In a debate which heard powerful accounts of how Christians maintain their faith amid threats, violence, imprisonment and murder, members were told that 360 million Christians – about one in seven around the world – face persecution.

The Bishop of Truro Philip Mounstephen, who carried out a review of Persecution of Christians across the Globe for the Foreign Office in in 2019, said the situation has deteriorated even in the last year.

He highlighted the “disastrous fall” of Afghanistan to the Taliban, “now making it the most dangerous country on earth to be a Christian”, and the “outrageous murder” of Pastor William Siraj returning home after Sunday service in Peshawar on January 30.

“The wholesale denial of freedom of religion or belief in today’s world is a great evil,” he said.

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The General @Synod has unanimously condemned the persecution of Christians around the world.

The Bishop of Truro, @pmountstephen, warned of the "monstrous evil" of denying freedom of religion of religion or belief.

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

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) February 11, 2022

It had only been about six months since Katie Ripley finished radiation therapy for Stage 4 breast cancer. But now the 33-year-old was back in the hospital. This time, it wasn’t cancer – she was still in remission – but she’d come down with a nasty respiratory infection.

It wasn’t COVID, but her immune defenses had been weakened by the cancer treatments, and the infection had developed into pneumonia.

By the time Ripley made it to Gritman Medical Center, the local hospital in Moscow, Idaho, on January 6, her condition was deteriorating quickly. The illness had started affecting her liver and kidneys.

Her father, Kai Eiselein, remembers the horror of that night, when he learned she needed specialized ICU care.

“The hospital here didn’t have the facilities for what she needed,” he says. “And no beds were available anywhere.”

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Small rural hospitals — also known as critical access hospitals — have struggled with an influx of critically ill COVID-19 patients during the omicron surge.

Staff at small hospitals often have to scour the region for available beds while patients wait. https://t.co/GlPyOjeGQl

— NPR (@NPR) February 11, 2022

It’s hard not to pay attention to what the winner of the Most Valuable Player award has to say after the Super Bowl.

Thus, a few mainstream media features after the Los Angeles Rams’ victory focused on a bit of very personal testimony by superstar wide receiver Cooper Kupp. In a way, what he said resembled the kind of stereotypical Godtalk that filters into the news when believers are asked to express their first reactions after a major event — glorious or tragic — in their lives.

Long ago (pre-Internet), I interviewed the late, great Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry about all of this. People tend to think that believers pray to win football Games and either God hears them or not, he said. The reality is more complex than that and, most of the time, players and coaches are trying to make sense of these events — wins and loses — in the context of how God is working in their lives.

In the case of Kupp, this win in The Big Game linked into what he claimed was a vision after a Super Bowl loss. Here is the top of a story from The Athletic: “How the Rams’ Cooper Kupp’s quiet vision became reality in front of the whole world.”

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One of the greatest seasons by a WR ever ends with a ring and Super Bowl MVP.

Fairytale ending for @CooperKupp. 🙌 pic.twitter.com/j5bF7ef4gZ

— NFL (@NFL) February 14, 2022

The world will be watching in horror if Russia invades Ukraine this week — but just watching. Ukraine will fight alone, as Russian tanks roll across the flat, frozen terrain; precision bombs destroy key targets near Kyiv and other cities; and the country becomes a killing field unlike anything Europe has seen since 1945.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will quickly win the initial, tactical phase of this war, if it comes. The vast army that Russia has arrayed along Ukraine’s borders could probably seize the capital of Kyiv in several days and control the country in little more than a week, U.S. officials believe.

But then Putin’s real battle would begin — as Russia and its Ukrainian proxies try to stabilize a country whose people largely detest them. If just 10 percent of Ukraine’s 40 million people decided to actively resist occupation, they would mount a powerful insurgency. Small bands of motivated fighters subverted America’s overwhelming military power in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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“Ukraine might seem a triumphal victory for Putin at first, but it’s unlikely to have a happy ending. When leaders fight unnecessary “wars of choice” without a clear endgame, they often confront catastrophic unintended consequences.” https://t.co/uwf5q3HrmV

— John Sipher (@john_sipher) February 14, 2022

February 14 honors the memory of St. Valentine of Rome, a priest who was martyred on this day in the year 270.

A brief biography of St. Valentine is featured in Butler’s Lives of the Saints.

Valentine was a holy priest in Rome, who, with Saint Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome; who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterwards to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year 270.

Generally speaking, this is most of what we know about the real St. Valentine with any certainty. After his death many legends were composed about him.

Read it all.

Who was the real St. Valentine? ⁦@AleteiaEN⁩ https://t.co/J7SWZHLvEd

— Jeff McLean (@mclean) February 14, 2022

Almighty and everlasting God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit didst move thy servant Cyril and his brother Methodius to bring the light of the Gospel to a hostile and divided people: Overcome, we pray thee, by the love of Christ, all bitterness and contention among us, and make us one united family under the banner of the Prince of Peace; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Today the Church of England celebrates Cyril and Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 and 885 https://t.co/BHnAftUHzl

Image: Window in the chapel of Mundelein Seminary, IL. Photo by Fr. Gaurav Shroff, CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0, via Flickr pic.twitter.com/5OvxmfR8F6

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) February 14, 2022

O God, fountain of love, pour thy love into our souls, that we may love those whom thou lovest with the love thou givest us, and think and speak of them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brethren and sisters for thy sake, may grow in thy love, and dwelling in love may dwell in thee; for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Hello Monday!
Seabrook Island SC pic.twitter.com/yA15E1hnRK

— Glen Cox (@GQCOP45) February 14, 2022

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing this that our joy may be complete.

–1 John 1:1-4

Gorgeous Valentine's Day sunrise over the Charleston Harbor! ❤️ @stormhour #chswx pic.twitter.com/vzRTxyLTjU

— JoeyLive5 (@JoeySovine) February 14, 2022