The revival of the suffragan see of Oswestry in the diocese of Lichfield is being considered by the Archbishop of Canterbury to provide alternative episcopal oversight in the Province of Canterbury.

The suggestion comes after the Bishop of Ebbsfleet, the Rt Revd Jonathan Goodall, resigned in September to become a Roman Catholic (News, 10 September 2021). Bishop Goodall had, since 2013, been one of three Provincial Episcopal Visitors — a “flying bishop” — supporting traditionalist congregations in the Church of England that are unable to accept the ministry of women as priests or bishops.

To fulfil this ministry, he served as an honorary assistant bishop in ten dioceses in the Canterbury Province. The Bishop of Richborough, the Rt Revd Norman Banks, also provides episcopal oversight in the Province.

A statement from House of Bishops on Thursday of last week said that a consultation on Bishop Goodall’s successor had resulted in “a number of calls to consider relocating the post to be rooted in an individual diocese and diocesan college of bishops. . .

“A suggestion from the Archbishop of Canterbury to revive the suffragan see of Oswestry in the diocese of Lichfield is currently being explored.”

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“No decisions have been taken. Initial consultations are currently under way within the diocese of Lichfield with the Society, and in consultation with the Archbishop of Canterbury. Any proposal would be considered by the Dioceses Commission this summer”https://t.co/mKcCL5Um1z

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) May 17, 2022

…soon we’ll need to cope with true diversity within our species. We are not just talking variants of ourselves that Homo sapiens could mate with.

The era of space travel, and potentially space colonization, may just force the issue of true speciation. Launch a human body into space and it dramatically decays. Almost all long-term astronauts come back severely damaged by their jaunts, in their vision, hearts, bones, brains. So if we are to leave this place, we are going to have to seriously reengineer the human body, very deliberately, to induce the kind of evolutionary adaptations required for surviving higher radiation, different gravity, more extreme environments. Those engineered humans would be diverse, and the differences between them and humans of today would increase rapidly as successive generations of them got further and further from Earth and adapted to truly different ecosystems.

Even if we do not begin to colonize space in the near future, the human genome will diversify by other means. As more and more gene therapies come online to deal with horrid diseases, the tools necessary for such procedures will become more standardized and widespread. People will use these tools to engineer their own genes and organs, and they won’t do it the same way everywhere, especially if different countries adopt different regulations, restrictions, and incentives.

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True human diversity is finally imaginable. Are we ready?

A reflection from @EvolvingJuan.https://t.co/6V5VixwXuW pic.twitter.com/etckOxE7ez

— NEO.LIFE (@NEOdotLIFE) May 16, 2022

As you’re reading this, you probably have a commitment hanging over your head or a relentless deadline that won’t stop nagging you. Chances are, you’re tired. You’re a human being, not a human doing. But the Father loves your being more than your doing.

Some recent findings from Lifeway Research’s Greatest Needs of Pastors study show half of U.S. Protestant pastors say they need to focus on time management. Slightly more (55%) believe over-commitment is an issue they need to address.

Based on these findings, most of us in ministry need this reminder: If you never close another gap in your leadership, if you never take your game up a notch, God’s love for you remains full, like a gas tank that never empties no matter how far you drive. Former Lifeway president Jimmy Draper said, “God did not call us first to His service, He called us first to Himself.”

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The greatest gift you bring your church is your growth in godliness. — @BenMandrell https://t.co/rb4lm64QVF

— Lifeway Research (@LifewayResearch) May 14, 2022

Boys are not born knowing what it means to be a gentleman. They must be taught. My concern is that in our current era, many parents have little idea what to say to their son on this topic. So the boy looks to the Internet, and what he finds there is Bruno Mars and Drake, Eminem and Akon, or John Mayer boasting about his collection of pornography.

I have visited more than 460 schools over the past 21 years, and I have found that most boys are hungry to have a conversation about what it means to be a good man. I have led those discussions with boys, where I suggest the following definitions as a starting point for conversation:

• A gentleman governs his passions rather than being governed by them. As Supreme Allied Commander during the Second World War, Dwight D. Eisenhower would quote Proverbs 16:32: “Greater is he who can rule his own spirit than he who takes a city,” a verse his mother had taught him in childhood.
• A gentleman never strikes a woman, not even in self-defense.
• A gentleman never touches a woman without her consent.

Read it all.

Next up in our series on healthy masculinity: @unfragilekids
Does the Word ‘Gentleman’ Still Mean Anything Today? Here's Why It Should https://t.co/FmsGufoOmM

— Inst. Family Studies (@FamStudies) May 17, 2022

In physical aspect Bishop Hare represented clearly, as any picture of him will show, what may be called the best Anglican type. The English churchman of gentle breeding, of native and acquired distinction, has rendered it familiar. Such men are born both to their appearance and to their profession. In the lineage of William Hobart Hare there was quite enough to account both for the outward and for the inward man. On each side of his parentage he was a son, immediately of the Protestant Episcopal Church; and, more remotely he sprang both from the New England Puritans and the Pennsylvania Friends whose beliefs and standards have played so important a part in the religious and political life of America.

His father, the Rev. Dr. George Emlen Hare, an eminent Biblical scholar, one of the American Old Testament Committee appointed under the direction of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1870 for the revision of the authorized version of the English Bible, was for many years a teacher in Philadelphia–first in a temporary professorship at the University of Pennsylvania; then at the head of the old Protestant Episcopal Academy for Boys, revived in 1846 by Bishop Alonzo Potter; and finally as professor of Biblical Learning and Exegesis in the Divinity School in West Philadelphia, of which he was the first dean. “From the period of his ordination,” it is written in a brief sketch of his life, “the Scriptures in their original texts had never been half a day out of his hands.” One sees him in memory, a typical figure of the scholar, formal, remote, known of those who knew him as demanding of himself the same exacting standard of industry and integrity that he demanded of his pupils.

–M.A. DeWolfe Howe, The Life and Labors of Bishop Hare: Apostle to the Sioux (New York: Sturgis and Walton, 1911), chapter one (my emphasis)

"Saint Paul Writing His Epistles"; 1618-1620; Attributed to Valentin de Boulogne; at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston pic.twitter.com/5K7GVTiwCg

— Pictures of Churches (@ChurchPictures8) October 19, 2016

Holy God, who didst call thy servant William Hobart Hare to proclaim the means of grace and the hope of glory to the peoples of the Great Plains: We give thanks to thee for the devotion of those who received the Good News gladly, and for the faithfulness of the generations who have succeeded them. Strengthen us with thy Holy Spirit, that we may walk in their footsteps and lead many to faith in Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Today our Diocese remembers especially the Rt. Rev. William Hobart Hare, first bishop of South Dakota, 1883-1909. pic.twitter.com/C6n7o75V2L

— Diocese of South Dakota (@DioceseSD) December 29, 2018

Risen Christ,
your wounds declare your love for the world
and the wonder of your risen life:
through your Holy Spirit give us compassion and courage
to risk ourselves for those we serve,
to the glory of God the Father.
Amen (slightly edited-KSH).

Good morning! Early morning view across the marshes @StormHour #natural #landscape pic.twitter.com/SMypAiiRWG

— William Hulbert Photography (@WLH1972) May 17, 2022

But as to the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When people say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape. But you are not in darkness, brethren, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we wake or sleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

–1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

#StormHour Forth Bridges, Scotland 🌁🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤️ pic.twitter.com/o6KEYUv48t

— Michelle Ness (@TheUnknowns21) May 17, 2022