The national elections, just completed, added five states that will be completely controlled by Democrats next year, i.e., legislature and governor. They are, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

Every one of these is ripe for legalizing assisted suicide, as that policy is now part of the liberal/progressive issue agenda. Most have already seen serious efforts to legalize doctor-prescribed death — even when Republicans held some power. Indeed, the electorally late (defeated for reelection) Governor Joe Lombardo of Nevada vetoed a legalization bill a few years ago.

Every one of these is ripe for legalizing assisted suicide, as that policy is now part of the liberal/progressive issue agenda. Most have already seen serious efforts to legalize doctor-prescribed death — even when Republicans held some power. Indeed, the electorally late (defeated for reelection) Governor Joe Lombardo of Nevada vetoed a legalization bill a few years ago.

Other states that are already governed by a so-called Democratic trifecta, but which have not yet legalized assisted suicide, are Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Efforts have been made to legalize assisted suicide in all of these as well, with Massachusetts voters rejecting assisted suicide in 2012 — thanks in large part to the opposition by Ted Kennedy’s widow.

I think all of these states will see renewed legalization attempts in the next two years. 

Read it all.

The other Democratic trifecta states have already legalized assisted suicide. But that is never the end of it. The first laws passed are not meant to be ceilings but launching pads. https://t.co/w842Yov8xR

— Wesley J. Smith (@theWesleyJSmith) November 5, 2026

Almighty and merciful God, we remember before you all the faithful departed, those we have loved and all who have died in the hope of the resurrection. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. Comfort those who mourn, and fill us with the hope of your promises. May they rest in your peace and rise in glory. Unite us with them in your love, that we may join together in the joy of your eternal kingdom. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the resurrection and the life. Amen.

All Souls’ Day (Hedwig Cemetery), 1896 by Franz Skarbina #AllSoulsDay #zaduszki https://t.co/59E7J9ghs8

— Marysia (@marysia_cc) November 2, 2026

The rituals of grief are enduring, their meanings familiar across many cultures: We remember those who have died, we mark the places where their bodies lie, we sense that our relationships with those we love don’t end when their lives do, and we pray for their condition in the afterlife.

Catholics remember the dead on All Souls Day, Nov. 2—the second day after Halloween, the day following All Saints Day. We visit the places where the dead rest, bringing flowers and standing before the names etched in stone. There in the graveyard, we pray for them and ask them to pray for us in the afterlife.

But what happens when those places disappear? America is rapidly drifting away from traditional burial. The norm has increasingly become cremation. The National Funeral Directors Association reported that 63.4% of Americans who died in 2025 were cremated, and the rate is expected to rise to 82.3% by 2045.

The old, earthy connection of death to a particular location—the tie of grief and memory to physical place—is loosening. Only 20% to 40% of cremated remains are buried or interred at a cemetery, according to the Cremation Association of North America.

Read it all.

"A cemetery is more than a resting place. It’s a landscape of grief, a physical expression of love, and a reminder that those who have died remain part of the world of the living."@Faithika: The Days of the Graveyard May Be Numbered https://t.co/veZnyc23i5 via @WSJopinion

— John J. Miller (@heymiller) October 30, 2026

Precious in thy sight, O Lord, is the death of thy saints, whose faithful witness, by thy providence, hath its great reward: We give thee thanks for thy martyrs James Hannington and his companions, who purchased with their blood a road unto Uganda for the proclamation of the Gospel; and we pray that with them we also may obtain the crown of righteousness which is laid up for all who love the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

29 Oct 1885, James Hannington, @cmsmission missionary & first Anglican bishop of East Africa, speared to death in Uganda. Born Hurstpierpoint. Studied @OrielOxford, 1874 ordained. 1882-3 in E Africa but left due to illness, returned 1885. ‘Blood of the martyrs is seed of church’. https://t.co/CKjbAn8I6F

— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) October 29, 2026

Almighty God, we praise thy name for thy bishop and martyr Ignatius of Antioch, who offered himself as grain to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts that he might present unto thee the pure bread of sacrifice. Accept, we pray thee, the willing tribute of our lives, and give us a share in the pure and spotless offering of thy Son Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

‘Nothing will be hidden from you, if you are perfect in your faith and love towards Jesus Christ, for these are the beginning and the end of life: faith is the beginning and love is the end.’ (St Ignatius of Antioch, Office of Readings) https://t.co/z8bBrit6u6

— What Good News (@WhatGoodNews) October 17, 2026

Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, after the examples of thy servants Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, and Thomas Cranmer; that we may live in thy fear, die in thy favor, and rest in thy peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

16 Oct 1555: Bishops Hugh Latimer & Nicholas Ridley burnt at the stake in #Oxford #otd https://t.co/oEhw5eIe9k

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) October 16, 2026

Living God, who art the source of all healing and wholeness: we bless thee for the compassionate witness of thy servant Edith Cavell. Inspire us, we beseech thee, to be agents of peace and reconciliation in a world beset by injustice, poverty, and war. We ask this through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

12 Oct 1915: British #nurse Edith Cavell, who helped ~200 Allied soldiers escape from #Belgium during World War I, is executed by a German firing squad. She also helped hundreds of #soldiers from both sides who were injured. #WWI #History #OTD #ad https://t.co/t6IKxhKYm0 https://t.co/5WiUkdhM3E

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) October 12, 2026

Almost everyone in Israel knows someone who was killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, or in the ensuing war. The scale of those losses remains overwhelming even as we pass three years since the day that shook Jews around the world.

The perseverance is equally humbling. Former hostages held in Gaza and their family members have written bestselling books and released music albums. Grassroots and volunteer organizations have been founded for visiting the wounded in hospitals, caring for children who lost parents, helping rebuild war-affected areas and many other causes related to the massacre. Israel remains among the 10 happiest nations in the world.

Part of this resilience can be traced to the enduring Jewish practices for mourning—practices that focus on dwelling with the loss, not trying immediately to move past it. We rip our clothes on hearing of the death of a family member. We sit shiva, a formal seven days of grief in which mourners stay at home, wear torn clothing, cover mirrors, sit on low stools and silently feel their loss. We recite kaddish, a mourners’ prayer, daily for 11 months.

These are rituals that create a structure for intensely feeling brokenness. And the intensity holds lessons and wisdom that extends to all humans.

Read it all.

Part of Jews’ resilience can be traced to the enduring Jewish practices for mourning—practices that focus on dwelling with the loss, not trying immediately to move past it, writes @RabbiBrander https://t.co/l6P4UKx7k7

— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) October 9, 2026

The meaning of death, dust, and of the grave, is transformed, although none of these is taken away. A collect from the Office of compline puts this well: by resting in the sepulchre, Christ “sanctified the grave to be for us a bed of hope”. All that finds its most profound expression in baptism, which is a redemptive entering into the death and burial of Christ, that we might die to sin, and share in his resurrection.

That is rather an upbeat — although entirely serious — approach to salvation: it is a vivification, a sharing in life. Barth also thought about the burial in terms of sin and salvation in a more sombre tone. Christ’s burial, he wrote, showed us God’s attitude to sin: that “there is nothing else to be done with sinful man, except to bury him and forget him.”

Here is not the comforting idea of God as keeping company with us in death. Here, rather, is God’s fierce anger dealing with sin itself. God puts our sinful humanity in the ground with a terrible finality. He does not accommodate himself to sin: he destroys and buries it. Again, baptism makes this clear: there is something about us — our sin, our guilt, the “old man” (or woman: Romans 6.6) — which does not make it out of the baptismal font.

Read it all.

Theology Matters: The Gospel 📖 in All of the Creed: Andrew Davison continues his occasional series #Faith #ChurchTimes @AP_Davison https://t.co/JAu4AGf1v1

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 28, 2026

Heavenly Father, who taught Saint Wenceslaus to place your heavenly Kingdom before an earthly one, even at the cost of his own life, grant us by your Spirit the grace and strength to follow his example and hold fast to you with all our heart, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

28 September 935. Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia since 921, was assassinated. His younger brother, Boleslaus the Cruel, was complicit in the murder. Wenceslaus is now the patron saint of the Czech state and the subject of the well-known Christmas Carol Good King Wenceslas. pic.twitter.com/VUGIcIomAJ

— Prof. Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) September 28, 2026

A pastor was shot and killed while on his way to a church service in Nigeria’s Plateau State on Sunday morning, one of at least nine people killed in a series of attacks in rural communities over the weekend.

The pastor was walking to a church service at Dorowa Babuje in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area with a second victim when both were shot, Leadership reported.

Neither victim had been named publicly as of Sunday, according to National Accord.

Read it all.

A pastor walking to Sunday service was shot dead, one of nine killed in weekend attacks in Nigeria's Plateau State. #Nigeria #PlateauState #PersecutedChurch #Pastor #ChristianPost
🔗 https://t.co/SCSjmsCSL0 https://t.co/R5yEU278DB pic.twitter.com/8qqwzowmho

— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) September 21, 2026

MPs have voted against proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, bringing the latest effort to change the law to an end.

Following a debate in which both sides made emotional speeches, the House of Commons voted 286 to 270 – a majority of 16 – against the proposed legislation.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.

A similar bill in the last parliamentary session was supported by MPs before stalling in the House of Lords. The decision from MPs on Friday rules out the prospect of changes to the law on assisted dying in the short term.

Read it all.

The assisted suicide Bill is dead. After two years of debate, MPs have rejected it by 286 votes to 270.

A victory for vulnerable people — and a reminder that bad legislation becomes harder to defend the more closely it is scrutinised, writes @AdamPollockhttps://t.co/d7JZTQ5iiU

— The Critic (@TheCriticMag) September 12, 2026

The Man Behind the Red Bandana from Drew Gallagher on Vimeo.

From there:

I got up and turned on the TV, and there was just this big black hole in the World Trade Center. And there was just smoke billowing out of it. I called my sister Cathy I said, “You might wanna wake up, turn in your TV and take a look at what they’re showing.” The commentator’s saying that it’s an American Airlines plane. And I casually asked Cathy, I said, “Do you know where Betty is?” And she says, “Betty’s supposed to be flying out of Boston.” And I said, “Do you think Betty is on that plane?” We just didn’t know. So I left a phone call on her cellphone, just asking her when she’s landed or anywhere you’re on the ground, to just give us a call and tell us you’re okay. And there was no call from Betty. I called American Airlines, and it was only then that it was confirmed that Betty was on the flight.

I just want to add, through your passing, Betty, our family’s gotten very very close. Dad, who’s quite stoic, doesn’t really say a whole lot, man of the family, one day told us that he cries himself to sleep. Even to this day, he just keeps staying up watching TV, hoping somehow that you’ll reappear. And we’re all still waiting for that phone call from you to tell us that you’re okay. We just miss you a whole lot.

You may find the transcript of Betty Ong’s conversation reporting the hijacking from the American airlines plane here.

Every year on 9/11 I take the kids to ground zero to write down names engraved in the memorial. Then we go home and look them up to talk about their stories. Today, my youngest was writing a name when a woman walked up and asked her what she was doing. When she explained, the… pic.twitter.com/Xd8ZknmOX1

— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) September 12, 2026

This site is intended as a place to remember and celebrate the lives of those lost on September 11, 2001. It includes Guest Books and profiles for each of those lost.

It is well worth your time to explore it thoroughly today.

September 11, 2001, as reported the next day by the New York Times: pic.twitter.com/DH6QUFnDgo

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) September 11, 2026

“The cloudless sky filled with coiling black smoke and a blizzard of paper—memos, photographs, stock transactions, insurance policies—which fluttered for miles on a gentle southeasterly breeze, across the East River into Brooklyn. Debris spewed onto the streets of lower Manhattan, which were already covered with bodies. Some of them had been exploded out of the building when the planes hit. A man walked out of the towers carrying someone else’s leg. Jumpers landed on several firemen, killing them instantly.

“The air pulsed with sirens as firehouses and police stations all over the city emptied, sending the rescuers, many of them to their deaths. [FBI agent] Steve Bongardt was running toward the towers, against a stream of people racing in the opposite direction. He heard the boom of the second collision. “There’s a second plane,” someone cried.”

–Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (New York: Random House [Vintage Books], 2006), pp.404-405

11 Sept 2001: Al-Qaeda conducts #terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City and the #Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia by flying planes into the buildings. A fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. The White House or #Capitol was the likely target of that… pic.twitter.com/GxvhseKBbL

— Today In History (@URDailyHistory) September 11, 2026

Almighty God and Father who wills that all people may flourish and have abundance of life, be with us especially on this day when we remember such destruction, darkness, devastation, death and terror; help us to honor the memory of those whose lives were utterly cut short, and to believe that you can make all things new, even the most horrible things. Redeem and heal, O Holy Spirit, grant us perspective, humility, light, trust and grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Please note the following changes to our hours of operation as we commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Thursday, September 10: The #911Museum will close at 3 p.m.

Friday, September 11: The #911Museum will remain closed to the public all day so that 9/11… pic.twitter.com/VigSzHl6WS

— 9/11 Memorial & Museum (@Sept11Memorial) September 10, 2026

We give thee thanks and praise, O God of compassion, for the heroic witness of the Martyrs of Memphis, who, in a time of plague and pestilence, were steadfast in their care for the sick and dying, and loved not their own lives, even unto death; Inspire in us a like love and commitment to those in need, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Constance and Her Companions, known as the Martyrs of Memphis, were Episcopal nuns and priests who sacrificed their lives caring for yellow fever victims in Memphis in 1878. pic.twitter.com/kPspd2cZI7

— Anglican Aesthetics (@AesAnglican) September 9, 2025

Merciful God, whose servant Joseph of Arimathaea with reverence and godly fear did prepare the body of our Lord and Savior for burial, and did lay it in his own tomb: Grant, we beseech thee, to us thy faithful people grace and courage to love and serve Jesus with sincere devotion all the days of our life; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

🔸 July 31 – Saint Joseph of Arimathea 🔸

Today, we commemorate Saint Joseph of Arimathea. As recorded in the New Testament, he was a wealthy member of the Jewish Sanhedrin and a secret disciple of Jesus Christ who assumed responsibility for His burial after the Crucifixion.… pic.twitter.com/ZIzJh71xmK

— Orthodox Christian (@orthodox_33ad) July 31, 2026

O gracious God, we remember before thee this day thy servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that thou wilt pour out upon the leaders of thy Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among thy people; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Today's the feast of St James, Apostle. One of the most easily identifiable of saints in medieval church art, commonly depicted with a scallop shell, pilgrim staff, purse and hat as here on the 16th Century screen at Worstead, Norfolk. 1/3

Worstead: https://t.co/Ckoc8sRcOj pic.twitter.com/qrQGswirhi

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) July 25, 2026

In the midst of Nazi-occupied Paris, an independent-minded Russian Orthodox nun lamented that Christians were not equipped to meet the challenges of the moment. “I look everywhere and nowhere do I find anything that would point to the possibility of a breakthrough from material life to eternity,” wrote Maria Skobtsova in an essay titled “Insight in Wartime.” She did not see around her any forms of Christian life that had the “right voice, the right pathos, the kind of wings” to stand against the terrors of the era.

Skobtsova herself was perhaps the exception. Born in 1891 under the czar, she had by the 1940s been a Bolshevik, a poet, and a refugee. She was almost killed by both White and Red armies during the Russian Revolution of 1917. She fled Russia after briefly serving as the deputy mayor of Anapa, a city near the Black Sea. In exile she returned to the Orthodox faith, and in 1932 she became a nun.

She refused, however, to take up residence in a convent or traditional religious community. Issuing a thoroughgoing critique of monasticism, she insisted that she would seek instead “to share the life of paupers and tramps.”

Read it all.

Today in the Orthodox Church we celebrate perhaps my favorite saint of the last hundred years, Mother Maria Skobtsova (St Mary of Paris). In earlier life she was a radical intellectual and poet, and even served as deputy mayor after the Russian Revolution. Changing political… pic.twitter.com/nhzqWd6z1n

— Jeremiah (@OnAncientPaths) July 20, 2026

O Creator and Giver of Life, who didst crown thy martyr Maria Skobtsova with glory and didst give her as an example of service to the suffering and poor even unto death: Teach us to love Christ in our neighbors, and thereby battle injustice and evil with the light of the Resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Maria Skobtsova, Monastic & Martyr, 1945

Riga-born; modernist poet in Petersburg; émigrée, intellectual, theologian, nun, social worker & Resistance member in Paris; martyr in Ravensbrück. For more on her life, see: https://t.co/MVr7ERd5ah pic.twitter.com/88DdY2lVVO

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) July 21, 2023

I’m pre-writing your obituary. I hope it does not have to get published immediately, but I did feel it would be interesting to have you speak to people from beyond the grave, if it does get published. So: Do you have anything you would like to say?

In the past few months, I had to make an interesting choice to go on this clinical trial that’s pretty nasty. And you do a little bit of introspection: What’s the point of extending life a couple of months? My girls are now 24 and 22, so they are launched and are doing well. And my wife is mindful of the truth that death is a wicked thief, but she is not despairing at all through this. So I really think that I made the choice to do this clinical trial and extend the few months of life because my boy’s only 14. I want him to have a dad for a little bit longer and slap him upside the head and love on him.

But it’s really a function of the two great commands, trying to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves.

And what does it look like to live well in this time? For me, these months have been largely about my son, Breck, but they’re also more broadly about the challenge of what it means to raise kids in this time and place. We spend so much time talking about the jobs apocalypse in light of AI and the digital revolution. And that’s an interesting question. I care about it a lot. But much more fundamental than just the paid-vocation piece, the jobs piece, is what does it mean to be human in this time when we’ve got technological tools that are distorting reality in such fundamental ways?

I think we have a big, big collective action problem of what it means to raise kids in a world that will be this disrupted this frequently. People who are 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 years old are going to have their world upended again and again. What are the fundamental truths and roots that give life meaning and place meaning? I’ve been reflecting about that a lot.

America works and thrives to the degree that people have thick local communities and places and small platoons and congregations to assemble for worship on Sunday morning and throughout the week. Right now, I think we’re living through a period of institutional collapse, and we’re going to need to go through a wave of Tocquevillian institution-building. We’ve been mostly harvesting the consumer benefits of a technology revolution without acknowledging the production, vocational, and communal costs of burning all the districts where local community happens.

Read it all.

“I’m better at thanking God for the gifts he gives us. And it makes me more aware of my childlike dependence upon him.”@BenSasse spoke to CT from his hospital room as he underwent cancer treatment, discussing life, death, and our true hope in Christ.https://t.co/YimbwA6InI

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) July 14, 2026

Philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously notes the medium is the message. As a result, many evangelical churchgoers are growing weary. The old church buildings and services of our grandparents’ childhood may have appeared boring and irrelevant—designed as they were for prayer and silent reflection, weddings, baptisms, and funerals—but since our present churches have been optimized for entertainment and advertisement, we’re beginning to feel the loss. The message, indeed, must be heard; but man cannot live on truth alone. Without beauty in particular, the soul starves.

Don’t get me wrong. Our megachurch parking lots are still mostly full on Sunday mornings. But the lots remain full of cars in much the same way that our Instagram feeds remain full of content: The people are still coming, but they aren’t exactly thrilled to be there. Exhaustion has set in.

A certain subtle odor, resembling the beginning of mainline decline, can now be sensed in the nondenominational evangelical corner of the world. The growing cracks in the empire appear to be coinciding with a new and widespread interest in more traditional forms of Christianity. I can’t even count the number of conversations I’ve had recently with young evangelicals pondering conversion to Catholicism or the Eastern Orthodox Church.

In my own community, we are in the early stages of developing a new (old) parish model of church, focusing on three key attributes—local, restful, and holy—that act as an antidote to the disembodied, frenetic, and addicted spirit of our helplessly online age.

To me, at least, this is where we must go.

Read it all.

A vision for the future church as local, restful, and holy—as an antidote to our helplessly online age.https://t.co/PgfBuYSaFf

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) July 15, 2026

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham — South Carolina’s senior senator who in his decades-long tenure rose to the highest levels of influence on the global stage — died the evening of July 11 in Washington, D.C., after what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness” that the D.C. medical examiner in its preliminary review later ruled to be a torn aorta.

An aortic dissection is a tear in the body’s main artery. The examiner attributed the dissection to underlying cardiovascular disease, though the official cause and manner of death remain pending while toxicology and microscopic testing are completed.

Graham’s death comes as he was seeking reelection to a fifth term this year and also just days after reaching his latest birthday on July 9. He turned 71.

“On the evening of Saturday, July 11, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham passed away from a brief and sudden illness,” his office said in a news release shortly before 2 a.m. July 12. “Senator Graham’s family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period.”

Read it all.

The shocking sudden death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., appears to be from an aortic dissection — a rare condition where the main blood vessel tears and ruptures. It is rare and can be treated surgically. https://t.co/ptyfaGemca

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) July 13, 2026

Faithful God, who didst give Jan Hus the courage to confess thy truth and recall thy Church to the image of Christ: Enable us, inspired by his example, to bear witness against corruption and never cease to pray for our enemies, that we may prove faithful followers of our Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

#OTD July 6, 1415:
Jan Hus, Czech reformer and preacher, was burned at the stake in Constance, Germany, condemned for heresy. He had boldly called for church reform, the authority of Scripture over tradition, and greater rights for the common people. His death inspired the… pic.twitter.com/M417IQ1YEZ

— ☧ Today in Christian History (@HistoricalRook) July 6, 2026

Almighty God, by whose grace and power thy holy martyr Alban triumphed over suffering and was faithful even unto death: Grant to us, who now remember him with thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

22 June, @churchofengland remembers #Alban, first Christian known to have been martyred in British Isles. A pagan, he had been led to Christian faith by a fleeing priest & gave himself up in the man’s place. @StAlbansCath is on the site of his burial place. #StAlbans #martyralban pic.twitter.com/zOTAssItCR

— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) June 22, 2026

Responding to the news that a Bill to permit assisted dying is to be reintroduced to Parliament, the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, has told the Church Times that she remains committed to scrutinising the legislation in the House of Lords — although MPs may use the Parliament Act to bypass the Upper House.

“The issues around workability and safety remain, as do the issues around the funding of palliative and social care,” she said.

The Bishop was speaking after the Labour MP for Rochester and Strood, Lauren Edwards, announced that she would use another Private Member’s Bill to reintroduce the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill into the House of Commons.

Read it all.

Responding to the news that a Bill to permit assisted dying is to be reintroduced to Parliament, the Bishop of Newcastle has told the Church Times that she remains committed to scrutinising it in the Lords—although MPs may use the Parliament Act https://t.co/uHGU8uJZkN

— James Macintyre (@James_Macintyre) June 15, 2026

The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, has welcomed a poll of more than 10,000 people which suggests that a majority in all 632 parliamentary constituencies oppose the proposed law on assisted dying being revisited without full scrutiny and approval by both chambers.

Dr Hartley was on the House of Lords select committee that examined the Private Member’s Bill brought by the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in October 2024 (News, 18 October 2024), and spoke against it before it was defeated earlier this year in the Upper House (News, 1 May). She told the Church Times that the poll “confirms that the public does not support the suggestion of bypassing the House of Lords in order to force through an unsafe Bill”.

She said: “This would mean using a procedure never used for a Bill of this kind and acting against the advice of medical professionals, disability groups, and the concerns of all those who want to see legislation that is safe and workable.

“For a Bill of this magnitude in terms of societal change, the highest level of scrutiny is imperative.”

Read it all.

The Bishop of Newcastle has welcomed a poll of more than 10,000 people which suggests that a majority in all 632 parliamentary constituencies oppose the proposed law on #assisteddying being revisited without full scrutiny and approval by both chambershttps://t.co/1fB16bi9sv

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 10, 2026

On June 3, a debate about the silent genocide of unborn children with Down syndrome exploded on social media. The unlikely catalyst was an X post by YouTube influencer Jesse “McJuggerNuggets” Ridgway. For months, the Ridgways had been producing and posting news of their pregnancy for a massive online audience, including their pregnancy announcement on March 29, a gender reveal (a boy), ultrasounds, and finally, a disturbingly personal video of the grief-stricken couple finding out their baby likely had Down syndrome. 

The journey culminated in Ridgway’s announcement that the couple had decided to abort the baby at twenty-one weeks. (Last year, a preemie born at twenty-one weeks in Iowa survived.) Ridgway listed the health problems his son might have suffered from—heart defects, hearing challenges, learning disabilities, decreased lifespan—and concluded: “Down syndrome isn’t a ‘blessing.’” He assured his “fans” with autism and Down syndrome that “we appreciate you,” but said that the abortion “will be beneficial for our family” and that “thankfully, we had a choice.”

The post has been viewed over 24 million times and has garnered 18,000 mostly negative comments. Many were livid at Ridgway’s openly eugenic justification for having his unborn son destroyed; hundreds posted stories, photos, and videos of their loved ones with Down syndrome, expressing their gratitude for their love, lives, and contributions. The photos put faces to society’s most endangered population—as Ridgway pointed out in his post, around 90 percent of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome are killed in the womb.

Read it all.

This is unspeakably evil, but I give the guy credit for speaking about it directly in public. Most of our eugenic killing simply goes on on the down low, which is how throwaway culture flourishes. When brought to light, they can be named for what they are. https://t.co/CLhEitDBTu

— Charlie Camosy (@CCamosy) June 4, 2026