I am pleased to update you that we have crossed another important milestone in the progress we are making towards our church sanctuary construction. Since the beginning of the initiation of our contract with Habersham Land Company, the transfer of the property has been contingent upon the financing.

As you know, we have raised the pledge commitments over a number of years, therefore a bridge loan from a lending institution was needed. More specifically, we needed to provide a loan commitment letter from a Bank to prove we could, in fact, build the building.

We have believed for a few months now, that we had enough money in pledges and cash on hand to prove that a bank would want to enter into a loan relationship with us. However, this past Wednesday, the first bank did extend a commitment letter to us. Therefore, what we hoped for and saw good reason to believe would happen, has happened. We have satisfied the conditions to close on the property.

Read it all.

The Parish Church at Habersham in the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina nears groundbreaking for new Common Worship building https://t.co/CszGrBO217 #southcarolina #parishministry #anglican #acna #religion #lowcountrylife #stewardship #realestate #beginnings #worship pic.twitter.com/4KgndQ4GKl

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 27, 2023

In 1920, the Czech writer Karel Čapek wrote “R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots),” a play set in the year 2000 that follows the evolution of robota, a new class of android worker-slaves that eventually rises up and annihilates its human masters. The play introduced both the word “robot” and a narrative of human-robot conflict that, by now, has become familiar in movies such as “The Terminator,” “RoboCop,” and “Blade Runner.” Will robots fashioned to look like us, and programmed to accede to our wishes, spur people to think of them as friends and co-workers—or to treat them like chattel? Onstage in Telluride, David Hanson said that the purpose of robots like Sophia is to teach people compassion. But it seemed counterintuitive to suggest that a machine that can only mimic human emotions has the ability to inculcate in us something so fundamental to the human experience.

In Hanson’s view, Sophia is no different than a character in a book, and we know that stories can engender empathy. But given the speed at which artificial-intelligence models are being deployed, and their tendency to behave erratically, we would be wise not to wholly abandon the caution inspired by Čapek and his heirs. Matthias Scheutz, the C.E.O. of Thinking Robots, pointed out that unless designers build constraints and ethical guardrails into the A.I. models that will power robots of the future, there is a risk of inadvertently creating machines that could harm us in unforeseen ways. “The situation we need to avoid with these machines is that when we test them, they give us the answers we want to hear, but behind the scenes they’re developing their own agenda,” Scheutz told me. “I’m listening to myself talking right now, and it sounds like sci-fi. Unfortunately, it’s not.”

Read it all.

“There is no doubt that the A.I. revolution we’re witnessing now will animate the robots of the future, giving them skills that match, surpass, or replace our own,” @SueHalpernVT writes. “It is already happening.” https://t.co/VNqhjGvleR

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) July 26, 2023

The percentages of Americans who believe in each of five religious entities — God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil — have edged downward by three to five percentage points since 2016. Still, majorities believe in each, ranging from a high of 74% believing in God to lows of 59% for hell and 58% for the devil. About two-thirds each believe in angels (69%) and heaven (67%).

Gallup has used this framework to measure belief in these spiritual entities five times since 2001, and the May 1-24, 2023, poll finds that each is at its lowest point. Compared with 2001, belief in God and heaven is down the most (16 points each), while belief in hell has fallen 12 points, and the devil and angels are down 10 points each.

This question asks respondents whether they believe in each concept or if they are unsure, and from 13% to 15% currently say they are not sure. At the same time, nearly three in 10 U.S. adults do not believe in the devil or hell, while almost two in 10 do not believe in angels and heaven, and 12% say they do not believe in God.

Read it all.

Americans’ belief in five religious entities — God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil — have all edged down since 2016, continuing a longer-term trend. https://t.co/giTa3xCK12

— GallupNews (@GallupNews) July 20, 2023

An Anglican Church in North America parish announced this week that it is departing the theologically conservative denomination to pursue affiliation with the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, with its priest saying “This journey has brought us immense clarity and conviction.”

Resurrection Anglican Church South Austin is the third parish in two years to depart the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO), following St. Mary of Bethany Parish Nashville and The Table Indianapolis. The latter also pursued affiliation with the Episcopal Church, while the former remains unaffiliated as “an Ecumenical Eucharistic Community.”

The Table Indianapolis was the first parish to depart for the Episcopal Church from the ACNA denomination that is largely composed of congregations that themselves either departed the Episcopal Church or were planted in cooperation with those who did so.

Read it all.

There is a jarring disconnect between Anglicans who separated from the Episcopal Church’s theological revisionism at great cost, and post-Evangelicals newly weighing such truth claims. https://t.co/K7kWiR4iRk

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) July 27, 2023

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Shunned in the West, his authority tested by a failed mutiny at home, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia needs to project normalcy and shore up support from his allies. So on Thursday, he will host African leaders at a flashy summit in St. Petersburg, part of his continuing outreach to a continent that has become critical to Moscow’s foreign policy.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, some African countries have backed Mr. Putin at the United Nations, welcomed his envoys and his warships, and offered control of lucrative assets, like a gold mine in the Central African Republic that U.S. officials estimate contains $1 billion in reserves.

But if Mr. Putin sought to move closer to African leaders as he prosecuted his war, the 17-month-old conflict is now straining those ties. This summit is expected to draw only half the number of African heads of state or government as the last gathering in 2019, a situation that the Kremlin on Wednesday blamed on “brazen interference” from the United States and its allies.

The summit comes against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the Black Sea over Mr. Putin’s recent decision to terminate a deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain to global markets. Russia’s withdrawal has caused food prices to spike, adding to the misery of the world’s poorest countries, including some of those attending the Russia-Africa summit.

Read it all.

Shunned in the West and tested by a failed mutiny at home, Vladimir Putin will look to project normalcy and shore up support from other parts of the world as he hosts African leaders at a flashy summit in his home city, St. Petersburg, this week. https://t.co/s9flu3mDVI

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) July 26, 2023

O Lord our God, we thank thee for instilling in the heart of thy servant William Reed Huntington a fervent love for thy Church and its mission in the world; and we pray that, with unflagging faith in thy promises, we may make known to all peoples thy blessed gift of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Episcopal Church also today commemorates William Reed Huntington, Priest, 1909

Image: Icon by Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG, via https://t.co/1pTNE0szHz pic.twitter.com/hCo7vVExBx

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) July 27, 2023

Grant us, O God, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices; that in your light we may see light, and in your path may not stumble; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

There's something truly enchanting about the morning light at the Nauset lighthouse. It's as if the world wakes up with a renewed sense of wonder. Eastham, Cape Cod National Seashore. #capecod #sunrise pic.twitter.com/Ena1zebK6p

— Darius Aniunas (@dariusaniunas) July 27, 2023

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoeni′cia and Samar′ia, reporting the conversion of the Gentiles, and they gave great joy to all the brethren. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up, and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

–Acts 15:1-11

Blueberries in the mist #appleton #maine #sunrise ⁦@KJordan_WMTW⁩ ⁦@TStackhouseWMTW⁩ ⁦@Ted_WMTW⁩ ⁦@NorahHoganWMTW⁩ ⁦@colleenhurleywx⁩ ⁦@StormHour⁩ pic.twitter.com/CEs0xNXG3y

— Realtor Rick 💙 (@rick03907) July 27, 2023