William Nicholson’s original script will barely be changed in the production at the Aldwych Theatre, which opens next week, apart from updating a story that a character reads from a newspaper. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Mr Nicholson initially had no time for C. S Lewis, sharing his mother’s view that the Narnia author was a “drippy Protty”. But, when his colleage in the BBC’s religious department Norman Stone — filmmaker, Lewis fan, and Christian — suggested creating a television drama about Lewis’s relationship and marriage to an American mother-of-two, Joy Davidman, Mr Nicholson was transfixed by their slow-burn love story.

“I personally connected, as a much younger person — I was 36 at the time — to the whole question of fear of commitment in love, which is maybe more of a male thing, but it was certainly something I was experiencing. I wanted to love and be loved, but was very afraid of committing myself to a full love affair, love relationship, marriage, children.”

Lewis’s loss of his mother at the age of ten probably affected the author’s ability to form close relationships, Mr Nicholson thinks. “When the person who is most central to your life, who gives you your sense of being loved, disappears and leaves you in pain, it’s reasonable to conclude that something closed off at that point, and had to be opened again. I responded to the fear of being made vulnerable by love. I made that one of the central themes, because that related strongly to me. I wasn’t married at the time; so I was able to channel a bit of myself into Lewis, and Lewis into myself.”

Read it all.

"Shadowlands speaks to something deep in all of us about loss, love and loss, and the fear of loss."

The story of C. S. Lewis’s marriage, exploring love, loss, and faith, is back on stage, says @SusanGrayMeets #CSLewis #Shadowlands #grief #theatre https://t.co/ltrjwQftU9

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 31, 2026

When Elon Musk was at Davos last week, an interviewer asked him if he thought aging could be reversed. Musk said he hasn’t put much time into the problem but suspects it is “very solvable” and that when scientists discover why we age, it’s going to be something “obvious.”

Not long after, the Harvard professor and life-extension evangelist David Sinclair jumped into the conversation on X to strongly agree with the world’s richest man. “Aging has a relatively simple explanation and is apparently reversible,” wrote Sinclair. “Clinical Trials begin shortly.”

“ER-100?” Musk asked.

“Yes” replied Sinclair.

ER-100 turns out to be the code name of a treatment created by Life Biosciences, a small Boston startup that Sinclair cofounded and which he confirmed today has won FDA approval to proceed with the first targeted attempt at age reversal in human volunteers. 

The company plans to try to treat eye disease with a radical rejuvenation concept called “reprogramming” that has recently attracted hundreds of millions in investment for Silicon Valley firms like Altos Labs, New Limit, and Retro Biosciences, backed by many of the biggest names in tech. 

The technique attempts to restore cells to a healthier state by broadly resetting their epigenetic controls—switches on our genes that determine which are turned on and off.  

Read it all.

The first human test of a rejuvenation method will begin “shortly” https://t.co/oHGyByBoyM

— MIT Technology Review (@techreview) January 27, 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

there.

“We want to bring about a renewed Anglicanism, but we also want to be in service to the entire church,” The Rev. Jeff Miller shares about ⁦⁦@mereanglicanism⁩ being convened by Anglicans and with Anglican worship, but also drawing thinkers from the broader church. pic.twitter.com/OCXg7EwjQj

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) January 22, 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

More than 9 out of 10 Alzheimer’s cases could be driven by specific variations in a single gene and the protein it produces, a new study reveals, suggesting that treatments targeting this well-known gene could prevent the disease from developing in the majority of instances.

The gene in question, APOE, has long been associated with Alzheimer’s risk. What’s new here is the way the different variations of the gene have been analysed and mapped against the chances of developing Alzheimer’s. It turns out that the APOE combination we’re born with could be even more important than previously realized.

Researchers led by a team from University College London (UCL) took a fresh look at the three main variations of the APOE gene: ε2 (linked to a protective effect against cognitive decline), ε3 (historically considered the normal or neutral version), and ε4 (already known to significantly increase Alzheimer’s risk).

Read it all.

Nearly all Alzheimer’s, and half of dementia, is driven by APOE.

A new, large-scale analysis reports that up to 93% of Alzheimer’s cases and 85% of brain amyloid burden are attributable to having an APOE ε3/ε4 genotype, and the combined contribution of ε3 and ε4 to all-cause… pic.twitter.com/lbP5NZJ4q7

— Dr. Rhonda Patrick (@foundmyfitness) January 9, 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

10. What statement about friendship can be more sublime, more true, more valuable than this: it has been proved that friendship must begin in Christ, continue with Christ, and be perfected by Christ. Come, now: propose what in your opinion should be the first question about friendship.

IVO. I think we should first discuss what friendship is, lest we appear to be painting on a void, not knowing what should guide and organize our talk.

11. AELRED. Is Cicero’s definition not an adequate beginning for you? “Friendship is agreement in things human and divine, with good will and charity.”

12. IVO. If his definition suffices for you, it’s good enough for me.

–Aelred of Rievaulx Spiritual Friendship I.10-12 (Lawrence C. Braceland, tr., Marsha L. Dutton ed., Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2010), p.57

12th January – St. Aelred of Rievaulx.

A talented author, theologian, preacher and diplomat, Aelred rose to become abbot of Rievaulx between 1147 and his death in 1167. He wrote a book on Spiritual Friendship in which he shared that God was pure reciprocity. pic.twitter.com/0bPfn8hLtK

— Ninefold Kyrie (@Gda1238) January 12, 2026

His solution consisted, first, in experiencing them. The god-man suffers too, with patience. Evil and death can no longer be entirely imputed to him since he suffers and dies. The night on Golgotha is so important in the history of man only because, in its shadows, the divinity, ostensibly abandoning its traditional privileges, lived through to the end, despair included, the agony of death. Thus is explained the Lama sabachthani and the frightful doubt of Christ in agony.

–Albert Camus, Essais [Paris: Gallimard, 1965], E.T. p. 144, quoted by yours truly in the Sunday sermon

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."
– Charles Dickens pic.twitter.com/a2h1Djta2C

— gregorio catarino (@gregcatarino1) December 21, 2025

..[Jesus of Nazareth] was not a kind of demon pretending to be human; he was in every respect a genuine living man. He was not merely a man so good as to be “like God”–he was God.

Now, this is not just a pious commonplace: it is not a commonplace at all. For what it means is this, among other things: that for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death he [God] had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.

—Creed or Chaos? (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company,1949), page 4 (with special thanks to blog reader and friend WW)

The Nativity #Nativity
BL Yates Thompson 2; The Ottobeuren Collectar'; Germany, S. (Ottobeuren); 12th century; f.57v@BLMedieval pic.twitter.com/mrNGISDFqq

— Ennius (@red_loeb) December 24, 2025

The standard sperm-meets-egg story posits that sperm cells are hardly more than bundles of shrink-wrapped DNA with tails. Their mission is simple: Deliver a father’s genes into a mother’s egg for sexual reproduction. Just about all other aspects of a developing embryo, including its cellular and environmental components, have nothing to do with dad. Those all come from mom.

But nearly two decades of studies from multiple independent labs threaten to rewrite that story. They suggest that dad’s gametes shuttle more than DNA: Within a sperm’s minuscule head are stowaway molecules, which enter the egg and convey information about the father’s fitness, such as diet, exercise habits and stress levels, to his offspring. These non-DNA transfers may influence genomic activity that boots up during and after fertilization, exerting some control over the embryo’s development and influencing the adult they will become.

The findings, so far largely described in mouse models, could end up changing the way we think about heredity. They suggest “that what we do in this life affects the next generation,” said Qi Chen(opens a new tab), a reproductive and developmental biologist at the University of Utah Medical School who is among the pioneers of this research. In other words: What a father eats, drinks, inhales, is stressed by or otherwise experiences in the weeks and months before he conceives a child might be encoded in molecules, packaged into his sperm cells and transmitted to his future kid. The researchers have largely zeroed in on RNA molecules, those short-lived copies of DNA that reflect genetic activity at a given time.

Read it all.

Growing evidence in mouse models suggests that non-DNA sperm molecules can pass along a dad’s condition at the time of conception. Researchers are working to understand how this occurs, and if it occurs in humans.@ivan_amato reports: https://t.co/6fc0bgO0M5

— Quanta Magazine (@QuantaMagazine) 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

Corporate America’s latest hot job is also one of the oldest in history: storyteller.

Some companies want a media relations manager by a slightly flashier name. Others need people to produce blogs, podcasts, case studies and more types of branded content to attract customers, investors and potential recruits. All seem to use the word differently than in its usual application to novelists, playwrights and raconteurs.

“As storytellers,” a Google job ad said last month, “we play an integral role in driving customer acquisition and long-term growth.”

The listing sought a customer storytelling manager to join the company’s Google Cloud storytelling team. One article the unit published this year was titled, “Lowe’s innovation: How Vertex AI helps create interactive shopping experiences.”

Microsoft’s security organization meanwhile is recruiting a senior director overseeing narrative and storytelling, described as part cybersecurity technologist, part communicator and part marketer. Compliance technology firm Vanta this month began hiring for a head of storytelling, offering a salary of up to $274,000. Productivity app Notion recently merged its communications, social media and influencer functions into one 10-person, so-called storytelling team.

Read it all.

The hot new job at tech companies is leading "storytelling."

The term doubled on LinkedIn job posts in the U.S since last year. The WSJ writes:

"Compliance technology firm Vanta this month began hiring for a head of storytelling, offering a salary of up to $274,000."… pic.twitter.com/TQzUXPwl8g

— Natalie Sportelli (@N_Sportelli) December 15, 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).

Read it all.

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.

Listen to this story

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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.”

Read it all.

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

“But the man who is not afraid to admit everything that he sees to be wrong with himself, and yet recognizes that he may be the object of God’s love precisely because of his shortcomings, can begin to be sincere. His sincerity is based on confidence, not in his own illusions about himself, but in the endless, unfailing mercy of God.”

—No Man Is an Island (New York: Houghton Mifflin 2002 paper ed. of 1953 original), p.202

Dec 10 – “Thomas Merton” © icon by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. Happy Memorial Day Thomas!#thomasmerton #trinitystores

Get your Saint of the Day – LIKE our FB Page – https://t.co/E6Hk8Ph3AChttps://t.co/I1znabZE0v pic.twitter.com/FkjcPqWcYP

— The Trinity Crew (@trinityiconsguy) December 11, 2025

The House of Bishops will make a final decision on the future of standalone same-sex blessings when it meets again on December 16 but Bishop Philip Mounstephen said the theological and legal advice made clear that any changes will need to be “done properly according to the norms of our governance”.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Winchester Diocesan Synod, Bishop Philip Mounstephen said that questions over how such changes could be made without changing the official doctrine of the Church of England – which upholds marriage between a man and woman – proved to be “the game changer”. 

He said the theological and legal advice had brought the House of Bishops “face to face with the sheer constitutional difficulty of making such changes”.

Read it all.

The Bishop of Winchester has defended the recent decision of the House of Bishops to pause plans to introduce standalone same-sex blessing services https://t.co/OD99QBXeo5 #anglican #bishops #anthropology #parishministry #ethics #21stc #pastoralpractice #doctrine

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) December 8, 2025

While almost three-quarters of the clergy participating in a ten-year study agreed that they were fulfilling their sense of vocation, 40 per cent felt isolated in their ministry, a report published this week reveals.

Lord, for the Years, the fifth and final panel survey report for the decade-long Living Ministry study, observes: “While the feeling that one is fulfilling one’s vocation can be sustaining through all sorts of other challenges to wellbeing — and being unable to do so can feel devastating — pursuance of a calling can also lead to physical, social and material sacrifices which may be detrimental to wellbeing.”

The study, launched by the national Ministry Team in 2017, was designed to gather evidence about “what enables ministers to flourish in ministry”. In total, more than 1000 clergy, from groups ordained in 2006, 2011, and 2015, or who entered training in 2016, have participated (News, 24 February 2017).

The authors caution that the data should not be used in general terms as representative of all clergy. The four key challenges to well-being observed across the study are listed as: tiredness, isolation, demoralisation, and financial anxiety.

Read it all.

While almost three-quarters of the clergy participating in a ten-year study agreed that they were fulfilling their sense of vocation, 40 per cent felt isolated in their ministry, the final Living Ministry report says.https://t.co/86ZCXErdQk

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) December 5, 2025

Jared Kaplan, the chief scientist and co-owner of the $180bn (£135bn) US startup Anthropic, said a choice was looming about how much autonomy the systems should be given to evolve.

The move could trigger a beneficial “intelligence explosion” – or be the moment humans end up losing control.

In an interview about the intensely competitive race to reach artificial general intelligence (AGI) – sometimes called superintelligence – Kaplan urged international governments and society to engage in what he called “the biggest decision”.

Anthropic is part of a pack of frontier AI companies including OpenAI, Google DeepMind, xAI, Meta and Chinese rivals led by DeepSeek, racing for AI dominance. Its widely used AI assistant, Claude, has become particularly popular among business customers.

Kaplan said that while efforts to align the rapidly advancing technology to human interests had to date been successful, freeing it to recursively self-improve “is in some ways the ultimate risk, because it’s kind of like letting AI kind of go”. The decision could come between 2027 and 2030, he said.

Read it all.

AI systems will be capable of doing “most white-collar work” in two to three years: Anthropic’s chief scientist https://t.co/CciDRlxTDH

— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) December 3, 2025

Orthodox Anglicans have accused bishops in the Church in Wales of “misleading” statements as it moves towards making same-sex blessings permanent. 

Bishops in the Church in Wales have published a ‘road map’ for the future of same-sex blessings following a four-year trial and a six-month consultation with clergy and parishioners.

During the trial period, same-sex couples in a civil partnership or marriage were allowed to come to Church in Wales churches with friends and family to receive a blessing.

The bishops said that the Church is reaching the point “where it must take major decisions on these matters”. 

In a pastoral letter to Church in Wales members, the bishops said that “most” responses to the consultation were “in favour of the view that the time is right to offer equal marriage to traditional and same sex couples”.

Read it all.

Church in Wales 'road map' for same-sex blessings is 'distressing' https://t.co/0eujIwhx2e

— Christian Today (@ChristianToday) December 3, 2025

You may listen directly here:

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From there.

The House of Bishops will be meeting this month, amongst other things to confirm the course of action outlined in the statement made in October about the Prayers of Love and Faith.

There will, no doubt, be pressure from some to row back on these proposals. As the Church Times reports, the Bishop of Chelmsford has publicly stated her bitter regret at what was agreed, and Lincoln Diocesan Synod has called for the bishops to reverse it.

Although the supporting paperwork and the original statement suggest that it would be very difficult for them to do so, we should not underestimate the strength of feeling some will bring to this debate.

Please continue to pray that they will live up to their calling as shepherds and overseers of God’s flock.

Lincoln diocesan synod has called on the House of Bishops to “proceed at pace” to implement stand-alone blessing services for #samesex coupleshttps://t.co/ThKnbVlTYp

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 27, 2025

The advice from the Legal Office is that changing this would involve several pieces of legislation to change multiple canons, change the Book of Common Prayer, overrule ecclesiastical common law, and even “repealing references to dominical teaching” from Canon B30. In other words, if we want to change what we teach about marriage, we can’t even say that our teaching is based on the teaching of Christ. That’s how far this departs from our current teaching. Is it any wonder that the bishops are saying in the subtext that none of them even wants to attempt this legislative package?

The other route examined whether bishops could grant a canonical dispensation to allow such marriages. This would be akin to the existing power in Canon C4.5 to allow the ordination of those who are divorced and remarried whilst their former spouse still lives. The comparison is not straightforward, however, as the “[e]xisting powers of canonical dispensation do not permit the doing of things which are contrary to the Church’s doctrine; they permit doing things which are not normally permitted as being contrary to good order or that otherwise require regulation. To provide for a power of dispensation to permit the doing of something that was contrary to doctrine would be a novel departure in canon law of the Church of England” (p.68). It would stretch things so far as to break the internal consistency of the canons.

Finally, the paper addresses the same question as that addressed above in the FAOC papers: whether bishops could choose to turn a blind eye to clergy and ordinands in same-sex marriages. Whilst bishops have a large degree of latitude and discretion, they are not permitted to simply do whatever they want. “What it plainly is not lawfully open to a bishop to do is to declare that no clergy in his or her diocese will face discipline if they enter into a same sex marriage. First, such a statement would amount to an abrogation of the bishop’s canonical duties… Secondly, it is not even in the bishop’s gift to grant such a dispensation.”

Now that we have the full content of the theological and legal papers, it is quite easy to see why the House of Bishops made the decision that they made in October to stop trying to shove everything through by episcopal fiat. Those of us opposed to the whole project have been saying for years now that they can’t do what they’re attempting to do, and they certainly can’t do it in the way they’ve been attempting to do it. These papers only confirm what we’ve been saying all along.

Read it all.

Why can't we have the Prayers of Love and Faith after all? A look at the theological and legal papershttps://t.co/9CVcoP0m4p

— Michael Hayden (@michael__hayden) November 7, 2025

In this month’s Q&A, contributing editor Serena Sigillito interviews Dr. Angela Franks about her new book, Body and Identity: A History of the Empty Self.

Serena Sigillito: I’ve just finished reading your fascinating new book. Can you give PD readers a brief description of the argument you make there?

Angela Franks: Sure. I argue that our concern with the body is usually a smokescreen for deeper questions about identity. I try to show historically why and how identity became a problem for us—why our culture is going through a systemic identity crisis. I try to show that this is not simply a new development, but it has its roots in phenomena that go back centuries, and even millennia.

SS: You’ve mentioned elsewhere that you were inspired, in part, to write this book by Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. I found that a really helpful and thought-provoking comparison. My sense is that your book is more unabashedly academic than Carl’s. Your book seems like it’s aimed at the kind of people who write for places like Public Discourse, who can then draw on your scholarly work and translate it into a more accessible register and help popularize the ideas you articulate. Does that seem right to you?

AF: Yes, I think that’s accurate. I had already been working on my book when Carl’s came out. We got to know each other pretty soon after that, and—as I told him—I was very relieved that his book was not making mine superfluous! I think Carl’s book is primarily a work of translation, whereas mine is a more academic synthesis. One of the books that was really helpful to me was Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self, as well as A Secular Age. Those books are similar to what I’m trying to do—a work that’s lengthier, with an abundant use of footnotes, that really gets into texts at a deeper level. The hope is that it shifts the scholarly discussion around identity.

Read it all.

A great interview with @theologianmom @PublicDiscourse on her fine book on “the empty self.” With @SerenaSigillito.

It wasn’t only secularism that “liquified” the body and emptied the self. Christianity played a large role too. What do we do with that?https://t.co/y6RwYWeaqb

— Rachel Lu (@rclu) December 1, 2025

Scientists have identified five major “epochs” of human brain development in one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how neural wiring changes from infancy to old age.

The study, based on the brain scans of nearly 4,000 people aged under one to 90, mapped neural connections and how they evolve during our lives. This revealed five broad phases, split up by four pivotal “turning points” in which brain organisation moves on to a different trajectory, at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83 years.

“Looking back, many of us feel our lives have been characterised by different phases. It turns out that brains also go through these eras,” said Prof Duncan Astle, a researcher in neuroinformatics at Cambridge University and senior author of the study.

“Understanding that the brain’s structural journey is not a question of steady progression, but rather one of a few major turning points, will help us identify when and how its wiring is vulnerable to disruption.”

Read it all.

Brain has five ‘eras’, scientists say – with adult mode not starting until early 30s | Hannah Devlin, The Guardian

Study suggests human brain development has four pivotal ‘turning points’ at around the ages of nine, 32, 66 and 83

Scientists have identified five major “epochs”… pic.twitter.com/X7i5Uxxc7H

— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) November 25, 2025

For most of human history, coupling up was not merely a norm; it was a necessity. Before reliable contraception, women could not control their fertility, and most were far too poor to raise children alone. Hence the centuries-old convention that, whereas a tragic play or saga ends in death, a happy one ends in marriage.

So the speed with which the norm of marriage—indeed, of relationships of any sort—is being abandoned is startling. Throughout the rich world, singlehood is on the rise. Among Americans aged 25-34, the proportion living without a spouse or partner has doubled in five decades, to 50% for men and 41% for women. Since 2010, the share of people living alone has risen in 26 out of 30 rich countries. By The Economist’s calculation, the world has at least 100m more single people today than if coupling rates were still as high as in 2017. A great relationship recession is under way.

For some, this is evidence of social and moral decay. As we report, many in the “pro-natalist” movement believe that the failure of the young to settle down and procreate threatens to end Western civilisation. For others, it is evidence of admirable self-reliance. Vogue, a fashion magazine, recently suggested that for cool, ambitious young women, having a boyfriend is not merely unnecessary but “embarrassing”.

In fact, the rise of singlehood is neither straightforwardly good nor bad. 

Read it all.

A future with far more singletons is fast approaching. That will reshape the world in ways good and bad. Everyone, from construction firms to the taxman, had better prepare https://t.co/VnDr8O2MYV pic.twitter.com/l6mVxmWgBH

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) November 6, 2025

“Most of [us] have never really faced the facts about ourselves until we uttered them aloud in plain words, calling a spade a spade.” ⏤ C.S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 3, from a letter to Mary Van Deusen on April 6, 1953

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
–CS Lewis pic.twitter.com/I0vQTTqPsC

— M.A.D. Life (@MADadLife) October 14, 2025

“Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery.If there’s the hundredth part of a false note in speaking the truth, it leads to a discord, and that leads to trouble.But if all, to the last note, is false in flattery, it is just as agreeable, and is heard not without satisfaction. It may be a coarse satisfaction, but still a satisfaction. And however coarse the flattery, at least half will be sure to seem true. That’s so for all stages of development and classes of society. -Svidrigailov (Crime and Punishment)”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

#OnThisDay in 1821, Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow. (Crime and Punishment, 1866) pic.twitter.com/xcK1G6rZRD

— Bibliophilia (@Libroantiguo) November 11, 2015

As the GAFCON statement affirms: that future has now arrived.

Reordering of the Communion

What is this future for Anglicanism? Three points stand out.

1. New Foundation of Communion

The statement says the Anglican Communion will now rest on a single foundation: the Holy Bible, “translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense.” This is a deliberate echo of the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura. In other words, unity is no longer defined by loyalty to Canterbury or participation in Anglican institutions but by submission to Scripture as God’s Word.

2. Rejection of Failed Instruments

The statement names and rejects the so-called “Instruments of Communion”—the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meeting. Why? Because they have consistently failed to uphold biblical truth, especially following the 1998 Lambeth Resolution I.10 which affirmed that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman. These “Instruments,” while once helpful, have fallen into revisionism.

3. Return to the Original Model

The statement emphasizes that GAFCON has not left the Anglican Communion. Instead, it claims the original vision: a fellowship of autonomous provinces united by the gospel and the Reformation formularies. This was how the first Lambeth Conference in 1867 understood Anglicanism and what held member provinces together in unity—before the so-called “Instruments” turned Canterbury into the sine qua non of what it means to be Anglican. Now, GAFCON says, the center of the Communion is not a person or an office, but the Word of God.

In place of the old “Instruments,” Gafcon proposes a Council of Primates (archbishops) from all provinces that affirm the Jerusalem Declaration of 2008, with a primus inter pares (“first among equals”) serving as chair.

Read it all.

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

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

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