Nearly every Sunday, as confirmands are presented, I ask the rector, “Have they been adequately
prepared?” Now, I’ve been a parish priest. I’ve worked with people. I know just how fraught with
opportunities to fall short the goal of things like confirmation classes can be. “Adequately
prepared” is something of a moving target. But the Prayer Book presses on. “Dearly beloved,” I’m
required to say, “it’s essential that those who wish to be confirmed or received in this church
publicly confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior, become his disciples, know and affirm the
Nicene Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and have received instruction in
the Holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in the catechism of the church.”
I always imagine the clergy saying, “Well, I mean, yeah, they finished our eight-week new
members class.” But my deep concern is that we live in an increasingly complicated world where
living out the Christian faith has become a challenge and is often also challenged by those around
us.

My question is, are we preparing people to bear witness to the faith when it, the faith, and its
moral vision are constantly challenged? Can we say that the people in our churches are being
given the tools necessary to give an answer for the hope that they have?

From the youngest age to our oldest members, we must be in the business of teaching the Creed,
the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Holy scriptures, and the Catechism of the Church.
That we might be prepared to resist our great adversary who is always on the prowl seeking whom
he may devour. I’ll add briefly here that our ACNA catechism, To Be a Christian, is an excellent
resource. If you haven’t already, I urge you to look into it, and especially into the cottage industry
that’s grown up around it, about how to use it for instruction for all ages.

There is a wealth of material available to teach our great Catholicism. My first passion, which
births vision, is a serious commitment to Christian education.

Read it all.

#SouthCarolina #Anglican Bishop Chip Edgar's Diocesan Convention address https://t.co/UHSdYyTXnn #parishministry #lowcountrylife #faith #charlestonsc #religion #anglicannews pic.twitter.com/zwZ6dhFztU

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) March 19, 2025

The pace of China’s open-source AI push has been relentless. Since the debut in January of DeepSeek R1 — China’s answer to OpenAI’s o1 series — a wave of increasingly capable models has followed. Alibaba claims its latest AI reasoning model QwQ-32B rivals DeepSeek’s R1 and has performed well in official benchmark tests. Every few weeks, another arrives, pushing the boundaries of what open-source AI can do.

Chinese tech groups are taking a very different approach. By open sourcing AI, they not only sidestep US sanctions but also decentralize development and tap into global talent to refine their models. Even restrictions on Nvidia’s high-end chips become less of an obstacle when the rest of the world can train and improve China’s models on alternative hardware.

AI advances through iteration. Every new release builds upon the last, refining weaknesses, expanding capabilities and improving efficiency. By open-sourcing AI models, Chinese tech groups create an ecosystem where global developers continuously improve their models — without shouldering all the development costs.

The scale of this approach could fundamentally reshape AI’s economic structure. If open-source AI becomes just as powerful as proprietary US models, the ability to monetise AI as an exclusive product collapses. Why pay for closed models if a free, equally capable alternative exists?

Read it all.

Why China is suddenly flooding the market with powerful AI models https://t.co/6NGxSWX6Tl | opinion

— Financial Times (@FT) March 19, 2025

Who is to blame for America’s enormous health-care costs? The sector accounts for almost a fifth of the country’s GDP, twice the average for wealthy countries, yet outcomes are no better. Americans under 70 are almost twice as likely as their counterparts in similarly affluent nations to die of cardiovascular diseases. Death rates due to other conditions like diabetes and kidney diseases are also much higher.

Most Americans point the finger at drugmakers, insurers or the middlemen between them. Luigi Mangione, whose trial for the alleged murder of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, America’s biggest health insurer, began last month, has received donations totalling $740,000. “He did what everyone else is just thinking,” wrote one sympathiser on Mr Mangione’s fundraising page recently.

More often overlooked are America’s hospitals, which took in $1.5trn in fees in 2023, according to the most recent government figures. That is triple the amount spent on medications, and accounts for a third of America’s total health-care spending (see chart 1). Since 2000 hospital prices have soared by over 250%, growing at twice the overall rate for medical care and triple the rate of inflation. What is behind America’s soaring hospital bills?

Read it all.

How hospitals inflate America’s giant health-care bill

America has the worst healthcare system in the world for the amount of money they spend on it https://t.co/A8eRzmH7vV

— Yasir Mahmood (@MofaYasir) March 20, 2025

‘Christian faith is less about providing a set of cast-iron winning arguments, more about an invitation to “come and see“.’

–Rowan Williams, Discovering Christianity: A guide for the curious (London: SPCK, 2025) p. 93

Contemplative prayer classically finds its focus in the awareness of God at the centre of the praying person's being— and, simultaneously, God at the centre of the whole world's being: a solidarity in creatureliness.
— Rowan Williams, ‘On Being Creatures’ (76) pic.twitter.com/sa3CPJJf1H

— Jacob Sherman (@Shermanicus) January 27, 2025

Merciful God, who didst call Cuthbert from following the flock to be a shepherd of thy people: Mercifully grant that we also may go without fear to dangerous and remote places, to seek the indifferent and the lost; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

12th century wall painting of St. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne in the Galilee Chapel at Durham Cathedral. Today is St. Cuthbert’s feast day. #StCuthbert #Lindisfarne #Durham pic.twitter.com/c6gtvZ76tv

— Kevin Wilbraham (@KPW1453) March 20, 2025

O God, who through thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised help to man according to his faith: Grant us the freedom of the children to taste the food of eternal life, and to share with others what we ourselves receive; through the merits of the same thy Son, our Lord.

Good Morning…#thursdaymood #spring #weather #sunrise #GoodVibesOnly #StormHour #jefinuist #outerhebrides #Scotland pic.twitter.com/FWOOynzH14

— DaliMach (@frenchscotjeff) March 20, 2025

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

–John 5:19-29

Prachtig weer om het water op te gaan. Fijne donderdag😀 #zonsondergang #rivier pic.twitter.com/L7xKqTDlf7

— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) March 20, 2025