There is no near-term prospect of the synthetic embryos being used clinically. It would be illegal to implant them into a patient’s womb, and it is not yet clear whether these structures have the potential to continue maturing beyond the earliest stages of development.

The motivation for the work is for scientists to understand the “black box” period of development that is so called because scientists are only allowed to cultivate embryos in the lab up to a legal limit of 14 days. They then pick up the course of development much further along by looking at pregnancy scans and embryos donated for research.

Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of stem cell biology and developmental genetics at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said: “The idea is that if you really model normal human embryonic development using stem cells, you can gain an awful lot of information about how we begin development, what can go wrong, without having to use early embryos for research.”

Read it all.

This is a significant development that raises important questions about both the boundaries of human life and the future of the family. https://t.co/nLuWEdWJ6q

— Matthew Lee Anderson (@mattleeanderson) June 15, 2023

O God, Origin, Sustainer, and End of all creatures: Grant that thy Church, taught by thy servant Evelyn Underhill, guarded evermore by thy power, and guided by thy Spirit into the light of truth, may continually offer to thee all glory and thanksgiving, and attain with thy saints to the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast promised us by our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the same Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.

Today the Church of England commemorates Evelyn Underhill, Spiritual Writer, 1941

If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped.
― Evelyn Underhill pic.twitter.com/BmqB8YwMfp

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) June 15, 2023

O God, we know and believe in the love thou bearest towards us. May we, by dwelling in that love, dwell in thee, and thou in us. We would learn to love and to serve him whom we have not seen, by loving and serving our brethren whom we have seen; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the East Lawn our Environment Group have created a Wildflower bed.

Native wildflowers have been sown to provide a food source for pollinators.

These flowers, along with the ones in the Physick & Almonry Gardens, will help support bees, hoverflies & other insects. pic.twitter.com/TjthPY6JcM

— Ely Cathedral (@Ely_Cathedral) June 15, 2023

In thee, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline thy ear to me, and save me! Be thou to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for thou art my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. For thou, O Lord, art my hope, my trust, O LORD, from my youth. Upon thee I have leaned from my birth; thou art he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of thee. I have been as a portent to many; but thou art my strong refuge.

–Psalm 71:1-7

Hopefully, you'll forgive us for more hay meadow photographs! 🙏 We just love this time of year in the #YorkshireDales 🏵️

This is #Arncliffe in #Littondale. The village is famous for the Falcon Inn, the original setting for the Woolpack Inn used on fEmmerdale Farm.

📸 Andy Kay pic.twitter.com/1Iso0GEPh8

— Yorkshire Dales National Park (@yorkshire_dales) June 15, 2023

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said that he regards the numerical decline in the Church of England as a personal failure.

During a Q&A at the Religion Media Festival on Monday, he also spoke of his personal preference for a “fully independent safeguarding system” and his belief that the Church needed to be more “unapologetic” about its teaching on sexual morality. Asked about moves in Parliament to enable same-sex marriages to take place in church, and the possibility of disestablishment, he suggested that discerning the will of God might involve “refusing to do what the law says”.

A recurrent theme in his answers to questions, put by the broadcast journalist Julie Etchingham and the audience, was a long view of history, and the sovereignty of God. “One of the great things we do is we get into terrible angst and fear and think it’s all down to us,” he observed. “It’s not. It’s all down to God, and to him we must be obedient.”

Read it all (subscription or registration).

The Archbishop of Canterbury @JustinWelby has said that he regards the numerical decline in the Church of England as a personal failure https://t.co/YiOhdHQqD1

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 13, 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was built primarily to transform our understanding of the early universe. Less than a year after it was switched on, it is delivering, finding galaxies earlier in the universe than any seen before. Yet the telescope has another, less publicized goal in probing those earliest moments after the big bang 13.8 billion years ago. It is hunting for signs of the first stars to switch on in the universe, so-called Population III stars, gigantic balls purely made of hydrogen and helium that shined brilliant and brightly to first bring light to the cosmos. “They’ve been sort of in the background,” says Garth Illingworth of the University of California, Santa Cruz, largely because finding them is so difficult. No definitive detection of such stars has ever been made, but we know they must exist. Now two new results are bringing us closer than ever before to their discovery.

In a pair of papers posted on the preprint server arXiv.org, two teams of astronomers report promising signs of Population III stars. In the first study, led by Roberto Maiolino of the University of Cambridge, researchers think they may have found a pocket of Population III stars nestling in the outskirts of a remote galaxy. The second study, led by Eros Vanzella of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, hints at a tiny galaxy that may be composed of, if not Population III stars per se, extremely primordial stars born early in the cosmos. “These papers quite nicely highlight the different aspects of the search,” says Jorryt Matthee of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who was not involved with either paper. “We’re almost there.”

Read it all.

Telltale evidence gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope suggests we're closer than ever before to finding elusive Population III stars https://t.co/zQHn9sJ3GZ

— Scientific American (@sciam) June 13, 2023

A Sudanese convert from Islam to Christianity reminded me that local churches aren’t for entertainment but are meant to be family. This brother shared how his Muslim family held his funeral when he converted, going so far as to bury an empty casket in a tomb that bore his name. Our local churches must be family, especially for those who will lose their families to follow Jesus in an increasingly hostile culture.

Anglicanism is a historic branch of Christianity. For it to thrive in the future as a global movement will mean cultivating godly leaders who are faithful to God’s Word. During a memorable testimony at GAFCON IV, one Sudanese Anglican reminded us that will be costly: “A Christianity that costs us nothing is not biblical.” As I reflect on my time at GAFCON IV, I’d add, “A church that costs its members nothing is not the church for which Christ died.”

Though it’s costly, I pray faithful Anglicans will continue to do the hard work of humble gospel reform, ongoing repentance, and structural resetting that our Communion so desperately needs.

Read it all.

Despite 25 years of warnings by most Anglican primates, repeated departures from the authority of God’s word have torn the fabric of the Communion.

—The Kigali Commitment https://t.co/eESYLlpxWM

— The Gospel Coalition (@TGC) April 25, 2023

O God of earth and altar, who didst give G. K. Chesterton a ready tongue and pen, and inspired him to use them in thy service: Mercifully grant that we may be inspired to witness cheerfully to the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

#OTD June 14, 1936

Death in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, of G. K. Chesterton, an influential Roman Catholic apologist and prolific writer, noted for his use of paradox. pic.twitter.com/P0ZJ1qZ34V

— ☧ Today in Christian History (@HistoricalRook) June 14, 2023

Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

St. Basil the Great, Bishop, Doctor of the Church (379)

He is the author of a monastic rule from which St. Benedict derived many points. His solid and eloquent words silenced the Arian heretics. Two of his brothers became bishops, his mother and sister are honored as Saints. pic.twitter.com/dkVQRbHNUP

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) June 14, 2023

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.

A bit of energy going on in the portal on Glastonbury Tor today at sunrise. pic.twitter.com/QKVWbnrp92

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) June 14, 2023

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name for ever; may his glory fill the whole earth! Amen and Amen!

–Psalm 72:18-19

‘Bora da’ 😄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌈
‘Good morning’ 😄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌈@carolvorders @AledHall @hooson21 @ItsYourWales @Ruth_ITV @bootlegger1974 @StormHour @ThePhotoHour @NickyZJohn @S4Ctywydd @HCynwal @sianharries_ @hawley_caroline @DerekTheWeather @LouSanders @carolkirkwood pic.twitter.com/3RoW23zLQU

— Llelo Gruffudd (@Llelo2801) June 14, 2023

Friends and neighbors Stacie Marshall and Melvin and Betty Mosley chat over coffee in Marshall’s farmhouse kitchen in Dirt Town Valley, Georgia. Windows frame cattle pastures in every direction as they catch up on family weddings and local farming news. A mass of cheerful daffodils rests on the table between them.

On the surface, this encounter seems like any other between close friends. But a striking history sets their relationship apart—Betty Mosley’s great-great-grandmother was enslaved by Marshall’s great-great-great-grandparents in this community 150 years ago.

Marshall, 43, a mother of three and former campus minister, has been friends with the Mosleys for decades in this largely segregated corner of Northwest Georgia. Her father grew up as best friends with Melvin Mosley, and Melvin was her assistant high school principal.

Stacie Marshall and the Mosleys did not know their shared painful past until it was uncovered in 2021 through a Berry College documentary called Her Name Was Hester. The filming began in 2015 and followed Marshall’s discovery of her family’s history and her attempts to reconcile with the descendants of those they enslaved as she learns to run her family’s 300-acre cattle farm.

Read it all.

“In all our families, there are generational things it’s up to us to break.

And when we break them, they’re broken forever.”https://t.co/HzZeNWshXj

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) June 13, 2023

Their elbows, knees and ankles throb.

Their fatigue seems paralyzing at times.

Young and old, male and female, these Christians — like around one-fifth of U.S. adults — deal with chronic pain.

Often, debilitating prognoses make such patients feel all alone, as if no one understands.

But at a monthly meeting in this Oklahoma town, fellow sufferers — some gathered in person, others connecting from afar via Zoom — find support through a ministry called Broken & Mended.

Read it all.

Their elbows, knees and ankles throb.

Their fatigue seems paralyzing at times.

Young and old, male and female, these Christians — like around one-fifth of U.S. adults — deal with chronic pain.

My story with exceptional photos by @Travelers_Lane https://t.co/n1cqCvUSu4

— Bobby Ross Jr. (@bobbyross) June 13, 2023

Now, experts say the phenomenon is finished. Ten straight interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, slowing wage growth, stubborn inflation and mass layoffs in some industries may be causing Americans to stay put.

“The great resignation, by really any measure, is over,” said Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University who studies labor economics. The combination of a tight labor market and structural change from the pandemic catalyzed job reshuffling over the past three years, he said. “But that’s moved into the window of history now.”

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics bolsters Bloom’s observation: The number of people quitting their jobs fell by 49,000 in April compared to March, according to the most recent numbers available from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

In fact, the so-called “quits” rate has steadily declined since last spring and is now virtually identical (just 0.1% above) the pre-pandemic rate in February 2020. Essentially, quits are back to the 2019 pre-Covid average.

Read it all.

Had a good run.@CNN @knowledge_vital https://t.co/V4U5WUYMvS pic.twitter.com/VskpOmuHPy

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) June 13, 2023

Two church pastors have been suspended as part of a Church of England probe into “safeguarding concerns”.

The Reverend Canon Mike Pilavachi, who led Soul Survivor Church in Watford, as well as a national Christian youth festival, stepped down earlier this year after the investigation began.

Senior Pastor Andy Croft and Assistant Pastor Ali Martin of Soul Survivor have been suspended as part of the probe.

The church said it related to concerns about the handling of allegations.

Read it all.

Early this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a mock wartime meeting of his security cabinet in a bunker. Communities in northern Israel are preparing shelters for a long-term conflict. And the military is working overtime on a new laser system to intercept rockets.

Their focus is Iran and its nuclear ambitions.

For years, Israel has considered a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, and directed its energies to confronting it and its regional proxies in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas.

But much is new in the past few months. Iran has emerged from diplomatic isolation, forging a key military alliance with Russia from which it’s seeking air defenses, restoring diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia and pushing its allies to fire missiles at Israel. It is also enriching more and more uranium, including a small amount almost to weapons grade — while denying any plans for making a bomb.

Read it all.

Israel's sudden daily talk of a military strike on Iran serves as a messaging tool and a warning — not just to Tehran but also to Washington https://t.co/jpgy2BExNh

— Bloomberg (@business) June 13, 2023

O Lord Christ, Son of the living God, who at the last assize wilt acknowledge all deeds of mercy to others as done unto thee: Grant, in this world of sin and pain and want, that we may never pass by the poor and helpless whose cry is thine own; for the honour of thy holy name.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

Good morning all
Buenas dias pic.twitter.com/B99cBq8w4N

— Mystic Mel (@Melshenny1) June 13, 2023

He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchae′us; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchae′us, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchae′us stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.”

–Luke 19:1-10

The very popular path from Watendlath to Rosthwaite giving great views of the fells. pic.twitter.com/XObMOCijnG

— YorkshireLass (@MaureenPlatts) June 13, 2023

Russia’s most powerful mercenary said on Sunday that his fighters would not sign contracts with the country’s defence minister, publicly refusing an attempt by the Kremlin to bring his fighting force under its sway.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, has repeatedly attacked Vladimir Putin’s top military brass for what he casts as treachery for failing to fight the war in Ukraine properly.

Neither Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, nor Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff, have commented in public on the insults from Prigozhin, whose forces in May took the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a battle in which tens of thousands perished.

The defence ministry on Saturday said Shoigu had ordered all “volunteer detachments” to sign contracts with his ministry by the end of the month, a step it said would increase the effectiveness of the Russian army.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Wagner boss refuses to allow his mercenaries to join Putin's forces.
Yevgeny Prigozhin has repeatedly attacked Putin’s top military brass for failing to fight the war in Ukraine properly.https://t.co/YdspWjmC7D

— Mayte Chummia (@Maytechummia) June 12, 2023

Americans’ already poor ratings of the state of moral values in the U.S. have fallen further to the lowest point in Gallup’s 22-year trend. The 54% of U.S. adults who rate moral values in the country as “poor” marks a four-percentage-point increase since last year and the first time the reading has reached the majority level.

Another 33% of Americans think U.S. moral values are “only fair,” 10% “good” and 1% “excellent.”

Throughout the trend, Americans have been more negative than positive in their views of the nation’s moral values, but the latest readings, from a May 1-24 poll, are substantially worse than the trend averages. Since 2002, an average of 43% of U.S. adults have said the state of moral values is poor, while 38% have rated it as only fair and 18% as excellent or good.

Read it all.

Americans’ already poor ratings of the state of moral values in the U.S. have fallen further to the lowest point in Gallup’s 22-year trend. https://t.co/IBDRI4G5ni

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) June 9, 2023

Acts 2:42 NKJV And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. pic.twitter.com/TccKhl99FN

— Elly Ndjukuma (@EllyNdjukuma) October 14, 2022

America’s fragmented electric grid, which was largely built to accommodate coal and gas plants, is becoming a major obstacle to efforts to fight climate change.

Tapping into the nation’s vast supplies of wind and solar energy would be one of the cheapest ways to cut the emissions that are dangerously heating the planet, studies have found. That would mean building thousands of wind turbines across the gusty Great Plains and acres of solar arrays across the South, creating clean, low-cost electricity to power homes, vehicles and factories.

But many spots with the best sun and wind are far from cities and the existing grid. To make the plan work, the nation would need thousands of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines — large power lines that would span multiple grid regions.

To understand the scale of what’s needed, compare today’s renewable energy and transmission system to one estimate of what it would take to reach the Biden administration’s goal of 100 percent clean electricity generation by 2035.

Read it all.

Why the U.S. Electric Grid Isn't Ready for the Energy Transition

⚡There is no single U.S. electric grid.

⚡There are three — one in the West, one in the East and one in Texas — that only connect at a few points and share little power between them#techhttps://t.co/rsXfdROJV2 pic.twitter.com/fYYt2AWhv1

— Marsha Collier (@MarshaCollier) June 12, 2023

Bountiful God, giver of all gifts,
who poured your Spirit upon your servant Barnabas
and gave him grace to encourage others:
help us, by his example,
to be generous in our judgements
and unselfish in our service;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Saint Barnabas the Apostle pic.twitter.com/tdop9gnh8L

— Duncan Irvine (@DuncanIrvine1) June 11, 2023

O God,
the strength of all those who put their trust in you,
mercifully accept our prayers
and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature
we can do no good thing without you,
grant us the help of your grace,
that in the keeping of your commandments
we may please you both in will and deed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

And taking the twelve, he said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; they will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” And he cried, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped, and commanded him to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me receive my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

–Luke 18:31-43

‘The very first evidence Luke mentions of the Spirit’s presence in the church is that *they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching* (42). One might perhaps say that the Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem that day; its teachers were the apostles whom Jesus had appointed; and there were 3,000 pupils in the kindergarten!

We note that those new converts were not enjoying a mystical experience which led them to despise their mind or disdain theology. Anti-intellectualism and the fullness of the Spirit are mutually incompatible, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Nor did those early disciples imagine that, because they had received the Spirit, he was the only teacher they needed and they could dispense with human teachers. On the contrary, they sat at the apostles’ feet, hungry to receive instruction, and they persevered in it. Moreover, the teaching authority of the apostles, to which they submitted, was authenticated by miracles: *many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles* (43). The two references to the apostles, in verse 42 (their teaching) and verse 43 (their miracles), can hardly be an accident (cf. 2 Cor.12:12; Heb. 2:1-4).

Since the teaching of the apostles has come down to us in its definitive form in the New Testament, contemporary devotion to the apostles’ teaching will mean submission to the authority of the New Testament. A Spirit-filled church is a New Testament church, in the sense that it studies and submits to New Testament instruction. The Spirit of God leads the people of God to submit to the Word of God.’

–John R W Stott, The Spirit, the Church, and the World: The Message of Acts (Downer’s Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1990), page 82, quoted by yours truly in today’s late service sermon

“The Feast of Pentecost or the Descent of the Holy Spirit, also called Rosalia, is the feast of the founding or establishment of the Church of Christ.”
– Patriarch Daniel#Pentecost2023 pic.twitter.com/HTjdFM4T23

— Basilica.ro (EN) (@BasilicaNews) June 4, 2023

O God, the God of all goodness and of all grace, who art worthy of a greater love than we can either give or understand: Fill our hearts, we beseech thee, with such love toward thee that nothing may seem too hard for us to do or to suffer, in obedience to thy will; and grant that thus loving thee, we may become daily more like unto thee, and finally obtain the crown of life which thou hast promised to those that love thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Good Sunday morning
Breakfast view#hestra #östergötland #photofrommyheart pic.twitter.com/pCltUztatl

— Lisa von Steijern🇸🇪 (@LisavonSteijern) June 11, 2023

Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory!

–Psalm 24:7-10

Good Sunday morning
Breakfast view#hestra #östergötland #photofrommyheart pic.twitter.com/pCltUztatl

— Lisa von Steijern🇸🇪 (@LisavonSteijern) June 11, 2023