Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
–Psalm 30:11-12 (KJV)
"Stately Sycamores with a Maple in the Mix"#FallColors #AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/xNf9AvNMO3
— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) October 26, 2024
Lambeth Palace said the Archbishop’s views are his own, and are not the official stance of the Church of England. A statement said: “He (Archbishop Justin) has been honest that his thinking has evolved over the years through much prayer and theological reflection – particularly through the Living in Love and Faith process – and he now holds this view sincerely.
The Church of England Evangelical Council said Welby’s statement indicated his view that: “Sexual intimacy is no longer limited to marriage”, “sexual intimacy in gay relationships is ok”, and that “the church should bless sexual relations outside of marriage”.
It called the statement “devastating”, saying it marked “a clear departure from the doctrine of the Church of England, the Anglican Communion, and every other major Christian denomination across the world believe”.
(The) Revd Dr Andrew Goddard, a member of the Council, said that “such significantly erroneous statements as these from no less than the Archbishop of Canterbury, unless swiftly followed by an apology and correction, can only add further to the widespread erosion of trust and growing sense of disbelief, betrayal, deception, anger and despair now felt across much of the Church of England”.
And (the) Revd Matthew Roberts, former Moderator of Synod of the International Presbyterian Church and co-author of the Greater Love declaration, commented: “The Archbishop of Canterbury, having stated that he denies the doctrine of the Church of England, has a duty to resign.”
The Church of England Evangelical Council said it marked “a clear departure from the doctrine of the Church of England, the Anglican Communion, and every other major Christian denomination across the world believe”. https://t.co/u5HqzdbwzY
— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) October 25, 2024
The Death Spiral is one of the main Pentagon Pathologies. The American people devote ever greater resources to their defense while receiving less and less in return. The Air Force had 10,387 aircraft in 1975 when the Military Reformers began their work in earnest. Today the Air Force has 5,288. The Navy had 559 active ships in 1975. Today the fleet has only 296. The Pentagon’s base budget is more than 60% higher today than it was in 1975, when adjusted for inflation. The American people simply spend more and receive much less in return for their defense dollars.
An argument can be made that modern military equipment is more expensive because of the capabilities they provide the troops. That is extremely debatable because many of the high-profile acquisition programs over the past 25 years have been underwhelming at best, and often complete failures. It is difficult to find anyone who will honestly say the Littoral Combat Ship was worth the effort.
Left unchecked, the acquisition Death Spiral’s inevitable destination is unilateral disarmament. Norman Augustine, a former DoD official and Lockheed Martin CEO predicted in 1983, with only a hint of satire, that by 2054, “the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”
At the current spending rate, in another generation we will have a lot of rich contractors and no aircraft or Naval fleets to speak of https://t.co/k4XV5gsk7Z
— Responsible Statecraft (@RStatecraft) October 24, 2024
The action is now moving beyond America. With over two-fifths of the world overweight or obese, demand for glp-1 drugs is voracious. Pharma companies are racing to make them work as pills, which would be cheaper to produce than jabs, and to reduce their side-effects. Generic versions for older GLP-1 agonists are entering the market. Semaglutide is to come off patent in Brazil, China and India in 2026; eight such drugs are in the works in China. That is just as well. As incomes in the developing world have risen and life has become more sedentary, people’s waistlines are catching up with those in the West.
Curbing obesity would be consequential. Yet glp-1 drugs promise to do much more. Overweight patients on semaglutide have been found to suffer fewer heart attacks and strokes; the benefits, astonishingly, seem to be largely independent of how much weight is lost. Tirzepatide improves sleep apnoea. Trials show that glp-1 agonists reduce chronic kidney disease in diabetics; and there are signs they may lessen brain shrinkage and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s. Studies of health records suggest that they may help with addictions, too; people already on glp-1 drugs in America were less likely to overdose on opioids or abuse cannabis or alcohol. Researchers are even talking, in hushed tones, of their anti-ageing effects.
How can one class of drug do so much? As our briefing explains this week, not only do the drugs act in the gut, but they also bind to receptors all over the body and in the brain.
I’ve been saying this for quite some time: GLP-1 agonists are miracle “everything drugs”! it’s likely there’ll be more of these types of drugs soon
— Derya Unutmaz, MD (@DeryaTR_) October 24, 2024
“It’s not just obesity. Drugs like Ozempic will change the world
As they become cheaper, they promise to improve billions of lives” pic.twitter.com/61tc17dKRE
It’s widely rumored that organized religion is going down the drain. While the secularization thesis has been debated for decades, its main components are hardly controversial. Religion has reduced social power: its chief officers have less influence on political ideas and social norms, its language and habits no longer permeate the discourse of public life, and fewer people make collective worship and fellowship the rhythm of their week. Death no longer has a compelling hold on the public imagination: people still die, but usually not in the home or in their youth, and few people are terrified of the prospect of eternal hell. Meanwhile, with the possible exception of minority faiths among recent immigrants, it’s become increasingly difficult to socialize young people into a religion. It’s not that religion adheres to egregious ideas so much as that the whole notion of being habituated into a committed community of ritual and tradition seems incongruous.
There’s little that’s specifically Christian about all this. Real as the church’s failures are, most of its challenges it shares with other institutions associated with the pretechnological era. But in any case, in most congregations in the US mainline and the UK equivalent, a disproportionate number of the people are over age 65. The prospects for self-replication in 30 years’ time aren’t promising.
What are we to do about this? I see three main options…
“We have no idea what lies around the corner. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but the way the Holy Spirit makes Christ present to us seems to be ever changing.”
— theChristianCentury (@ChristianCent) October 18, 2024
– Samuel Wellshttps://t.co/Vh9j7Gfe1E
Most Holy God, whose servant Tabitha thou didst raise from the dead to display thy power and confirm thy message that thy Son is Lord; grant unto us thy grace, that aided by her prayers and example, we may be given a new life in thy Spirit to do works pleasing in thy sight; Through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord; who livest and reignest with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Tabitha (AKA Dorcas) is commemorated on October 25th in Orthodox and some Lutheran Churches.
— Marg Mowczko (@MargMowczko) October 25, 2024
I think Tabitha's importance to the church at Joppa has been vastly underrated. (Archives)https://t.co/8Z5atScfMY
Eternal Father, Who alone canst control the days that are gone and the deeds that are done: remove from my burdened memory the weight of past years, that being set free from the glamour of complacency and the palsy of remorse, I may reach forth unto those things which are before, and press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Solent sunrise. Right now. No filter. pic.twitter.com/lqU8R9XxMa
— Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) October 25, 2024
Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.”
–Luke 10:38-42
When allowed, our cool and often wet climate sustains a wonderfully diverse natural setting. Help protect these healing places by supporting @NT_TheNorth @cumbriawildlife and @WoodlandTrust pic.twitter.com/2hD6FhZ3BR
— Johnny (@FlockofGhosts) October 25, 2024
Don’t turn our doctors into killers, says the Star. Like several of the opposing factions to the bill, it cites Canada as exemplifying the slippery slope, with one in twenty deaths there being by assisted dying.
This argument that the bill will open up unforeseen consequences for the disabled, and indeed for the unfortunate residents of bad care homes, is common, Archbishop Welby, facing down former Archbishop Carey, said that assisted dying was in effect a sword of Damocles over the disabled and aged. We should add that many Canadians choosing state sponsored suicide cite feeling a burden on family and caregivers as their motive. Canada surely vindicates Welby.
This argument really is cogent and necessary, but is it sufficient for a Christian view which sees humanity made in the image and likeness of God, leading to the doctrine of the sanctity of life? As Frost says this a doctrine that has permeated and grounded western civilization. Is it not simply wrong to kill people even those begging to die? Hospices and care giving was the Christian answer, but Christianity is fading fast with its practical altruistic legacy of looking after the sick and dying.
Lord Frost has pointed to our society’s reliance on Judaeo Christian ethics for all its institutions and to the perilous situation of breaking with this tradition of the sanctity of life for a callous utilitarianism. So far his is the deepest theological apologia for the classical Christian ethic of life on offer, we trust Christian leaders will step up to the challenge soon.
Ask MPs to oppose assisted suicide ✋
— Better Way (@betterwayUK) October 24, 2024
Some helpful tips here 👇 https://t.co/wr1LYSQylr
In Shakespeare’s time, people still lived out their days under the shadow of divine reward and punishment. Lady Macbeth hopes otherwise. “A little water clears us of this deed,” she says as she and her husband rinse their hands of blood. How wrong she was.
Our leaders could use a dose of the humility of Edward, the Earl of March, who prays, “Ere my knee rise from the earth’s cold face / I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to Thee / Thou setter-up and plucker-down of kings.”
King Lear knew what it was to be set up and plucked down, and only in his reduced state did he taste the wonder of grace. Shakespeare often echoes what theologians call “the theology of reversal,” as expressed in the Beatitudes.
In the paradox of grace, he describes in As You Like It, “Sweet are the uses of adversity / Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous / Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.” Dogberry, the comical constable in Much Ado About Nothing, gets his words mixed up in a deeply ironic way when he says to a wrongdoer, “O, villain! Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption.”
William Shakespeare’s honest tragedies and bold assumption of God’s providence offer insight in our contentious election season.
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) October 23, 2024
From @philipyancey:https://t.co/O4FQPN9eCB
Private Medicare insurers got about $4.2 billion in extra federal payments in 2023 for diagnoses from home visits the companies initiated, even though they led to no treatment, a new inspector general’s report says.
The extra payments were triggered by diagnoses documented based on the visits, including potentially inaccurate ones, for which patients received no other medical services, the report says. Insurers offering private plans under Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage, are paid more when patients have costly conditions.
Each visit was worth $1,869 on average to the insurers, according to the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services. The findings are similar to those of a Wall Street Journal investigation published in August. It showed that insurers between 2019 and 2021 pocketed an average of $1,818 for each visit based on diagnoses for which people received no other treatment.
The OIG recommended in Thursday’s report for the first time that Medicare restrict or even cut off payments for diagnoses from these visits.
It is official now that the @HHSOIG has determined that #MedicareAdvantage health plans w/ @UHC leading the way received over $4B in diagnosis upcoding from home visits. Medicare Paid Insurers Billions for Questionable Home Diagnoses, Watchdog Finds https://t.co/OO1R4Alcwk
— Ed Gaines (@EdGainesIII) October 24, 2024
More than a quarter of Americans believe that civil war could break out after this year’s presidential election, according to polling for The Times.
Fears that an eruption of violence is very or somewhat likely are shared across the political divide by 27 per cent of American adults, including 30 per cent of women and 24 per cent of men, YouGov found in a survey of 1,266 registered voters on October 18-21.
Twelve per cent of respondents said they knew someone who might take up arms if they thought Donald Trump was cheated out of victory in under two weeks’ time. Five per cent said they knew someone who might do the same if they thought Kamala Harris was cheated.
The YouGov poll found 84 per cent of US voters said America was more divided than ten years ago, with only 5 per cent thinking it less divided.
Read it all (subscription).
Just over a quarter of Americans fear civil war will break out after this year's elections, a new poll for @thetimes by @YouGovAmerica shows https://t.co/v5qGmVwJth
— David Charter (@DavidCharter) October 23, 2024
“It’s very important that we discuss it here in the Senedd today because although the private member’s bill is going forwards in Westminster, if it were passed the implication would be very important in Wales because we have responsibility for health and social care.”
Ms Morgan said it is important to have safeguards to ensure people meet specific criteria, with medical people present when the decision is made….
Carys Moseley, a public policy researcher and analyst for Christian Concern based in Cardiff, said the group was “concerned” about the motion.
She said: “We’ve got a visual display of the actual cases that have been happening in different jurisdictions in the western world.
“These are tragic cases – diabetes being treated as a long-term illness in Oregon, assisted suicide the fifth leading cause of death in Canada – these are very grave issues.”
She said the public question the issue more when they hear about other countries.
“Once you introduce this choice – dying – there is a pressure then which eventually becomes a duty to die,” she said.
“There isn’t such a thing as (going on) ‘your own terms’, because it affects all the doctors that become responsible for killing patients or assisted killing rather than preserving life.
The Welsh Senedd, which has a progressive majority, has overwhelmingly voted down a motion to legalise assisted suicide. The more people learn about assisted suicide the less they like it. pic.twitter.com/fww05M1fLi
— Yuan Yi Zhu (@yuanyi_z) October 23, 2024
Grant us, O Lord, the faith that rests not on signs and wonders but on thy love and faithfulness; that obedient to thy word and trusting in thy promises, we may know thy peace and healing power, both in our hearts and in our homes; for the honour of thy holy name.
🍂Guten Morgen ☀️ pic.twitter.com/p67JNxFF0i
— 💫Stein_harmonie🍀🧚♀️ (@SteinHarmonie) October 24, 2024
rust in the Lord, and do good;
so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
–Psalm 37:3-5
A gap in the cloud makes all the difference. Taken on Glastonbury Tor. pic.twitter.com/ZEfupWfp0u
— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) October 24, 2024
Two Church of England pressure groups wrote to the House of Bishops before its meeting this week to express hopes and expectations about the next steps in the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process.
The groups—Together for the Church of England, which campaigns for wider provision for LGBTQ people in the Church, and the Alliance, which represents opponents of the proposed blessings of same-sex couples—wrote the letters at the invitation of the House of Bishops, before there meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
The letter from Together’s chairs, Canon Neil Patterson and Professor Helen King, highlights that the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF) for same-sex couples are being used. It describes this as a “small step towards redeeming the decades of exclusion and hurt felt by LGBTQ+ people from the Church of England”, and welcomes a decision the General Synod’s decision in July to proceed with stand-alone services of blessing (News, 12 July).
Two Church of England pressure groups wrote to the House of Bishops before its meeting this week to express hopes and expectations about the next steps in the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) processhttps://t.co/FqMp48irSn
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 23, 2024
Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary will award Jakarta-based evangelist and pastor Stephen Tong the 2025 Kuyper Prize.
The award, named for Dutch theologian and politician Abraham Kuyper, is given to scholars or community leaders whose contribution reflects “the ideas and values characteristic of Kuyper’s Neo-Calvinist vision of religious engagement in matters of social, political, and cultural significance.”
Based in Indonesia, the 84-year-old Tong is well-known in the Chinese-speaking world for his large evangelistic crusades and for introducing many to Reformed theology. According to his website, he has preached to 37 million people around the world in his 66 years of ministry. He founded Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministries International (STEMI) in 1978, opening offices around the world to support his evangelism efforts.
Indonesian Chinese evangelist Stephen Tong, who introduced the Chinese-speaking world to Reformed theology, will receive @Calvin_Uni’s 2025 Kuyper Prize. @angela818 reports:https://t.co/hVuZ0UOJRJ
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) October 22, 2024
”You may be familiar with the often-quoted line, that is wrongly attributed to Francis of Assisi: “Always preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words.”2 The sentiment here is partly good; the lifestyle of Christians should not undermine the Gospel, but adorn it. But the logic of the statement is tragic: You can no more preach the Gospel without words than you can feed your Copyright The Falls Church Anglican 5 children dinner without food. The Gospel is news, a message, and it can only be conveyed by speaking words’–Sam Ferguson, Falls Church Anglican, Va.
Warm congratulations to Sam Ferguson, announced this morning as the new rector of Falls Church (#Anglican) #parishministry #virginia @thefallschurch https://t.co/Yh2uDdQpXl pic.twitter.com/w6p1UtSXNy
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 15, 2018
Less than a mile from Singapore’s luxurious Changi Airport sits a rather less glamorous business park. Residents of the industrial estate include freight and logistics firms, as well as the back offices of several banks. One building is a little different, however. Behind a glossy onyx facade, layers of security and imposing steel doors, sits more than $1bn in gold, silver and other treasures. “The Reserve” hosts dozens of private vaults, thousands of safe deposit boxes and a cavernous storage room where precious metals sit on shelves rising three storeys above the ground.
After four years of retrofitting, the complex is almost complete. Its grand opening will come at an opportune moment: gold is in the midst of an extraordinary renaissance. Over the past year investors have piled into the metal, driving its price up by 38% to over $2,700 per troy ounce—a record high (see chart 1). The buzz has reached unusual places: gold bars have hit the shelves of Costco, an American retailer, and CU, a South Korean convenience-store chain, as the resurgence of inflation and fears of war drive consumer enthusiasm. Central bankers are also getting involved, as financial fragmentation increases appetite for an ancient asset. The world has entered a new golden age.
What the surging gold price says about a dangerous world https://t.co/2oLSBR8QCy
— YD (@Enhance___) October 23, 2024
Grant, we beseech thee, O God, that after the example of thy servant James the Just, brother of our Lord, thy Church may give itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever.
OCT. 23 THE HOLY APOSTLE JAMES, THE BROTHER OF THE LORD IN THE FLESH
— Fr. Charbel Abernethy ☦️ (@philokalia_min) October 23, 2024

The holy apostle James, the brother of God, called the Just One, was the first to rule the Church in Jerusalem as bishop. Paul testifies that he was among the witnesses of the Resurrection (cf 1 Cor. 15:7).… pic.twitter.com/WAhaOZZRWS
O God, Whose blessed Son Jesus Christ became man that we might become the sons of God: grant, we beseech Thee, that being made partakers of the divine nature of Thy Son, we may be conformed to His likeness; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever.
Over de rode loper van de zon de week door midden varen. Fijne woensdag😀 #natuur #landschap #herfst #Rhenen #ElstUt #Elsterbuitenwaard #Nederrijn #binnenvaart #zonsondergang #mooieluchten pic.twitter.com/2Ri9rteTwy
— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) October 23, 2024
The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Then turning to the disciples he said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
–Luke 10:17-24
"Cascade and Fall Color"#AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/CJAKq8xWLB
— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) October 23, 2024
The Archbishop of Canterbury discovered recently that one of his ancestors was a slave owner, he said on Tuesday.
In a statement, Archbishop Welby revealed that his biological father, Sir Anthony Montague Browne, had an “ancestral connection to the enslavement of people in Jamaica and Tobago”.
Sir Anthony was the great-great-grandson of Sir James Fergusson, the 4th Baronet of Kilkerran (1765–1838), who had owned slaves and received compensation when slavery was abolished.
The Archbishop of Canterbury @JustinWelby discovered recently that one of his ancestors was a slave owner, he said on Tuesday https://t.co/UZb561Pnir
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 22, 2024
Canada’s fertility rate hit its lowest rate in recorded history for a second consecutive year in 2023. The spinoff impacts of this are already being felt – with Canada’s aging workforce joining a swelling retirement-age population and increasing economic pressure to meet this groups’ needs and entitlements.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds insight into the reasons behind lagging birth rates. ARI asked 1,300 Canadian adults younger than 50 if they plan to have children, and if not, why? Among this group, one-in-five are definitely (21%) going to have at least one child, while one-in-three (32%) say they may still do so. Within these two groups of potential parents, fully half say that they have delayed having kids longer than they ideally would have wanted. This rises to three-quarters (74%) among 35- to 44-year-olds. The top reasons driving delays are both societal and personal. For many, the search for the right partner has just not borne fruit (40%). For others, however, uncertainty surrounding their finances and the job market (41%) the cost of childcare (33%) and the housing affordability crisis (31%) are all drivers of the decision to wait.
Even among those who are definitely not going to have children (37% of the 1,300 adults surveyed) these worries about childcare and cost are a factor. One-quarter among this group say they decided not to have kids because the spectre of childcare costs was too daunting (25%), while one-in-five (18%) said it was too hard to foresee having proper housing to start a family.
With immigration playing a larger role year over year in sustaining the population – and criticism of immigration policy evidently growing – the historically low birth rate trend divides Canadians. They’re equally likely to feel that the birth rate is (43%) and isn’t (42%) a crisis.
"Half of Canadians who want children have waited longer than they’d like, due largely to cost." –@angusreidorg #cdnpoli #generationalfairness https://t.co/XtH9zRh2nA pic.twitter.com/9BbZg6CFEM
— Generation Squeeze (@GenSqueeze) October 17, 2024
The Diocese continues to mobilize, providing relief to those affected by Hurricane Helene. We are working closely with ARDF to coordinate efforts. Are you willing to donate supplies or funds or volunteer in relief efforts?
Fill out the form on our website.
The Latest Edition of the #Anglican Diocese of #SouthCarolina Enewsletter https://t.co/N7YwW0YFAb #parishministry #religion #faith pic.twitter.com/zAvfRfVnXM
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) October 22, 2024
Before the service starts on Sunday morning at San Diego Reformed Church, the building fills with the sound of singing. Sean Kinnally, an associate pastor, leads a 45-minute Psalm-sing so the congregation can practice reading music together and using printed hymnals.
“We’re seeking to add more and more hymns—it’s a more robust form of worship,” Kinnally said. “There has been incalculable growth in the singing at our church.”
San Diego Reformed is in the process of shifting its worship toward hymnal-aided congregational singing. The congregation is part of what appears to be a growing number of churches working to recover the practice—never entirely lost, but not as popular as it used to be—of singing from books.
Hymnals offer perceived permanence and stability in a musical landscape that changes quickly and often. The decision to reintroduce congregations to hymnals is often an ideological one, especially for churches that made the transition away from them in recent decades.
A number of churches are choosing the printed page over lyrics projected onto a screen.
— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) October 20, 2024
“Hymnals offer perceived permanence and stability in a musical landscape that changes quickly and often,” said Dan Kreider, the composer of the “Sing! Hymnal.”https://t.co/MfajqRkS5w
More than half of Americans (52%) say they and their family are worse off today than they were four years ago, while 39% say they are better off and 8% volunteer that they are about the same. The 2024 response is most similar to 1992 among presidential election years in which Gallup has asked the question.
The latest findings are from a Sept. 16-28 poll, which also finds differences among partisans’ perceptions on this measure — Democrats (72%) are much more likely than independents (35%) or Republicans (7%) to view themselves as “better off.”
The higher-than-usual percentage of U.S. adults who say they are worse off this year is largely owing to Republicans’ much greater likelihood to say this than opponents of the incumbent president’s party had been in prior election years. Likewise, the higher-than-usual percentage of “better off” responses in 2020, when Donald Trump was in office, was attributable to Republicans’ much greater likelihood to give that response than supporters of the incumbent president’s party did in prior election years.
More than half of Americans (52%) say they and their family are worse off today than they were four years ago.
— Gallup (@Gallup) October 19, 2024
New data: https://t.co/TAz6shizZE pic.twitter.com/2qpEG10tGC
Set us free, loving Father, from the bondage of our sins, and in your goodness and mercy give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Keeping it real. Who needs AI when you have places like Levens Deer Park pic.twitter.com/JCdiCL2xx4
— Johnny (@FlockofGhosts) October 22, 2024
After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
–Luke 10:1-3
"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons"#thicktrunktuesday pic.twitter.com/YXhHYBQITh
— Hiking Manchester 🐝 (@HikingManchest1) October 22, 2024
Without a rise in the number of ordinations, the number of stipendiary clergy in the Church of England will fall to 5400 in 2033 — more than 2000 fewer than the target set under Renewal and Reform, and a 40-per-cent reduction on 2000 numbers, projections by the Church’s national Ministry Development Team suggest.
The figure was reported by the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, in a diocesan-synod address in July. The forecast was based on current levels of ordinations for stipendiary ministry (an average of 250 over the past two years) for the next ten years. Extrapolating from the trend since 2012 put the figure at 6100, while the most optimistic forecast of the Triennium Funding Working Group was 6600.
Numbers recommended for ordination have fallen from 591 in 2020 — the highest for 13 years — to 370 (News, 12 July). This is almost half of the goal set under Renewal and Reform in 2015: an increase in the number of candidates selected for ordained ministry from about 500 each year to 750. The goal was to create a “stable pool” of about 7600 full-time clergy by 2035. Meanwhile, numbers retiring have increased from 435 in 2020 to 531 last year.
“Sometimes, there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason. What we may think is an attractive job doesn’t elicit much interest, and what we may think is going to be hard to fill brings in several applications" – @Guli_FDhttps://t.co/fMufDEor0K
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) October 21, 2024