“Pastor Raymond (Uncle Ray) has dedicated his life to working with the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, in ways that are often out of the limelight and speak of deep personal integrity and an inspirational faith. A descendant of the Kabi Kabi nation, the Gureng Gureng nation of South-East Queensland, and the South Sea Islander people, Pastor Ray’s near relations were enslaved as cane cutters. He grew up on a reserve and only narrowly avoided being taken from his parents by the colonial authorities. Later he was offered roles in the Australian Government, but chose to stay working in the community.

“Through his ministry, he has dealt with complex, intergenerational trauma and high rates of incarceration, suicide and addiction in his community resulting from colonial policies. Yet he chooses to pursue relationship with colonising cultures, saying: ‘It’s God himself, in the middle of all of this mess, these powers that be – he’s putting out his hand, both to the wounded as well as to those who have made the wounds, – and saying, “Come on, let’s get back together again. Let’s heal these relationships again. Let’s make us be one as God created us to be.” That really is the heart of the gospel.’

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The Archbishop of Canterbury presents pastor Ray Minniecon with a Lambeth Awardhttps://t.co/YKejVjiU5I@OperationNoah @arrcc1 @micahaustralia @ABM_Mission @LambethConf pic.twitter.com/MRDqI7xUJi

— Green Anglicans (@Greenanglicans) October 13, 2022

New mothers and the elderly are among the first to take advantage of a warm spaces scheme to help people struggling to afford to heat their own homes.

Cafes, churches and libraries across Bristol are opening their doors as energy prices rise this winter.

The city council asked businesses and public buildings to join the scheme in the summer.

As well as warmth, many of the spaces are offering services like financial advice and homework support.

A cafe in the Wellspring Settlement community centre in Barton Hill is taking part in the initiative twice a week and is also providing food.

People are only asked to pay what they can afford, with the rest subsidised by the council.

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Bristol warm places scheme welcomes first residents – a lot of hard work has gone into establishing warm spaces across the city. For information on cost of living support ⁦@BristolCouncil⁩ has put in place please go to https://t.co/ZF99TzZ9F6 https://t.co/7C6jRf6nZI

— Cllr Asher Craig (@CllrAsherCraig) October 12, 2022

This is evident in Mr Xi’s response to covid-19. China’s initial lockdown saved many lives. However, long after the rest of the world has learned to live with the virus, China still treats every case as a threat to social stability. When infections crop up, districts and cities are locked down. Compulsory movement-tracking apps detect when citizens have been near an infected person, and then bar them from public spaces. It goes without saying that no one thus tagged may enter Beijing, lest they start an outbreak at a politically sensitive time.

Some hope that, once the congress is over, a plan for relaxing the zero-covid policy may be unveiled. But there is no sign yet of the essential first steps to avoid mass deaths, such as many more vaccinations, especially of the old. Party propaganda suggests that any loosening is a long way off, regardless of the misery and economic mayhem that lockdowns cause. The policy has failed to adapt because no one can say that Mr Xi is wrong, and Mr Xi does not want China to be dependent on foreign vaccines, even though they are better than domestic ones.

Such control-freakery has wider implications for China and the world. At home Mr Xi makes all the big calls, and a fierce machinery of repression enforces his will. Abroad, he seeks to fashion a global order more congenial for autocrats. To this end, China takes a twin-track approach. It works to co-opt international bodies and redefine the principles that underpin them. Bilaterally, it recruits countries as supporters. Its economic heft helps turn poorer ones into clients; its unsqueamishness about abuses lets it woo despots; and its own rise is an example to countries discontented with the American-led status quo. Mr Xi’s aim is not to make other countries more like China, but to protect China’s interests and establish a norm that no sovereign government need bow to anyone else’s definition of human rights. As our special report argues, Mr Xi wants the global order to do less, and he may succeed.

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Even as Xi Jinping strives to make China a superpower, his authoritarian urges have isolated it https://t.co/ADjqUOPxgs

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) October 13, 2022

Adm. Craig Faller, a senior U.S. military leader, told Congress last year that Chinese launderers had emerged as the “No. 1 underwriter” of drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere. The Chinese government is “at least tacitly supporting” the laundering activity, testified Faller, who led the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military activity in Latin America.

In an interview with ProPublica, the now-retired Faller elaborated on his little-noticed testimony. He said China has “the world’s largest and most sophisticated state security apparatus. So there’s no doubt that they have the ability to stop things if they want to. They don’t have any desire to stop this. There’s a lot of theories as to why they don’t. But it is certainly aided and abetted by the attitude and way that the People’s Republic of China views the globe.”

Some U.S. officials go further, arguing that Chinese authorities have decided as a matter of policy to foster the drug trade in the Americas in order to destabilize the region and spread corruption, addiction and death here.

“We suspected a Chinese ideological and strategic motivation behind the drug and money activity,” said former senior FBI official Frank Montoya Jr., who served as a top counterintelligence official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. “To fan the flames of hate and division. The Chinese have seen the advantages of the drug trade. If fentanyl helps them and hurts this country, why not?”

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This story is about the convergence of two of the top security threats to the United States: Latin American drug cartels and the authoritarian regime in China. https://t.co/BYk0iZkI5L

— ProPublica (@propublica) October 12, 2022

On Monday 10th October, the Health Inequalities Action Group (HIAG), a multi-faith initiative led by the Bishop of London, Sarah Mullally, to explore London’s health inequalities and how faith groups can and do contribute to the health of their communities, published its report: ‘On Faith, Place and Health: Harnessing the Power of Faith Groups to Tackle London’s Health Inequalities’.

At an event at The Old Deanery near St Paul’s Cathedral, Bishop Sarah presented the report, which makes a series of recommendations aiming to tackle health inequalities. These include supporting the development and integration of an Interfaith Health Council with national health structures to represent faith communities.

The publication comes a few weeks after reports of the Government shelving the long-anticipated Health Disparities White Paper, which led to a coalition of over 155 medical organisations writing to the Health Secretary Thérèse Coffey, urging her to maintain the Government’s commitment to publish its white paper by the end of this year. In her remarks, Bishop Sarah restated those calls and pointed to the HIAG report as a further sign of the urgent need to address the rampant health inequalities faced not only in the Capital, but across the United Kingdom.

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O Lord Jesus Christ, who didst pray for thy disciples that they might be one, even as thou art one with the Father: Draw us to thyself, that in common love and obedience to thee we may be united to one another, in the fellowship of the one Spirit, that the world may believe that thou art Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Today’s unearthly sunrise over the Coast Guard beach, Cape Cod National Seashore – Eastham. #capecod #sunrise #StormHour pic.twitter.com/zSeYWUzENB

— Darius Aniunas (@dariusaniunas) October 13, 2022

I love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.

–Psalm 18:1-3

Morning everyone hope you are well. You only need a few minutes of sunshine. Sunrise over Wray Castle and Windermere. Have a great day. #LAKEDISTRICT @keswickbootco @ShowcaseCumbria pic.twitter.com/h3wCpFQEEy

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) October 13, 2022