Category : * Religion News & Commentary

News and commentary from / about other (non-Anglican) Christian churches and denominations

(CSM)‘It’s what I’ve been looking for’: Why this mother of two embraces her church

When Ms. Harmon prays, she does so like she’s talking to her best friend. She turns to God for everything from small things – “I really want my baby to sleep tonight” – to big things, like where to buy a house or how many children to have.

A friend gave her a box that says “Give it to God” on the cover, and she writes her prayer items on sticky notes to place inside. The list ranges from praying for friends who are trying to conceive or who are looking for a job, to her own highs and lows with postpartum anxiety and depression.

Ms. Harmon’s current church, about an hour north of Denver, is about half young married couples. Her moms’ group is about 30 to 35 women. There’s no substitute for church in person, she says, pointing to the Bible chapter in Hebrews that encourages Christians to be in community.

“Doing life with other people is so rich,” she says. “I see why He calls us to that.”

Read it all.

Posted in Evangelicals, Other Churches, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Women

(Mark Tooley) Tucker Carlson Is Resurrecting Christianity’s Ugly Tradition of Antisemitism

Tucker Carlson’s platforming of antisemitic social influencer Nick Fuentes, who proclaims “Christ is King,” evinces the reemergence of antisemitism in American Christianity. For the last 85 years, World War II and the Holocaust have made antisemitism publicly unacceptable in American Christianity, prior to which it was often acceptable.

For example, at the 1924 Methodist governing General Conference, the church’s prominent Prohibition chief, Clarence True Wilson, blamed the “filth” of films and theater on Jewish “degenerates, all of one race but of no religion, who have corrupted everything their filthy hands have touched for 2,000 years.” He warned: “No nation that has let them control its finances but has had to vomit them up, sometimes with bitter persecutions, to get the poison out of their system.” Wilson faulted German Jews for their “controlling interest in our liquor traffic.”

The audience for Wilson’s remarks included hundreds of Methodist leaders plus the church’s bishops. Yet there’s no record that his speech was controversial. Wilson continued as head of the denomination’s Washington, D.C. office on Capitol Hill for another 11 years. Methodism was then America’s biggest Protestant denomination. And its political influence was such that it was the main force responsible for persuading America to adopt Prohibition, with Wilson its chief advocate. So his anti-Jewish speech did not come from a marginal figure and likely represented the views of millions of Protestants, many of whom joined in the 1920s Ku Klux Klan resurgence, which made Jews, along with Catholics and Blacks, its chief targets.

American Christianity, and America, have been blessed that antisemitism across 85 years has mostly been taboo. But the memories of World War II and the Holocaust are fast fading. And revisionism about both, promoted by Carlson and Fuentes, among many others, is increasingly common. Human nature being what it is, demons once expelled often return and must again be exorcised.

Read it all.

Posted in * Religion News & Commentary, America/U.S.A., Church History, History, Judaism, Other Churches, Religion & Culture

(Church Times) Church of England Statistics for Mission contradict claims of Quiet Revival

Despite polling heralded as revealing a “quiet revival”, the Church of England is — by almost every measure and in almost every diocese — smaller than it was in 2018, this year’s Statistics for Mission show.

The data, published on Tuesday, record that in 2024 attendance rose for the fourth year, but that recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic has slowed. Increases in attendance since 2023 were smaller than in previous years. In 2019, a “middle-sized” church had an all-age average weekly attendance (AWA) of 34.5; in 2024, the equivalent figure was 26. The median church has just one child in attendance, compared with three in 2019.

Adult AWA (based on in-person attendance in October) was 18 per cent lower than in 2019, and 1.8 per cent higher than in 2023. This was five per cent below the projected pre-pandemic trend.

Read it all.

Posted in England / UK, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture, Secularism

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky

O God, who in thy providence didst call Joseph Schereschewsky from his home in Eastern Europe to the ministry of this Church, and didst send him as a missionary to China, upholding him in his infirmity, that he might translate the holy Scriptures into languages of that land: Lead us, we pray thee, to commit our lives and talents to thee, in the confidence that when thou givest thy servants any work to do, thou dost also supply the strength to do it; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Posted in Books, China, Church History, Europe, Germany, Judaism, Lithuania, Missions, Spirituality/Prayer, Theology: Scripture

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg

Loving God, Shepherd of thy people, we offer thanks for the ministry of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, who left his native land to care for the German and Scandinavian pioneers in North America; and we pray that, following the teaching and example of his life, we may grow into the full stature of Christ; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Lutheran, Spirituality/Prayer

(EN) Gerald Bray on the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally: ‘Undertrained and inexperienced’

After months of speculation, the Church of England has finally appointed a new Archbishop of Canterbury. The first woman in the post, she is the current Bishop of London and as such has already played a senior role in the Church for several years.

Her theological training and ministerial experience are minimal. She was enrolled on a local ordination course rather than at a theological college and served a couple of part-time curacies before being very briefly rector of a parish church. She was soon promoted to the episcopate as suffragan bishop of Crediton, but her main achievement appears to be that she was a competent administrator in the National Health Service. Is a track record like that promising for a future Archbishop of Canterbury?

The short answer must be no.

Read it all

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Posted in Archbishop of Canterbury, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Evangelicals, Ministry of the Ordained, Parish Ministry, Seminary / Theological Education

(Church Times) Church leaders offer prayers and support after Manchester synagogue attack

The Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, has urged communities to “draw closer to one another in love”, after two people were killed, and four left in hospital, in an attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

“Hate can never defeat hate, only love can conquer hate. Today, we stand in solidarity with our Jewish neighbours and reaffirm our shared commitment to peace and safety for all,” he said.

According to reports, at about 9.30 a.m. on Friday a car was driven towards worshippers who had gathered outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, and at least one person was stabbed.

Police firearms officers shot and killed a man who is believed to be the suspect, and it was later reported that two other people had been arrested.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, England / UK, Inter-Faith Relations, Judaism, Religion & Culture, Violence

(CT) John Huffman, Evangelical Presbyterian Pastor, RIP

“I thought I was heading into oblivion,” he said. “It was scary—and exciting.” 

Huffman thrived in Florida, though, getting an opportunity to minister not only to the president but also to an island of young professionals who wanted to grow in their faith and a rotating cast of powerful people spending time on Florida’s beaches and golf courses.

He was careful to “just preach the gospel,” he said, regardless of who was in church, and to remember he was preaching to everyone, not just the most powerful person in the room. 

“There may have been someone else in the congregation who needed to hear what I said more than the president,” he said. “You’re there to serve the Lord. That’s the important part. Let the chips fall where they may.”

The year after Huffman told Nixon to confess, he accepted a call to be pastor at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Pittsburgh, a prestigious pulpit at a respected and historic congregation. Decision magazine did a photo essay on the church while Huffman was there, naming it “one of the great churches in America.” 

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Church History, Death / Burial / Funerals, Ministry of the Ordained, Presbyterian, Religion & Culture

(RU) China Tightens Digital Grip On Clergy With Sweeping New Rules

In an escalation of its already tight grip on religious freedom, China introduced a sweeping set of regulations that strictly control how clergy of officially recognized religions can operate online.

The new rules – released by the State Administration for Religious Affairs on Sept, 15 – are a continuation of Beijing’s long-term campaign to control religious practices in an effort to reshape faith so it aligns with the Chinese Communist Party.

The 18-article document, titled “Code of Conduct for Religious Clergy on the Internet,” outlines what religious leaders in China are allowed to do in the digital space. More significantly, it focuses on what they are forbidden from doing.

The rules apply to clergy of all five officially recognized religions — Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism — allowed to practice within China.

China’s policy of “sinicizing” is an effort by the CCP to control and assimilate ethnic and religious groups into a state-approved — and largely Han Chinese — identity.

Read it all.

Posted in China, Law & Legal Issues, Ministry of the Ordained, Parish Ministry, Politics in General, Religion & Culture, Religious Freedom / Persecution

(Church Times) Lords Spiritual gather behind opposition to assisted-dying Bill

Bishops decried the proposed legalisation of assisted dying on Friday, as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill came to the House of Lords for the first of two days of debate.

“If passed, this Bill will signal that we are a society that believes that some lives are not worth living,” the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said. It would become, she said, the “state-endorsed position”.

Bishop Mullally, a former Chief Nursing Officer, questioned whether Parliament had properly listened to the advice of medical experts, including professional bodies which have expressed concerns about the legislation.

The Bill also failed in its “central claim” to give people choice about the manner of their death, she said. “A meaningful choice would see the measures in this Bill set alongside easily available, fully-funded, palliative and social-care services. Without a choice offered, this choice is an illusion.”

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, Aging / the Elderly, Anthropology, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Death / Burial / Funerals, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Health & Medicine, Law & Legal Issues, Life Ethics, Secularism, Theology

(Christian Today) ‘There is no such thing as the evangelical’ – researchers say movement’s centre has shifted to Global South

The question of who qualifies as an evangelical and how many evangelicals exist worldwide continues to puzzle scholars, church leaders and mission researchers alike. That was the central theme of a Sept. 2 webinar hosted by the World Evangelical Alliance and released publicly Sept. 5, featuring two leading voices in global religious demography.

Dr. Gina A. Zurlo, editor of the World Christian Database and a lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, and Jason Mandryk, longtime editor of Operation World, outlined both the difficulties and the necessity of measuring a movement that is increasingly diverse and shifting rapidly toward the Global South.

Both experts agreed that unlike Catholicism, Orthodoxy, or even Pentecostalism, evangelicalism has no universally agreed-upon definition. This makes the task of counting adherents unusually complex. Yet, they stressed, reliable figures are crucial for understanding how Christianity is changing worldwide.

Mandryk opened with a blunt assessment: “There is no such thing as the evangelical.”

Read it all.

Posted in Evangelicals, Global South Churches & Primates, Globalization, Religion & Culture

A prayer for the feast day of Edith Stein

Pour out thy grace upon thy church, O God, that like thy servant Edith Stein we may always seek what is true, defend what is right, reprove what is evil, and forgive those who sin against us, even as thy Son hath commanded. All this we ask through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Death / Burial / Funerals, Germany, Judaism, Roman Catholic, Spirituality/Prayer, The Netherlands, Women

A Prayer for the Feast Day of William Wilberforce

Let thy continual mercy, O Lord, enkindle in thy Church the never-failing gift of love, that, following the example of thy servant William Wilberforce, we may have grace to defend the poor, and maintain the cause of those who have no helper; for the sake of him who gave his life for us, thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Church of England, England / UK, Evangelicals, Law & Legal Issues, Ministry of the Laity, Parish Ministry, Politics in General, Race/Race Relations, Religion & Culture, Spirituality/Prayer

(CT) Since May 1, foreigners in China have only been able to preach and teach with government approval

American missionary Caleb Rowen has witnessed firsthand China’s tightening restrictions on religious faith and practice.

From 2006 to 2016, government policies prohibiting missionary work did not feel strictly enforced, Rowen said. Cross-organizational outreach, partnerships, and Bible translation projects took shape and flourished in this season.

The Chinese government “just turned a blind eye,” he said, “until they didn’t.”

In 2014, the Chinese government started cracking down on Korean missionaries and went on to expel entire Western mission agencies in 2018. In the same year, it shut down prominent house churches and arrested pastors like Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church. It seemed as if overnight, half the missionaries whom Rowen knew had left China. CT is using a pseudonym for Rowen, as he is concerned about his safety for speaking with Christian media. 

Read it all.

Posted in China, Politics in General, Religion & Culture, Religious Freedom / Persecution

(Crossway) Leland Ryken–Glorifying Christ Every Way: Remembering J. I. Packer

The reason I do not hesitate to call my experience representative of a multitude of people is that how Packer reached me was the printed word. This is the story of Packer’s life and ministry. Packer never held a prestigious professorship at a famous university, nor did he fill a high-visibility pulpit permanently. Furthermore, he lived before the age of social media and the instant dissemination they confer. When I interviewed Packer for my biography of him, he affirmed his steadfast refusal throughout his life to cultivate a following.

Additionally, Packer was a soft-spoken and unassuming man. No assignment was too small or humble for him. During one of the summers that the ESV translation committee met in Cambridge, England, Packer accepted an invitation to speak to a group of local young people in a church member’s living room. One of the translators and his wife smuggled their way into the meeting. They later reported that the living room was so crowded that some of the young people sat under a table.

In view of this absence of ordinary channels for becoming widely known, how is it possible that surveys of influential evangelicals conducted early in the present century found Packer near the tops of the lists? The answer is that J. I. Packer achieved his prominence through the printed word and its uncanny ability to reach ordinary people in the ordinary circumstances of life. Some of Packer’s books, such as his first book (Fundamentalism and the Word of God), began as a series of addresses to students and lay people. His signature book Knowing God, which sold a million and a half copies, began as a series of articles on basic Christian beliefs for a religious magazine. J. I. Packer is a classic case of someone who was faithful in little and thereby found himself set over much. I cannot think of a better validation of the effectiveness of Christian publishing than the career of J. I. Packer.

Read it all.

Posted in * Anglican - Episcopal, Books, Canada, Church History, Death / Burial / Funerals, England / UK, Evangelicals, Seminary / Theological Education, Theology

(CT)  John MacArthur, Who Explained the Bible to Millions, RIP

After that he started preaching through the New Testament one book at a time, beginning with the Gospel of John and then moving to Peter’s first and second epistles. MacArthur spent 30 hours a week preparing sermons and delegated almost all other pastoral responsibilities to the church’s elders and lay leaders. 

The church grew rapidly. Grace built a new building that could seat 1,000 in 1971 and expanded again in 1977, tripling in size. It became the largest Protestant church in Los Angeles by the end of the decade.

The demand for recordings of MacArthur’s sermons also exploded. Church members sent out 5,000 tapes every week, then 15,000, then 30,000. By the end of the ’70s, more than 100,000 Christians around the country were receiving MacArthur’s recorded sermons every week. The church also launched a separate ministry, Grace to You, to broadcast MacArthur’s messages on Christian radio.

“John’s ministry proves how timeless preaching can be when it is merely sound, clear biblical exposition,” Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You, said in 2011. “If the aim of preaching is the awakening of spiritually dead souls and the cleansing and transformation of lives spoiled by sin, then all that really counts is that the preacher be faithful in proclaiming the Word of God with clarity, accuracy, and candor.”

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Death / Burial / Funerals, Evangelicals, Ministry of the Ordained, Parish Ministry, Preaching / Homiletics, Religion & Culture

(CT) Emmanuel Nwachukwu–My encounter with a false health-and-wealth gospel in Nigeria

Oyakhilome taught his members to make declarative statements such as “Debt has no hold over me! I operate in financial liberty, owing no man anything except love. I have more than enough to fund my dreams, support my family, and be a blessing to others.” Caleb argued that this strong belief leads to victory.

The prosperity gospel capitalizes on half-truths: Yes, we must believe in God to be blessed by him. But the Bible never tells us that the strength of our faith will magically procure all our needs.

Biblical faith is a deep trust in God. We trust him because of his character and promises, no matter what happens—good or bad, riches or poverty. We know that God is faithful and works all things for our good (Rom. 8:28). But the prosperity gospel creates a transactional relationship with God. As with a slot machine, you hope to get what you want. The prosperity gospel creates a God who serves our purposes rather than recognizing the true God, who created us for himself. True faith is focused on God, not on self.

Read it all.

Posted in Consumer/consumer spending, Economy, Ethics / Moral Theology, Nigeria, Pentecostal, Theology, Theology: Scripture

(FP) How Roman Catholicism Got Cool

The candlelit church in Greenwich Village was packed. After months of study and preparation, 19 adults sat at the front, dressed in white, nervously awaiting their turn at the baptismal font. One by one, they stepped forward. After anointing them with chrism (holy oil), the priest poured water over their heads, baptizing them into the Catholic Church in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

“It was almost as if the veil between heaven and earth had been lifted,” said Jane, one of the adults baptized into the Church that day. She left feeling “more receptive to the supernatural.”

That was Easter Sunday 2025, just over a month ago. And what happened in Greenwich Village happened across America. There was a boom in adult baptisms.

Earlier this year, The Pillar reported a surge in the numbers of aspiring Catholics registering to join the church at Easter. The Diocese of Lansing in Michigan reported a 30 percent spike from the previous year, 633 converts, which is the highest they’ve seen in over a decade. Father Ryan Kaup, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Catholic center, baptized 20 students alone—“the highest we’ve ever had”—and gave rites of initiation to an additional 50 who were coming into the church from other Christian denominations.

Read it all.

Posted in Religion & Culture, Roman Catholic

(Christianity Today) Rakthai Sophia Loibl–I Was Sold into Slavery. Jesus Set Me Free.

When I jumped out of that window, I asked God to give me everything back. He kept his promise: He kept my daughters safe and returned them to me. When I was locked away, he was my friend and savior. When I was dying, he brought me back to life.

What’s more, he has transformed my suffering into an open door to minister to other people in dire situations living in Thailand, including prostitutes, abandoned children, and those who have been trafficked or are without homes.

I am living proof that God is working in the darkness. And all the ways he has loved me are glimpses of the everlasting life I now treasure in him.

Read it all.

Posted in * Christian Life / Church Life, Islam, Muslim-Christian relations, Religion & Culture, Thailand

A Prayer for the feast day of Isabel Hapgood

Loving God, we offer thanks for the work and witness of Isabel Florence Hapgood, who introduced the Divine Liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church to English-speaking Christians, and encouraged dialogue between Anglicans and Orthodox. Guide us as we build on the foundation that she gave us, that all may be one in Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, unto ages of ages. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Ecumenical Relations, Orthodox Church, Russia, Spirituality/Prayer

(Church Times) [So-called] Assisted-dying vote poses ‘risk to most vulnerable’ says Bishop of London

Parliament voted for the law to change on assisted dying “in the face of mounting evidence that it is unworkable and unsafe and poses a risk to the most vulnerable people in our society”, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said on Friday.

Responding to the decision by the House of Commons on Friday afternoon to progress the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (News, 20 June), Bishop Mullally, who is the lead bishop on health and social care, warned that, “if enacted, this legislation would come into force amid serious shortfalls in adult social care, a postcode lottery in palliative care and well documented pressures on the NHS, multiplying the potential risks to the most vulnerable.

“It does not prevent terminally ill people who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from choosing ‘assisted dying’. And it would mean that we became a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally ill people to end their own lives but, shockingly, only funds around one third of palliative care.”

Read it all.

Posted in Anthropology, Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Death / Burial / Funerals, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Health & Medicine, Politics in General, Religion & Culture, Secularism, Theology, Uncategorized

(BBC) In a very narrow vote MPs back [so-called] assisted dying bill in historic Commons session

In an historic vote, MPs have approved a bill which would pave the way for huge social change by giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to end their own lives.

The Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which was backed by 314 votes to 291, will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

The bill was approved with a majority of 23 MPs, representing a drop from the first time it was debated in November, when it passed by a margin of 55.

The vote came after an emotionally-charged debate which saw MPs recount personal stories of seeing friends and relatives die.

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, Aging / the Elderly, Children, Death / Burial / Funerals, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Health & Medicine, Law & Legal Issues, Life Ethics, Marriage & Family, Politics in General, Secularism, Theology

(Church Times) ‘Horrific’ violence in Nigeria turns to murder

At least 200 displaced people believed to be Christians were killed in Nigeria’s troubled Middle Belt last week. The premeditated attack on Friday night was described by a senior Anglican cleric as the work of “a well-trained, well-equipped and well-funded” Fulani Islamist militia group.

The Ven. Dr Hassan John, Director of Research for the Church of Nigeria, said that attackers approached three villages in Benue state, including Yelwata, which they surrounded before opening fire. “Those that tried to flee were either shot or cut down with machetes,” he said. He explained that the initial death toll of more than 100 rose as more bodies were discovered and others, who had been gravely injured, died later.

Dr John told the Church Times that the violence in central states such as Benue should not be understood as a “fight for scarce grazing land” by Fulani Muslim herders driven south by climate change, as it is sometimes termed by some foreign media and governments. “The perpetrators and their sponsors are known and their agenda, under the guise of fighting over grazing land, has been to strategically wipe out villages, particularly Christian villages, leaving out Muslims in the villages, even if they reside side by side with Christians,” he said.

Read it all.

Posted in Africa, Nigeria, Religion & Culture, Religious Freedom / Persecution, Terrorism

A Prayer for the day from John William Fletcher (1729-1785)

Let us depend above all things, O Christ, on your grace, desire in all things your love, rejoice at all times in your presence and delight through all undertakings in your glory.

Posted in Methodist, Spirituality/Prayer

(CT) Benjamin Vincent–Christians should be known for embodying the virtues of curiosity and epistemic humility

Instead, a thoroughly biblical understanding of epistemic humility means rejoicing in a relationship with the eternal God and trusting that his vast and timeless knowledge far exceeds our own. I may not be certain about many things, but I have decided to follow Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, because he has given me good cause to trust him. In fact, I would do well to trust him more than I trust myself.

Jesus himself presents a remarkable example of this kind of humility. He alone had every right to approach life with absolute unmitigated certainty in the fullness of his knowledge, and yet he sought the will of his Father and submitted to the uncertainties of life in human form. Luke tells us that he “grew in wisdom,” listening to the priests and asking questions as a boy (2:52). He taught with divine authority but openly confessed that there were things he did not know which he left in the capable hands of the Father (Matt. 24:36).

If our Lord Jesus possessed and expressed this kind of humility, what excuse do we have?

In light of all this, I feel I can answer my student’s question with a bit more confidence. Yes, a Christian should have an open mind, if the term is rightly understood.

Read it all.

Posted in Anthropology, Evangelicals, Philosophy, Religion & Culture

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Saint Tikhon

Holy God, holy and mighty, who hast called us together into one communion and fellowship: Open our eyes, we pray thee, as you opened the eyes of thy servant Tikhon, that we may see the faithfulness of others as we strive to be steadfast in the faith delivered unto us, that the world may see and know Thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be glory and praise unto ages of ages. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Ecumenical Relations, Spirituality/Prayer

Charles Henry Brent for his Feast Day–Bp Mark Lawrence’s address on him in 2008

In 1899 a relatively obscure priest working in a City Mission in the slums of South Boston was compiling a book on prayer from articles he had written for the Saint Andrew’s Cross, a magazine of the recently established lay order of the Protestant Episcopal Church known as the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. Seven years before, this celibate priest had left the Order of the Cowley Father’s whose House was just across the Charles River in Cambridge. Although he left the order over a dispute between his superior, Fr. A. C. A. Hall and the Order’s Father Superior in England, the young priest never left the inward embrace of the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience—even less did he leave behind the spiritual disciplines of the religious life he had learned so well under Fr. Hall’s steady hand. Somewhere between his pastoral and social work among the sordidness and squalor of the South End—replete with red light district, street waifs, immigrants and vagrants— and his late night vigils of intercessory prayer or early mornings spent in meditation, not to mention the full round of parish duties, he found the time to write. In the final chapter of his little book, With God in the World, he wrote words that now appear as strangely prescient for his own life: “Men—we are not thinking of butterflies—cannot exist without difficulty. To be shorn of it means death, because inspiration is bound up with it, and inspiration is the breath of God, without the constant influx of which man ceases to be a living soul. Responsibility is the sacrament of inspiration. . . . The fault of most modern prophets is not that they present too high an ideal, but an ideal that is sketched with a faltering hand; the appeal to self-sacrifice is too timid and imprecise, the challenge to courage is too low-voiced, with the result that the tide of inspiration ebbs and flows.” He was to parse this belief taking root in his soul, with the phrase “the inspiration of responsibility”. Within two short years he would have the opportunity to test these words with his life.

His name was Charles Henry Brent, born the son of an Anglican clergyman from New Castle, Ontario in 1862. How Charles Brent, a Canadian by birth, came to be a priest in of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and under the episcopacy of the renowned Phillips Brooks, and later, the almost equally celebrated Bishop William Lawrence, is itself an interesting story we haven’t time to explore. Suffice to say that God seemed to be grooming through the seemingly quixotic twists and turns of providence a bishop not merely for the church or for one nation, but for the world—a man, of whom it could be said, he was Everybody’s Bishop.

You may find Part One there and Part Two here. Take the time to read it all.

Posted in Church History, Ecumenical Relations

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Charles Henry Brent

Heavenly Father, whose Son did pray that we all might be one: deliver us, we beseech thee, from arrogance and prejudice, and give us wisdom and forbearance, that, following thy servant Charles Henry Brent, we may be united in one family with all who confess the Name of thy Son Jesus Christ: who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Posted in Church History, Ecumenical Relations, Spirituality/Prayer

(RNS) After Thousands of Deaths and Kidnappings, Nigerian Christians Call on US to Recognize Their Persecution

Nearly four years ago, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from a list of countries whose threats to religious freedom are of “particular concern,” but continued attacks on Christians and other religious groups by Islamist militias have prompted calls from local faith leaders and members of the US Congress for the designation to be restored.

In Africa’s most populous nation, a deadly cycle of violence has unfolded for several years, with Christian clergy and laypeople as well as moderate Muslims falling victim to murder and kidnapping. The Christian nonprofit Open Doors recently reported that in 2024 some 3,100 Christians were killed and more than 2,000 kidnapped in Nigeria.

Last week, US Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, held a hearing on religious freedom violations in Nigeria that included testimony from Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, in central Nigeria, and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a former US Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner.

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Foreign Relations, Globalization, Nigeria, Politics in General, Religion & Culture, Religious Freedom / Persecution, Terrorism, Violence

A Prayer for the Feast Day of John and Charles Wesley

Lord God, who didst inspire thy servants John and Charles Wesley with burning zeal for the sanctification of souls, and didst endow them with eloquence in speech and song: Kindle in thy Church, we beseech thee, such fervor, that those whose faith has cooled may be warmed, and those who have not known thy Christ may turn to him and be saved; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Posted in Church History, Liturgy, Music, Worship, Methodist, Spirituality/Prayer