We wanted to know what people felt about their parish in terms of its financial viability and the general principles that should guide the wider Church. The sample of 3219 clergy and laity who took part in our survey and answered all the questions about parishes seemed to be reasonably representative of the Church as a whole. We presented them with six items with which they could agree or disagree. Their responses are shown in the table. When we analysed the overall figures in more detail, the results confirmed some widely held assumptions, but challenged others.

One third of respondents (32 per cent) agreed that their parish was not financially self-sufficient, and almost as many (28 per cent) agreed that their parish could not meet its share of diocesan costs. This has to be a worrying sign, even if the majority do not think this to be so. Fear of financial pressures was greater among those who worship in congregations of less than 50, and it was more keenly appreciated by stipendiary clergy than others. Lay people in large congregations may not understand the perils faced by their fellow worshippers in other parts of the C of E.

A similar proportion (33 per cent) felt that parishes (or benefices) should pay for their clergy. Unsurprisingly, stipendiary parish clergy, whose lives depend indirectly on parish giving, were much more likely to agree with this idea than did lay people (42 per cent versus 29 per cent). Evangelicals were more likely than others to agree with this (36 per cent versus 26 per cent), but even here this was a minority opinion.

There was strong agreement (75 per cent) across the Church that rich parishes should subsidise poor ones….

Read it all.

Is the parish system viable for the future?

Andrew Village and Leslie J. Francis have sought the views of several thousand clergy and laity #Parish #Clergy https://t.co/9UTPUTSp6m

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 28, 2026

The matters before the court are not merely procedural. Serious allegations of
canonical offenses by the Archbishop have been made. A Board of
Inquiry has investigated these accusations and found that there is probable cause
to present Archbishop Wood for trial.
For the record, the Board of Inquiry found that:
‘Concerning the Presentment of Archbishop Steve Wood, in accordance
with the standards established in and required by Title IV, Canon 4, Section
6, and following other pertinent Canons, the Board of Inquiry finds that
there is probable cause to present Archbishop Wood for trial for violation
of Canon 2 of this Title and has duly recorded its vote and judgment that
the following three charges should be considered in the trial:

1. Violation of Ordination Vows (Canon IV.2.1.3);
2. Conduct giving just cause for scandal or offense, including the abuse
   of ecclesiastical power (Canon IV.2.1.4); and
3. Sexual Immorality (Canon IV.2.1.6).’
   This is no small thing. It is, in fact, a matter of great import. The panel of this Court,
   made up of three Bishops, two priests, and two lay people, are charged with getting
   to the bottom of these allegations, and laying to rest, once and for all, the truth or
   falsehood of these allegations.
   3
   Therefore, the Court has decided that it needs to take back its charge to discover
   the truth.

Read it all.

ACNA news: the trial court in the matter of Abp Wood has issued a major statement aiming "to take back its charge to discover the truth" in part by urging St Andrew's Mount Pleasant, Wood's parish, to cooperate.

The statement is notable & merits a full reading: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/66b5zGSLPn

— Arlie Coles (@ArlieColes) July 1, 2026

 As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, 33% of U.S. adults say they are “extremely proud” to be an American, the lowest reading in Gallup’s trend dating back to 2001. Another 20% say they are “very proud,” which means just over half of Americans express high levels of pride in their country.

The remaining shares say they are “moderately proud” (22%), “only a little proud” (15%) or “not at all proud” (9%).

When Gallup first asked this question in 2001, 55% of U.S. adults were extremely proud to be American. Pride surged after 9/11, with 65% to 70% of Americans expressing extreme pride through 2004. Extreme pride declined after that but held at majority levels through 2017. Since 2018, no more than 47% of U.S. adults have said they are extremely proud. The latest figure, from a June 1-15 poll, is down eight percentage points from last year and is tied for the largest year-over-year change in the trend, along with 2004-2005.

Looking at “extremely proud” and “very proud” responses combined, roughly nine in 10 Americans expressed high levels of pride in the early years of the trend, through 2004. That reading slipped into the 80% range in 2005, fell to 70% in 2019 and has been below 60% since last year.

Read it all.

As the U.S. gears up for its 250th anniversary, a new poll reveals American national pride has plummeted to its lowest level in over two decades. https://t.co/ApwpjanRTd

— FOX 13 Seattle (@fox13seattle) June 30, 2026

Have not many of us, in the weary way of life, felt, in some hours, how far easier it were to die than to live?

The martyr, when faced even by a death of bodily anguish and horror, finds in the very terror of his doom a strong stimulant and tonic. There is a vivid excitement, a thrill and fervor, which may carry through any crisis of suffering that is the birth-hour of eternal glory and rest.

But to live,–to wear on, day after day, of mean, bitter, low, harassing servitude, every nerve dampened and depressed, every power of feeling gradually smothered,–this long and wasting heart-martyrdom, this slow, daily bleeding away of the inward life, drop by drop, hour after hour,–this is the true searching test of what there may be in man or woman.

When Tom stood face to face with his persecutor, and heard his threats, and thought in his very soul that his hour was come, his heart swelled bravely in him, and he thought he could bear torture and fire, bear anything, with the vision of Jesus and heaven but just a step beyond; but, when he was gone, and the present excitement passed off, came back the pain of his bruised and weary limbs,–came back the sense of his utterly degraded, hopeless, forlorn estate; and the day passed wearily enough.

Long before his wounds were healed, Legree insisted that he should be put to the regular field-work; and then came day after day of pain and weariness, aggravated by every kind of injustice and indignity that the ill-will of a mean and malicious mind could devise. Whoever, in our circumstances, has made trial of pain, even with all the alleviations which, for us, usually attend it, must know the irritation that comes with it. Tom no longer wondered at the habitual surliness of his associates; nay, he found the placid, sunny temper, which had been the habitude of his life, broken in on, and sorely strained, by the inroads of the same thing. He had flattered himself on leisure to read his Bible; but there was no such thing as leisure there. In the height of the season, Legree did not hesitate to press all his hands through, Sundays and week-days alike. Why shouldn’t he?””he made more cotton by it, and gained his wager; and if it wore out a few more hands, he could buy better ones. At first, Tom used to read a verse or two of his Bible, by the flicker of the fire, after he had returned from his daily toil; but, after the cruel treatment he received, he used to come home so exhausted, that his head swam and his eyes failed when he tried to read; and he was fain to stretch himself down, with the others, in utter exhaustion.

Is it strange that the religious peace and trust, which had upborne him hitherto, should give way to tossings of soul and despondent darkness? The gloomiest problem of this mysterious life was constantly before his eyes, souls crushed and ruined, evil triumphant, and God silent. It was weeks and months that Tom wrestled, in his own soul, in darkness and sorrow. He thought of Miss Ophelia’s letter to his Kentucky friends, and would pray earnestly that God would send him deliverance. And then he would watch, day after day, in the vague hope of seeing somebody sent to redeem him; and, when nobody came, he would crush back to his soul bitter thoughts,that it was vain to serve God, that God had forgotten him. He sometimes saw Cassy; and sometimes, when summoned to the house, caught a glimpse of the dejected form of Emmeline, but held very little communion with either; in fact, there was no time for him to commune with anybody.

–Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin

“Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, the anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was published in book form for the first time #OTD in 1852. It had first been published 10 months earlier in serial form in ‘The National Era’, and abolitionist periodical. #WomensHistoryMonth pic.twitter.com/1tFtJZGllR

— Civil War On This Day (@CivilWarOTD) March 20, 2022

Gracious God, we offer thanks for the witness of Harriett Beecher Stowe, whose fiction inspired thousands with compassion for the shame and sufferings of enslaved peoples, and who enriched her writings with the cadences of The Book of Common Prayer. Help us, like her, to strive for thy justice, that our eyes may see the glory of thy Son, Jesus Christ, when he comes to reign with thee and the Holy Spirit in reconciliation and peace, one God, now and always. Amen.

Remembering Harriet Beecher Stowe who died on this date July 1 in 1896. Photo 1852, source: Schlesinger Library, RIAS, Harvard University. #OTD pic.twitter.com/JfqOYD8UtW

— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) July 1, 2026

O God, who hast taught us that in thy mysterious providence suffering is the prelude to glory, and hast made much tribulation the entrance to thy heavenly kingdom: May we learn from this thy will, and also from creation around us, to wait for our deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of thy children; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Superbe vue de la Pointe du Van par Ronan Senan #Finistère #Bretagne #MagnifiqueBretagne #BaladeSympa #MagnifiqueFrance pic.twitter.com/sZMoY27hOV

— Gwénaël Santerre (@Gsterre) July 1, 2026

“Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.”

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet.

–Matthew 21:33-46

A #Hot day begins on 1 July with #Sunrise over the Potomac River! @capitalweather @KaitlynMcGrath pic.twitter.com/IqImwrCJ1t

— Jeanne Stuart McVey (@RiverGirl707) July 1, 2026

O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

A splendid Sunday to you 🤞🏻

"Overlooking St. Chad’s College towards the magnificent outline of Durham Cathedral, this scene brings together so much of what makes the city special; historic rooftops, golden evening light, deep green trees and that unmistakable skyline." -Graeme.… pic.twitter.com/GBXlk8kEe3

— North East Tweets (@NorthEastTweets) June 28, 2026

The Lord is my strength and my song;
    he has become my salvation.

Hark, glad songs of victory
    in the tents of the righteous:
“The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,
    the right hand of the Lord is exalted,
    the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”
I shall not die, but I shall live,
    and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has chastened me sorely,
    but he has not given me over to death.

–Psalm 118:14-18

« La vie en bleu »#chasseurdebeauté pic.twitter.com/blkbd46nyE

— Catherine Benoist (@benoistart) June 28, 2026

Everliving Lord of the universe, our loving God, who raised up thy priest Cornelius Hill, last hereditary chief of the Oneida nation, to shepherd and defend his people against attempts to scatter them in the wilderness: Help us, like him, to be dedicated to truth and honor, that we may come to that blessed state thou hast prepared for us; through Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

#OnThisDay Jan 25,
1907
Death in Wisconsin of Onangwatgo [Cornelius Hill], an Oneida chief and Episcopal priest. pic.twitter.com/Bn7ZUKeo6w

— ☧ Today in Christian History (@HistoricalRook) January 25, 2021

O Saviour Christ, whose compassion embraces all men, and who in the days of thy flesh didst welcome sinners: Graciously receive us who now come to thee, and who have nothing to plead but our own exceeding need, and thy exceeding love; who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.

Misty Saturday morning sunrise 😎 pic.twitter.com/yA8mwYFWk1

— graham ross (@grahamr27165817) June 27, 2026

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

–Romans 6:1-11

Saturday Sailing Sunrise. This morning on Lake Michigan in Chicago. #weather #news #ilwx #chicago pic.twitter.com/M5PIYXX2im

— Barry Butler Photography (@barrybutler9) June 27, 2026

Memories of seeing small numbers of people come to faith gradually, while serving on outer estates, were shared by the new Bishop of Ely, the Rt Revd Sarah Clark, this week.

“Sometimes growth came but it was one by one,” she said. “The apostle Paul talks about a labour of love and I think in some smaller communities, where it’s been a struggle, it’s a real labour of love. It takes a lot of energy and lot of faith, hope, and love.”

Bishop Clark, who served in parish ministry in the diocese of Southwell & Nottingham for 16 years after ordination, was installed in Ely Cathedral on Sunday. In her sermon, she spoke of a longing to see the diocese “grow increasingly confident in the person who we believe has risen from the dead and is alive and shares that life with anyone who comes to him — for that is the gift we have to share”.

The Statement of Needs produced prior to her appointment was frank about the challenges facing the diocese, noting that the diocesan plan, Ely 2025: People Fully Alive, had failed to reverse the decline in attendance. It continued: “Our new bishop will have to consider how to address the decline and whether a further period of centralised planning is likely to be the most effective tool to deploy.”

Read it all.

I really enjoyed interviewing the new Bishop of Ely, on among other things parish ministry & life as a convert https://t.co/KHfjfGkzjL pic.twitter.com/jrRStihG9d

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) June 26, 2026

Patrick Brown, Contributing Editor 

I am sure I am far from the only member of the Public Discourse family to be preparing for the release of Christopher Nolan’s adaption of The Odyssey later this summer. In part because the tale was initially orally transmitted (and in part because it’s easier to sneak in chunks of listening time while watching kids at the park), I made a point of picking an audiobook recording—Sir Ian McKellen reads the Fagles translation with characteristic aplomb. Samuel Moyn’s Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth—and What to Do About It is on my list for professional reasons, and Leander Schaerlaeckens’ history of the U.S. soccer program The Long Game: U.S. Men’s Soccer and Its Savage, Four-Decade Journey to the Top is helping me get in the World Cup spirit. Then I have to decide whether I want to make room for Caro Clare Burke’s viral tradwife novel Yesteryear … 

Alexandra Davis, Managing Editor 

My reading group is taking on Les Miserables this summer, so I am currently carrying around what I fondly call my “brick” with me in my diaper bag. It’s quite the conversation piece when I whip it out at the pool, all 1,100+ pages of it. It’s been a blast sending our favorite witty Hugo lines to our group text thread and declaring which parts of the narrative have left us decidedly “not okay.” In all seriousness, Les Mis will always remain among my favorite stories about human complexity, concupiscence, and redemption. May we all aspire to be Jean Valjean when, at times, we are regrettably more like Javert. (Our reading group will also enjoy a screening of the 2012 movie this summer, which is a masterpiece, Russell Crowe’s singing notwithstanding.) 

For a much lighter, cannot-put-it-down read, I’m nearly finished with the Catholic author (and occasional PD writer) Claire Swinarski’s novel The Supper Club Saints. It’s been a while since I’ve read a contemporary novel that so searingly captures the most honest and often unflattering angles of a mother’s interior dialogue. Not to mention, it’s often laugh-out-loud funny. Claire does enjoy some salty language, though, so caveat emptor, especially if you’re listening to an audio version….

Read it all.

https://t.co/mqdGZTdRDW Here’s what our editors are reading this summer.

— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) June 25, 2026

Many researchers are now convinced that humanlike AI, or artificial general intelligence (AGI), will require more than mastering language and images. It will require AIs that can reason about space, causality, and the consequences of actions—especially if they are to control humanoid robots, operate factories, and explore other planets.

Few people have argued for this need more forcefully than AI pioneer Yann LeCun. “I joke that the smartest systems we have today are not as smart as a house cat,” he says. A cat can’t code like an LLM, but it can survive by its wits. The notion that simply scaling an LLM will get to AGI is “complete nonsense,” he says. “It’s like saying you’re going to get into orbit by scaling airplanes. There’s a very powerful delusion circulating in Silicon Valley that this is the case.”

LeCun left a top job at Meta to co-found one of a growing number of labs and startups developing “world models”—systems that build representations of how the world works—and agents that operate within them to learn or plan. Ultimately, these researchers hope that more closely mimicking how the human mind learns will give AI stunning new powers.

The gaps between humans and LLMs are not merely quantitative. In a 2024 study, LLMs that were trained on sequences of directions from New York City taxi rides could generate new routes reliably, suggesting they had turned those directions into an accurate map of the city. But when researchers looked under the hood to examine their internal representations, they found not a clean city grid, but an incoherent mess of tangled streets. LLMs “are so alien and so unhumanlike,” says Brenden Lake, a cognitive scientist at Princeton University.

Read it all.

Words vs. worlds: As building bigger and better chatbots gets harder, AI researchers turn to systems that learn to simulate the worldhttps://t.co/DC8Q7QNoWp via @SilverJacket pic.twitter.com/OoMXTX5ZAD

— Ash Paul (@pash22) June 26, 2026

For decades, the tech industry has relied on the ability of semiconductor companies to wring more power out of computer chips, making the smartphones that fit in a hand today more capable than the computers that filled entire rooms 40 years ago.

While some experts worry that era of increased miniaturization is ending, IBM is saying not so fast.

The big tech company on Thursday released details of its next advance in chip manufacturing technology, which it says could keep that innovation going for another 10 years.

Using a novel approach to making smaller transistors that act as tiny switches in microprocessors and other chips, IBM said, the new production process can squeeze nearly twice as many transistors on a fingernail-size chip as the last technology it introduced in 2021. That will offer 50 percent greater computing performance and 70 percent better energy efficiency, the company said.

Read it all.

$IBM unveiled a 0.7nm “nanostack” 3D transistor design which it calls the first sub-1nm chip technology.

IBM says it could fit 100B transistors on a fingernail-sized chip, reach production within ~5 years and deliver up to 70% better efficiency versus 2nm. pic.twitter.com/psH3RxKGmC

— Shay Boloor (@StockSavvyShay) June 25, 2026

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.

Died #OTD in 1928 – Isabel Hapgood, also commemorated by the Episcopal Church as an Ecumenist, Translator & Journalist https://t.co/WD7Q6qDOPv

Born 1850 in Boston, she had a talent for languages, mastering most of the Romance & Germanic languages plus Russian & Church Slavonic pic.twitter.com/3aygpslmn1

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) June 26, 2022

Grant, O God, that we who have been signed with the sign of the Cross in our baptism, may never be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, but may manfully fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue Christ’s faithful soldiers and servants unto our lives’ end.

Wishing you a fabulous Friday from North Yorkshire 😊 pic.twitter.com/jH1pj6LAAj

— Nicky (@NickyJohnsonNY) June 26, 2026

Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned— sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

–Romans 5:12-21

My little paradise. pic.twitter.com/Z97mNYG87J

— Kristin Mae Photography (@Kristin_Mae) June 26, 2026

In some ways, this is remarkably astute socio-religious commentary. Sociologists Ryan Burge and Jonathan Haidt have argued the same thing in their books “The Vanishing Church” and “The Anxious Generation” respectively. Human beings need a common worship of their shared values to be socially bonded in community-wide groups. And religious communities do that more effectively than any other social organization. Both Burge and Haidt largely attribute the growing divisions today to a lack of such a common religious social framework.

But this is also one of the many ways Spielberg’s film feels out of touch. Religion hasn’t fulfilled that unifying force function in America for decades. Today, aliens wouldn’t disrupt any such religious glue holding together society because that ship has already sailed. 

It’s also somewhat out of touch with how actual religious communities think about how their faith relates to aliens. Most Christian thinkers who’ve actually dealt with the question are totally comfortable with the compatibility of Christianity and aliens. CS Lewis literally made a whole sci-fi trilogy about it.

Instead, as Ross Douthat explained in The New York Times, religious people have “the fear of a particular kind of extraterrestrial encounter, where supposed brothers from another planet offer themselves as shepherds of our souls, and we have to decide whether it’s a revelation or a grand deception.”

As Randal King writes, “I don’t have a problem believing in his movie aliens. I’m just not prepared to elevate them to deities who will fix us if we just listen.”

Read it all.

Disclosure Day is another example of how Hollywood misunderstands religion.

Ted Balaker argues that the Steven Spielberg thinks he’s asking profound new questions about Christianity.
The problem is they’re only new inside Hollywood’s bubble.https://t.co/pqZstj9qEt pic.twitter.com/gSZ6cPzs08

— The Coddling Movie (@CoddlingMovie) June 25, 2026

In his address to the Provincial Council, Dobbs wryly quoted Queen Elizabeth II who termed 1992 “Annus Horribilis” as “not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.”

At the same time, Dobbs stated that the past year has been “marked by the providential mercies of God,” citing growth in the number and size of local churches, the number of ordained clergy, and confirmations that have “multiplied across our province.”

Dobbs noted that Diocese of Fort Worth Bishop Ryan Reed had confirmed 96 candidates in the past six weeks alone, and that across 2025 the ACNA saw 3,445 children baptized.

“Not so bad for an Annis Horriblis,” Dobbs assessed, adding “I suspect that you read very little of that online” and that “the faithful mercies of God rarely trend on X.”

“Our task is to recall to ourselves the one, the only one, who has supplied this province in season and he who will continue to supply her still,” Dobbs commended, reminding Council delegates that “The fundamental agency of this church is to the local congregation.”

Dobbs also sought to vouch for the denomination’s bishops, attesting that he has “watched them carry weights that no man should carry alone.”

Read it all.

"The faithful mercies of God rarely trend on X,” @The_ACNA Bishop Julian Dobbs tells Provincial Council, spotlighting number of ordained clergy and confirmations that have “multiplied across our province.” My coverage for @Livng_Church: https://t.co/kKUvlZYs4b

— Jeff Walton (@jeffreyhwalton) June 24, 2026

Yet this backlash is itself dangerous. AI promises to change the world for the better, much as electricity or the steam engine did. Not long ago, the era-defining problem for the rich world was stagnant economic growth and the populism it unleashed. Now it has a technology that could power a surge in productivity and incomes, help find cures for untreatable diseases and improve everything from education to green tech.

All this could be lost if countries starve the technology of computing power or regulate it into uselessness. Look at mRNA vaccines research, which has been held back after a backlash during the covid-19 pandemic.

Scenarios in which some countries give in to popular rage but others forge ahead are also worrying. If America succumbs, it could cede the global ai frontier, and the attendant cyber and military capabilities, to authoritarian China. Europe and Canada are more risk-averse than America. If they choked off AI while the rest of the world kept pushing forward, their losses could be unrecoverable. More than two centuries after the Industrial Revolution, few countries have managed to catch up with the first movers.

So the stakes are high. Can governments do anything about it? Grand proclamations about the shape of a “social contract” for a post-AI world are good fodder for blog posts but offer little help today. Besides, the unknowns are still large enough to make the exercise almost futile.

Better to be incremental. 

Read it all.

Persuading voters that their interests are being served by AI’s disruption has become as important as making models better. The failure to do so would destroy vast opportunities for humanity https://t.co/5S9EGzPIHg

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 25, 2026

 Two-thirds of Americans surveyed in a June 1-15 Gallup poll say the cost of fuel has caused financial hardship for their household, similar to the level recorded when gas prices were similarly high in 2022 and at other times over the past two decades when gas prices were elevated — especially 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Although most people are feeling the pinch from high fuel prices, 17% of those experiencing financial hardship because of high gas prices call it “severe.” That is slightly lower than the 22% found four years ago.

Gallup’s trended data suggest that Americans are especially sensitive to average pump prices reaching new levels — often widely reported in the news. Each time a new threshold has been crossed for a sustained period, the share of Americans reporting financial hardship has risen sharply. This includes when prices went above $2 per gallon in 2005, above $3.50 in 2008, above $3.75 in 2011 and above $4 in 2022.

Read it all.

Gas Prices Hitting Americans' Finances, Travel Plans https://t.co/ddsER2mq8P

— Todd Nicolini Insights (@InsightsTodd) June 25, 2026

Eternal God, we give thanks for the gifts that thou didst bestow upon thy servant James Weldon Johnson: a heart and voice to praise thy Name in verse. As he gave us powerful words to glorify you, may we also speak with joy and boldness to banish hatred from thy creation, in the Name of Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Born today in 1871: James Weldon Johnson, author of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." This portrait is by the Scurlock Studio of D.C. pic.twitter.com/8SLoPCj81Q

— National Museum of American History (@amhistorymuseum) June 17, 2017

O Lord, who hast promised a blessing for all who suffer for righteousness’ sake: Grant to all our brethren persecuted for the truth that they may rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer dishonour for thy name.  Strengthen their faith and renew their love, that in their patience they may possess their souls and win their persecutors to penitence and new brotherhood in thee; for the sake of him who suffered shame and reproach and remained invincible in his love, even thy redeeming Son, Christ our Lord.

The more time you spend in Nature, the more she rewards you, I'm sure of it. Tiny riches beyond measure are slowly, quietly, revealed: the scent of grasses, a glimpse of a fledgeling thrush in a hedge, the colours of foxgloves and daisies spilling through gates. And winding paths… pic.twitter.com/jv2WhtSjr3

— peaklass (@peaklass1) June 25, 2026

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

Then the mother of the sons of Zeb′edee came up to him, with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” But Jesus answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” They said to him, “We are able.” He said to them, “You will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

–Matthew 20:17-28

I think we should join these by spending the day in the sea! #portmarnock #sunrise pic.twitter.com/6J6mzu9Kjg

— Sryan Bruen Photography (@sryanbruenphoto) June 25, 2026

 “Strong frustration” that a report on the seal of confession remains with the House of Bishops and has “effectively been paused for over a year” has been expressed by members of the Task and Finish Group for the Makin report.

The group has requested that the issue be escalated to the National Safeguarding Steering Group.

The group was established to “scrutinise, challenge and advise” on the Church of England’s response to the 27 recommendations arising from Keith Makin’s review of the Church’s handling of allegations of abuse perpetrated by John Smyth.

Last year, it reported that all 27 would be accepted — 24 in full, and the other three “partially” (News, 7 November 2025).

Read it all.

“Strong frustration” that a report on the seal of confession remains with the House of Bishops and has “effectively been paused for over a year” has been expressed by members of the Task and Finish Group for the Makin report.https://t.co/y7QCdyTY0t

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) June 24, 2026

Gloating about being orthodox as opposed to revisionist might seem like a winning ticket.

After all, the Anglican Church in North America was born from the Episcopal Church’s embrace of pansexuality, and it has watched as that revisionist denomination has paid a steep price in lost membership, declining attendance, and an aging Boomer generation slowly disappearing from the pews.

It was ACNA’s moment. Or it should have been. But it has not worked out as seamlessly as hoped.

Across 17 years, the headline number is around 130,000 members with just under 100,000 in weekly attendance. Even its apparent “growth” in recent years partly reflects better data collection rather than actual new members. The denomination has seen multiple bishops depart under a cloud — several forced out over sexual misconduct. The current Archbishop Steve Wood was compelled to step aside and now faces an ecclesiastical trial on allegations of sexual misbehavior, bullying, and plagiarism. No ACNA archbishop in the denomination’s short history has faced such a constellation of charges.

Yet hope springs eternal. Mark Eldridge of the American Anglican Council, fresh from the Provincial Council meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, declared that reports of ACNA’s death have been grossly exaggerated by social media bloggers. While lauding the camaraderie of assembled delegates, he soberly noted that half of the 1,005 churches comprising the ACNA average fewer than 50 in Sunday attendance, and nearly 75% average fewer than 100. The data confirms what many have long suspected — and what this writer knows firsthand: my own parish in Germantown, Philadelphia was forced to close for lack of growth, interest, and inadequate leadership.

That reality has prompted Anglican Revitalization Ministries to launch three programs — Revive, Renew, and Reframe — with church planting described as “desperately needed in a growing province.” But a closer look at the methodology raises serious questions about whether ACNA is on the right track.

The old “come and hear” model has not worked in decades. The imperative is “go and tell” — but that begs the question of how. Trained missiologists and frontline church planters who have succeeded on the global stage believe ACNA has it backwards. If “church” means a building with professional paid clergy, the growth strategy is dead before it starts.

Read it all.

https://t.co/7V744e5BDM

— David Virtue (@david_virt8366) June 24, 2026

The Episcopal Church is selling or leasing its legendary headquarters building in New York city, from whose perch its Presiding Bishops long ruled and resided in a penthouse apartment overlooking the Manhattan skyline. One former presiding bishop reputedly decorated the penthouse all in white, which allegedly matched her chilly personality, provoking snarly critics to deride her as the “white witch.”

This sale could be seen as a metaphor for the collapse of liberal Protestantism, if any more metaphors are needed. More widely, it illustrates the collapse of institutional religion in America, liberal or not.

Mainline Protestant denominations have been pulling their headquarters and agencies from New York for decades. The United Church of Christ quit New York in 1990 for a new headquarters building in Cleveland, which it sold in 2022 for smaller rental space a mile away. The Presbyterian Church (USA) headquarters quit New York in 1988 for Louisville, Kentucky. United Methodism’s largest agency, the General Board of Global Ministries, quit New York in 2016 for Atlanta. The National Council of Churches quit New York in 2013 for Washington, DC.

The Episcopal church across sixty years has lost 56 percent of its members.

Read it all.

The Episcopal Church is selling or leasing its legendary headquarters building in New York city. This sale could be seen as a metaphor for the collapse of liberal Protestantism, if any more metaphors are needed. More widely, it illustrates the collapse of institutional religion… https://t.co/DO0XWOaaIg

— @markdtooley (@markdtooley) June 24, 2026