The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) has not been able to agree on who should be the next Bishop of Carlisle, it was announced on Friday. A new nomination is unlikely to be made for more than a year.

In a statement, the Archbishop of York said that, “very sadly”, the CNC had “not been able to reach the level of consensus required to nominate a new Diocesan Bishop” for Carlisle.

“Over the course of the next months,” Archbishop Cottrell continued, “the Crown Nominations Commission will need to reflect, and make a decision about which stage it wishes to recommence the discernment process. This is not likely to be before the Spring of 2025,” Archbishop Cottrell said.

The Commission, which nominates diocesan bishops to the Crown, comprises both Archbishops, six representatives from the diocese, and six members of the General Synod.

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“Over the course of the next months, the Crown Nominations Commission will need to reflect, and make a decision about which stage it wishes to recommence the discernment process. This is not likely to be before the Spring of 2025." https://t.co/801oV9RMhN

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 17, 2023

“The story of a wealthy businessman who annually gives out hundreds of $100 bills to strangers motivated a group of Phoenix students to start their own Secret Santa club. Steve Hartman has their story in “On the Road.””

Watch it all.

The rupture of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is nearly complete. As the window closes on a temporary plan allowing disaffiliations, nearly 1 out of 4 of the denomination’s 30,000 congregations decided to split over issues of sexuality and authority.

This month marked the final push to exit before the December 31 deadline. In that time, another 74 churches in Florida voted to leave, plus 51 more in Illinois, 152 in Mississippi, 8 in New Mexico, and 36 across three regions in Texas. When regional conferences ratified the last batch of disaffiliations, the tally came to 5,642 congregations departing in 2023 and a total of 7,659 over the past four years, according to United Methodist News.

The thousands of disaffiliations represent the conclusion of decades of UMC debates, proposals, and gatherings focused on sexuality.

This is also largest denominational divide in the United States since the Civil War. While there have been several notable church schisms in the 20th century—including those that gave birth to the Presbyterian Church in America, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the North American Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Church in North America—none involve more than 600 or 700 separating congregations. The UMC split is more than 10 times as large.

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"As the window closes on a temporary plan allowing disaffiliations, nearly 1 out of 4 of the denomination’s 30,000 congregations decided to split over issues of sexuality and authority."

Year-end UMC update from @CTmagazine: https://t.co/Ak60aeHpSf

— kate shellnutt (@kateshellnutt) December 18, 2023

he share of Americans who own stocks has never been so high.

About 58% of U.S. households owned stocks in 2022, according to the Federal Reserve’s survey of consumer finances released this fall. That is up from 53% in 2019 and marks the highest household stock-ownership rate recorded in the triennial survey. The cohort includes families holding individual shares directly and those owning stocks indirectly through funds, retirement accounts or other managed accounts.

The data provide the most comprehensive snapshot yet of how the Covid-era explosion in investing has reshaped Americans’ personal finances. Stuck at home during the pandemic with extra cash, millions jumped into the stock market for the first time. The elimination of commission fees on stock trading across U.S. brokerages made investing cheaper than ever.

“It created a whole generation of investors,” said Anthony Denier, chief executive of mobile brokerage Webull U.S.

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The percentage of Americans who own stocks has never been higher. The pandemic and zero-commission trading created a whole generation of investors https://t.co/dbbcwsD9zg

— WSJ Markets (@WSJmarkets) December 18, 2023

Artillery boomed, shaking the ground, as a couple scurried through the streets of Saké, their possessions balanced on their heads, in the embattled east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

At a crossroads, they passed a giant poster of Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, who is standing for re-election on Wednesday. “Unity, Security, Prosperity,” read the slogan. They hurried along.

“Our children were born in war. We live in war,” Jean Bahati, his face beaded with sweat, said as he paused for breath. It was the fifth time that he and his wife had been forced to flee, he said. “We’re so sick of it.”

They joined 6.5 million people displaced by war in eastern Congo, where a conflict that has dragged on for nearly three decades, stoking a vast humanitarian crisis that by some estimates has claimed over six million lives, is now lurching into a volatile new phase.

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Six million have died, and more than six million are displaced after decades of fighting and the ensuing humanitarian crisis in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We live in war,” one man said as he fled. “We’re so sick of it.” https://t.co/Y3Q7peUqe2

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 18, 2023

O God of hope, fill us, we beseech thee, with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope by the power of thy Holy Spirit, and show forth our thankfulness to thee in trustful and courageous lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

—The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: Services of Praise and Prayer for Occasional Use in Churches (New York: Oxford University Press, 1933)

Good morning all
Buenos días pic.twitter.com/FAWaTjRinb

— 🌱Mystic Mel (@Melshenny1) December 18, 2023

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.”‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie–behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

–Revelation 3:7-13

Lava sky. Taken this morning shortly before sunrise, from Glastonbury Tor. pic.twitter.com/UE8GlWGP7x

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) December 18, 2023

If you want to understand your own behavior, you must understand that all sin against God is grounded in a refusal to believe that God is more dedicated to our good, and more aware of what that is, than we are. We distrust God because we assume he is not truly for us, that if we give him complete control we will be miserable. Adam and Eve did not say, “Let’s be evil. Let’s ruin our own live and everyone else’s too!” Rather they thought, “We just want to be happy. But his commands don’t look like they will give us the things that we need to thrive. We will have to take things into our own hands—we can’t trust him.”

—Tim Keller, The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy (New York: Viking, 2018). pp.137-138, shared by yours truly in the morning sermon

KINDLE DEAL: "Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation" by @CollinHansen is $5.99. This book is an excellent read, *especially* for the bibliography all those who influenced and shaped Tim Keller. https://t.co/dG221YZAeE (affiliate link) pic.twitter.com/HTqUHP3V65

— Barnabas Piper (@BarnabasPiper) December 13, 2023

O Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world, we may be found a people acceptable in your sight; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Guten Morgen ☕️❤️ wünsche euch einen ruhigen und friedlichen 3. Adventssonntag 🌲🎶🌷
⭐️ Wir sagen euch an den lieben Advent. Sehet, die dritte Kerze brennt……. ⭐️ pic.twitter.com/A4EyJscSw0

— Renate Kleine (@RenateKleine) December 17, 2023

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is.
So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory.
Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee.

–Psalm 63:1-3

Some scenes almost look better in winter, stripped of summer's green fripperies, and I think these old #peakdistrict barns on Derwent Edge fall into that category. The gritstone buildings revert to being part of the landscape, blending into the hills from which they rose. pic.twitter.com/xRt5ldbJDb

— peaklass (@peaklass1) December 17, 2023

Gracious God, we offer thanks for the vision of Ralph Adams Cram, John LaFarge and Richard Upjohn, whose harmonious revival of the Gothic enriched our churches with a sacramental understanding of reality in the face of secular materialism; and we pray that we may honor thy gifts of the beauty of holiness given through them, for the glory of Jesus Christ; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Ralph Adams Cram 1942, Richard Upjohn 1878, and John Lafarge 1910, Architects pic.twitter.com/OIFEcQStBD

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) December 16, 2014

Gracious Father, we acknowledge that in you we live and move and have our being, and thank you for the gift of another day of the gift of life. Grant us by your Spirit so to walk with you now and hereafter having heard and understood afresh the grace of God in truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A beautiful start to the say in Lincoln #lovelincoln #visitlincoln #lincolnshire #thephotohour pic.twitter.com/aCsUzhVySM

— Andrew Scott Photography (@lincolninphoto) December 16, 2023

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “‘I know your works; you have the name of being alive, and you are dead. Awake, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember then what you received and heard; keep that, and repent. If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life; I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

–Revelation 3:1-6

A cooler December Lowcountry morning #southcarollina #photos #lowcountrylife @SummervilleSC #goodmorning #thegiftoflife @EdPiotrowski pic.twitter.com/HWaI7ZKPnq

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) December 16, 2023

Professor Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt was awarded the 2023 Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing on Thursday evening.

The award was given for his book The Love That Is God: An invitation to Christian faith (William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2020). Dr Bauerschmidt is Professor of Theology at Loyola University, Maryland, in the United States, and is a permanent deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Professor Bauerschmidt received £15,000, and was presented with a medal by the Archbishop of Canterbury during an awards ceremony in Lambeth Palace Library.

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US theologian wins @MRamseyPrize for description of God’s love https://t.co/0xS6jOwiIy

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 15, 2023