The rate at which Americans were killed in gun homicides leapt by nearly 35% in 2020 to the highest level in more than 25 years, according to new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Amid the pandemic and recession that followed, gun homicide rates grew most among groups that were already at higher risk, researchers found — including people in poor areas, young men, and Black people.

In 2020, the firearm homicide rate was 6.1 per 100,000 Americans — up from 4.6 a year earlier.

“These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive approaches that can stop violence now and prevent future deaths,” said Dr. Debra Houry, the acting principal deputy director of the CDC.

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The rate of U.S. gun homicides jumped almost 35% in 2020 — to the highest level in over 25 years.

And gaps widened for groups already at the highest risk, especially Black men and boys. https://t.co/mkX4LJeMXf

— NPR (@NPR) May 10, 2022

Decisions about the distribution of grants will be made at diocesan level but it is expected that people from the following groups will be eligible to apply:

–Stipendiary clergy, including curates
–Self-supporting ministers with a provided house (‘House-for-Duty’)
–Salaried lay workers employed by the diocese or parishes such as youth and children’s workers
–Retired clergy carrying out a specific role in support of Diocesan ministry as agreed by or at the request of a Bishop or Archdeacon

A Church of England report published last year backed targeted support for clergy facing financial challenges such as those with larger families or with no additional household income other than the stipend.

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Excellent that this funding for help with cost of living crisis includes salaried youth and children's workers and other lay workers. Just so sad it's needed. https://t.co/5cVOvg8oOl

— Lucy Moore (@lucybmoore) May 10, 2022

‘It is undoubtedly a way into the far country, and includes an inconceivable humiliation and condescension and self-abasement of God, that in His Son He wills to become and actually does become a man’ CD IV.2 sec 64, cited by yours truly in the Sunday sermon

Cornelis van Poelenburgh, The Baptism of Christ, 1640 https://t.co/49ii9oxPtY #artinstituteofchicago #cornelisvanpoelenburgh pic.twitter.com/2ZdtyytRn4

— AIC: Prints and Drawings (Bot) (@aic_drawings) September 16, 2021

They are in nearly every village, town and city across the UK, thousands of church buildings peppering the landscape. But while many may no longer be in regular use, the churchyards surrounding them – quiet, peaceful and often ancient – amount to what Olivia Graham, the bishop of Reading, equates to “a small national park”. The land beyond the church gate is some of the most biodiverse in the UK because it has largely stayed untouched.

“A churchyard is a little snapshot of how the countryside used to be,” says Somerset Wildlife Trust’s Pippa Rayner, who is working on Wilder Churches, a new initiative with the diocese of Bath and Wells “to enhance churchyard biodiversity across the county”.

“Very often in a highly industrialised rural landscape, the fields around villages may be covered in agricultural chemicals. You often find that the churchyard is the one place in the area where they haven’t been using chemicals,” says Rayner. “The fact that they generally have been managed differently to the rest of the countryside, and they have been looked after in a different way, has enabled species to still be there,” she adds.

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God’s own gardens: why churchyards are some of our wildest nature sites https://t.co/Mau6RRHWM5

— The Guardian (@guardian) May 6, 2022

Nearly two centuries after Luther posted his 95 Theses, Protestantism had lost some of its soul. Institutions and dogma had, in many people’s minds, choked the life out of the Reformation.

Lutheran minister P.J. Spener hoped to revive the church by promoting the “practice of piety,” emphasizing prayer and Bible reading over dogma. It worked. Pietism spread quickly, reinvigorating Protestants throughout Europe””including underground Protestants in Moravia and Bohemia (modern Czechoslovakia)

The Catholic church cracked down on the dissidents, and many were forced to flee to Protestant areas of neighboring Germany. One group of families fled north to Saxony, where they settled on the lands belonging to a rich young ruler, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf.

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Today we commemorate Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorfhttps://t.co/akGrQT567N pic.twitter.com/FJMXMJLos1

— Christ Lutheran (@clcrva) May 9, 2022

God of life made new in Christ, who dost call thy Church to keep on rising from the dead: We remember before thee the bold witness of thy servant Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, through whom thy Spirit moved to draw many in Europe and the American colonies to faith and conversion of life; and we pray that we, like him, may rejoice to sing thy praise, live thy love and rest secure in the safekeeping of the Lord; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, Prophetic Witness, 1760

German religious & social reformer; leader & from 1737 bishop of the Moravian Church; Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine founder; Christian mission pioneer; major figure of C18th Protestantism pic.twitter.com/R5Lq9ta17t

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) May 10, 2020

O Lord Jesus Christ, who hast promised in thy holy gospel that thy disciples shall know the truth, and the truth shall make them free: Give us, we pray thee, the Spirit of truth, sent by thee and leading to thee, that we may find the truth in finding thee, who art the Way, the Truth, and the Life, for ever and ever.

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

The beautiful white-faced ibis with its colorful purple, crimson, teal and gold feathers is sure to brighten your Monday morning!

Photo at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah courtesy of Leslie Scopes Anderson pic.twitter.com/YjZCgeZsnQ

— US Department of the Interior (@Interior) May 9, 2022

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brethren beloved by God, that he has chosen you; for our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit; so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

–1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Good morning all how are you today? Hope you have a nice day today, here's a view overlooking the shibden valley taken in March, a long time ago but I hope to sit again here one day soon 🙂 #sunrise #yorkshire #shibden pic.twitter.com/nKL3KXQIVb

— David Oxtaby (@Disc_light) May 10, 2022