son of the living God, and Christians believe that prayer addressed to this God is itself called forth by the Spirit. But the prayer does not seem to me to embody a fully trinitarian theology as clearly as it might. In addition, although people more familiar than I with the use of this prayer have spoken of its unfolding to embrace the whole world, in its actual words it is focused very clearly on the person praying, as an individual. Vital though that is, as the private core of the Christian faith without which all else is more or less worthless, it seems to me urgent that our praying should also reflect, more explicitly, the wider concerns with which we have been dealing.
I therefore suggest that we might use a prayer that, though keeping a similar form to that of the Orthodox Jesus Prayer, expands it into a trinitarian mode:
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.
Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.
I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the #Trinity
By invocation of the same
The Three in One & One in Three#TrinitySunday#Prayer pic.twitter.com/1SeiCDvdvx— McCrimmon Publishing (@McCrimmonsuk) June 11, 2017
But our argument in reply to this is ready and clear. For any one who condemns those who say that the Godhead is one, must necessarily support either those who say that there are more than one, or those who say that there is none. But the inspired teaching does not allow us to say that there are more than one, since, whenever it uses the term, it makes mention of the Godhead in the singular; as ‘In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead’ Colossians 2:9 “; and, elsewhere ‘The invisible things of Him from the foundation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead Romans 1:20.’ If, then, to extend the number of the Godhead to a multitude belongs to those only who suffer from the plague of polytheistic error, and on the other hand utterly to deny the Godhead would be the doctrine of atheists, what doctrine is that which accuses us for saying that the Godhead is one? But they reveal more clearly the aim of their argument. As regards the Father, they admit the fact that He is God , and that the Son likewise is honoured with the attribute of Godhead; but the Spirit, Who is reckoned with the Father and the Son, they cannot include in their conception of Godhead, but hold that the power of the Godhead, issuing from the Father to the Son, and there halting, separates the nature of the Spirit from the Divine glory. And so, as far as we may in a short space, we have to answer this opinion also.
What, then, is our doctrine? The Lord, in delivering the saving Faith to those who become disciples of the word, joins with the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit also; and we affirm that the union of that which has once been joined is continual; for it is not joined in one thing, and separated in others. But the power of the Spirit, being included with the Father and the Son in the life-giving power, by which our nature is transferred from the corruptible life to immortality, and in many other cases also, as in the conception of “Good,” and “Holy,” and “Eternal,” “Wise,” “Righteous,” “Chief,” “Mighty,” and in fact everywhere, has an inseparable association with them in all the attributes ascribed in a sense of special excellence. And so we consider that it is right to think that that which is joined to the Father and the Son in such sublime and exalted conceptions is not separated from them in any.
Read it carefully and read it all.
30.V.21
Feast of the Holy TrinityGloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto,
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.[Holy Trinity, Hendrick van Balen, 1620s
Sint-Jacobskerk, Antwerp ]https://t.co/l8rDhw8nzY pic.twitter.com/8d1AJc4ohy— Mark Chaplain (@MarkAJChaplain) May 30, 2021
Precious in thy sight, O Lord, is the death of thy saints, whose faithful witness, by thy providence, hath its great reward: We give thee thanks for thy martyrs James Hannington and his companions, who purchased with their blood a road unto Uganda for the proclamation of the Gospel; and we pray that with them we also may obtain the crown of righteousness which is laid up for all who love the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Today we remember the Martyrs of Uganda (1885-7 and 1977). Thanking God for their witness, we pray for all those persecuted for their faith and those who continue to witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ in the most difficult circumstances. pic.twitter.com/svibM3IAGf
— Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) June 3, 2021
To God the Father, who first loved us, and made us accepted in the Beloved; to God the Son, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood; to God the Holy Ghost, who sheddeth the love of God abroad in our hearts: to the one true God be all love and all glory for time and for eternity.
Sunrise at Devil's Bridge in Germany | Photography by ©Martin Krajczy pic.twitter.com/IQPmW7wLtL
— Piclogy (@Piclogy) June 3, 2021
And he told them a parable, to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor regarded man; and there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Vindicate me against my adversary.’ For a while he refused; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will vindicate her, or she will wear me out by her continual coming.’” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
–Luke 18:1-8
Good morning! New #clematis, planted this morning. #Flowers pic.twitter.com/UE6rjWcnAB
— Anna Tuckett (@AnnaMTuckett) June 3, 2021
In your mercy, Lord,
dispel the darkness of this night.
Let your household so sleep in peace
that at the dawn of a new day
they may wake, with joy, in your name.
Through #Christ our Lord, Amen.The Lord grant us a quiet night and a perfect end. Amen.#Compline #NightPrayer pic.twitter.com/fZ1sd45IMv
— McCrimmon Publishing (@McCrimmonsuk) June 1, 2021
Chaplain Johnson also explained that as baptism is a way of showing faith is a part of your life, doing so in the ship’s bell is also a way of showing you are part of the crew. He saw this desire from Scripp as an opportunity he was seizing to take ownership of his faith in conjunction with his commitment to the ship and crew.
Not only was the bell significant, but the place was also unique. The significance was not lost on Chaplain Johnson. “To my knowledge,” he said, “Scripp is the only U.S. Sailor to ever reaffirm their baptism in the Faroe Islands.”
Since it is a reaffirmation and not an original baptism, Chaplain Johnson said Scripp’s name will not be inscribed in the bell. However, the significance remains. On May 15, aboard USS Ross in port in the Faroe Islands and with a few close friends as witnesses, Chaplain Johnson re-baptized Scripp in a ceremony following the tradition of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America using the ship’s bell. After the baptism, he prayed over Scripp and gave him a small bottle of water from the bell as a memento.
Scripp said reaffirming his baptism in the Faroes, a place he had hardly heard of before arriving there, was unique and memorable. Though the significance of the bell and the location made Scripp’s reaffirmation unique, the tradition also has a long history connected to it.
“The bell is a way of connecting faith with life and history,” said Chaplain Johnson, “We’re connected with this long history that’s larger than ourselves.”
Diving into the waters of baptism
One #USNavy Sailor reaffirmed his #baptism when USS Ross (DDG 71) pulled into the Faroe Islands for a brief refueling. #FridayFeeling
FULL STORY: ➡️ https://t.co/YZhQ1x7FAn pic.twitter.com/OWGPpNDlSs
— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) May 30, 2021
A church is to create an educational area about a slave trader who became an abolitionist.
John Newton was curate of St Peter and Paul’s Church in Olney, Buckinghamshire, between 1764 and 1780.
During that time he wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.
Churchwarden David Phillipson said the church was “not trying to glorify the slave trade” but rather educate people about Mr Newton’s work to help abolish slavery.
Thousands of people visit the church every year, prompting the plans for an educational space.
Proposals for the project were approved by the Church of England’s Consistory Court.
Mr Phillipson said: “We are not trying to glorify the slave trade by having this area but educate people and explain what happened and what John Newton eventually did in terms of his work to abolish the slave trade and write Amazing Grace, which is known worldwide.”
A Buckinghamshire church is to create an educational area about a slave trader who became an abolitionist.https://t.co/8LULgP1mCO
— BBC Three Counties Radio (@BBC3CR) June 2, 2021
A group of faith leaders in Kansas City held a news conference Tuesday announcing they have video of the fatal police shooting of Malcolm Johnson earlier this year.
Johnson, 31, was killed March 25 during a confrontation with Kansas City police officers at a gas station near East 63rd Street and Prospect Avenue, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
On Tuesday, the group of ministers gathered outside the gas station and said they had obtained video of the shooting and were releasing it to news media. The video they released did not show the shooting itself, but the faith leaders said it, and other facts surrounding the shooting, showed the initial account given by the highway patrol was not accurate.
“What I saw was an execution,” said the Rev. Darron Edwards, a leader with Getting to the Heart of the Matter, a group of local faith leaders who have been cooperating with the Kansas City Police Department.
“Regardless of the sound quality and the video not showing the actual shots, it is clear that the report does not match the video,” said the Rev. Emanuel Cleaver III. “We are demanding justice.”
Faith Group Speaks Out About Kansas City Police Shooting
▫‘An execution’: Kansas City faith group says video shows March 25 police shooting
▫@GRicekcstar@annaspoerre▫https://t.co/mtrRnVtfRt #frontpagestoday #TheKansasCityStar #USA pic.twitter.com/2ezoOStEpX— (@ukpapers) June 2, 2021
John said Jesus was “full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). Christ’s character helps us navigate the gender minefield. We protect people’s feelings (“grace”)—within reason—but we reject the narrative (“truth”). Three separate circumstances require three different responses.
First, I think we should call people by the names they choose for themselves. Names are different from pronouns since names are personal preferences by nature. Pronouns, though, refer to sex—a fixed feature of reality, not a preference. (With your own children, though, you may insist on a name consistent with their biology.)
Second, if you’re required to post your preferred pronoun, do not simply report your accurate gender. That reinforces the lie that pronouns reflect mere personal preference. Instead, post this: “I don’t have a preferred pronoun. I have a sex. I’m male [for example].”
This characterization is completely self-reflective. It says nothing about anyone but you. In principle, at least, it should not be a problem. You were asked for a self-assessment. You gave it. End of issue. Refuse to participate in the lie.
Third, if you’re asked to use preferred pronouns when speaking of others, then graciously, but firmly, refuse. Tell them this is not your view, so it would be dishonest and inauthentic to act like it was. Just say no. Hold your ground.
Greg gives advice for discerning truth in a world where people have such wildly different understandings of what is happening. Watch now at https://t.co/HrwljtXyHV. pic.twitter.com/JzJatzXsMw
— Stand to Reason (@STRtweets) June 1, 2021
Pringle Franklin recently interviewed Pastor Matthew Rivers of St. John’s and his wife, Henrietta. Watch the video below to learn the vision he and Henrietta have for St. John’s and how God rescued Matt from a self-centered life and opened his eyes to true love (Hat tip: Saint Philip’s, Charleston).