Almighty God, we remember before thee this day the blessed martyrs of New Guinea, who, following the example of their Savior, laid down their lives for their friends; and we pray thee that we, who honor their memory, may imitate their loyalty and faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today we remember Lucian Tapiedi, who was among 333 Christians who lost their lives in New Guinea during the occupation of the island by Japanese forces in 1942.

Tapiedi is one of ten 20th-century martyrs whose statues above the Abbey's Great West Door. pic.twitter.com/HJqGGJNxBn

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) September 2, 2025

Almighty and everlasting God,
who gave to your apostle Bartholomew grace
truly to believe and to preach your word:
grant that your Church
may love that word which he believed
and may faithfully preach and receive the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

One of my very favourite heather views in the #peakdistrict, especially at sunset, when the last light floods over the moors and makes every flower glow. Standing amid the huge boulders on the Iron Age hill fort of Carl Wark, you can look towards the rocks of Over Owler Tor and… pic.twitter.com/c76oMD1ugz

— peaklass (@peaklass1) August 24, 2025

Almighty God, who sent your Holy Spirit to be the life and light of your Church: open our hearts to the riches of your grace, that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit in love and joy and peace; through Jesus Christ, your Son or Lord, who is alive and remains with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

More than two two years after it began in April 2023, the war in Sudan shows no sign of ending, with deadly consequences for the people of Africa’s third-largest country. On August 5th the World Food Programme (WFP), a UN agency, said that residents of el-Fasher, in the western region of Darfur, faced starvation. It was a grim sign of the humanitarian toll of the war at a time when the locus of the conflict is shifting westwards, raising the prospect of a permanently fractured state.

El-Fasher, the capital of north Darfur, is the last major city in the region under the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), one of the two main belligerents. The other, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has besieged the city since April 2024 to secure its Darfuri stronghold. Some residents have been able to flee the city and the Zamzam refugee camp on its outskirts, but a common destination, the nearby town of Tawila, is crammed and in the midst of a cholera outbreak. Since the RSF was ousted from Khartoum, the capital, in March, it has tightened the noose around el-Fasher.

That has made it harder for food to get in—and for people to get out. Aid agencies report that food prices are five times higher than in the rest of the country. Often food is unavailable, rendering redundant the mobile-money payments and community kitchens that have so far averted starvation. Local journalists report that many of the 300,000 remaining residents are turning to animal feed. The WFP says it has lorries ready to enter el-Fasher, but the RSF is blocking access.

Read it all.

Outsiders claim to want to stop the war in Sudan, which has displaced 13m people and caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Sadly, that notion seems as remote a possibility as ever https://t.co/c21lFgtUyl

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) August 7, 2025

We do not judge people. We affirm God’s grace for all who turn to Him. But love does not mean ignoring sin. Unity cannot exist without truth.

This step by the Church in Wales makes it extremely difficult to find a faithful and lasting resolution to the divisions within the Anglican Communion. While many of us are diligently working to discern a way forward in this painful dilemma, continued actions of this nature hinder reconciliation, deepen the fractures, and risk rendering our efforts fruitless.

We continue to pray for the Church, and for strength to remain faithful to the Gospel of Christ.

Read it all.

The

Sunday before last, church felt pointless. I woke up and checked for news from the Synod: first, a motion concerning justice for Palestinians wasn’t even selected for debate. Then the General Synod voted against redistributing one per cent of the Church Commissioners’ wealth to diocesan stipend funds, instead amending the motion to debate funding later (News, 18 July).

It is hard not to see this as the sensible adults, who also happen to control all the money, telling poorer churches to die quietly. Justice delayed is justice denied, and poorer parishes have long worked miracles with just a few loaves and fishes. Yet, denial of justice did seem to be a theme. The Revd Dr Ian Paul, of the Archbishops’ Council, insisted that “finance reflects spiritual reality” — a plainly offensive echo of the so-called “indolent poor”. But it was another who really took the biscuit.

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, is known for his resolute defence of the working class (News, 27 February 2024). Yet, if he and I ever discussed such matters, we might initially talk at cross-purposes, until realising that we needed to define our terms.

Read it all.

"The disparity between richer and poorer churches is stark," writes Adam Spiershttps://t.co/F0xGJam9wp

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 25, 2025

It was in 1787 that he first decided to put down a motion in the House of Commons about the slave trade. This nefarious traffic had been going on for three centuries, and the West Indian slave-owners were determined to oppose abolition to the end. Besides, Wilberforce was not a very prepossessing man. He was little and somewhat ugly, with poor eyesight and an upturned nose. When Boswell heard him speak, he pronounced him ‘a perfect shrimp’, but then had to concede that ‘presently the shrimp swelled into a whale.’ In 1789 Wilberforce said of the slave trade: “So enormous so dreadful, so irremediable did its wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for the abolition…. let the consequences be what they would, I from this time determined that I would never rest till I had effected its abolition.

So abolition bills (which related to the trade) and Foreign Trade Bills (which would prohibit the involvement of British ships in it) were debated in the commons in 1789, 1791, 1792,194, 1796 (by which time Abolition had become ‘the grand object of my parliamentary existence’), 1798 and 1799. Yet they all failed. The Foreign Slave Bill was not passed until 1806 and the Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill until 1807. This part of the campaign had taken eighteen years.

Next, soon after the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars, Wilberforce began to direct his energies to the abolition of slavery itself and the emancipation of the slaves. In 1823 the Anti-Slavery Society was formed. Twice that year and twice the following year, Wilberforce pleaded the slaves’ cause in the House of Commons. But in 1825 ill-health compelled him to resign as a member of parliament and to continue his campaign from outside. In 1831 he sent a message to the Anti-Slavery Society, in which he said, “Our motto must continue to be PERSEVERANCE. And ultimately I trust the Almighty will crown our efforts with success.” He did. In July 1833 the Abolition of Slavery Bill was passed in both Houses of Parliament, even though it included the undertaking to pay 20 million pounds in compensation to the slave-owners. ‘Thank God,’ wrote Wilberforce, that I have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give 20 million pounds for the abolition of slavery.’ Three days later he died. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in national recognition of his FORTY-FIVE YEARS of persevering struggle on behalf of African slaves.

— John R W Stott, Issues facing Christians Today (Basingstoke: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1984), p. 334

29 July 1833, William Wilberforce, died. Born Hull, evangelical Christian, Clapham Sect member, served as MP for 45 years, a founder of @cmsmission & @biblesociety, leading abolitionist (persuading in 1807 House of Commons to abolish slave trade), moral reformer & philanthropist. pic.twitter.com/DzJchsizTX

— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) July 29, 2025

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.

Today in the Anglican tradition we thank God for William Wilberforce, an evangelical Anglican, slave abolitionist, founder of the CMS and RSPCA. Wilberforce understood Christianity as inseparable from justice! In a world of growing hate, let us remember and mirror his good works pic.twitter.com/i5RhLQwRva

— Victor-Joseph ❤️‍🔥🕊️ (@Anglicanvictor) July 30, 2025

The Church Commissioners risk attracting “widespread public contempt” if they proceed with Project Spire, a group of historians and General Synod members has warned (News,13 January 2023). The project is a £100-million fund set up to benefit communities affected by the historic transatlantic slave trade.

In a paper published on the History Reclaimed website on 26 June, the group urges the Church to “pause” the project, and to “seek the advice of other scholars, and reflect. To pay reparations on the basis that ‘everyone in the eighteenth century was guilty’ will not stand historical and public scrutiny.”

Its members include two General Synod members, Jonathan Baird (Salisbury) and the Revd Dr Ian Paul (a member of the Archbishops’ Council), and several historians who have publicly criticised the research behind Project Spire. The paper contains a detailed response to the points made in a document published by the Commissioners in May, Independent Responses to Claims Criticising the Historical Basis of the Church Commissioners’ Research (News, 6 June).

Read it all.

Historians call for Church Commissioners to scrap £100-million slavery justice fund https://t.co/6Fr9T1eSLz

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 11, 2025

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.

The prosperity gospel is a false gospel because of its faulty view of the relationship between God and man. Simply put, if the prosperity gospel is true, grace is obsolete, God is irrelevant, and man is the measure of all things. https://t.co/VLz5aq8G9w

— The Gospel Coalition (@TGC) April 20, 2018

“Successive governments have failed to reduce inequalities in health,” …[the Bishop of London] said.

“These inequalities mean that some people will have up to 20 fewer good years in health than others and certain groups face persistently worse health outcomes than others.

“These inequalities are also pronounced at the end of life, with only one in four people who need end-of-life care being able to access it, and there continues to widespread misunderstanding and distrust of palliative care.

“It is into this context that the Terminally Ill Adults Bill is being proposed. So with only a third of all hospice care being funded by the NHS, the proposals are accompanied by a government commitment to fund in full an assisted suicide service should the bill be passed.

“Rather than funding assisted dying, the Government should be funding palliative care and palliative care research to enable people to live their lives to the full until they die.”

Read it all.

A very thoughtful, moving and well-informed debate led by the Bishop of London at General Synod – and a very important contribution to the wider discussion on assisted dying: https://t.co/7ObjRtLsgS

— Bishop Jonathan Gibbs (@JonathanRGibbs) July 15, 2025

Faced with intensifying Chinese encroachment at sea, the Philippines increasingly sees its national security as intertwined with that of Taiwan and is quietly ramping up both formal and informal engagement with the self-governing island, including on security, according to government officials, defense analysts and diplomats here.

This marks a significant departure from Manila’s conservative approach toward Taiwan and could pave the way for the Philippines, a U.S. treaty ally, to play a bigger role if China makes good on its threats to invade Taiwan.

“Any force projection of China within our area is a matter of extreme concern,” Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said in an interview Thursday.

Read it all.

The Philippines is quietly ramping up cooperation with Taiwan — including on security

Lots of new details in our @washingtonpost dispatch, including that at a U.S.-Phil military exercise last month, unofficial Taiwanese observers were present & participated in tabletop planning pic.twitter.com/S1SiRjmjvK

— Rebecca Tan (@rebtanhs) July 14, 2025

Several speeches suggested that parish ministry was becoming, as the Revd Vincent Whitworth (Manchester) put it, “impossible”.

The Archdeacon of West Cumberland, the Ven. Stewart Fyfe (Carlisle) warned that, since 2015, parish ministry had been “underfunded to a dangerous point”. Clergy jobs in rural areas were unmanageable, he said. “What makes us distinctive as the Church of England is [that] we maintain a Christian presence in every community and that is never going to pay for itself, but it is a proper charitable priority for Church Commissioners’ redistribution.”

Canon Kate Massey (Coventry), who, until six weeks ago, was serving alone in a parish of 15,000 in Coventry, found it “bittersweet” to hear about growth in churches in receipt of large grants. She had served a “faithful community of believers who are chasing an ever-receding horizon of cost-of-ministry payments”. Those without resources were “made to feel like they are failing”, she said.

Read it all.

Synod votes against radical measures to redistribute Church Commissioners’ wealth

Cuts, clergy stress, low morale, and collapse in vocations presents ‘existential threat to the Church of England’ members hear#clergystress #churchofengland #generalsynodhttps://t.co/VeLWgAmM9k

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 13, 2025

Last year, members were told that the Trust Task Group had invited Professor Richard Jackson of the University of Bath to help to design a survey to “widen the range and number” of people feeding into the research on trust, as requested by the Synod. This followed a report that identified a need to “repair and preserve trust in the Church’s organisation and structures” (News, 24 June 2024).

In an update published with the General Synod papers last week, Bishop Sellin announced that the Task Group had “advised to cancel this survey and focus on repair strategies, which the House of Bishops and Archbishops’ Council has accepted . . . The key reason for this choice is the conclusion that running such a survey is unlikely to tell us anything new and may do more harm than good — to all of us in the Church of England that we seek to serve. I recognise some may disagree with this reasoning.

Read it all.

“We know we have a problem here — a problem of distrust that has been highlighted in General Synod time and again. If the survey will foster distrust further, its benefit does not seem worth the cost.”https://t.co/S37HYjcDd6

A report published last October showed retired clergy to be the largest group among ordained ministers in the Church of England. They outnumber licensed clergy in every diocese — in some, by a factor of more than two.

Taken together, the number of clergy pensioners and their spouses, plus retired self-supporting ministers, approaches 25,000, suggests Canon Julian Hubbard, a former Director of Ministry at the Archbishops’ Council, and, since 2020, Retired Clergy Officer (RCO) for Guildford.

He is the author of the report The Role and Work of Retired Clergy Officers in the Dioceses of the Church of England. Forty-one out of the 42 dioceses responded to the survey of what that ministry comprised, which revealed a wide variation, depending on size, geography, and culture.

Read it all.

Retired clergy ‘keeping the show on the road’ https://t.co/oTdDJsWvtz

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 28, 2025

The General Synod’s Business Committee has “laid on a very busy group of sessions” for July, the Synod’s secretary-general, William Nye, said on Thursday, as the full agenda was published.

Clergy pay, the governance of the House of Bishops, and redress for survivors of church-based abuse are all on the agenda for the sessions in York, along with a presentation on church growth and an address from a member of the armed forces.

The full agenda and accompanying documents were published on Thursday morning, before a press conference at Church House, Westminster. The Synod is to meet at the University of York from 11 to 15 July.

On the first afternoon, members will hear from Brigadier Jaish Mahan, Deputy Commander Reserves, 1st (UK) Division, who has served in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and the Synod will consider legislation to facilitate the licensing of army chaplains as they move between deployments.

Read it all.

Get prepared for war, #generalsynod is to be told next month #synod

Read our story on the agenda ⬇️https://t.co/jds8SuNTHQ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 27, 2025

Should these measures become law, where will this leave the church? While the clergy aren’t obliged to endorse every parliamentary decision, the church is more closely bound to the nation’s political order than other denominations. Its foundation owed as much to Tudor politics as Reformation theology, its bishops sit in the upper legislative chamber, and historically the church has played a role in British public life that deliberately spans faith and politics.

This role expanded with missionary zeal alongside the British Empire and in some respects had a humanizing influence on its excesses. More recently, the church has continued to adjust in line with perceived mainstream British mores, decrying the historic empire and embracing the ordination of women, gender ideology and same-sex marriage.

But despite, or perhaps because of, such efforts to “modernize” doctrine, Church of England congregations have continued to dwindle and grow older. Church data show that 1.7% of Britons attend its services regularly, and the census finds that only 46% of U.K. citizens call themselves Christian.

Can an institution legitimately serve as an established church when 98% of its nation’s people rarely if ever attend its services? We might turn the question around: Can even so doctrinally adaptable an entity as the Church of England persist as established faith to a polity so indifferent to Christian precepts while preserving its capacity for Christian witness?

Read it all.

The Church of England has spent almost 500 years adroitly juggling faith and politics. But if last week’s abortion and euthanasia votes pass the Hpuse of Lords and become law, it might have to choose

Me at @WSJopinion https://t.co/5KdRiTpd2y

— Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) June 27, 2025

The

 old saying “A parish can be no better than its priest” is open to doubt. What is not open to doubt is that the Church of England is facing something of a crisis in clergy numbers.

In 2020, there were 591 ordinands, dropping to 370 in 2024; in the summer of that year, the General Synod was told that numbers had dropped by 38 per cent since 2020 (News, 12 July 2024). Parishes advertising a vacancy frequently get no replies, while the number of interregnums grows daily (Comment, 13 December 2024). Countless churches depend for regular ministry on non-stipendiary (NSM) or retired clergy. The ordination of women in 1994 was welcome for many reasons, but we must also not forget that it delivered the Church from an even greater clergy crisis.

Most serving priests will have been asked “What made you become a priest?” with the expectation there will have been a mysterious divine call delivered by private prayer and worship.

There is no reason, however, why such a call cannot also come through modern PR and planned human strategy.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

"A parish may receive only one applicant for a post, resulting in the choice of facing a further long interregnum or appointing this candidate. When the latter course is taken, disastrous results can follow."https://t.co/1Tbri6VHHL

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) June 23, 2025

In this tomb, also, you may see, A pledge to us…Yes, verily, it is a pledge,

Of Christ’s power to raise us to a spiritual life -The resurrection of Christ is set forth in the Scriptures as a pattern of that which is to be accomplished in all his followers; and by the very same power too, that effected that. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws the parallel with a minuteness and accuracy that are truly astonishing. He prays for them, that they may know what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” And then he says, concerning them, “God, who is rich in mercy, of his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us usi together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus^” Here, I say, you see Christ dead, quickened, raised, and seated in glory; and his believing people quickened from their death in sins, and raised with him, and seated too with him in the highest heavens. The same thing is stated also, and the same parallel is drawn in the Epistle to the Romans ; where it is said, “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” But can this be effected in us ? I answer, Behold the tomb ! Who raised the Lord Jesus? He himself said, ” I have power to lay down my life, and power to take it up again….”

–Horae homileticae, Sermon 1414

He is Risen! Michelangelo's magisterial vision of the Resurrected Christ bursting from the tomb into the dazzling light, c.1532. Happy Easter! https://t.co/94kCw2wJgy pic.twitter.com/wK8qPIqCXP

— Rosie Razzall (@RazzallRosie) April 21, 2019

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

26 May 605, Augustine, first #ArchbishopofCanterbury, died. Sent as a missionary by Pope Gregory in 597, he landed in Thanet & persuaded the Anglo-Saxons of Kent to become Christians. He founded @No1Cathedral & @KingsCanterbury where I was educated. #churchplanting @McCrimmons pic.twitter.com/FzNSWXW15o

— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) May 26, 2025

Almighty God, who in a rude and barbarous age didst raise up thy deacon Alcuin to rekindle the light of learning: Illumine our minds, we pray thee, that amid the uncertainties and confusions of our own time we may show forth thine eternal truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

May 20: Feast of Alcuin (Ealhwine) (†804), scholar and theologian. He was born in Northumbria and educated at the cathedral school in York. In 781 he met Charlemagne, who he became a key advisor to. In 796 he became abbot of St Martin at Tours. Alcuin, centre, depicted c.831 pic.twitter.com/xtVr7wGRbb

— North Ages (@NorthAges) May 20, 2025

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

“Almighty God, you gave your servants the martyrs of the Sudan boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. Amen.” (BCP) pic.twitter.com/cmkFtMKcZa

— Church of the Holy Spirit Leesburg (@CHSLeesburg) May 16, 2020

The Church of England (C of E) is in trouble. This is an odd ecclesiastical moment. The pope is dead, the Archbishop of Canterbury has gone. Not since 1691 have both seats been empty. But those seats will be filled. A far more anxious emptiness is in the C of E’s pews. Adult church attendance in England has fallen by over a third in 15 years; just a little over 1% go to services weekly, according to the C of E’s own numbers. A rise in churchgoing among the young is mainly a Catholic phenomenon. The C of E closes 20-odd churches each year.

Critics sense a spiritual vacuum too: in its failure to resolve international squabbles over its stance on gay marriage and in its cover-up of appalling child abuse. On January 6th, the former archbishop Justin Welby, who many felt failed in his handling of that scandal, laid his curving staff on the altar at Lambeth Palace. The process of selecting a replacement has begun.

Whether or not you believe in God, this matters, to bureaucracy and to Britain. Britons might be a Godless lot—in the 2021 census less than half called themselves Christian, down from almost 60% in 2011—but Britain itself is not. The c of e is not merely a church but an established church. England is one of around 20% of countries (from Tuvalu to Denmark) with a state religion. It is institutionally ecclesiastical.

Read it all.

Adult church attendance in England has fallen by over a third in 15 years; just a little over 1% go to services weekly, according to the Church of England’s own numbers. It closes 20 churches every year https://t.co/tj8gl0bjjd

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 9, 2025

The process for electing a new Archbishop of Canterbury has become an “omnishambles”, members of the General Synod said after cardinals in the Vatican took just two days of deliberations to pick a new pope.

The conclave to choose a successor to Pope Francis began on Wednesday, 16 days after his death on April 21. The selection of Cardinal Robert Prevost, who will be known as Pope Leo XIV, was confirmed on Thursday..

Six months after Justin Welby announced his resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury and four months after he vacated the role, the Church of England is still struggling to select the 17 members it needs to make up the crown nominations commission (CNC),which will choose his successor.

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“Over the last few decades, the #church has surrendered to a managerialism they were convinced would secure its salvation in the modern world,” said @WalkerMarcus. “The trouble is the managerial church cannot manage its way out of a paper bag.”#anglican #episcopal #religion pic.twitter.com/YKCBkKvlcR

— Dennis Lennox (@dennislennox) May 8, 2025

Young traditionalist ordinands with more than 40 years of ministry before them are one sign that their tradition is not ossifying, the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd Jonathan Baker, said this week, at the chrism mass for parishes to which he ministers.

While expressing a reluctance to “engage with any controversy”, Bishop Baker addressed towards the end of his sermon remarks made by the Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett, during last month’s WATCH conference (News, 4 April). Within the Church there had been, she said, an “ossification, if not growth, of the viewpoints purported by those who feel unable to receive the ministry of women bishops or priests or those male bishops who have ordained them”.

“I have to say to my sister in Christ and fellow bishop who used that term — not by name, but by association — of me and all of you — very firmly: No!” he told the congregation at St Andrew’s, Holborn, in London, on Tuesday. “Why? Because the life of the Church Catholic — her scriptures, her sacraments, her creeds, her ministry — embodies and expresses the Spirit-filled, Spirit-led living Tradition received and handed on in every generation — living water, ever fresh, ever renewing itself.”

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Young traditionalist ordinands with more than 40 years of ministry before them are one sign that their tradition is not ossifying, the Bishop of Fulham, the Rt Revd Jonathan Baker, said this week, at the chrism mass for parishes to which he ministers.https://t.co/MW16hPLjWE

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 16, 2025

The  Sudan conflict, which began two years ago on Tuesday, is “the world’s most severe humanitarian and displacement crisis”, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) has said.

The fighting between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support forces (RSF) has spread across most of the country (News, 21 April 2023).

About 150,000 people are estimated to have died during the conflict, the BBC reports. CAFOD reports that ten million people have been internally displaced, and more than three million have fled into neighbouring countries.

The Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is hosting ministers from donor countries and the wider region at a conference in London, on Tuesday, to encourage a ceasefire and the protection of civilians.

Read it all.

Get Sudan peace talks up started, international conference is urged https://t.co/DhDh0X4yar

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 15, 2025

“She left no last words. She was dead when she was carried away,” says Hafiza quietly, as she describes how her mother was killed in a city under siege in Darfur, during Sudan’s civil war, which began exactly two years ago.

The 21-year-old recorded how her family’s life was turned upside down by her mother’s death, on one of several phones the BBC World Service managed to get to people trapped in the crossfire in el-Fasher.

Under constant bombardment, el-Fasher has been largely cut off from the outside world for a year, making it impossible for journalists to enter the city. For safety reasons, we are only using the first names of people who wanted to film their lives and share their stories on the BBC phones.

Hafiza describes how she suddenly found herself responsible for her five-year-old brother and two teenage sisters.

Read it all.

Today marks 2 years since the start of the war in Sudan. Colleagues at @bbcworldservice smuggled phones into the besieged city of el-Fasher in North Darfur to get 1st hand accounts from the residents there. Reporting by @HebaBitarhttps://t.co/ozyYtYQOof

— Mayeni Jones (@MayeniJones) April 15, 2025

Churches are much more than buildings, and the Listed Places of Worship Grant (LPWG) Scheme is “beyond vital” to ensure that they can continue to be at the heart of communities, the Christian Funders’ Forum (CFF) has warned the Government.

These buildings are also often of significant architectural value, the CFF, a group of 50 grant-making charities say. They award grants totalling £70 million a year.

Churches such as St Michael-le-Belfrey, York, and St Mary Magdalene’s, Newark (News, 14 March, 4 April), where significant repair and restoration projects were already well advanced when the £25,000 cap on VAT exemption for repairs was announced in January, have been dismayed by the shortfalls in funding with which they are now confronted (News, 28 March).

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Treasury warned of ‘devastating’ consequences for churches if LPWG scheme ends https://t.co/qGfxfgsYkJ

— John Inge (@BishopJohnInge) April 14, 2025

During the WATCH conference, the Area Bishop of Croydon, Dr Rosemarie Mallett, a member of the steering committee that drafted the 2014 legislation (News, 26 July 2013), said: “I think in honesty we also thought that as society changed and as views became more open-minded among growing numbers of younger men and women, the culture of the Church would change like the culture of the wider society.”

Responding to this point, Mr Middleton suggested that, “Given that we are only just over a decade on from the settlement being put in place, and mutual flourishing is in its infancy, such attitudes do not bode well for any settlement emerging for evangelicals from their opposition to the Prayers of Love and Faith (PLF).

“What are they, and others, to make of the promises made to Anglo-Catholics, which some appear so keen to renege on so soon after those commitments were made?”

He also asked about the “well-being” of young clergy in the Society (which is supported and financed by Forward in Faith) who put themselves forward for ordination under the settlement, should this be revoked “after such a short elapse of time”.

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Promises to traditionalists should be kept, Forward in Faith sayshttps://t.co/gRz5Njpgzp

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) April 8, 2025

The Buckinghamshire-born 64-year-old was was ordained in Blackburn Cathedral 40 years ago, and says he is a parish priest at heart.

He has served in parishes in Blackburn, Lancaster and Accrington, before he moved to Lichfield Diocese as Diocesan Missioner and then a vicar in Telford.

He is co-author of a number of books on mission, spirituality and evangelism including, most recently, a booklet on the opportunities and risks of living in a digital world: ‘Surveillance Capitalism and the Loving Gaze of God’ as well as being an active member of General Synod, and previously servinged as an elected member of Archbishops’ Council.

Archdeacon Mark said, when his retirement was announced, : “It has been a tremendous privilege to serve God in Blackburn Diocese over the past 40 years and to have worked with five Diocesan bishops during that time.

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Church leaders say farewell to Archdeacon of Blackburn https://t.co/fOCwTlmAsj

— Lancashire Telegraph (@lancstelegraph) April 5, 2025