The visitation recorded concerns about the spiritual life of the cathedral, noting that “the spiritual dimension of Chapter’s work appears less visible than might be expected.” It continued: “Theological reflection in decision-making is limited and shared prayer outside formal worship is infrequent.”

While the daily offices and Sunday services are “offered with dignity and care”, the cathedral has “limited awareness of the needs and well-being of its congregation”, the report says. Home communion reaches “only a small number of people”, and visiting “relies almost entirely on a few individuals”.

The cathedral’s relationship with the community “feels distant and strained” the report says. “Many residents perceive it as focused on tourists rather than locals. This disconnect has led to frustration, missed opportunities, and weakened trust.”

Among senior clergy, working relationships have become “strained, creating an environment that makes collaboration and effective decision-making difficult”. Stipendiary clergy must commit themselves to gathering daily for shared prayer.

Read it all.

Interesting that one of the recommendations here was that the clergy commit themselves to gathering daily for shared prayer – something that was infrequent outside formal worship. The spiritual dimension explored.https://t.co/wI26w8NIUW

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) May 28, 2026

Bishop Edgar described the complainants as “credible and trustworthy” and joined those urging the senior bishops to impose an inhibition, noting that “an inhibition makes no judgment as to guilt or innocence … Rather, it is an acknowledgement that continued ministry in the face of serious charges further damages the reputation of the Church.” The diocesan Standing Committee followed on 14 November with a letter of its own standing with the bishop and the complainants and urging the College to inhibit Wood.

The South Carolina position hardened with experience. On 24 March 2026, Bishop Edgar and the ADOSC Standing Committee wrote formally to the ACNA Executive Committee demanding transparency. The letter, occasioned by concerns arising from the December 2025 acquittal of Bishop Stewart Ruch (a separate ACNA trial in which the court found that the prosecution had not met its evidentiary burden, set out specific demands:

• That “the standard of avoiding any appearance of impropriety” be upheld among all provincial staff in pending and future proceedings;
• That those involved in allowing a court member in the Ruch trial to access prosecution files without the prosecutors’ knowledge or consent be recused from all future disciplinary proceedings, “particularly those involving Archbishop Wood”;
• That a complete transcript of trial and pretrial proceedings, including unedited video or audio, be released;
• That all motions, court rulings, and the three pretrial investigations be made public;
• That the identity and engagement letter of any investigator be disclosed, with appropriate confidentiality protections for victims.

“Those who would deny a public response to valid questions,” the diocese warned, “insisting the province is best served by withholding answers — do so at the risk of destabilizing the very foundation on which their authority rests.” Edgar added: “Lack of trust and mutual suspicion erode our communion and weaken our witness to a watching world. But our communion and witness are strengthened by a commitment to transparency and truth that is above reproach.”

That earlier framing places the present moment in unusually sharp relief. South Carolina has consistently asked for procedural rigour, transparency, and a posture of belief toward the complainants. Bishop Ashey’s lectures — delivered to a general audience the week before a dispositive motion was heard in the trial of his client-of-conscience — were perceived by some bishops as cutting in the opposite direction: prejudging the verdict, attributing improper motives to colleagues, and casting complainants as merely terminated employees.

Read as a whole, the 8 May letter is more than a routine clarification. It is a public acknowledgement, on the record, that:

• No bishops have signed the presentment, contrary to impressions Bishop Ashey himself helped create;
• The five senior diocesan bishops who joined Dean Dobbs’s inhibition did so on the merits, not under social-media pressure;
• The Title IV revisions now before the College are being deliberated on their substance, not from institutional self-protection;
• Predictions of “exoneration” have no proper place in public commentary about a pending bishop’s trial;
• The complainants were not, as Ashey had suggested, simply “terminated employees”;
• His role with Archbishop Wood is volunteer and personal, not provincial, and any judgment on the Archbishop’s compliance with the inhibition belongs to the Dean and the College.

Ashey’s renewed offer to recuse himself from the College of Bishops “until after all procedures with regards to Archbishop Wood are concluded” is significant. He had made the same offer earlier and was declined; the public revival of the offer effectively returns the question to Dean Dobbs and to a College that, in the weeks since the lectures, has had to navigate its own discomfort with the optics of one of its members serving as personal counsel to an accused archbishop while continuing to sit and vote among those who will, in due course, receive the Court’s verdict.

What the letter does not address is the substantive accusation, attributed to Bishop Ashey in The Living Church‘s reporting, that “the province did not forward all of the evidence, including exculpatory evidence, to the court.” If that claim is maintained, it sits uneasily alongside the seven items Bishop Ashey did withdraw. If it is not, it deserves its own clarification.

Read it all.

Bishop Ashey withdraws lecture claims about Wood Trial in letter to ACNA Collegehttps://t.co/3l3JWv1o0q pic.twitter.com/NPamXRmZSZ

— George Conger (@GeorgeConger8) May 27, 2026

The Rev. Dr. JT Hewitt Called as Assistant Rector & Scholar in Residence at St. John’s Church in Florence

The Rev. Dr. JT Hewitt has accepted a call to serve as the Assistant Rector & Scholar in Residence at St. John’s Church in Florence. JT is a Florence native and Furman graduate who holds multiple postgraduate degrees, including a PhD in New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Since receiving his doctorate in 2018, he has served in higher education—first at the University of Aberdeen and most recently as Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh. Before moving to Scotland, JT was ordained in the Presbyterian Church and served as Assistant Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to that, he served at Grace Church Anglican in Seattle, Washington. He is married to Andrea, and together they have four children: Henrik, Avonlea, Madeleine, and Nikolai. Read the announcement.

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The latest edition of the #Anglican diocese of #Southcarolina Enewsletter https://t.co/dKIY12ZmpK #parishministry #media #religion #churchlife [on the bottom right the Rev. Dr. JT Hewitt new Assistant Rector & Scholar in Residence at St. John’s Church in Florence, SC] pic.twitter.com/EMztfKN3e4

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 27, 2026

You may listen directly here:

Or you may download it there.

Or you may watch it using this link:

Louis Galloche, The Pentecost, 18th Century pic.twitter.com/QMy0ifvNiK

— Solas (@solas_na_greine) June 8, 2025

O Lord our God, who by thy Son Jesus Christ didst call thine apostles and send them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless thy holy name for thy servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating thy Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom thou dost call and send may do thy will, and bide thy time, and see thy glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today is the feast day of St Augustine of Canterbury.

Augustine was sent from Rome to England by Pope Gregory the Great, to re-establish Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons. He later became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

📍 St John the Evangelist, Cowley/Lawrence OP pic.twitter.com/UqxdVyulP7

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) May 26, 2026

O King and Judge of the nations: We remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our armed forces, who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy; grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, now and for ever. Amen.

Today, the Lowcountry and all of South Carolina remember the brave men and women who gave their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today. From Charleston to small coastal towns, their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

🇺🇸 #MemorialDay #Lowcountry #SouthCarolina #charlestondaily pic.twitter.com/0w4zOFkufK

— Charleston Daily (@ChuckTownDaily) May 25, 2026

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

–Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In thanksgiving for all those who gave their lives for this country in years past, and for those who continue to serve; KSH.

P.S. The circumstances which led to this remarkable poem are well worth remembering:

It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915 and to the war in general. McCrea had spent seventeen days treating injured men — Canadians, British, French, and Germans in the Ypres salient. McCrae later wrote: “I wish I could embody on paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days… Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.” The next day McCrae witnessed the burial of a good friend, Lieut. Alexis Helmer. Later that day, sitting on the back of an ambulance parked near the field dressing station, McCrea composed the poem. A young NCO, delivering mail, watched him write it. When McCrae finished writing, he took his mail from the soldier and, without saying a word, handed his pad to the Sergeant-major. Cyril Allinson was moved by what he read: “The poem was exactly an exact description of the scene in front of us both. He used the word blow in that line because the poppies actually were being blown that morning by a gentle east wind. It never occurred to me at that time that it would ever be published. It seemed to me just an exact description of the scene.” Colonel McCrae was dissatisfied with the poem, and tossed it away. A fellow officer retrieved it and sent it to newspapers in England. The Spectator, in London, rejected it, but Punch published it on 8 December 1915. For his contributions as a surgeon, the main street in Wimereaux is named “Rue McCrae”.

Today, we honor and remember the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation.

Who are you remembering today? pic.twitter.com/QeatIv6dk4

— Arlington National Cemetery (@ArlingtonNatl) May 25, 2026

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead: We give thee thanks for all thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of our country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence; and give us such a lively sense of thy righteous will, that the work which thou hast begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.

Memorial Day. Remembrance.🙏🏻 @EdPiotrowski @medwick @DylanHudlerWXII @jamiearnoldWMBF @LeeHaywoodWX @dogwoodblooms @marioncaldwx @JustinMcKeeWx @StarboardRail @Jimmydreamsmb @CMorganWX @Christina4casts @AndrewWMBF @ScottyPowellWX @jgreenhillwx @TimBuckleyWX @matt_wx @clairefrywx pic.twitter.com/urYZzYX4Z8

— Mark Moore (@MMoore_hoops) May 25, 2026

For nearly a fortnight before the Feast of our Lord’s Resurrection he was troubled by weakness and breathed with great difficulty, although he suffered little pain. Thenceforward until Ascension Day he remained cheerful and happy, giving thanks to God each hour day and night. He gave daily lessons to us his students, and spent the rest of the day in singing the psalms so far as his strength allowed. He passed the whole night in joyful prayer and thanksgiving to God, except when slumber overcame him; but directly he awoke, he continued to meditate on spiritual themes, and never failed to thank God with hands outstretched. I can truthfully affirm that I have never seen or heard of anyone who gave thanks so unceasingly to the living God as he.

O truly blessed man! He used to repeat the saying of the holy Apostle Paul, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’, and many other sayings from holy scripture, and in this manner he used to arouse our souls by the consideration of our last hour. Being well-versed in our native songs, he described to us the dread departure of the soul from the body by a verse in our own tongue, which translated means: ‘Before setting forth on that inevitable journey, none is wiser than the man who considers – before his soul departs hence – what good or evil he has done, and what judgement his soul will receive after its passing’.

Read it all.

Today's the feast of St Bede, 7th/8th Century Benedictine scholar best known for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Here he is writing it, in glass by Moira Forsyth, 1964 in Norwich Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/4eqYNx73Uu

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) May 25, 2026

When fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023, Sefain Nagy took shelter at St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in the Masalma area of Omdurman, a city in east central Sudan.

At least 25 other Christians huddled there with Nagy, including 15 orphaned girls ages 10 to 25 already living at the church, several middle-aged women, and six elderly men. At night, the frightened group gathered in the church’s sanctuary to sing hymns and pray. They rarely had enough food to eat or access to drinking water, but a group of young Christian men arranged for low-cost meals from community kitchens, locally called takkiyas, to be delivered to them despite constant shelling.

Then a month later, at about 10:30 p.m., Nagy heard the roar of a car carrying five members of the paramilitary group RSF pulling up to the church. The militia shot at the church’s walls, smashed the front door, and forced their way into the building.

“They asked us, ‘What are you here for?’” Nagy recalled. “I told [them] we had prayer. We were praying.”

The RSF soldiers then beat the Christians, grabbed jewelry from the women, and attempted to take away the orphaned girls. When Nagy resisted them by trying to block them from entering the girls’ rooms and leaving the church, one of the soldiers hit his head from behind with a gun and shot him in the right leg. Then the RSF tried to drive off with the girls in one of the cars parked at the church, but the engine failed.

“Thank God the car wouldn’t start, and they couldn’t take the orphan girls,” Nagy said…

Read it all.

As Sudan’s civil war forces millions from their homes, basic needs are dwindling in camps for internally displaced persons.https://t.co/POHC4hOhC9

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) May 18, 2026

Only days after U.S. President Donald Trump left a Beijing summit with CCP Chairman Xi Jinping where religious freedom and jailed religious leaders were discussed, authorities in eastern China have demolished a prominent church, razing the building with large excavators.

Yazhong Church (also referred to as Yayang Church), an unregistered Protestant church in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province — a region known as “China’s Jerusalem” — has been under siege since late last year.

On Dec. 14 and 15, local authorities arrested 103 church members in a pre-dawn raid and took control of the church building, as confirmed last week in new reporting by Le Monde. That same week, at a public event, an unidentified government official announced: “We will see this campaign through to the end.” 

Five months later, heavy construction vehicles passed through tightly controlled security checkpoints set up by authorities, according to multiple sources confirmed by ChinaAid News. Crews then demolished the multi-level sanctuary from the top down, reducing it to rubble. Due to an unprecedented information blackout, the exact date of the demolition is not yet known; sources provided an initial report on May 19.

Read it all.

Prominent Church In East China Demolished Amid Escalating Crackdown https://t.co/js4iRUjdf7

— Bob Fu 傅希秋 (@BobFu4China) May 21, 2026

Heritage funding for the 14,000 listed places of worship in England, including cathedrals, is to come in upfront capital grants, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced. Those in areas of high deprivation and “facing overwhelming fund-raising challenges” would be prioritised, it said on Wednesday.

The new Places of Worship Renewal Fund (PWRF) succeeds the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme (LPWGS), under which places of worship could reclaim all the VAT paid on repairs and maintenance. Last year, the LPWGS was capped at £25,000 for each place of worship, meaning that those undertaking major repairs — such as a new roof — had to raise extra funds to cover VAT costs for the first time in two decades (News, 25 January 2025).

The new PWRF grant scheme is to be delivered by Historic England and is intended to bring places of worship in line with other heritage buildings. It has been influenced by the success of the Heritage at Risk and the Heritage Revival Funds, and, in targeting areas of greatest need, puts the emphasis on the community, DCMS says.

Read it all.

Heritage funding for the 14,000 listed places of worship in England, including cathedrals, is to come in upfront capital grants, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced. Those in areas of high deprivation would be prioritisedhttps://t.co/G2J758K7rI

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) May 20, 2026

The South Carolina standing committee also criticized Bishop Ashey for other comments he made during the lecture that “prognosticat[ed] about the outcome” of the pending case against Archbishop Steve Wood and “promoted falsehood” about its complainants. Ashey is advising Wood as he awaits trial on canonical charges of personal and sexual misconduct.

In a lengthy retraction sent to the church’s bishops a week later, Ashey apologized for his speculation that Wood would be exonerated and for his “inaccurate” portrayal of the complainants, some of whom now belong to the Diocese of South Carolina, as “aggrieved” terminated employees. Of the complainants formerly employed under Wood at St. Andrew’s Church, Mount Pleasant, none were terminated, and all resigned, though Wood asked most of them to stay, one complainant told TLC.

While the province contends that the Council is without authority to govern the court’s protocols with regard to the Ruch documents, the Council’s main item of business at its June meeting will be a vote on a comprehensive Title IV revision that fully restructures the church’s disciplinary bodies and their procedures.

If passed, the new canons will phase out the current seven-member Court for the Trial of a Bishop and replace it with a tribunal from which smaller panels are drawn, and will introduce norms of public trial procedure=—two features also found in Episcopal Church canons.

Read it all.

New for @Livng_Church: The Anglican Diocese of South Carolina calls for the release of documents related to the trial of ACNA Bishop Stewart Ruch as the church's fraught process for revising Title IV comes to a vote.https://t.co/zzTJB5SM4h

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) May 20, 2026

The three American Muslims killed during a shooting Monday (May 18) at a San Diego mosque are being remembered by their imam and faith community as “men of courage, sacrifice and faith” who put themselves on the line to protect others. 

The Islamic Center of San Diego identified the victims as Amin Abdullah, a gentle security guard; Nadir Awad, a dedicated neighbor; and Mansour Kaziha, a longtime shopkeeper and caretaker of the mosque.

Abdullah died protecting more than 200 children and community members, the mosque’s Imam Taha Hassane said in an interview with RNS. The “beloved” security guard was killed first, Hassane said, but before he died, he used his radio to warn teachers in the center’s school to lock their classroom doors. He “undoubtedly he saved lives today” by delaying the shooters in a gunbattle in front of the mosque, said San Diego Police Department Chief Scott Wahl during a press conference Monday. 

Read it all.

Victims of the deadly Islamic Center of San Diego shooting have been identified. https://t.co/PTM3tr430T

— WACH FOX (@wachfox) May 19, 2026

Both the Church’s funding bodies and the Government should ramp up investment in cathedrals, where financial pressures are resulting in commercial bookings that risk “crowding out the sense of stillness and calm”, a new report has concluded.

Living Stones: English cathedrals as sacred spaces in changing times celebrated the contribution made by the country’s cathedrals, but warned that they are in “serious difficulty”, with 80 per cent in structural deficit.

“The pressures of financial survival can consume so much energy and attention that there is little left for the deeper questions of purpose and mission,” it said.

Produced by Theos, the report was funded by the Church Commissioners’ Cathedral Sustainability Fund and the Association of English Cathedrals (AEC). It will be presented to the National Cathedrals Conference in Bristol this week.

Read it all.

Both the Church’s funding bodies and the Government should ramp up investment in #cathedrals, where financial pressures are resulting in commercial bookings that risk “crowding out the sense of stillness and calm”, a new report has concluded#churchnewshttps://t.co/t0Vje0hvt0

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) May 19, 2026

The Anglican Church in North America’s Court for the Trial of a Bishop will hold hearings this week on the first pretrial motions filed in the disciplinary matter of the Most Rev. Steve Wood, according to a court announcement.

Archbishop Wood, the denomination’s primate, was indicted on ecclesiastical charges of personal and sexual misconduct last December. His trial is scheduled to begin July 20.

Four priests and seven laypeople filed a complaint against Wood last October, alleging that as bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas and rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, Wood plagiarized sermons, bullied staff, and made continual sexual advances toward a children’s ministry director. Wood has denied the allegations.

The ACNA’s disciplinary system sets a denominational prosecutor against an accused bishop, who is tried by a neutral court of three bishops, two priests, and two adult confirmed church members. Before trial, both sides may make requests of the court by motion.

Read it all.

There are four motions they must decide in total:
1) Abp Wood's motion to dismiss the case
2) His motion to hold the trial in private
3) The province's motion to "re-establish fairness"
4) Its motion to disqualify Cn Jeff Weber from defending Wood.https://t.co/HIjraTzJjo

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) May 8, 2026

O God, steadfast in the midst of persecution, by whose providence the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church: As the martyrs of the Sudan refused to abandon Christ even in the face of torture and death, and so by their sacrifice brought forth a plenteous harvest, may we, too, be steadfast in our faith in Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Almighty God, you gave your servants, the holy martyrs of Sudan, boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: … pic.twitter.com/7Whp12CMLn

— The Seabury Society (@SeaburySociety) May 16, 2020

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are writing to you today on behalf of the Standing Committee of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina to ask you to pray. As schools close and many scatter for the summer, it is easy and natural to lose track of important provincial gatherings that will occur this season. We are writing to remind you that much is at stake in our Province and for our Diocese, and to ask you to pray for:

The May 19 Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) Executive Committee Meeting
The May 20 hearing in the Archbishop Wood case in Charleston, SC
The June 15-17 College of Bishops Meeting in Tulsa, OK
The June 17-19 Provincial Council Meeting in Tulsa, OK
The June 25 virtual Provincial Assembly
The July 20 Trial for Archbishop Wood in Charleston, SC

As we remind you to pray for these important events, let us commend to you the work of our Diocesan Standing Committee on your behalf. We have maintained a strong and united call for accountability in the Province. In the past three weeks, members of our Standing Committee have met with the Executive Committee of the ACNA and Bishop Julian Dobbs, the Dean of the Province, via zoom, and have shared our concerns with members of the Executive Committee who visited with us in Charleston. The Executive Committee in many ways shared our concerns and encouraged us in the action steps below.

We are currently working for you and for justice and transparency in the Province in the following ways:

1. We have submitted resolutions regarding the public release of the transcript of the Ruch trial and the findings of the independent investigation to the Executive Committee for consideration at Provincial Council.
2. We are seeking to build a coalition of other ACNA dioceses who share our concerns about the work of the Court for the Trial of a Bishop and the importance of transparency.
3. We are doing everything in our power to ensure that the complainants in our Diocese receive fair treatment and transparency in the process. To that end, we want to publicly say how disappointed we were when a video (see details here) of a lecture given given by an ACNA bishop promoted falsehood about the complainants as well as prognostication about the outcome of the trial. While he apologized privately to the College of Bishops and granted permission for his apology to be shared, we believe that, given the wide dissemination of that video (now removed) he should disseminate his apology as widely, and we call on the Province to address this matter.

Please do pray for us and for the Standing Committee. The spiritual warfare that surrounds a struggle for the heart of the church is always intense. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Blessings,
 
The Rt Revd Chip Edgar
Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina

The Very Revd Shay Gaillard
President of the ADOSC Standing Committee

A Message from the #Anglican Diocese of #SouthCarolina’s Standing Committee about recent #ACNA matters–'We have submitted resolutions regarding the public release of the transcript of the Ruch trial and the findings of the independent investigation to the Executive Committee for… pic.twitter.com/Dbij8ONxzY

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 16, 2026

Jesus hasn’t just gone away. He has gone deeper into the heart of reality–our reality and God’s. He has become far more than a visible friend and companion; he has shown himself to be the very centre of our life, the source of our loving energy in the world and the source of our prayerful, trustful waiting on God. He has made us able to be a new kind of human being, silently and patiently trusting God as a loving parent, actively and hopefully at work to make a difference in the world, to make the kind of difference love makes.

So if the world looks and feels like a world without God, the Christian doesn’t try to say, ‘It’s not as bad as all that’, or seek to point to clear signs of God’s presence that make everything all right. The Christian will acknowledge that the situation is harsh, even apparently unhopeful–but will dare to say that they are willing to bring hope by what they offer in terms of compassion and service. And their own willingness and capacity for this is nourished by the prayer that the Spirit of Jesus has made possible for them.

The friends of Jesus are called, in other words, to offer themselves as signs of God in the world–to live in such a way that the underlying all-pervading energy of God begins to come through them and make a difference.

Read it all.

L'Ascension du Christ.

Le Pérugin (dit Perugino) (1450 – 1523).

Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon. pic.twitter.com/Jtuig9pYVf

— Histoire & Odyssée (@HistoireOdyssee) May 14, 2026

‘A Chicago Cubs fan who needed a kidney found a donor in a crosstown rival, a fan of the Chicago White Sox. Recently, the recipient and her donor threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game. NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Llamas reports.’

Smith Institution as Rector of St. Luke’s, Hilton Head, June 10

By the grace of God and the consent of the people, Bishop Chip Edgar will institute and induct the Rev. Greg Smith as the 8th Rector of St. Luke’s Anglican Church on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 5 p.m. Your prayers and presence are welcomed. A “Hog Heaven” barbecue reception will follow the service. Clergy are asked to wear red stoles. 

Read it all.

The Latest Edition of the Anglican Diocese of #SouthCarolina Enewsletter https://t.co/GJKo9DxCcO #parishministry #media Greg Smith will be Instituted as Rector of St. Luke’s, Hilton Head, June 10 pic.twitter.com/XFLHnVPwcs

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 6, 2026

Christ himself pointed out the benefit of his sufferings and resurrection when he said to the women in Mt 28, 10 – “Fear not: go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me.” These are the very first words they heard from Christ after his resurrection from the dead, by which he confirmed all the former utterances and loving deeds he showed them, namely, that his resurrection avails in our behalf who believe, so that he therefore anticipates and calls Christians his brethren, who believe it, and yet they do not, like the apostles, witness his resurrection.

The risen Christ waits not until we ask or call on him to become his brethren. Do we here speak of merit, by which we deserve anything? What did the apostles merit? Peter denied his Lord three times; the other disciples all fled from him; they tarried with him like a rabbit does with its young. He should have called them deserters, yea, betrayers, reprobates, anything but brethren. Therefore this word is sent to them through the women out of pure grace and mercy, as the apostles at the time keenly experienced, and we experience also, when we are mired fast in our sins, temptations and condemnation.

These are words full of all comfort that Christ receives desperate villains as you and I are and calls us his brethren. Is Christ really our brother, then I would like to know what we can be in need of? Just as it is among natural brothers, so is it also here. Brothers according to the flesh enjoy the same possessions, have the same father, the one inheritance, otherwise they would not be brothers: so we enjoy with Christ the same possessions, and have in common with him one Father and one inheritance, which never decreases by being distributed, as other inheritances do; but it ever grows larger and larger; for it is a spiritual inheritance. But an earthly inheritance decreases when distributed among many persons. He who has a part of this spiritual inheritance, has it all.

Read it all.

“Christ, having risen from the dead, dies now no more; death will no longer have dominion over him” (Rm 6:9). The resurrection of Jesus has overcome the power of death. pic.twitter.com/WuhsPTUQ0y

— Archbishop Thompson (@ArchbpCThompson) May 6, 2026

Almighty and Most Merciful God, give to thy Church that peace which the world cannot give, and grant that those who have been divided on earth may be reconciled in heaven, and share together in the vision of thy glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Today the Church remembers the English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era.

In sixteenth and seventeenth century England, the country was in deep turmoil. Men and women died for their faith, not at the hands of a foreign religion or an irreligious state, but at the hands… pic.twitter.com/glLMbEYeRa

— The English Remnant (@Englishremnant) May 4, 2026

You may listen directly here:

Or you may download it there.

“This Easter, can we let Jesus teach us to be good stewards of our grief? This Easter, can we let Jesus teach us to be good stewards of our grief? That ought to strike you as odd.
That’s a very strange combination of words, stewardship and grief. I’ll let you in a little secret about ministers. We are not very easy to deal with.
Langley has my deep sympathy. But one of the things about our life is that we have to preach on a regular basis, and whenever we have to preach, we have to get something from the text. And the thing is, if I don’t hear from God, you can’t hear from me.
And part of the problem is, if it’s Thursday and I’m still wrestling, that’s a problem. Friday, I’m at the near panic stage. But you do not want to be at my house when I get to Saturday, and I still have nothing to say.”

“And this past week, that’s exactly where I was. And past the near panic stage. And I was thinking as I was sitting there in my office yesterday, I was talking to the woman who cuts my hair in Summerville, who’s a Christian, and I was thinking, there have been millions of sermons.
Think of that, millions of sermons in the history of the church preached on this passage. Next year will be my 40th year. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve preached on the passage, probably 15 or something.
So I’ve got to get something fresh out of it. So I said, Lord, come on, this is not working. And I’m sitting there and I’m praying and I’m looking.
And I mean, I’ve read this thing, I don’t know how many times, and all of a sudden, click. And what the New Testament says about preaching, by the way, is rightly dividing the word of truth. And the thing is, it’s like cutting a diamond.”

“You can sit there and look at the text on Monday and Tuesday and not see it, and Friday you still don’t see it. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit shows up and boom. And then it just opens like magic.
Well, there I was sitting, and it all of a sudden came open. Now, let me tell you how important this passage is before I get into this. I was reading JC.
Ryle, the late great bishop of Liverpool in the 19th century, and he said something really fascinating about this passage that I want to start with. This is one of the great bishops in the whole history of the church. Listen to what he says about this story.

He says this, the history contained in these verses is not found in any other gospel, but only that of Luke. Of all the 11 appearances of Christ after his resurrection, none is perhaps so interesting as the one described in this passage. And I completely agree with him.

And one of the things that’s got to bother all of us is, it sticks out like a sore thumb, it’s unlike any of the others. What is it“doing in there? And there’s all sorts of reasons.

I mean, they are great resurrection stories, post resurrection narratives, all through all the gospels. But this one is unique. And so if you think about it and ask the question why it’s in there, there’s all sorts of answers.

But what came to me yesterday, which I never noticed before, is there’s one really, really, really important reason why it’s in there. And that is, it’s the only one that really shows how Jesus deals with the depth of people in incredible grief. This is a story about grief, not general grief, not superficial grief.
This is the story about people whose lives have been dashed on the rocks of reality. This is a story about people who are disappointed, dejected and nearly in despair and desperate. They’ve not just lost motivation, they’ve lost all hope.

And the question that we have to ask ourselves is, why are they there and how does Jesus bring them out of it? So those are my two questions. Why are they there and how does Jesus bring them (and by extension, us) out of it?”

You may listen directly here:

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Rembrandt van Rijn
Supper at Emmaus pic.twitter.com/B11NtKd3rg

— Marysia (@marysia_cc) April 19, 2026

Ben Sasse: The Senate needs to be less like Instagram. The Senate needs to be more deliberative. And that means less smack-down nonsense. One of the fundamental mistakes we’ve made over the last 30 or 40 years is putting cameras everywhere in Washington, D.C. This is not an argument against transparency. We should have reporters around. We should have pen and pad. We should have people recording what’s happening. But we should make the Senate less of an institution that is built as a backdrop platform for people to get sound bites. That’s not what the Senate is for. The Senate should be plodding, and steady, and boring, and trustworthy.

Scott Pelley: To be too frank, you were expected to be dead by now.

Ben Sasse: That’s frank. I like it. Let’s be blunt.

Scott Pelley: What changed?

Ben Sasse: Let’s go with– providence, prayer, and a miracle drug. In mid-December I was given a three- to four-month life expectancy. I am on extended time already. I have pancreatic origin cancer that has metastasized a number of places. So, I’ve got lung, vascular, liver, other. Liver’s pretty far along…

Read it all.

there.

“Many senators I know would not be able to breathe without that job. It would kill them to leave,” says Scott Pelley.

“I don't want what you said to be true. But I fear that that is true. And that is a sign of a much, much deeper problem,” responds former Sen. Ben Sasse.… pic.twitter.com/lXfzeDWr7Y

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) April 26, 2026

“The resurrection was not preached in the early church as a symbolic representation of wonderful higher spiritual truths like, “We must always keep hope.” The resurrection was preached as a hard, bare, terribly irritating paradigm-shattering, horribly inconvenient but impossible to dismiss fact.”

–From his sermon entitled Jesus vindicated which may be found among other places there.

Blue Skies and a sharp Easterly breeze. 12°C. Butterflies. pic.twitter.com/r5WPd8XBHV

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) April 22, 2026

From there:

Whoever is a devout lover of God, let him enjoy this beautiful bright Festival!

Whoever is a grateful servant, let him rejoice and enter into the joy of his Lord!

And if any be weary with fasting, let him now enjoy what he has earned.

If any have toiled from the first hour, let him receive his due reward.

If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in the Feast.

If any have come after the sixth hour, let him not doubt, for he too shall be deprived of nothing.

And if any have delayed to the ninth hour, let him not hesitate, but let him come too.

And he that has arrived only at the eleventh hour, let him not be troubled over his delay, for the Lord is gracious, and received the last even as the first.

He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour as well as to him that has toiled from the first.

Yea, to this one he gives, to that one he bestows; he honors the former’s work; the latter’s intent he praises.

Let all then enter the joy of our Lord!

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Springtime woodland in
Suffolk, UK. pic.twitter.com/rOI7ajfkmJ

— Matt Edwards (@Matedwards7) April 22, 2026

O gracious Father, who gave Saint Donnan the grace to serve as a faithful witness and capable leader even unto death, grant us the strength to follow his example of persevering witness, through Christ our Lord. who with you and the Holy Spirit ever liveth and reigneth in glory everlasting, Amen.

Apr 17: Feast of Donnán and companions (†617), slain on the Isle of Eigg. The ravaging of Toraighe (Tory Island) and burning of Condairi (Connor, County Antrim) in the same year suggest a sea-borne conflagration afflicting the Hebrides and north coast of Ireland. 📸LJ Cunningham pic.twitter.com/DtjGiY0yoa

— North Ages (@NorthAges) April 17, 2026

O gracious God, who gave Saint Magnus the grace to witness unto his death and to pray for those who were his killers, grant us the courage to follow his example of being a faithful disciple to the end, through Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit ever liveth and reignith in glory everlasting, Amen.

Apr 16: Feast of Magnús († c.1116), earl of Orkney. His cousin Hákon Pálsson had him killed in a feud over the division of lands and power in their joint earldom. Orkneyinga saga says Magnús accepted violent death as a sacrifice, praying for his killers. 📸Hew Morrison pic.twitter.com/bQImf8ByHA

— North Ages (@NorthAges) April 16, 2026