We recently learned we missed the news (announced this past summer) that the Rev. Arthur Jenkins, Rector of Saint James, Charleston, intends to retire on June 5, 2022. In a note to the congregation he wrote, in part, “God willing, I have been called and allowed, challenged and blessed to serve as the Rector of Saint James Anglican Church for the past 24 years. It has been an amazing journey. It has been as the journey of Abraham and Sarah in Genesis. Day by day we have traveled to a place God has shown us. We have shared life and ministry in the Name of Jesus Christ. Now, God willing, on June 5th, Pentecost Sunday this year I will retire as rector of Saint James Anglican Church. It will be the 31st anniversary of my ordination and my joining you as your assistant in 1991. You are the people with whom I began this great journey of ordained ministry. You are the people that together we will move on to our next season of life and ministry as, God willing, you will welcome your next rector.”

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Today is the 14th Anniversary of the Consecration of Bishop Mark Lawrence! We give thanks for his leadership & his ministry among us! If you haven't yet, we encourage you to sign up for the Evening with the Lawrences, which will be held February 4. https://t.co/uOiBn3vQhu #ADOSC pic.twitter.com/0R1Od3rZhW

— Anglican Diocese of SC (@anglican_sc) January 26, 2022

The Tablet understands that the issue has been raised directly with the Pope in recent months, who in turn asked for the question to be considered by Vatican officials. While there is no sign that Apostolicae Curae will be overturned, for several decades Rome has been moving away from the language used by Leo XIII and towards a recognition of the fruits of Anglican ministry. It is already a very different approach to the one found in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 1998 document, Professio Fidei, which claimed the teaching on Anglican orders was one of the “truths connected to revelation” and was to be held definitively.

The shift draws on the teaching of Vatican II, which recognised the “significant elements” that build up the Church outside of the “visible boundaries” of the Catholic Church, and on the many agreed statements on doctrine that have emerged from the formal dialogues between Anglican and Catholic theologians since the council.

“This issue causes hurt, and the Anglicans are diffident about raising it,” one Church source told The Tablet. “It’s a wound in the relations between the Churches and it would be great if a small step could be taken to healing the wound particularly as Pope Francis in practice recognises Anglican bishops through his joint initiatives with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

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As Churches pray for Christian unity, a re-appraisal of the Catholic position on Anglican orders is once again on the agenda. I understand it has been raised directly with Pope Francis. #25January #ChristianUnity https://t.co/gEZCVACNeR

— Christopher Lamb (@ctrlamb) January 25, 2022

Bishop Sarah, who chairs the Church of England’s Covid Recovery Group, was speaking as new advice was published by the Church of England ahead of Thursday’s change of national rules.

She said: “When the first measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 were introduced in March 2020, few would have imagined that we would still be making adaptations to the way we live our lives – including our worship – almost two years on.

“It has been a very challenging time.

“People have made huge sacrifices to protect one another – not only those they know and love but strangers they might never meet. We’ve learnt again as society something of what it means to love our neighbour, as Jesus taught.

“And it has certainly not been without cost.

“The loneliness and isolation many have experienced; the impact on people’s mental health; the lost jobs and failed businesses and strained relationships must not be overlooked.

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@bishopSarahM thanks parishes and the public as Covid-19 measures lift in England.

"As we can begin to look forward with cautious hope, we once again thank those who have done so much to protect us all."

Read more at https://t.co/HqAGk3Fdz5.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) January 26, 2022

Middle age is a crowded time. It’s also a lonely one. Work and family demands leave little time for nurturing friendships, particularly for women.

Pre-pandemic, conversations about loneliness often centered on men, with talk of a “loneliness epidemic.” But during lockdown, Generation X women, who range in age from 41 to 57 years old, reported the sharpest rise in loneliness, according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted in the spring of 2020 by the Roots of Loneliness Project, a research organization. And the increase in social isolation reported by women living with children was also greatest among those from Gen X, according to an unpublished portion of the survey shared with The Wall Street Journal.

For women feeling burned out from holding family life and work together, social media has typically been the most convenient place to vent and seek connection. But going online has surfaced feelings of inadequacy and loneliness, many say.

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Middle age can be lonely. Moms in this often overlooked age group are struggling to find meaningful connections. “Social media has made me feel less isolated, but more lonely,” one said https://t.co/BT00ByollP

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 23, 2022

Almighty God, who didst call Timothy and Titus to do the work of evangelists and teachers, and didst make them strong to endure hardship: Strengthen us to stand fast in adversity, and to live godly and righteous lives in this present time, that with sure confidence we may look for our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

In @DioceseinEurope, the Anglican Church in Tallinn is dedicated to Saint Timothy and Saint Titus https://t.co/eai9EJiWRo

A daughter congregation of @anglicanfinland, it meets in the C13th Church of the Holy Spirit

Photo: DDelso, CCBY-SA 3.0 pic.twitter.com/sVcowo2kTQ

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) January 26, 2022

O God, the God of all goodness and of all grace, who art worthy of a greater love than we can either give or understand: Fill our hearts, we beseech thee, with such love toward thee that nothing may seem too hard for us to do or to suffer, in obedience to thy will; and grant that thus loving thee, we may become daily more like unto thee, and finally obtain the crown of life which thou hast promised to those that love thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mist In The Valley. 2°C after early frost. Pheasants galore pic.twitter.com/o4qfJ3ObKD

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) January 26, 2022

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Hence even the first covenant was not ratified without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.” And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

–Hebrews 9:15-28

#Winter a few years ago @SnowHour @ThePhotoHour @StormHour #snow #bluesky pic.twitter.com/amxwVoSDSA

— Mary Reed Runyon📷 (@MaryReedRunyon1) January 26, 2022