The Archbishops’ Council is to award £600,000 to two national charities that provide well-being services to clergy, including counselling and financial grants, it was announced on Monday.

The Clergy Support Trust, which is independent of the Church of England, has been awarded £500,000 for work that supports clergy with their finances, health, and well-being. It is hoped that the new grant will support clergy with everyday expenses such as energy costs, unexpected car repairs, and school-related costs for clergy children, a statement from Church House, Westminster, said.

The Trust also provides other grants and services for clergy, including counselling, coaching, and occupational therapy. A year ago, it received a grant of £2 million from the Archbishops’ Council (News, 7 February 2025), through which more than 7000 grants were provided to more than 2900 households.

“The vast majority of applicants are from serving clergy households in the Church of England,” Church House said.

The Trust has supported more than one fifth of all serving C of E clergy for the past three years. 

Read it all.

The Archbishops’ Council is to award £600,000 to two national charities that provide well-being services to clergy, including counselling and financial grants, it was announced on Monday#churchofengland #clergywellbeing #churchnews #churchtimes https://t.co/zyu8RXD6YK

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 3, 2026

Holy God, who didst inspire the Dorchester chaplains to be models of steadfast sacrificial love in a tragic and terrifying time: Help us to follow their example, that their courageous ministry may inspire chaplains and all who serve, to recognize thy presence in the midst of peril; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today, the U.S. Army commemorates Four Chaplains Day, in remembrance of the chaplains who gave their life in service to their Soldiers on the torpedoed Dorchester transport ship in 1943. Here's the true story of their heroism and sacrifice. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/lIRN8Pr3Pz

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) February 3, 2026

The impact of the Tudors on Wales, England, and Europe is known to every school pupil in Britain: King Henry VIII and his succession of wives, his part in the Reformation that spilt the continent, and the Church of England that emerged from and has somehow survived these turbulent beginnings.

Visitors will soon be able to see where it all began, in the 1400s: the family church of the Tudor dynasty. No need to book, queue, or register months in advance: the medieval St Gredifael’s, Penmynydd, on Anglesey, is to become the newest addition to the collection of buildings maintained by the Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC). Yet this marks a big improvement in the church’s fortunes: it has been closed for more than ten years. The FoFC, with the help of an anonymous benefactor, are to carry out repairs and reopen it for visits and occasional acts of worship.

Wales’s religious heritage is disappearing, or being sold off, at possibly the fastest rate since the Reformation. According to the National Churches Trust (NCT), 25 per cent of historic churches and Nonconformist chapels in Wales have closed in the past decade. The National Churches Survey, published by the NCT in October, found that those who ran nearly ten per cent of places of Christian worship in Wales believed that they would “definitely” or “probably” not be open for worship in five years’ time.

Dwindling congregations and soaring maintenance bills have resulted in congregations’ merging, relocating, or closing their buildings, and the auctioning or demolition of churches. A handful, such as St Gredifael’s, are saved by heritage charities such as the FoFC.

Read it all.

"Wales’s religious heritage is disappearing, or being sold off, at possibly the fastest rate since the Reformation."

Declining attendance means closure for churches in #Wales, but valuable history could be lost, reports Abigail Frymann Rouch https://t.co/7zLUeIUczJ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 1, 2026

We’re abandoning our humanistic core. The elements of our civilization that lift the spirit, nurture empathy and orient the soul now play a diminished role in national life: religious devotion, theology, literature, art, history, philosophy. Many educators decided that because Western powers spawned colonialism — and they did — students in the West should learn nothing about the lineage of their civilization and should thereby be rendered cultural orphans. Activists decided persuasion is a myth and that life is a ruthless power competition between oppressors and oppressed groups. As a result of technological progress and humanistic decay, life has become objectively better but subjectively worse. We have widened personal freedom but utterly failed to help people answer the question of what that freedom is for.

The most grievous cultural wound has been the loss of a shared moral order. We told multiple generations to come up with their own individual values. This privatization of morality burdened people with a task they could not possibly do, leaving them morally inarticulate and unformed. It created a naked public square where there was no broad agreement about what was true, beautiful and good. Without shared standards of right and wrong, it’s impossible to settle disputes; it’s impossible to maintain social cohesion and trust. Every healthy society rests on some shared conception of the sacred — sacred heroes, sacred texts, sacred ideals — and when that goes away, anxiety, atomization and a slow descent toward barbarism are the natural results.

It shouldn’t surprise us that, according to one Harvard survey, 58 percent of college students say they experienced no sense of “purpose or meaning” in their life in the month before being polled. It shouldn’t surprise us that people are so distrusting and demoralized. I’m haunted by an observation that Albert Camus made about his continent 75 years ago: The men of Europe “no longer believe in the things that exist in the world and in living man; the secret of Europe is that it no longer loves life.”

We could use better political leadership, of course, but the crucial question facing America is: How can we reverse this pervasive loss of faith in one another, in our future and in our shared ideals? 

Read it all.

The deepest cultural wound isn’t politics or economics.

It’s the loss of a shared moral order.

When nothing is sacred—no heroes, no texts, no ideals—anxiety rises, people atomize, and barbarism quietly returns.https://t.co/CryYvXJk5x#culture #meaning #morality #trust…

— Art Berman (@aeberman12) February 2, 2026

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

The last few years have taken a real toll on pastors, causing many to consider quitting ministry. But new data from Barna Group suggests that fewer pastors are now thinking of walking away.

According to Barna’s latest findings, 24 percent of U.S. senior Protestant pastors say they have seriously considered leaving full-time ministry within the past year—a decline from the peak levels recorded during the height of the pandemic era. While still a substantial share of leaders, the decrease signals a meaningful shift after several years marked by intense vocational strain.

For much of the past five years, Barna’s research has documented rising pressure on pastors. Early in the pandemic, pastors were forced to navigate church closures, rapid shifts in ministry models, health concerns and political division—often all at once and with limited support. Emotional exhaustion intensified during the COVID-19 years, ministry demands multiplied and leaders faced heightened conflict and polarization within their congregations.

By 2022, those overlapping pressures culminated in an alarming reality: roughly two in five pastors said they had seriously considered quitting ministry altogether.

Since 2022, the share of pastors considering quitting has steadily declined.

Read it all.

(Barna Group) 'By 2022, those overlapping pressures culminated in an alarming reality: roughly two in five pastors said they had seriously considered quitting ministry altogether.

Since 2022, the share of pastors considering quitting has steadily declined. The drop to 24 percent…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 31, 2026

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

Majorities of Americans continue to support charitable causes, with 76% reporting that they gave money to a religious or other nonprofit organization in the past year and 63% saying they volunteered their time to such an organization.

Americans’ current levels of charitable activities are somewhat different from what they were in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial contributions have eased slightly, registering five percentage points lower than in 2021, but volunteering is seven points higher now.

Meanwhile, a steady 17% of U.S. adults say they gave blood in the past 12 months.

Read it all.

Americans continue to support charitable causes with 76% saying they gave money to nonprofits in the past year and 63% saying they volunteered their time to nonprofits. https://t.co/a5vdAcC1YS pic.twitter.com/a8na0r5603

— Grace Platon (@GracePlaton) January 27, 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

Drones are responsible for between 70 and 80 percent of those injured or killed on both sides of the war in Ukraine, according to a new report by a key Latvian intelligence service.

“This makes the war more dynamic at the tactical level, but reduces the chance of either side making a strategic breakthrough,” reads the report by Latvia’s Constitution Protection Bureau (SAB), published Monday.

As a result, the decisive factors in determining the outcome of the war are Western military and political support, the authors concluded.

Drone warfare played a major role in helping Ukrainian forces repel Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Since late 2024, however, the drone war has shifted in Russia’s favor, as Moscow adapted to the new technology, according to the Atlantic Council. 

Read it all.

Drones are responsible for between 70 and 80 percent of those injured or killed on both sides of the war in Ukraine, according to a new report by a key Latvian intelligence service.https://t.co/d9BvLABQXg

— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) January 26, 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

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

The line from Thucydides, “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”, is getting quite the airing of late. You are meant to nod gravely along to it, as though it expresses a bitter but universal truth about international relations.

Does it, though? The phrase implies that a country becomes more aggressive as it grows more powerful. Well, the US was never mightier than it was around the time of Trump’s birth in 1946, when it made half of the manufactured goods in the world and had a nuclear monopoly too. With all this power, the US didn’t “do what it could” to the weak. Instead, it set up the Marshall Plan and Nato, those masterpieces of enlightened self-interest. It rebuilt Japan and Germany as pacifist democracies. The belligerent turn in American behaviour has in fact come during its relative decline.

Leadership explains some of this, in that Harry Truman was “better” than Trump, but only some. The rest is structural. It is easier for a nation to be magnanimous from a great height. Paranoia and aggression set in when that position slips. As such, we should expect a volatile US until it gets used to the role of being a, not the, superpower. Britain and France got there in the end, despite having to fall much further.

No one ever quotes the other bit of the famous Dylan Thomas poem about decline. After nagging the reader to “rage against the dying of the light”, he concedes that giving up makes more sense: “wise men at their end know dark is right.”

Read it all (subscription).

Always beware a declining superpower – https://t.co/4Xah6qhSiO via @FT
Like a wounded tiger, always most dangerous in that state

— Marshall Auerback (@Mauerback) January 21, 2026

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated the Kremlin’s commitment to its original war demands against the background of expected peace talks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 20, and falsely accused Ukraine of beginning the war by attacking Russia. Lavrov gave a speech and held a press conference outlining Russia’s foreign policy in 2025 and reiterated Russia’s commitment to addressing the so-called “root causes” of its war in Ukraine.[23] Lavrov and other Kremlin officials have repeatedly defined these “root causes” as NATO expansion and alleged discrimination against Russian people, the Russian language, and the Russian Orthodox Church (a Kremlin-controlled arm of influence) in Ukraine.

Lavrov also reiterated on January 20 the Kremlin’s rejection of any peace deal that does not cede all of “Novorossiya” to Russia and that provides Ukraine with security guarantees from Europe. Novorossiya is an invented region that the Kremlin often claims is “integral” to Russia and includes areas of eastern and southern Ukraine beyond the oblasts that Russia has illegally annexed. Lavrov explicitly rejected the US-Ukrainian-European 20-point peace plan and listed demands inconsistent with terms in the original US-proposed 28-point peace plan, including the demand for territories that go beyond those that Russia has illegally annexed. Lavrov also rejected a possible temporary or permanent ceasefire in Ukraine because Ukraine could “then attack the Russian Federation again” — falsely accusing Ukraine of having attacked Russia in the past, whereas Russia has been the one to initiate all military aggression against Ukraine.

Senior Kremlin officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have repeatedly demonstrated that Russia will not be satisfied with a peace settlement that does not meet Russia’s uncompromising terms or that only pertains to Ukraine and does not radically restructure NATO. Lavrov’s January 20 statements set conditions for Russia to justify to domestic audiences its rejection of any terms that emerge from talks at the Davos Summit.

Read it all.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated the Kremlin’s commitment to its original war demands against the background of expected peace talks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 20, and falsely accused Ukraine of beginning the war by attacking… https://t.co/gmPCvKZMuR pic.twitter.com/RGNWNVcPXS

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) January 21, 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

C.S. Lewis said that the universe is at war, a cosmic war, but it is not one of independent powers. It is a civil war, a rebellion, and we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. 

Is the increasing fascination with the supernatural a sign that we are caught between two worlds? Does this growing mainstream appeal of this concept reflect a rise in unseen spiritual activity, a hidden war where unseen entities like angels and demons actually contest for our souls?

Or, in our modern context, does the idea of a literal, unseen struggle between spiritual entities simply sound like a compelling fantasy. Perhaps it’s akin to the epic battles in works like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which serves mainly to satisfy our imagination and feed our collective longing for escapism.

What if this widespread intrigue with the supernatural isn’t just a fantasy, a baseless rumor, or a quirky fringe belief? Could this persistent fascination be a deeper indicator – a spiritual longing for a journey back to re-enchantment, a quest for something genuinely profound and real, yet intangible?

C.S. Lewis said that the universe is at war, a cosmic war, but it is not one of independent powers. It is a civil war, a rebellion, and we are living in a part of the universe occupied by the rebel. 

Is the increasing fascination with the supernatural a sign that we are caught between two worlds? Does this growing mainstream appeal of this concept reflect a rise in unseen spiritual activity, a hidden war where unseen entities like angels and demons actually contest for our souls?

Or, in our modern context, does the idea of a literal, unseen struggle between spiritual entities simply sound like a compelling fantasy. Perhaps it’s akin to the epic battles in works like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, which serves mainly to satisfy our imagination and feed our collective longing for escapism.

What if this widespread intrigue with the supernatural isn’t just a fantasy, a baseless rumor, or a quirky fringe belief? Could this persistent fascination be a deeper indicator – a spiritual longing for a journey back to re-enchantment, a quest for something genuinely profound and real, yet intangible?

Read it all.

(S+U) Rick Hansen–My father was an exorcist, and the cosmic struggle feels strangely modern https://t.co/Q5IHel540y #religion #supernatural #spiritualwarfare #21stc

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) 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

As Abernathy tells it—and I believe he is right—he and King were first of all Christians, then Southerners, and then blacks living under an oppressive segregationist regime. King of course came from the black bourgeoisie of Atlanta in which his father, “Daddy King,” had succeeded in establishing himself as a king. Abernathy came from much more modest circumstances, but he was proud of his heritage and, as he writes, wanted nothing more than that whites would address his father as Mr. Abernathy. He and Martin loved the South, and envisioned its coming into its own once the sin of segregation had been expunged.

“Years later,” Abernathy writes that, “after the civil rights movement had peaked and I had taken over [after Martin’s death] as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” he met with Governor George Wallace. “Governor Wallace, by then restricted to a wheel chair after having been paralyzed by a would-be assassin’s bullet, shook hands with me and welcomed me to the State of Alabama. I smiled, realizing that he had forgotten all about Montgomery and Birmingham, and particularly Selma. ‘This is not my first visit,’ I said. ‘I was born in Alabama—in Marengo County.’ ‘Good,’ said Governor Wallace, ‘then welcome back.’ I really believe he meant it. In his later years he had become one of the greatest friends the blacks had ever had in Montgomery. Where once he had stood in the doorway and barred federal marshals from entering, he now made certain that our people were first in line for jobs, new schools, and other benefits of state government.” Abernathy concludes, “It was a time for reconciliations.”

Read it all (my emphasis).

It’s a tragedy that 60 years later most American students can’t even understand MLK or why his writing and speaking were so powerful.

He brought the entire weight of the Western, Christian, classical tradition to make his case. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail King casually… pic.twitter.com/vrtdMlgEzU

— Jeremy Wayne Tate (@JeremyTate41) January 19, 2026

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”–then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.

There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”

Read it all.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him it is right.” #MartinLutherKingJr #MLK #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/gNKvhjzGBZ

— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center (@TheKingCenter) January 17, 2026

Almighty God, who by the hand of Moses thy servant didst lead thy people out of slavery, and didst make them free at last: Grant that thy Church, following the example of thy prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of thy love, and may strive to secure for all thy children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Remembering the Life & Legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr! Join us on News 2 at 11 this morning for live coverage of the annual YWCA Greater Charleston’s King Day parade in downtown Charleston. Happy MLK Day everyone.. a day of remembrance and service.. not a day off!🇺🇸❤️ pic.twitter.com/ITDn8AjC1K

— Octavia Mitchell (@OctaviaNews) January 19, 2026

Just over two years ago, an Anglican Futures blogger adopted the concept of the ‘Travelator’ as a way of explaining how the process of changing the Church of England’s practice and teaching about sexual relationships works.

The blog explained how David Porter, the then Archbishop of Canterbury’s Strategy Consultant, ensured that the process would itself become the outcome, by legitimising the questions being asked and preventing any ‘end point’, other than the introduction of blessings and/or same-sex marriage, with the expectation that those who disagree are required to ‘walk together’/ ‘agree to disagree’.

Just like a Travelator – once the first step is taken, there is no way off.

Today, however, some are suggesting that the House of Bishops’ latest statement represents a reversal of the Travelator. If this were true it would be a cause for great rejoicing amongst orthodox Anglicans throughout the Anglican Communion.

In contrast, this blog sets out 6 reasons why the most recent missive from the House of Bishops is a very clear indicator that the Travelator is still doing its work, inching forward and carrying all in the Church of England along with it, whether or not they approve of the destination.

Just over two years ago, an Anglican Futures blogger adopted the concept of the ‘Travelator’ as a way of explaining how the process of changing the Church of England’s practice and teaching about sexual relationships works.

The blog explained how David Porter, the then Archbishop of Canterbury’s Strategy Consultant, ensured that the process would itself become the outcome, by legitimising the questions being asked and preventing any ‘end point’, other than the introduction of blessings and/or same-sex marriage, with the expectation that those who disagree are required to ‘walk together’/ ‘agree to disagree’.

Just like a Travelator – once the first step is taken, there is no way off.

Today, however, some are suggesting that the House of Bishops’ latest statement represents a reversal of the Travelator. If this were true it would be a cause for great rejoicing amongst orthodox Anglicans throughout the Anglican Communion.

In contrast, this blog sets out 6 reasons why the most recent missive from the House of Bishops is a very clear indicator that the Travelator is still doing its work, inching forward and carrying all in the Church of England along with it, whether or not they approve of the destination.

Read it all.

A much needed dose of realism from @AnglicanFutures concerning the PLF process. Some will say the reality on the ground will, in fact, be worse https://t.co/Lezo9qf2HW

— Dan Leafe (@DanLeafe1) January 16, 2026

Still, finding enough volunteers for the ministry is a challenge. Many people will help with Christmas caroling events at the retirement homes or attend special classic-movie nights that Twilight Hope puts on at facilities. But only a few volunteers come out consistently.

Some people find long-term care facilities intimidating. “I think it’s because there’s weird smells, there’s scary noises, sometimes there’s bells going off,” [Stephanie] Smith said. “Some of the facilities feel like hospitals, and that freaks people out.” 

Yet she believes those feelings fade quickly. “Once you get in there, and once you get over that, and once you start to get to know the people, you’re gonna fall in love with them,” she said. “They’re so wise. They have whole histories behind them, a life to share.” 

She noted that residents especially enjoy when children visit. One volunteer, Jake Alger, has been serving and bringing his children with him for the past 18 years. His youngest is 6 and is a favorite among the residents.

“Jesus tells us to love our neighbor, and the reality is a lot more of our neighbors are going to be older,” Smith said. “There’s a real sense
of urgency.”

Read it all.

(CT) Some people find long-term care facilities intimidating. “I think it’s because there’s weird smells, there’s scary noises, sometimes there’s bells going off,” Smith said. “Some of the facilities feel like hospitals, and that freaks people out.”

Yet she believes those…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 16, 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

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

The Iranian regime views the protests as a proto-revolution that it must crush completely and immediately. Some Iranians are resisting the regime, in some cases violently, which reinforces the regime’s view that the protests retain the potential to transform into a revolution. The regime will likely succeed in quelling this resistance if it can retain the loyalty of security forces and prevent those who are resisting the regime from acquiring the wherewithal to challenge the regime’s ability and willingness to sustain its crackdown. The regime has abandoned any effort it made in the beginning of this protest movement to distinguish between legitimate economic protests and illegitimate anti-regime protests. Iranian media and officials, including those who expressed sympathy for protesters in the beginning of this protest movement, are categorically describing protesters as “terrorists.”[1] Iranian Justice Minister Amir Hossein Rahimi stated on January 14 that any protester who has participated in protests after January 8—which is when the rate and scope of the protests expanded dramatically—is guilty of taking part in an “internal war.”[2] Rahimi’s statement highlights how the regime has stopped showing any tolerance toward protests, as it did to an extent in the beginning of the protest movement, and views any protest as a serious threat to the regime.

The extent and extremity of the regime’s use of violence to quell the protests further demonstrate that the regime views the protests as a proto-revolution. Reports from eyewitnesses and protesters in Iran describe an unprecedented degree of regime brutality toward protesters. Iranians told BBC Persian on January 11 that the scale of deaths and injuries in the current protest movement is “unprecedented and incomparable” to previous protest waves.[3] Amnesty International reported on January 14 that regime security forces have committed “unlawful killings…on an unprecedented scale.”[4] Western media outlets have reported protester death toll estimates between 2,000 and 20,000.[5] These numbers surpass the approximately 1,500 protesters who were killed in 2019 and approximately 550 protesters who were killed during the 2022-2023 Mahsa Amini movement.[6] A US-based human rights organization also estimated that the regime has arrested over 10,000 individuals in the current wave of protests thus far.[7] The regime previously arrested around 7,000 individuals in the 2019 protests and 20,000 individuals during the Mahsa Amini movement. The regime arrested 20,000 individuals over a roughly three-month period, whereas the regime has arrested 10,000 individuals in the past two and a half weeks.

Read it all.

Latest on Iran: The Iranian regime views the protests as a proto-revolution that it must crush completely and immediately. Some Iranians are resisting the regime, in some cases violently, which reinforces the regime’s view that the protests retain the potential to transform into… pic.twitter.com/gY5Ys6hJbB

— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) January 15, 2026

The last time Iran was convulsed by nationwide protests, in 2022, the Arab world was transfixed. The Islamic Republic had spent decades building a network of powerful allies that came to dominate the region. Many Arabs wondered if the prospect of regime change in Tehran offered a chance to throw off Iran’s yoke in their own countries.

Pan-Arab news outlets, often funded by Gulf monarchies, egged on the protests with sympathetic, round-the-clock coverage. Arab diplomats kept their counsel in public but sounded ebullient in private. At one point Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused Saudi-backed media outlets of inciting further unrest and demanded that the kingdom rein in their coverage. “Otherwise you will pay the price,” he warned.

The protests in Iran today arguably pose an even greater threat to the regime than those in 2022—yet the reaction in the Arab world has been surprisingly muted. Evening-news broadcasts this month have been led, routinely, by stories other than Iran. Many officials sound nervous when they comment, if they say anything at all. Two things account for the change in tone: Iran’s diminished status, and the Gulf’s growing fear of chaos.

The Israeli wars that followed the massacre of October 7th 2023 have wrecked Iran’s network of proxies. Hizbullah, its once-powerful ally in Lebanon, has been badly weakened and still faces near-daily Israeli air strikes. Bashar al-Assad’s pro-Iranian regime in Syria is no more. Iran itself is reeling from 12 days of Israeli and American bombardment in June. As for Salami, he no longer makes threats: he was killed by an Israeli air strike at the beginning of that war.

All of this makes the fate of the Islamic Republic seem less urgent.

Read it all.

The protests in Iran today arguably pose an even greater threat to the regime than those in 2022—yet the reaction in the Arab world has been surprisingly muted https://t.co/cQUYYF21oh

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) January 14, 2026