The addition to the liturgy comes as the Oxford diocese announces plans to spend £10m improving the energy efficiency of its vicarages in an effort to hit net zero emissions by 2035. It is one of 10 dioceses to have divested from fossil fuel companies, making commitments not to invest in coal, oil and gas in the future.

At a national level, the Church of England has been criticised for not acting quickly enough to cut its links with fossil fuel companies. It began to cut ties to coal and other heavily polluting industries in 2015, then pledged in 2018 to divest by 2023 from high-carbon companies that were “not aligned with the goals of the Paris agreement”. But as the deadline approaches, the organisation has said it is still “engaging” with key oil and gas interests, rather than cancelling all of its holdings.

Chris Manktelow, of the Young Christian Climate Network, told the Guardian earlier this year that that was not good enough. “The church should be moving quickly and showing moral leadership, and is just not going fast enough. We are not happy with this response [to the calls to divest].”

On Wednesday, Greenpeace welcomed the Oxford decision.

“The diocese of Oxford is moving away from fossil fuels, which is essential, but this liturgical change goes deeper,” said a spokesperson. “Today’s lesson is that, in a climate and nature emergency, you need to make environmental considerations central to your project right from the very beginning and keep them in mind the whole way through. That sounds very much like wisdom worth listening to.”

Read it all and you can see the additional wording in the liturgy there.

Christians asked to commit to protecting environment in Oxford https://t.co/2Z9dEE2gFM

— The Guardian (@guardian) June 22, 2022

Energy shocks can become political catastrophes. Perhaps a third of the rich world’s inflation of 8% is explained by soaring fuel and power costs. Households struggling to pay bills are angry, leading to policies aimed at insulating them and boosting fossil-fuel production, however dirty.

Mr Biden, who came to power promising a green revolution, plans to suspend petrol taxes and visit Saudi Arabia to ask it to pump more oil. Europe has emergency windfall levies, subsidies, price caps and more. In Germany, as air-conditioners whine, coal-fired power plants are being taken out of mothballs. Chinese and Indian state-run mining firms that the climate-conscious hoped were on a fast track to extinction are digging up record amounts of coal.

This improvised chaos is understandable but potentially disastrous, because it could stall the clean-energy transition. Public handouts and tax-breaks for fossil fuels will be hard to withdraw. Dirty new power plants and oil- and gasfields with 30- to 40-year lifespans would give their owners more reason to resist fossil-fuel phase-outs. That is why, even as they firefight, governments must focus on tackling the fundamental problems confronting the energy industry.

One priority is finding a way to ramp up fossil-fuel projects, especially relatively clean natural gas, that have an artificially truncated lifespan of 15-20 years so as to align them with the goal of dramatically cutting emissions by 2050.

Read it all.

If governments respond ineptly, they could trigger a relapse towards fossil fuels that makes it even harder to stabilise the climate. Instead they must follow a perilous path that combines security of energy supply with climate security https://t.co/9GshDS7r7c

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 23, 2022

From here:

A Letter from our Sr. Warden
Regarding the New Rector

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Brothers and Sisters of St John’s Parish Church,
On May 3, 2022, Father Greg Snyder announced to the Wardens of St John’s that he would be leaving his position as Rector, that God had called him to a new ministry, a ministry which God has been preparing him for nearly 5 years. A ministry in the academy to young scientists and their professors. As Senior Warden, it was my responsibility to consult with the Bishop to determine what our options were going forward. Bishop Edgar explained the search process to me, that the Vestry should form a nominating committee that would prepare a parish profile, identify and screen candidates, interview them and present their recommendation to the Vestry for vote. Bishop Edgar also informed me that, given all else going on, if the Vestry chose to, we could vote to accept our associate Rector as our next Rector, and the process would be completed. After considerable thought and prayer, I chose not to pursue this option, as I felt we needed to be sure of who we are as a parish, and who we wanted as our next Rector. I instructed the Vestry to appoint a nominating committee, one that the Vestry voted should be comprised of members of the Vestry, as was recommended by Fr Greg and confirmed by Bp Edgar. The appointed nominating committee was made up of five members: Lindy Reynolds, Ann Edenfield, Todd Young, Jane Vaughan, and Jay Withington. As Senior Warden, I served as an ex-officio
member of the nominating committee.

The Nominating Committee identified five potential candidates to interview as the next Rector of St John’s. After much prayer and consideration, the committee voted unanimously to interview only one. Using input from several members of the parish, some of whom were not members of the Vestry, the nominating committee provided the interviewee with the parish profile, as well as the position description for Rector of St John’s Parish Church and spent the next two weeks in prayer and consideration over the process. The nominating committee conducted its final interview on Tuesday, June 14th, and presented their recommendation to me.

On Thursday, June 16th I brought the recommendation to the entire Vestry for a vote. The vote was unanimous, in favor of the recommended candidate. I then contacted Bp Edgar and informed him that the Vestry had made the decision for the next Rector of St John’s Parish Church. We discussed the decision, and he concurred with our decision. Bp Edgar also instructed me to make this announcement as soon as practical, that continuity of leadership was crucial in these days.

Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the Wardens and Vestry of St John’s Parish Church has voted unanimously to call Father Jeremy Shelton as our next Rector, and that after discussion on Friday, June 17, Father Jeremy has accepted the call. Fr Jeremy will be conducting his first service as Rector of St John’s Parish Church on Sunday, July 17 at Haut Gap Middle School, and I invite all of you to join us in worship as we move forward into this next chapter of the life of this Parish.

In Christ,

Ben Dixon
Senior Warden, St John’s Parish Church

Please read all the additional documents at the link above

Join us this Sunday, June 19, as we pray for the work and ministry of St. John's, Johns Island, and their clergy: The Rev. Greg Snyder and The Rev. Jeremy Shelton. View the full prayer calendar at https://t.co/JHew5ZdquG #PrayForChurches #ADOSC pic.twitter.com/tBvgipmSEQ

— Anglican Diocese of SC (@anglican_sc) June 17, 2022

The Senate’s bipartisan gun safety bill, which has the backing of South Carolina’s senior Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, includes a pair of provisions that would address two issues of tremendous importance in the Palmetto State:

1. Closing the so-called “Charleston loophole” that allowed a young white supremacist to buy a gun on a technicality before going on a hate-fueled rampage inside a downtown Charleston church in 2015, and

2. Expanding the definition that determines which domestic abusers are barred from getting guns, an issue of significance in a state that ranks sixth-worst in the nation for women killed by men.

Graham was one of 14 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who joined all 48 Democrats and two independents in advancing the bill June 21 for debate.

Read it all.

The Senate's bipartisan gun safety bill, which has the backing of Sen. Lindsey Graham, includes a pair of provisions that would address two issues of tremendous importance in the Palmetto State: the Charleston loophole and the boyfriend loophole.https://t.co/3t3OgFmst4

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) June 23, 2022

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — There is no door on Anna Svetlaya’s fridge. A Russian missile blew it off the other day. The detached door saved her, protecting her chest from shrapnel as she passed out in a pool of blood.

It was just before 7 a.m. in a residential district here in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv when Ms. Svetlaya, 67, felt her world explode in a hail of metal shards, glass and debris as she prepared breakfast.

Her face a mosaic of cuts and bruises, her gaze dignified, Ms. Svetlaya said: “The Russians just don’t like us. We wish we knew why!” A retired nurse, she surveyed her small apartment, where her two sisters labored to restore order.

“It’s our ‘brother Russians’ who do this,” said one, Larisa Kryzhanovska. “I don’t even hate them, I just pity them.”

Read it all.

“The Russians just don’t like us. We wish we knew why!…It’s our ‘brother Russians’ who do this…I don’t even hate them, I just pity them.” https://t.co/rfc7PF0jgW

— John Sipher (@john_sipher) June 23, 2022

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who hast taught us by love to serve one another: Give us eyes of compassion for human suffering and need wherever it is found, and especially for that which lies nearest to our own doors; save us from neglecting life’s opportunities; and grant that while we have time we may do good to all men, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation.

–Romans 5:1-11