St. David’s, Cheraw, Holds First Service in New Worship Space

St. David’s, Cheraw, held their first eucharistic service in their new worship space (Wesley United Methodist Church) this past Sunday. Bishop Lawrence gave an uplifting sermon on faith and hope. “It was such a celebration of faithful Christians!” says Rector, Jason Varnadore. “We were joined in person by others in the diocese and in prayer by others in the state, country and world.”

The above photo was taken in the new worship space on July 31 following St. David’s final service in the historic building. After that service they held a covered dish supper—and then marched through town to their new place of worship! “We sat in the sanctuary, prayed, then broke out in the Doxology,” said Varnadore.

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The Latest Edition of the #Anglican Diocese of #SouthCarolina Enewsletter https://t.co/3d0ADfV4Ag #anglican #parishministry #lowcountrylife (Saint David's, Cheraw) pic.twitter.com/trIS6F95ht

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) August 11, 2022

America and China agree on very little these days. Yet on the subject of Taiwan, at least in one regard, they are in total harmony. The status quo surrounding the self-governing island, which China claims and whose thriving democracy America supports, is changing in dangerous ways, say officials on both sides. War does not look imminent, but the uneasy peace that has held for more than six decades is fragile. Ask them who is at fault, however, and the harmony shatters.

That much is clear from the crisis triggered this month by a visit to Taiwan by the speaker of America’s House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. She was well within her rights, but her trip was provocative. It infuriated the Chinese Communist Party. One of Ms Pelosi’s predecessors had visited the island in 1997, but China’s top diplomat claimed that American “saboteurs” had wrecked the status quo. After Ms Pelosi left, China fired missiles over the island and carried out live-fire drills that encircled it, as if it were rehearsing for a blockade.

Since the previous stand-off in 1995-96, America, China and Taiwan have all grown uneasy with the ambiguities and contradictions—the status quo, if you will—on which peace precariously rests. China, especially, has bared its teeth. If the world is to avoid war, it urgently needs to strike a new balance.

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The status quo surrounding Taiwan, which China claims and whose thriving democracy America supports, is changing in dangerous ways, say officials on both sides https://t.co/NjXho4LRNv

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 11, 2022

A Lifeway Research study explores US Protestant pastors’ experiences with mental illness and how well their churches are equipped to respond to those who need help.

A majority of pastors (54%) say in the churches where they have served on staff, they have known at least one church member who has been diagnosed with a severe mental illness such as clinical depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia.

Most of those pastors had experience with a small number of members: 18 percent say one or two and another 18 percent say three to five. Fewer pastors say they’ve known 6-10 (8%), 11-20 (5%) or more than 20 (6%). Around a third (34%) say none of their church members have been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, while 12 percent don’t know.

“There is a healthy generational shift occurring as younger and middle-aged pastors are much more likely to have encountered people in church with severe mental illness than the oldest pastors,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research.

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Compared to 2014 study, a similar number of pastors in 2022 say they have endured mental illness.

But more pastors today say they’ve been diagnosed.https://t.co/VXr7U6m7pD

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) August 10, 2022

I don’t think many Americans appreciate just how tense and tenuous, how very touch and go the energy situation in Europe is right now.

For months, as news of the Ukraine war receded a bit, it was possible to follow the energy story unfolding across the Atlantic and still assume an uncomfortable but familiar-enough winter in Europe, characterized primarily by high prices.

In recent weeks, the prospects have begun to look darker. In early August the European Union approved a request that member states reduce gas consumption by 15 percent — quite a large request and one that several initially balked at. In Spain, facing record-breaking heat wave after record-breaking heat wave at the height of the country’s tourist season, the government announced restrictions on commercial air-conditioning, which may not be set below 27 degrees Celsius, or about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In France, an Associated Press article said, “urban guerrillas” are taking to the streets, shutting off storefront lights to reduce energy consumption. In the Netherlands a campaign called Flip the Switch is asking residents to limit showers to five minutes and to drop air-conditioning and clothes dryers entirely. Belgium has reversed plans to retire nuclear power plants, and Germany, having ruled out the possibility of such a turnabout in June, is now considering it as well.

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“I think there’s been a gradual and growing recognition that we are headed into the worst global energy crisis at least since the 1970s and perhaps longer than that.”—⁦@JasonBordoff. https://t.co/gSipgPuVru

— David Wallace-Wells (@dwallacewells) August 10, 2022

O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us, we pray thee, from an inordinate love of this world, that, inspired by the devotion of thy servant Clare, we may serve thee with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.

Today the Church of England celebrates Clare of Assisi, Founder of the Minoresses (Poor Clares), 1253 https://t.co/UaZjRifJv5

Image: Stained glass window in St Stephen's, Gloucester Road; Photo by Oxfordian Kissuth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia pic.twitter.com/VA9hzu0XOP

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) August 11, 2022

Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that as a tree is known by its fruit, so we may be recognized as thy children by our obedience to thy will. Help us to put away all hypocrisy and self-seeking, that we may truly set forth thy glory and extend thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

From one archway to another as the sun rose on a very quiet morning today. Taken on Glastonbury Tor. pic.twitter.com/vgDz2nVFXn

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) August 11, 2022

When he summoned a famine on the land,
and broke every staff of bread,
he had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
His feet were hurt with fetters,
his neck was put in a collar of iron;
until what he had said came to pass
the word of the Lord tested him.
The king sent and released him,
the ruler of the peoples set him free;
he made him lord of his house,
and ruler of all his possessions,
to instruct his princes at his pleasure,
and to teach his elders wisdom.

–Psalm 105:16-22

Good morning Lewiston! Wow, what a sunrise to start off the day! Many of us waking up to temps in the 50s, it's refreshing out there! #mewx pic.twitter.com/5aN8LDGFxF

— Christian Bridges (@ChristianWGME) August 11, 2022