Speaking of the grit which forms the pearl is an unusual way of interpreting the parable of the pearl, which is more often assumed to focus on its value and the response of the merchant, who, “went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:46). Some may say that Jesus did not speak about the grit because of his lack of scientific understanding, and that the Archbishop’s interpretation is just a case of proclaiming the faith “afresh to every generation”. Others would disagree, pointing out that Jesus used the parable of the sower to explain how the Kingdom of God grows, and would suggest that the Archbishop should have turned to the earlier verses of Matthew 13 to make her point. But that might have been awkward, because Jesus is clear that it is the word of God that is the seed that is sown and that the Kingdom of God grows as each individual, “hears the word and understands it.” (Matthew 13:23)

Despite references to the, “Gospel of Jesus Christ” and a plea that the Church would continue with, “our hope rooted in the Gospel, and our confidence rooted in God,” there was no expectation in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s first presidential address that she expected the Church to hear God’s word and understand it.

Sadly, it seems, that just like Justin Welby before her, Sarah Mullally will lead the Church of England further into the mire, the only difference being that she will be “calm, consistent and compassionate” as she does it.

Read it all.

NEW: The Prince and Princess of Wales are visiting the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, at Lambeth Palace this afternoon for the first time! 💒 pic.twitter.com/5mnTChcaMu

— Belle (@RoyallyBelle_) February 5, 2026

Artificial Intelligence poses a double challenge to the human mind. Not only will the most advanced models soon be able to think better than people, but AI has consequences for humanity which are so uncertain, so potentially vast and are approaching at such a rapid pace that even the best brains flinch. An example is Elon Musk.

In our long interview with him this week, featured in The Insider and our Business section, the engineer and entrepreneur sets out two paradoxes and one contradiction. The first paradox is that one of the world’s most power-hungry tycoons is enthusiastically helping create a technology that he says will render him—and all other human beings—powerless after as little as five years. The second is that the world’s richest man says he is preparing for a world of infinite abundance, where money, including his $750bn fortune, no longer matters. And the contradiction is that, despite these stated beliefs, Mr Musk continues to act as if they were not true.

Mr Musk is divisive. His political views, disseminated to his 240m followers on X, strike many as plain-speaking and strike many more, including The Economist, as plainly bigoted. By his own admission, his attempt to use DOGE to scythe through the federal bureaucracy went wrong.

But he is also one of a handful of men who are pioneering AI and who thereby have an outsize influence on its trajectory. When he speaks, he reflects the debates they are having. His data centres in space could power AI’s future. For all his political polemics, he has a record of being right about technology in fields such as electric cars, rockets and satellite communications that confounded other engineers and entrepreneurs. For those reasons, his claims about AI repay examination. Unfortunately, such an exercise only underlines how ill-prepared the world is for a technology that may soon throw everything up in the air.

Read it all.

AI is charging ahead. Not even its creators—including @elonmusk—know how to keep up https://t.co/8UwsIS9FQY pic.twitter.com/TndVl6q8ir

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 23, 2026

The United States may only have nine to 12 months to protect its critical infrastructure from AI-powered attacks. Currently, two American companies, Anthropic (for which I consult) and OpenAI, have publicly demonstrated AI models advanced enough to detect flaws in software far beyond the human capacity to find, and they are restricting the use of these models to defensive cybersecurity work.

But the United States’ adversaries, and the criminals in their orbit, will soon wield the same offensive tools. China, in particular, is already racing to build and acquire these AI capabilities and may be closer to developing its own Mythos than many U.S. policymakers hope. Advanced AI will sharpen an instrument that Beijing already prizes: the credible threat to deter a fight over Taiwan before it begins by disrupting the island’s critical infrastructure and that of any nation that seeks to defend it….

The United States has a window to bolster its critical infrastructure’s defenses, but that window is short, and those defenses are weak to begin with. In a campaign called Volt Typhoon, Chinese state-linked hackers already demonstrated how deeply they can burrow into U.S. critical infrastructure, including organizations in the water, power, and transportation sectors. Now is the time to put policy options on the table that were previously considered out of bounds: taking dramatic steps to preempt would-be attacks, making once-in-a-generation investments in cyberdefense, and helping U.S. AI labs protect themselves against the most advanced threats.

Read it all.

“As firms use Mythos to hunt and fix flaws in their products, a more urgent question looms: how to defend the United States and its allies from AI-powered cyberwarfare,” writes Michael Sulmeyer.https://t.co/uskGVY48uZ

— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) July 22, 2026

The price of crude oil is a broken barometer. Acute pain in the world energy market has switched to the trio of refined products that we actually consume: diesel, petrol and jet fuel.

The IATA jet fuel index for global airlines has hit $154 a barrel in Europe and $149 in North America, almost double the cost of underlying crude. In trade parlance, the “crack spread” has gone mad. It is arguably worse for diesel. The spread over crude has reached $80 in Rotterdam and $88 in New York, the highest since records began. The whole global market is seizing up.

“I’ve never seen an energy environment this stretched,” said Jeff Currie, perhaps the world’s best-known oil guru. We have been lulled into complacency by deceptively moderate oil headlines and by assumptions that the Iran war has settled into a low-intensity management problem. It is nothing of the sort.

Read it all.

Beware the rising energy dangers of Trump’s Gulf war (£) https://t.co/C5vRYPohmC

— Wolfgang Schremser (@WSchremser) July 22, 2026

Holy and Mighty One, whose beloved Son Jesus Christ blessed the pure in heart: We offer thanks for the life and teachings of John Cassian that draw us to a discipline of holy living for the sake of thy reign. Call us to turn the gaze of the eyes of our soul always toward thee, that we may abide in thy love, shown to us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who with thee and the Holy Spirit is one God, living and true, to the ages of ages. Amen.

"The devil’s greatest weapon is to make us believe that our sins are too great for God’s mercy, but no sin is greater than His love."
— St. John Cassian pic.twitter.com/TtwJVWlfHV

— TheOrthodoxWay (@_theorthodoxway) August 2, 2025

Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
through your Spirit make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen (edited slightly; KSH).

Every morning, I experience the beautiful sunrise on Little Bay Islands. Every morning, I stop reaching toward the life behind me or the life still to come. I stand where I am … and this place and my life becomes enough. pic.twitter.com/idvnskjb6B

— Mike Parsons (@mikep_lbi) July 23, 2026

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves; let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to edify him. For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached thee fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome one another, therefore, as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

“Therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles,
and sing to thy name”;

and again it is said,

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”;

and again,

“Praise the Lord, all Gentiles,
and let all the peoples praise him”;

and further Isaiah says,

“The root of Jesse shall come,
he who rises to rule the Gentiles;
in him shall the Gentiles hope.”

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

–Romans 15:1-13

Sunrise July 22, Northern Bay Sands, Bay de Verde Peninsula, #NewfoundlandandLabrador. Driving here you see the scorched trees and the devastation of last summer’s wildfire. I think how devastating for everyone involved and yet the sun rises.
Happy Thursday. #explorenl pic.twitter.com/UdsrMVAsgg

— Connie Boland #querying #fiction (@BolandC) July 23, 2026

Proposals to cut the Theology and Religious Studies (TRS) department at Exeter University by more than one quarter in a matter of months would have “irreversible consequences”, a letter from theologians and others has warned.

The letter has been signed by more than 600 people, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams; the Bishops of Newcastle and Winchester; and academics including Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford.

The Vice-Chancellor of Exeter, Professor Lisa Roberts, announced the proposals to staff last month. Of the proposed 153 full-time-equivalent academic redundancies, 114 fall within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The TRS department could lose up to five members of staff.

“The University is not removing poorly performing units but dismantling areas of established excellence and international renown,” the letter warns. The department was ranked first nationally for world-leading research in the Research Excellence Framework, in 2021. Among the staff raising the alarm is the Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion, Francesca Stavrakopoulou, whose public scholarship includes a recent documentary for the BBC.

Read it all.

"The University is not removing poorly performing units but dismantling areas of established excellence and international renown." I had a look to potential cuts to Theology & Religion at Exeter – part of a wider trend across the country https://t.co/rN152K8qwm

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) July 22, 2026

Finally, gambling must be recognized as wrong because it corrupts our society. The legal gambler and the corrupt politician have ever been close friends. Some would suggest that gambling should be legalized because its taxes will help to support our government, but gambling is a social leech; it has no product of value to offer. The revenues of the gambler have first been created by some legitimate business venture and should have found their way to another. The money received by the gambler means less business for the grocer, the clothing store, the gasoline station.

Then too, the fact is that gambling always corrupts government. The report of the Senate crime commission indicated that 20 percent of the gambler’s “take” is used as a fund to corrupt public officials. Responsible public officials always agree that wherever illegal gambling is conducted openly, it can be done only at the expense of the corrupted character of public officials.

At one time, former mayor William O’Dwyer of New York City proposed that legal gambling be permitted in New York State. Governor Thomas Dewey made a powerful response:

It would be an indecent thing for a government to finance itself so largely out of the weaknesses of the people which it had deliberately encouraged. … The entire history of legalized gambling in this country and abroad shows that it has brought nothing but poverty, crime, and corruption, demoralization of moral and ethical standards of living, and misery for all the people.

Read it all.

(Christianity Today from 1962 [!]) George Desmond–'Gambling Is a Moral Crime gambling must be recognized as wrong because it corrupts our society. The legal gambler and the corrupt politician have ever been close friends. Some would suggest that gambling should be legalized…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 22, 2026

Texas trains a tenth of the nation’s schoolchildren and the reading list includes many familiar school selections: “Stuart Little” and “The Cat in the Hat,” “Julius Caesar” and “Hamlet,” “Great Expectations” and “Animal Farm,” speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., poetry of Dante and Eliot, the diary of Anne Frank and “Night,” Elie Wiesel’s powerful Holocaust memoir. Oddly omitted is the popular “To Kill a Mockingbird” with its themes of race relations and justice. Ideology emerges with Ayn Rand lauding untrammeled capitalism and Margaret Thatcher eulogizing Ronald Reagan.

Predictably, the new Texas Bible mandates, said to be unique among the states, are one of those social issues that rouse intense partisan debate. The board’s Republican majority approved the new curriculum in a 9-5 vote, while inclusion of the Bible is opposed by many Democrats and liberals. Christian clergy are similarly divided; most Jewish leaders are strongly negative; and critics note the omission of Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim texts.

President Rachel Laser of Americans United insists that “public schools should not force children to read Bible stories,” accusing politicians of “pushing Christianity on public schoolchildren.” Karen Swallow Prior, an evangelical literary scholar formerly at Liberty University and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, says “teaching key passages from the Bible is an excellent idea” if the purpose is truly cultural. But she’s opposed if this seeks “to elevate one religion over another” or is “a ham-fisted attempt to advance a Christian nationalist agenda.”

Read it all.

Texas mandates biblical readings in public school curriculum — @DavidMartinDavi @TPRSource @TPRNews https://t.co/5GO581HlLw

— Jon Taylor (@ProfJonTaylor) July 20, 2026

Without fail, David Liu of the Broad Institute gets at least 20 messages every week from desperate parents. Their child, they’ll explain, has an ultrarare and devastating disorder caused by a mutant gene. Can he help them develop a gene therapy?

Dr. Liu, a gene-editing researcher, answers honestly: Although the science is there — researchers can edit and silence the genes that cause disease relatively easily — the system for developing treatments for rare diseases is just not economically feasible. It typically takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars.

The catchphrase, said Dr. Wendy Chung of Boston Children’s Hospital, is “too rare to care.”

Now, Dr. Liu, Dr. Chung and their colleagues at the Broad Institute, Boston Children’s and the Jackson Laboratory are hoping to change that mentality. On Tuesday, they announced the start of a new nonprofit, the Center for Therapeutic Genetics, to develop gene therapy treatments that can be used and reused in disease after disease.

Treatments developed by the center would be viewed more like routine procedures than drugs. In each case, all that would be changed are the instructions to a gene editor. There would be no need to start anew for every patient.

Read it all.

‘Too Rare to Care’? A New Center for Rare Diseases Hopes to Change That https://t.co/ahZC0LpW1d

— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) July 21, 2026

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by thy grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know thee in the power of his endless life; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever.

Today's the feast of St Mary Magdalene. Three scenes from her story in glass at Little Horkesley, Essex by Hugh Powell, 1963: she weeps as Christ is taken down from the cross, she meets the Risen Christ in the garden, and she tells the disciples that she has seen him. pic.twitter.com/0yS8XovHL8

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) July 22, 2026

O Lord, who seest the multitudes, and art moved with compassion because they are an-hungered: Inspire thy Church with thy love and pity to gather unto thee the famished souls of men, that they may be satisfied with the living Bread; and as thou carest for the bodies as well as for the souls of men, move us and all thy servants with like mercy; that the needy may be fed and clothed, and that none may be homeless or destitute; for the glory of thy holy name.

Another beautiful sunrise this morning in Rocky Mountain National Park. Took a little while for the sun to break through the clouds from last nights storms as they moved east of the park. pic.twitter.com/0d1HvhlXTi

— Thomas Mangan (@TheRockyGallery) July 21, 2026

Then Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, “an altar of unhewn stones, upon which no man has lifted an iron tool”; and they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. And all Israel, sojourner as well as homeborn, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Ger′izim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

–Joshua 8:30-35

Sunrise over the Farnes 🙂 pic.twitter.com/MZXcPNYhGD

— Graeme Peacock (@GraemePeacock1) July 22, 2026

…The Government stresses that the “permanence” of marriage will be strengthened by enabling more questioning of candidates ahead of their weddings.

“Many couples have a religious-only wedding that reflects their faith and traditions, followed by a separate legal ceremony — or no legal ceremony at all. Research shows around two thirds of women who had a religious-only Muslim wedding did not also have a separate legal ceremony,” the consultation document says.

“To protect against forced, predatory and sham marriages, couples must complete a two-stage process, including in-person interview, to verify their identity and demonstrate eligibility to marry.”

Anglican banns of marriage would continue “as an important part of the established Church”, the document says.

Read it all.

Couples will be able to marry almost anywhere, including forests, beaches, cruise ships at sea, canal boats, and at home, under Government proposals that “shift the focus from bricks and mortar to people and promises”. https://t.co/1C2vRDXkpE

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 17, 2026

In 2025, Chinese leader Xi Jinping tried to capitalize on U.S. belligerence toward Europe by promoting China as the responsible great-power alternative. In a message sent to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the European Union, Xi invited Brussels to join forces with Beijing, to “uphold multilateralism, safeguard fairness and justice,” and “oppose unilateralism and bullying.” Despite the lofty rhetoric, Beijing offered nothing of substance to Europeans, and did nothing to address their concerns about unfair trade practices that are threatening large swaths of European industry. Indeed, rather than seeking to conciliate, Chinese premier Li Qiang recently dismissed the concerns of Europeans worried about a “China Shock 2.0,” telling them to focus instead on “China Opportunity 2.0.”

Key EU leaders, as well as the Brussels bureaucracy, are not buying it. They have concluded that the very survival of Europe’s core industries is threatened by China. The first “China shock” describes the devastation of U.S. industry in sectors including furniture, textiles, and metals that came in the early 2000s, after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization. The new China shock will be different. It will happen mainly in Europe, and it will be more severe, devastating advanced industrial sectors—including automotive, machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and green energy—and leading to immense job losses.

Increasingly, European leaders are arguing that the EU needs to take action to protect its industries. So severe is the threat that measures that were unthinkable a few years ago are now gaining momentum. Earlier this year, for example, the French government proposed “establishing a level of protection equivalent to a general tariff of around 30 percent vis-à-vis China.” And although Germany was initially hesitant, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has signaled that he is ready to act to deal with China’s unfair trade practices. Last month, every EU leader, with the exception of Spain, tasked the European Commission with coming up with options for action. An all-out trade war with China is becoming a real possibility.

Read it all.

Sharing this piece by @thorstenbenner on the stakes of China-EU trade tensions and why Europe shouldn't submit to acceptance of the status quo.
https://t.co/ClED070DRZ via @ForeignAffairs

— Ryan Hass (@ryanl_hass) July 20, 2026

On a clear afternoon this month, high above the Mojave Desert, an A.I.-powered drone launched a missile in a test that could reshape modern warfare.

Since the dawn of the jet age, the U.S. military has used the isolation over this stretch of sand to push secret, experimental aircraft to their aerodynamic and technological limits. It’s doing the same today: fine-tuning machines capable of engaging in aerial combat with barely any human intervention. These drones’ flight is controlled not by a pilot, not by human remote control, but entirely by onboard software. It’s a historic advancement in drone technology that aims to incorporate artificial intelligence into everyday war-fighting.

Today’s conflicts are increasingly defined by unmanned weapons, delivering destruction over battlefields in Ukraine, Iran and Sudan. But in almost all these cases, there is a human operator sitting somewhere, steering each robot toward its target.

The two types of next-generation drones being tested over Southern California today, built for the Air Force by Anduril and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, can fly entirely on their own. They make hundreds of split-second decisions to maneuver, evade and attack enemy targets, based upon countless hours of flight data and computer processing. A human is involved at just a few key moments in their flight: to program the drone’s mission, to start and stop it and to decide whether or not it should launch a weapon. Late last year, the companies’ drones flew for the first time. Anduril fired its first missile two weeks ago, and General Atomics says it is not far behind.

Read it all.

A.I. Drones Are Coming. We Are Not Ready. https://t.co/Mi1VD9f8ep

— Avner Gidron (@AvnerGidron) July 20, 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

O Lord God, in whom we live and move and have our being, open our eyes that we may behold thy Fatherly presence ever about us.  Teach us to be anxious for nothing, and when we have done what thou hast given us to do, help us, O God our Saviour, to leave the issue to thy wisdom, knowing that all things are possible to us through thy Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Robert W. Rodenmayer, ed., The Pastor’s Prayerbook: Selected and arranged for various occasions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960)

As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Master is able to make him stand.

One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall give praise to God.”

So each of us shall give account of himself to God.

–Romans 14:1-12

Secondly, unless something almost miraculous happens, there will remain deep divisions over where those boundaries of legitimacy are to be drawn and over the implications for church teaching and discipline of drawing them in different places. Related to this are the questions noted above concerning our disagreement about the level of disagreement that we are having to navigate. Here the recent FAOC work must not be forgotten and in particular the implications need to be considered of its strong and clear statement (GS Misc 1406, paper 1, para 139), that 

it is a failure of Christian love for one side to declare what kind of disagreement is being experienced by the other. It must surely be the case that those who disagree with a given decision are themselves determinative of what kind of disagreement is in view, not the content majority. Those who dissent from the majority view or decision get to define the nature of their disagreement: if it is widely held that such-and-such a belief or practice calls into question apostolic communion or ecclesial communion, then the disagreement simply is a first- or second-order disagreement, regardless of whether the majority think it merely strains communion (third order).

This is the deeper problem with the approach of the amendment: it appears that those who conscientiously have come to a position which represents a rejection or expansion or development of traditional teaching seem to be demanding that those who are not convinced by their arguments should nevertheless accept that their view is now within a “legitimate range of theological perspectives” and/or that if a majority can be shown to hold this view as to what is legitimate then church practice needs to adapt to embrace the full range of perspectives. There is an attempt to jump from acknowledgment of an indisputable pluralism in reality (a range of views clearly exists) to a pluralism that recognises that range of views as acceptable, indeed, legitimate.

Thirdly, as noted in the first proposed amendment, part of the remit of the new group set up by the bishops is “pastoral reassurance”. This points to the fact that our disagreements over the previous two areas are such that some form of ecclesial reconfiguration will most likely prove to be necessary if any way is to be found, within the Church of England, for opposing views to be able to be officially approved and for the opposing sides in votes such as that this week in Synod, to be able to co-exist well, even flourish. This might be understood as institutionally enabling some recognised form of principled pluralism that comes to terms with both the pluralist reality and the impossibility of sufficiently widespread acceptance of that pluralism being formally accepted as legitimate within the current episcopal and synodical structures. 

It was the refusal of the bishops to seriously address these matters of “pastoral reassurance” or “good differentiation” that in large part contributed to the winding up of the LLF/PLF process. We could continue with a “head in the sand” refusal to grapple with the ecclesiological implications of our deep disagreements about discipleship and about the legitimate range of discipleship options the Church of England can recognise and bless. The experience of this last, short debate in this recent Synod is, however, a further pointer to the fact that if we do not face this question head-on and with honesty and theological rigour early in the new Synod then, barring a sea-change one way or the other in the election results, and perhaps also now in the House of Bishops, we are simply preparing for continued unresolvable conflict and pain in the next five years.

Read it all.

Andrew Goddard on the Helen King motion discussion at CofE General @synod 'This is the deeper problem with the approach of the amendment: it appears that those who conscientiously have come to a position which represents a rejection or expansion or development of traditional… pic.twitter.com/U3ZkfLUbBN

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) July 20, 2026

The United Kingdom on Monday installed Andy Burnham as its 59th prime minister, the seventh person to hold that position in a little more than a decade.

Burnham, a stalwart of the progressive Labour Party, is expected to bring his center-left perspective as a champion of the working class to address crises of social welfare spending, housing affordability and a sluggish economy. His election marks a major win against the rising tide of Reform UK – a right-wing populist party that has been compared to the MAGA movement in the U.S.

In remarks Monday, he said he was “acutely conscious” of the instability at the top of the British government in recent years and he pledged to provide an alternative.

“I know people at home are fed up with politics,” he said. “I hear you and I want to be honest with you: We have not been good enough and we need to be better.”

Read it all.

The Times
New Prime Minister Andy Burnham purges Starmer loyalists from cabinet on his first day, naming John Healey as chancellor and promising a fully funded package to cut energy bills.
Tuesday 21 July 2026
A look at #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/Xqo6H9CKBa

— Andrew Clifford (@newcastlejourno) July 20, 2026

Patristics, theology, and right sense in public discourse lost a giant. On June 6 of this year, Robert Louis Wilken passed from this life at the age of eighty-nine. He leaves behind his beloved wife of sixty-six years, Carol, their family and loved ones, and many admirers who know him through his books. 

Before he was a prolific author, Robert was an avid reader. He loved books. In an act of great generosity, he emailed me on April 29, 2022: “The time has come to dispose of my library. Is it possible that the Dominican House of Studies would be interested?” My Pontifical Faculty at the House of Studies in Washington, DC was very glad to receive well over 1,500 books and other library materials from him. I told the librarians that if they saw underlining and marginalia inscribed in the books, they should realize that the books were made even more valuable. Those scribbles were the marks of Robert Wilken! 

Robert’s life traces a fascinating intellectual and spiritual journey. Raised in a devout Lutheran family, he wanted at a young age to go into ministry. After attending a Lutheran prep school in Texas, Robert went to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis where he studied under his early mentor, Arthur Carl Piepkorn. Piepkorn himself had done doctoral studies at the University of Chicago, and Robert followed his example. Robert became not only a Lutheran pastor, but also a well-trained professor specializing in the Fathers of the Church. In 1994, in the little St. Thomas Chapel of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C., Robert entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. By doing so, he became one of the Catholic Church in America’s leading scholars. 

Robert held a unique place in the academy. No other person served as president of these three societies: the North American Patristics Society (1985-86), the American Academy of Religion (1989), and the Academy of Catholic Theology (2012-13). 

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Robert Louis Wilken, who died yesterday, was a giant of church history. His work on early Christian thought is incisive & so well-written that it’s a joy to read. I assigned his books in my classes & met him on numerous occasions. A true scholar & a faithful disciple of Christ. pic.twitter.com/fvaAb5GDAA

— Ryan N. Danker (@RyanNDanker) June 8, 2026

Total civilizational collapse is unusual. In the West, ­continuity exists between the Roman past and our contemporary states, despite the invasions of “barbarian” groups. The Franks, that ancient people who settled Roman Gaul, were shaped by Roman culture into the people we now know as the French. But what about instances in which there is no continuity—in which a civilization vanishes, and all that is left is a layer of ash? This is what happened to Roman North Africa, a high civilization, distinctive but immersed in the broader Roman world. The heartbeat of this civilization, the African Church, has no living ­descendant.

The African Church was among the most intellectually formidable of early Christianity. Carthage is said to have had Christians in its streets during the Apostolic age. And no wonder: Carthage was a hub of the Western empire, perhaps second only to Rome in its cosmopolitanism. The early Church found it fertile soil. Carthage gave us Tertullian and St. Cyprian, intellectual giants who helped define the orthodoxy of the emerging Church.

Unlike much of the Latin-­speaking Roman empire, North Africa blended conflicting cultural influences. The dominant Roman culture was always present, but so was the older Punic civilization ­upon which Rome had built some centuries before St. Augustine of Hippo exemplified this cultural split, with his Roman father, Patricius, and his Punic mother, St. Monica.

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The Sudden Death of the African Church – First Things https://t.co/aMx4pi30SB

— Allen Mendenhall (@allenmendenhall) July 20, 2026

The United States hosted the World Cup final on Sunday with the world watching — though perhaps nowhere more intensely than in Spain and Argentina, whose teams faced off at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Emotions ran high from Rosario, Argentina — the hometown of the superstar Lionel Messi — to Madrid, where white knuckles turned to fist pumps as the game wound down and Spain prevailed, dethroning the 2022 champions, 1-0, in extra time.

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In the 2026 World Cup final, Spain stood for Europe, and Argentina represented the rest of the world. The Argentinean team, which won in Qatar, in 2022, is a great but flawed side, well into its autumn, inspired by providential causes. The Spanish team, by contrast, is obdurate… pic.twitter.com/w6udv7CWWZ

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) July 20, 2026

Almighty God, who in thy Son Jesus Christ hast called us in from the bondage of sin to be servants of righteousness: Give us grace to yield our lives wholly to thine obedience; that, being made free from sin, we may have our fruit unto holiness, and hereafter may be made partakers of the life everlasting; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things; for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.

Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-a′ven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, “Let not all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai; do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are but few.” So about three thousand went up there from the people; and they fled before the men of Ai, and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six men of them, and chased them before the gate as far as Sheb′arim, and slew them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

Then Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why hast thou brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth; and what wilt thou do for thy great name?”

The Lord said to Joshua, “Arise, why have you thus fallen upon your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant which I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, and lied, and put them among their own stuff. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become a thing for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, God of Israel, “There are devoted things in the midst of you, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies, until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

–Joshua 7:1-13

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times: it was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout; for the Lord has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers that we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction, and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword.

–Joshua 6:15-21