[Fox] Varian, who adopted the name Fox at 18 and is now 22, is one of thousands of minors who underwent gender-transition surgery over the past decade. And she is just one of the young people who have come to regret permanently addressing what was only a temporary identity shift.

Three years after her mastectomy, Varian stopped identifying as transgender and began a process known as detransitioning. In May 2023, she filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the two principal Westchester County, New York, care providers who oversaw her gender transition: her longtime psychologist, Kenneth Einhorn, and Dr. Simon Chin, who performed the mastectomy.

On Friday, a jury in White Plains, New York, awarded Varian $2 million in damages. Varian’s case is the first malpractice suit from a detransitioner to go before a jury, and I was the only reporter to attend the entire three-week trial. Represented by personal-injury attorney Adam Deutsch, Varian said she had been injured by the defendants due to their deviation from standard practices and a lack of informed consent. While there are no guarantees in medical malpractice lawsuits, legal experts believe Varian’s victory could inspire a wave of similar cases that would significantly disrupt pediatric gender medicine.

The trial was anchored by emotional testimony from Varian and her mother, Claire Deacon. Varian testified that Einhorn served as an enabler, repeatedly assuring her that the mastectomy she desired would greatly improve her well-being. Deacon testified that Einhorn browbeat her into consenting to her daughter’s surgery, threatening that she would otherwise commit suicide. 

Read it all.

A Legal First That Could Change Gender Medicine by @benryanwriter https://t.co/yAv9DOK6c9

— The Free Press (@TheFP) February 5, 2026

The U.S. birthrate has declined to record lows in recent years, well below population replacement rates. So the news that the vice president and second lady are having a fourth child is welcome—and significant—news indeed, for several reasons.

First, there is a great cultural importance to influential people having more children. Even in local communities, pregnancy can be “contagious” because humans are social animals. When one lives in a career-minded metropolis where couples having only one or two children (if any) is the norm, there can be intense pressure to fit in and focus on careers, nights out, travel, accumulation of goods, and so forth to avoid having children. Conversely, visit any thriving church community and observe how, when large families are the norm, people who join that community are more likely to have more children themselves.

The effect could very well work at scale. When our leaders (from statesmen to idolized celebrities) do not marry and have children, there is a message coming from the top that avoiding children is a behavior to be imitated. So when our most visible leaders make the choice to be open to life and welcome new children, there could be a meaningful cultural effect. JD Vance is the vice president, likely the next Republican candidate for president, and therefore the soon-to-be leader of the post-Trump GOP. Perhaps a public announcement welcoming a fourth child coming from one of the most prominent and powerful people in the country will start to change the cultural norm back to welcoming more children. As Katy Faust said in response to the news, “four is the new two.” 

But there is another important takeaway from the Vance baby announcement. The Vance family draws a stark contrast to what the vice president has long lamented: a disturbing trend of a childless ruling class. 

Read it all.

Goodbye, Childless Elites
by Frank DeVito @therightfrankd https://t.co/SCHzpso7MG pic.twitter.com/5ZZwSCF32C

— First Things (@firstthingsmag) February 3, 2026

The national director of the Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), the Revd John Dunnett, has resigned as an honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral over the decision to use prayers of blessing for same-sex couples at cathedral services.

Mr Dunnett was one of more than 150 signatories to a letter sent last November, after the cathedral’s decision to use the Prayers of Love and Faith was announced. The decision, they wrote, left them “feeling disenfranchised from the life and worship of the Cathedral”.

The other signatories have not been made public, but Mr Dunnett said that they comprise priests, churchwardens, PCC members, and diocesan-synod members.

The letter called on the Dean, the Very Revd Dr Jessica Martin, and the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, to reconsider the decision — “and hopefully reverse it”. In a reply sent last month, the Bishop and Dean declined to do so, Mr Dunnett said.

Read it all.

The national director of the #ChurchofEngland Evangelical Council (CEEC), the Revd John Dunnett, has resigned as an honorary canon of #ChelmsfordCathedral over the decision to use prayers of blessing for #samesex couples at #cathedral services#churchnewshttps://t.co/U4zeRkVKn0

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 4, 2026

Amidst the vast scene of the world’s problems and tragedies you may feel that your own ministry seems so small, so insignificant, so concerned with the trivial. What a tiny difference it can make to the world that you should run a youth club, or preach to a few people in a church, or visit families with seemingly small result. But consider: the glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter and that the small company, the very few, the one man, the one woman, the one child are of infinite worth to God. Consider our Lord himself. Amidst a vast world with its vast empires and vast events and tragedies our Lord devoted himself to individual men and women, often giving hours and time to the very few or to the one man or woman. In a country where there were movements and causes which excited the allegiance of many – the Pharisees, the Zealots, the Essenes, and others – our Lord gives many hours to one woman of Samaria, one Nicodemus, one Martha, one Mary, one Lazarus, one Simon Peter, for the infinite worth of the one is the key to the Christian understanding of the many. 

It is to a ministry like that of our Lord himself that you are called. The gospel you preach affects the salvation of the world, and you may help your people to influence the world‘s problems. But you will never be nearer to Christ then in caring for the one man, the one woman, the one child. His authority will be given to you as you do this, and his joy will be yours as well.

—The Christian Priest Today (London: SPCK, Revised edition, 1985), p. 42

“The glory of Christianity is its ability to be utterly profound and yet utterly simple.”

Archbishop Michael Ramsey believed theology wasn’t about impressing—it was about revealing Christ to the world plainly and truthfully.⚓ pic.twitter.com/r3CaZw4hXe

— ⏳ (@TheJGutierrez_) June 17, 2025

Sports events have always attracted betting. The more prestigious the level of play and the event involved (say, the Super Bowl and World Series) the greater the wagering.  

But the Supreme Court disastrously crossed a red line in the 2018 case Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. In it, the Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which prohibited states from sponsoring, advertising, or “authoriz[ing]” sports gambling, was unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the “anticommandeering” doctrine that the Court had previously read into the Tenth Amendment. That is, since the Tenth Amendment states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” the 1992 Act unconstitutionally dictated to state governments the limits of their powers. (Coincidentally, the Court first enunciated its anticommandeering rule in an unrelated case during the same year that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was enacted.) 

On purely textual grounds, there is reason to doubt the correctness of the anticommandeering doctrine, since as the great constitutional scholar Walter Berns pointed out in a 1962 essay titled “The Meaning of the Tenth Amendment,” the Tenth Amendment, read literally, is  just a tautology: it says that the powers that the Constitution doesn’t delegate to the federal government are thereby reserved to the states and/or the people, without specifying just what those powers are.  

In fact, as is well known, since at least the late 1930s, federal courts have consistently adopted an extremely broad view of Congress’s powers under the Constitution, especially when it comes to domestic spending and regulation: consider the extensive volume of New Deal legislation that the Supreme Court upheld starting in 1936, along with Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” which authorized the establishment of entire cabinet departments that are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution; Obamacare; and Joe Biden’s egregiously mislabeled “Inflation Reduction Act.” But while the Murphy decision hinged on a somewhat arcane distinction between the federal government’s authorizing or prohibiting a particular mode of conduct and its imposing the burden of such a prohibition on the state governments, subsequent events have demonstrated the imprudence of that decision. Among those harms are an explosion of publicly advertised sports betting: many of the ads during televised sports events are sponsored by gambling companies like Draft Kings and FanDuel, duping people who can ill afford to lose substantial amounts to do just that. Each ad is accompanied by a 1-800 number that problem (that is, addicted) bettors can call for “free help.” (What if cigarette ads were once again posted on television, accompanied by the counsel, “Got lung cancer? Call for free help!”)  

Read it all.

Online Gambling Corrupts Sports—And Americans, Too https://t.co/bHmZmgqXgU

— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) January 29, 2026

Campaigners in favour of medically assisted suicide in England, Scotland and France have apparently suffered setbacks that could ensure the controversial practice never comes into law.

A recent report by The Guardian suggested that the Westminster bill, put forward by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater, will likely never come to a final vote and so will fail by default.

Both sides of the debate have accused the other of using underhand tactics to get their way. Proponents of assisted suicide claim the other side has used procedural delaying tactics in the Lords to ensure the bill never becomes law.

Pro-life campaigners have pointed out that the government, which is officially neutral on the issue, has apparently been favouring the pro-suicide position with its actions. It has also been pointed out that extra scrutiny of a bill that would give state institutions the power of life and death merits additional scrutiny and care.

Labour MP Florence Eshalomi told the Guardian, “Not a single royal college, professional body or cabinet minister will attest to the safety of this bill. Scrutiny should never be conflated with obstruction and it would be reckless for Lords to ignore the concerns of such a wide range of experts.”

Read it all.

(Christian Today) 'Campaigners in favour of medically assisted suicide in #England, #Scotland and #France have apparently suffered setbacks that could ensure the controversial practice never comes into law.

A recent report by The Guardian suggested that the Westminster bill, put…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 27, 2026

Other business includes proposals to outsource Church of England safeguarding to a new independent body, which were approved in principle last February (News, 14 February 2025); but implementing that decision has not been straightforward.

The plan originally approved last year called for the National Safeguarding Team (NST) to be transferred to a new independent charity, and a second outside organisation to be set up to scrutinise all church safeguarding. Diocesan and cathedral safeguarding teams would remain employed by their respective dioceses and cathedrals.

Since, then, however, the working group has concluded that this would require years of ponderous legislative processes. Survivors and others wish to move faster, and so a new model has been drawn up, a Synod paper explains.

One new independent body would be created — provisionally titled the Church of England Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). It would be overseen by a board, which would have a majority of non-church members.

Read it all.

A new model for quasi-independent #safeguarding is on the General Synod’s agenda next month, as are urban #poverty and the parliamentary ping-pong about the Clergy Conduct Measure#Synod #synodagenda #clergyconduct #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/YROYOjEi5M

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 26, 2026

[Audrey] Luhmann said the report by Husch Blackwell found Ruch sent emails attempting to coordinate legal representation for Rivera and authorized the priest at Rivera’s church to ask the victim’s family about dropping charges against Rivera, but specifying it should be done without pressure. But the court, which assigned minimal weight to that report, describes Ruch’s decisions at the time as “pastoral judgment exercised in real time, without the benefit of hindsight.”

The order also acknowledged that Ruch ordained Presbyterian Pastor Joshua Moon to the priesthood in 2020, despite knowing that Moon previously pleaded guilty to and served a 90-day sentence for attempting to solicit a prostitute. Ruch installed Moon as rector of a church plant, where Moon was later suspended from pastoral ministry for life after a female deacon reported him for making an unwanted sexual advance. The female deacon told The Washington Post that Ruch chastised her for being alone with Moon.

“The outcome of Moon’s ministry, while grievous and contrary to the hopes invested in him, does not negate the thoughtful, conscientious, and vigilant approach Bishop Ruch employed with the information available at the time,” the court wrote.

A person who assisted the prosecution acknowledged that whether the evidence against Ruch met the clear and convincing threshold for conviction was a legitimate question but said it was incorrect to claim there was no evidence. The source asked to be referred to anonymously due to concerns about negative repercussions.

“They should have seen a pattern of failing to properly vet and have accountability for these leaders in his diocese,” the person said. They also said fear of retribution and lack of legal authority in the church court to subpoena witnesses or materials created barriers for calling witnesses; The Living Church reported that other witnesses disputed the court’s characterization of their knowledge of Ruch’s conduct.

Read it all.

As the denomination looks ahead to two additional bishops’ trials, the precedents set by the Ruch trial will have substantial bearing on the upcoming proceedings. https://t.co/zHTGehgzWj

— RNS (@RNS) January 24, 2026

Its advocates cannot be allowed to act as if the Leadbeater Bill is a done deal

“In extreme cases I would be willing to kill a patient to help them escape unbearable suffering, if they had come to that decision after serious consideration,” says a colleague of mine, in the windowless, unventilated cupboard that serves as a doctors’ office, “But there is no way in hell that the NHS can be trusted with such a role.”

Those who deal with life and death each day recognise that giving patients lethal drugs to end their life is active killing, not passive dying. I happen to think that we should not kill ourselves or others. My colleague takes a different view on the principle. But we don’t shy away from what it is we are actually discussing, so our conversation benefits from a lot more clarity than when politicians emotionalised and euphemised to limp Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill through the Commons.

We discuss the systemic chaos that we see affecting patients every day, and imagine what the effects of introducing a new therapeutic option of being killed would be. US-style privatised medicine has a perverse incentive to keep the patient alive with increasingly extreme and expensive (but ultimately futile) interventions — a quarter of all Americans die in intensive care. 

UK-style socialised medicine has an equal and opposite perverse incentive to reduce the number of patients, especially in times of crisis. And the NHS is broken, as everyone from government to general practice states openly.

Facilitating the suicide of privileged elites who are used to having things their way and see their mode of death as a final opportunity for exercising autonomy is one matter, but if that requires suicide to be offered to all of our patients, including the vulnerable, the lonely, and the abused, the real cost appears to outweigh any idealised benefits. How do we tell a homeless patient with a new metastatic cancer diagnosis that they could wait months for a nursing home placement, or they could be scheduled for an assisted suicide in as little as nine days, without it sounding like a tacit recommendation?

Read it all.

Advocates of assisted dying cannot be allowed to act as if the Leadbeater Bill is a done deal, argues @TradSkowronski https://t.co/YPaIjSA0TL

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) January 21, 2026

Updates from the Court for the Trial of a Bishop 

The College received an update on the Court for the Trial of a Bishop, which held an organizational meeting earlier this month to consider all recusals in the disciplinary matters of Archbishop Steve Wood and Bishop Derek Jones. Elizabeth Medley, Esq. of Tallahassee, Florida, has been appointed to serve as the Provincial Prosecutor. Bishop David Bryan, acting Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of the Carolinas, has recused himself from the Wood matter, and Bishop Ryan Reed has succeeded him as President of the Court.  Ms. Katie Grosskopf, Esq., will serve as its Presiding Officer. The Court has indicated it is considering plans to hold proceedings for both cases concurrently.  It will host an orientation session for all members of the Court later this month to establish its communications protocols and create a plan for moving forward….

Post Ruch Trial Review 

Following the College of Bishops meeting, the Executive Committee met on Friday afternoon and appointed a Subcommittee to oversee a third-party review of the provincial administration of disciplinary matters pertaining to Bishop Stewart Ruch. The committee includes: Bishop Mark Engel, Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes (Chairman), The Rev. Canon Dr. Keith Allen, Rector of Christ Church Vero Beach in the Gulf Atlantic Diocese and member of the Executive Committee, Mrs. Sarah Kwolek, Director of Administration and Diocesan Treasurer for the Diocese of Pittsburgh and member of the Executive Committee, and Mrs. Kellie Moy, lay member at Church of the Good Shepherd in the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic. This subcommittee will meet soon to determine the final scope of the review and retain a qualified firm or individual to complete it.

Read it all.

ACNA NEWS: A press release has been issued in the wake of the College of Bishops' meeting that features lots of news about disciplinary matters in the church. 🧵to walk through them: pic.twitter.com/wBFqnsZP74

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) January 17, 2026

Late in the afternoon of Jan. 8, angry Iranians took to the streets in large numbers nationwide—from Tehran to Isfahan to the religious city of Mashhad and dozens of smaller cities and towns—chanting and spray-painting slogans that called for the fall of the Islamic Republic and “Death to the dictator.” 

This time, the regime forces were ready to play a more lethal role in quelling the protests. Paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the voluntary Basij militia in plainclothes were deployed in large numbers across the country, often armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. In one instance in west Tehran, security forces were seen with a heavy machine gun mounted on a pickup truck, according to footage verified by Storyful,  which is owned by Journal parent News Corp.

From her campus, Aminian headed out with a group of friends to join a protest. The turning point came around 8:30 p.m. That’s when Iranian authorities shut down the internet across the country and escalated the crackdown, according to witnesses, relatives of victims and human rights groups.

“We are pretty confident that a massacre happened starting late Thursday night throughout the country,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran. “It was a complete war zone.”

Read it all.

‘A Massacre Happened’: The 24 Hours That Bloodied Iran https://t.co/apuKUyfYYA

— Souad Mekhennet (@smekhennet) January 15, 2026

A sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games ensnared 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

The scheme generally revolved around fixers recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. The fixers would then place big bets against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.

Concerns about gambling and college sports have grown since 2018, when the US Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on the practice, leading some states to legalize it to varying degrees. The NCAA does not allow athletes or staff to bet on college games, but it briefly allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports last year before rescinding that decision in November.

According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to rigging NCAA games as recently as January 2025.

Read it all.

Sports bettors worked with dozens of players across NCAA men’s basketball to rig at least 29 games, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment Thursday⁰
The athletes played for schools
including Tulane, St. Louis University, DePaul, Fordham and more https://t.co/7h0C3cl174

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) January 15, 2026

In his book, Why Liberalism Failed, Patrick Deneen noted that many societies that advanced around individual rights and freedom from religious constraints ended up with less happy people. He famously writes, “Among the greatest challenges facing humanity is the ability to survive progress.” 

Andrew Sullivan, in an article entitled “The World Is better Than Ever: Why Are We Miserable?” adds: ‘As we have slowly and surely attained more progress, we have lost something that undergirds all of it: meaning, cohesion, and a different, deeper kind of happiness than the satiation of all our earthly needs.’

–From a December 14, 2025 sermon

Meanwhile, just when we needed to consolidate our remaining strengths, to re-energise parish ministry, and to reinvigorate the ordained ministry with funding, affirmation, and a theological rationale, the opposite course of action has been pursued: centralised control of policy and resources, disparagement of the parochial form of Anglican life, and devaluing of the ordained vocation.

Much has already been demolished, especially at the local level; much more has been weakened and made more difficult. It is hard going, these days, in parishes for clergy, together with churchwardens and other hard-working lay people. There are social and cultural reasons for the uphill nature of the task in the present era, but lack of support — in able clergy, in financial resources, in moral affirmation, in practical wisdom — is another. The Church of England on the ground is an ailing and failing Church. How has all this come about?

A minority of activists (lay and ordained General Synod members, some bishops and an Archbishop, and the Archbishops’ Council collectively) have contrived and conspired, over a period of years, to change the nature of the Church, to replace it with a different and alien ecclesial model. That replacement model is essentially managerial rather than relational, bureaucratic instead of organic, centralised in place of localised — all varnished over with the vacuous rhetoric of “leadership” (seldom has such a necessary concept been so misappropriated and abused). And all accompanied by complacent theological illiteracy and ignorance.

Centralisation of resources and of decision-making, whether at the national or diocesan level, subverts the institution as a whole. It sucks the life and energy out of the very places in which life and energy are primarily generated: the parish and (potentially) the diocese.

Read it all.

"We are now living in an upside-down, topsy-turvy, Church. Turning things the right way up again needs us to begin with the ethical imperative. What needs to affirmed, above all, is the priority of the ethical for thinking and acting" #ChurchofEngland https://t.co/oYoYqMdtQC

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 6, 2026

Archbishops are “colluding” to dismiss an abuse investigation, a victim has claimed.

Dame Sarah Mullally, who is the current Bishop of London, will legally become the Church of England’s top bishop in a ceremony at St Paul’s Cathedral on Jan 28.

However, it was revealed in December that she has been the subject of a complaint over her handling of an abuse allegation in which a victim, known as Survivor N, was allegedly groped and had sexual comments made to him by a priest. 

The complaint was being looked into by the Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell. On Thursday, he decided to dismiss the complaint against her.

However, The Telegraph understands that the Archbishop of York made the decision while he is also the subject of a complaint made by Survivor N, known as a clergy discipline measure (CDM), regarding his “conflict of interest” in the matter.

Read it all.

🔴 Remarks made after complaint over Dame Sarah Mullally’s handling of case is dismissed

Find out more ⬇️https://t.co/wl5m5Dg6t3 pic.twitter.com/8Ug8y8iOkW

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 9, 2026

One major reason for the proposed changes is the radical upsurge of antisemitic attacks in Canada. According to B’nai Brith Canada’s “Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents in Canada,” ntisemitic incidents rose 124 percent from 2022 to 2024.

“Since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel, Jewish institutions in Canada have faced unprecedented threats, such as shootings, arson and bomb threats,” the report added.  

But what are called “hate” laws frequently violate freedom of speech, of the press, and of religion. They also tend to be vague and, hence, their scope expands and governments use them to punish views that they simply do not like. Moreover, in free societies, they do not reduce extremist activity.

In addition, as the Canadian Constitution Foundation argues: “Bill C-9 would … remove safeguards against politically motivated charges, remove political accountability for charges, would create a risk of overcharging to force plea bargains, expand the availability of hate offences beyond the criminal law, and risks limiting constitutionally protected protest activity.”

Even if one were to accept the necessity of such laws, sections 318 and 319 of the criminal code already ban advocating genocide and the willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group.

Read it all.

Canada’s Bill C-9 And The Growing Threat To Religious Freedom @drpaulmarshall https://t.co/ear0ALDqsE

— Baylor ISR (@BaylorISR) December 24, 2025

The group most incensed by the trial’s outcome are ACNAtoo survivors—women abused by Rivera, who is currently incarcerated for his crimes. They believe the verdict overlooks Bishop Ruch’s failure to exercise due diligence. 

“[We] feel denied and crushed by the verdict that found the bishop not guilty of multiple charges,” their statement read. “It is devastatingly clear that if an abuse victim wants to report abuse in the ACNA, they must now bear the additional burden of ensuring they are not perceived as being ‘captured’ by narratives the ACNA deems illegitimate.” 

They argue the verdict is “rife with easily refutable claims.” 

“This verdict comes 6.5 years after Rivera’s nine-year-old victim initially disclosed her sexual abuse. This girl, now 16, has waited more than a third of her life for closure from a church system and leaders that repeatedly failed her. She could not even participate in the Husch Blackwell investigation because the ACNA refused to commission an investigation that did not jeopardize her criminal case against Rivera.” 

They assert that ACNA has relegated survivors’ stories to the category of propaganda, demonstrating how the province views those it claims to protect.

Read it all.

'Reform theologian and historian Dean Chuck Collins recounts the abuse of his oldest daughter who was emotionally groomed and manipulated starting at age 17, and then sexually abused when she was “of age.”

“If you have been sexually abused, do not bother reporting it to your…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) December 22, 2025

It is not my habit to comment on the contents of sermons in this blog. However, the Dean of St Edmundsbury, The Very Reverend Joe Hawes, used his sermon at St Edmundsbury Cathedral last Sunday to comment on the Living in Love and Faith process[1] and it seemed to me to be important not to let the points he made about this subject go unchallenged.

The Dean makes five points in relation to the LLF process, and I shall consider each of them in turn.

The first point he makes is that he feels able to affirm:

‘… with heartfelt certainty, that although I get it wrong pretty regularly and need to hearken to the Baptist’s cry to repent, who I am in my creation, is essentially what God intended. That I am not an aberration, a mistake on God’s part, but, like all of you, a gift from God, and trying in my life, to be a gift back to God through loving service.’

The question that this statement raises is who the Dean thinks God created him to be. If he means that his creation as a male human being made in the image and likeness of God is willed by God and is ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), I don’t think that there is anybody in the Church of England, even those who the Dean calls ‘hard line fundamentalists,’ who would disagree with him.

If, however, what the Dean means is that he was created by God to be a gay man then there would be many who would rightly disagree with him. This because, to quote Sean Doherty (who is himself same-sex attracted):

‘God did not create straight women, straight men, gay women and gay men. God created two sexes, with the capacity to relate to one another sexually.’ [2]

This truth is taught in the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 and, as Paul notes in Romans 1:26-27, it is also taught by nature in the sense that the observation of human biology teaches us that human beings have bodies that are designed to engage into the kind of ‘one flesh’ sexual union with a member of the opposite sex that has the capacity to produce offspring.

In the light of this truth the Pauline teaching that same-sex sexual attraction and the same-sex sexual activity that results from it are a result of the Fall makes perfect sense. If human beings are created to have sex with members of the opposite sex, it follows that desires and actions that are contrary to this must be seen not as a reflection of God’s original creative intention, but as a result of the distortion of the created order consequent upon demonic and human rebellion against God.

Read it all.

I have just published a new blog post, 'Why the cupboard is bare – a response to the reflections of the Dean of St Edmundsbury'https://t.co/fzxq2YZ4wr

— Martin Davie (@MartinBDavie) December 13, 2025

The court also assigned minimal weight to the testimony of two prosecution witnesses, stating they “had not participated in diocesan leadership” and “possessed no firsthand knowledge” of Bishop Ruch’s conduct. 

Speaking with The Living Church, both witnesses disputed this characterization. The first witness served for almost two years on the diocese’s standing committee and two of its subcommittees, and the second witness led in creating a deanery child protection policy, then served on a diocesan task force to create its first protective standards in the aftermath of the Rivera disclosure.

“The [court decision] states again and again that too much of the testimony on the prosecution side was secondhand, based on emotion or opinion rather than on firsthand experience,” the first witness told TLC. “First of all, that’s false, and second of all, it’s really offensive to see misrepresentations of one’s service in the official record.”

“The court’s description of the development of safeguarding in the [Upper Midwest] does not comport with my experience as a Pastor to Children and Families in the diocese for nearly two decades,” the second witness added.

Ruch’s defense witnesses included five bishops, who testified that Ruch acted “in accordance with safeguarding expectations” and did not exhibit “patterns of neglect or inattentiveness.” 

A series of priests, deacons, and laypeople from the diocese also testified, persuading the court with respect to the charge that Ruch habitually promoted abusive ministers – some of whose backgrounds included solicitation of a prostitute and second-degree attempted murder, and some of whom reoffended – was not negligence but “difficult and imperfect work of assisting fallen men and women who sought vocational calling” that Ruch undertook with sincerity.

Read it all.

New for @Livng_Church: The ACNA court's ruling in the matter of Bp Stewart Ruch, its first ever acquittal, followed a decision to set aside two of three independent investigations and to admit additional evidence. https://t.co/YMgjiZQkOH

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) December 19, 2025

Chinese intelligence is continuing a massive hack of US telecom networks in a cyber campaign that allows it to access the communications of almost every American, according to a top Democratic senator. Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee who recently got a briefing on the extensive cyber campaign known as “Salt Typhoon”, said China was still infiltrating the US system.

“I believe they are still inside [our networks],” Warner told a Defense Writers Group event. Warner said he received a “really frustrating” government briefing with conflicting accounts about the Trump administration’s response to Salt Typhoon. According to the senator, the FBI said US networks were “pretty clean” despite contradictory evidence from several intelligence agencies.

“Other parts of our community are saying, ‘Hell no, it’s still going on’,” said Warner, who added that he had eight documents from agencies raising concerns about Salt Typhoon which has been ongoing for at least two years. “It is baffling to me that this is not a bigger issue,” said Warner, who lamented that it might take some kind of “catastrophic event” before the US government became more serious about tackling Salt Typhoon.

Read it all.

US has failed to stop massive Chinese cyber campaign, warns senator https://t.co/XvpxOYEqVp

— Financial Times (@FT) December 12, 2025

‘We are aware that an assessment such as we request raises practical questions and anxiety about what might be revealed. We ask you to remember alongside us that, in the words of our Lord, “there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” [Luke 8:17]’.

Read it all.

Out of love for the church and concern over the crisis, scandal, and abuse; we call for a fully independent, third-party assessment in the ACNA.
We invite all current or former ACNA clergy and laity to read and sign our open letter: https://t.co/NFEbBmH7p6

— anglicanrenewal (@anglicanrenewal) December 17, 2025

The Rev. William Barto, a canon lawyer who is a priest in the Reformed Episcopal Church, a subjurisdiction of ACNA, said the decision was “sorely lacking” from a legal standpoint. He said it “reads more like a journal of the trial process” rather than a considered judicial decision, noting that half the document is focused on critiquing ACNA’s response to the allegations.

Barto told RNS in an email that the document and the process that led to it “demonstrates unequivocally that the ACNA can no longer leave ecclesial disciplinary matters on the back shelf.” He said the denomination must determine what role tribunals should play in the disciplinary process: “Are they judges or juries? investigations or trials?” he asked. He called for court members to receive further training in canon law….

A spokesperson for the denomination confirmed that there is a planned audit of the [Bishop] Ruch trial proceedings.

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NEW from me this evening: ACNA Bishop Stewart Ruch found not guilty on all counts. The decision comes more than six years after a 9-year-old child first came forward with sexual abuse allegations against a lay minister in Ruch's diocese. https://t.co/yKckPyrY28

— Kathryn Post (@kathrynmaepost) December 17, 2025

One of those men, Nephtali Matta, works as the “Alpha Coordinator” at Ruch’s flagship church, leading regular discussions on Christianity. But Matta was arrested in Colorado in 2011, charged with attempted second-degree murder of his first wife, and spent nearly 480 days in jail. He later pleaded guilty to felony menacing and was released. He then moved to Illinois, joined Rez in Wheaton and was eventually hired to work part time.

The church’s interim head pastor, Matt Woodley, told The Post this year that he oversaw Matta’s hiring and that Ruch does not hire or oversee non-clergy employees. But the authors of the clergy-and-parishioner presentment have told The Post that the denomination’s bishops — as defined by the church’s own canons — are “administrators of godly discipline and governance” and “overseer[s] of the flock.”

The clergy-and-parishioner presentment also said that Ruch allowed John W. Hays, a registered child sex offender, to attend Rez as a worshiper, even though Hays had pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys years earlier. Hays’s presence at Rez became publicly known only when the watchdog group ACNAtoo published a blog item about it on its website.

The court’s ruling did not address Matta or Hays.

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THREAD: The ecclesiastical court's acquittal of N. American Anglican Bishop Stewart Ruch bemoans the "narrative capture" of the case and claims that advocacy groups "exerted ongoing and distorting influence" over the investigation. But the verdict does not address many key areas:

— Ian Shapira (@ianshapira) December 17, 2025

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The decision in the trial of Bp Stewart Ruch, of ACNA's Diocese of the Upper Midwest, is out: Ruch has been found not guilty on all charges from the presentment. pic.twitter.com/prXLkZCtDf

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) December 16, 2025

 “Where among our bishops, are those with the courage to act from love?” the Dean of Bristol, the Very Revd Mandy Ford, asked on Sunday, as the House of Bishops prepares to finalise decisions on the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) process.

She joined the Dean of St Edmundsbury, the Very Revd Joe Hawes, who — alongside organisations campaigning for greater inclusivity for LGBTQ+ people — last week called on the Bishops to change their minds (News, 11 December).

On Tuesday, the Bishops are due to confirm decisions announced in October, which would effectively forestall the introduction of stand-alone services of blessing for same-sex couples and maintain the current ban on clergy entering same-sex civil marriages (News, 17 October).

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Temperature rises ahead of Bishops’ formal vote to put the brakes on same-sex marriage https://t.co/Wjh3LQN2up

— Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) December 15, 2025

More than a thousand people gathered at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 14th, the first night of Hannukah, to watch the lighting of a menorah. Children wearing face paint crowded a petting zoo. Families held balloons and bubble wands. Yet as the sun began to dip, two men dressed in black and wielding long-barrelled firearms shot into the crowd from positions just outside the beach-side park where the event was taking place. They murdered at least 15 people and injured dozens more, including two police officers.

Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, confirmed the massacre was a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians”. He labelled the attack “a terrorist incident”; that designation gives authorities additional powers to question and detain suspects. The dead include Eli Schlanger, a prominent local rabbi and the organiser of the event.

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MORE THAN a thousand people gathered at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 14th, the first night of Hannukah, to watch the lighting of a menorah. Children wearing face paint crowded a petting zoo. Families held balloons and bubble wands. Yet as the sun began to dip, two men dressed in black and wielding long-barrelled firearms shot into the crowd from positions just outside the beach-side park where the event was taking place. They murdered at least 15 people and injured dozens more, including two police officers.

Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, confirmed the massacre was a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians”. He labelled the attack “a terrorist incident”; that designation gives authorities additional powers to question and detain suspects. The dead include Eli Schlanger, a prominent local rabbi and the organiser of the event.

The attack is one of the worst shootings in modern Australian history, even if the final toll will take some days to come clear. And but for the immense courage of bystanders, it might have been even more lethal. One video shows a man in a white T-shirt creeping up on one of the gunmen from behind a car, then wrestling the attacker’s rifle away from him. “That man is a genuine hero,” said Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales. “I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery.”

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The attack is one of the worst shootings in modern Australian history, even if the final toll will take some days to come clear. And but for the immense courage of bystanders, it might have been even more lethal https://t.co/3PxXmMvLYN

Photo: AFP via Getty Images pic.twitter.com/OpyEkjiKcn

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) December 14, 2025

The speed of the board’s work, which by canon involves investigating by “hear[ing] the accusations and such proof as the accusers may produce,” suggests that the formal complaint and its affidavits could have been sufficient to establish probable cause. The standing committee of Wood’s Diocese of the Carolinas had suggested that the board use an outside firm to conduct a fuller investigation, but the board appeared to reach its conclusion on its own.

With the board’s indictment, Archbishop Wood will face a prosecutor of Bishop Dobbs’ choice and will be tried before the denomination’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop. The court consists of two adult members, two priests, and three bishops. Its senior-most bishop, who serves as its president, is the Rt. Rev. David Bryan, who has served as suffragan in the Diocese of the Carolinas since 2016.

While the next procedural steps toward trial are clear, its timeline is not. Speaking at a provincial Q&A session on December 12, Bill Nelson, the denomination’s chancellor, emphasized that the court could only hear one case at a time, and would not be able to turn to the Wood matter until the conclusion of the trial of the Rt. Rev. Stewart Ruch (Diocese of the Upper Midwest). A verdict in that matter is due December 16.

“I can’t tell you any further right now what the court’s timetable will be, but … the Wood matter will be the next matter to be considered. And we will just post updates on timing as they become available,” Nelson said. In the Ruch matter, 13 months elapsed between the Board of Inquiry’s indictment and the court’s first scheduling order, and 15 more will have passed by the time of the verdict.

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Wood has been canonically indicted on charges of violation of ordination vows, conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, and sexual immorality. #Anglican #ACNA #news
https://t.co/6nctiH3q9c

— The Living Church (@Livng_Church) December 15, 2025

A complaint against the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, was “not taken forward or appropriately followed up”, Lambeth Palace said in a statement on Thursday.

The claim related to the diocese of London’s and Bishop Mullally’s handling of an abuse allegation, Premier Christian News reported on Monday. The complainant, referred to as Survivor N, filed the complaint in March 2020.

The statement from Lambeth Palace said that, “due to administrative errors and an incorrect assumption about the individual’s wishes, the complaint was not taken forward or appropriately followed up.”

Bishop Mullally, who is now the Archbishop-elect of Canterbury (News, 3 October), said in a separate statement that Survivor N had been “let down by the processes of the Church of England.

“While his abuse allegations against a member of clergy were fully dealt with by the Diocese of London, it is clear that a different complaint he subsequently made against me personally in 2020 was not properly dealt with.”

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A complaint against the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, was “not taken forward or appropriately followed up”, Lambeth Palace said in a statement on Thursday#churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/1i96m3OSl7

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) December 11, 2025

MEMORANDUM
December 12, 2025
RE: Presentment of Archbishop Steve Wood

Members of the Anglican Church of North America:

Concerning the Presentment of Archbishop Steve Wood, in accordance with the standards established in and required by Title IV, Canon 4, Section 6, and following other pertinent Canons, the Board of Inquiry finds that there is probable cause to present Archbishop Wood for trial for violation of Canon 2 of this Title and has duly recorded its vote and judgment that the following three charges should be considered in the trial:

• Violation of Ordination Vows (Canon IV.2.1.3);
• Conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, including the abuse of ecclesiastical power (Canon IV.2.1.4); and
• Sexual Immorality (Canon IV.2.1.6).

This letter shall serve as our public declaration of the same. 

In Christ,
Chairman, the Board of Inquiry

ACNA NEWS: Abp. Steve Wood will go to trial. The Board of Inquiry has found probable cause to present him on charges of violation of ordination vows, conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, and sexual immorality. pic.twitter.com/I5wt4JbNdM

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) December 12, 2025

The crisis facing the ACNA is fundamentally a crisis of integrity, stemming directly from this unwillingness to speak plainly. For the Church, confession is not merely an institutional duty; it is the covenantal key to healing.

Our tradition holds that true restoration is rooted in specific, humbling admission. The Apostle James lays out the standard for the community of faith:

“Therefore, confess your sins one to another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16, ESV)

The Failure to Confess for Healing

By substituting abstract spiritual language for concrete admissions, the bishops prevent the very healing they pray for. Healing—for the wounded, the Province, and the College itself—requires a clear definition of the injury and the sin. A nebulous confession attempts to bypass the painful process of public truth-telling.

The College’s statement reads like a carefully worded legal brief designed to limit exposure, rather than a pastoral lament seeking forgiveness. This is where the corporate double speak does its deepest damage. By using generalized terms, the bishops are engaging in semantic evasion—a classic tactic of risk management—that seeks to confess only what is legally or institutionally unavoidable. We see a leadership that is prioritizing image control over truth-telling, sacrificing its spiritual integrity for the sake of its organizational stability.

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Has the ACNA College of Bishops' effort at confession been undermined by its method of communication? Fr. Randall Graf writes "we needed specific admissions of procedural failures, suppressed information, or concrete acts of omission." https://t.co/kh66Y1hW5z

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) December 10, 2025