A little over a year ago, Joseph Coates was told there was only one thing left to decide. Did he want to die at home, or in the hospital?

Coates, then 37 and living in Renton, Wash., was barely conscious. For months, he had been battling a rare blood disorder called POEMS syndrome, which had left him with numb hands and feet, an enlarged heart and failing kidneys. Every few days, doctors needed to drain liters of fluid from his abdomen. He became too sick to receive a stem cell transplant — one of the only treatments that could have put him into remission.

“I gave up,” he said. “I just thought the end was inevitable.”

But Coates’s girlfriend, Tara Theobald, wasn’t ready to quit. So she sent an email begging for help to a doctor in Philadelphia named David Fajgenbaum, whom the couple met a year earlier at a rare disease summit.

By the next morning, Dr. Fajgenbaum had replied, suggesting an unconventional combination of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and steroids previously untested as a treatment for Coates’s disorder.

Within a week, Coates was responding to treatment. In four months, he was healthy enough for a stem cell transplant. Today, he’s in remission.

The lifesaving drug regimen wasn’t thought up by the doctor, or any person. It had been spit out by an artificial intelligence model.

Read it all.

A 37-year-old man with a rare blood disease was being sent to hospice.

An AI model searched thousands of existing drugs and ranked a combination no one had tried for his condition.

He responded within a week. He is in remission.

The drugs were already on the shelf. The AI… pic.twitter.com/sFKRgqtz2g

— Cicero Institute (@InstituteCicero) September 23, 2026

Stephen Arscott Named Diocesan Lay Coordinator for Cursillo

Stephen Arscott, a member of Holy Comforter, Sumter has become the new Diocesan Lay Coordinator (DLC) for our diocesan Cursillo community. Stephen’s Cursillo journey began at Cursillo 170 in the summer of 2013, which he attended with his wife, Melissa. Since then, Cursillo has been an important part of their lives and their walk with Christ. Over the years, Stephen has served in numerous roles on Cursillo teams and committees, including serving as Ultreya Rector for Santee and, most recently, leading Cursillo 191. Stephen received his BS in Business Administration from the College of Charleston. In 2006 he purchased Sumter Lighting and Home, a residential lighting and home decor business. He and Melissa have three adult children. In a wonderful Cursillo connection, Stephen’s priest, the Rev. David Booman, was actually his roommate at Cursillo 170! Read the announcement. 

Read it all.

The Latest Edition of the #Anglican Diocese of #SouthCarolina Enewsletter https://t.co/CjlCMIee3l #parishministry #lowcountrylife #faith #ACNA #communication pic.twitter.com/ExisNjZ7b1

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) September 23, 2026

As many atheist philosophers (such as the eminent John Gray) have noted, the New Atheists’ philosophical arguments were never very good. Moreover, their arguments seemed strangely anachronistic following many of the great scientific discoveries of the 20th century.

Consider first modern cosmology. Cosmologists have discovered that the universe, contrary to the expectations of those who long portrayed it as eternal, probably had a beginning. Multiple lines of evidence from observational astronomy support this conclusion. Developments in theoretical physics (such as the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin theorem, which states that any universe that is expanding – as ours is – cannot be infinite in the past), also back it up.

Nobel laureate Arno Penzias, who helped make a key discovery supporting the Big Bang theory, noted the obvious connection between its affirmation of a cosmic beginning and the concept of divine creation. “The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses…[and] the Bible as a whole,” he wrote in 1978.

Atheist physicists Lawrence Krauss and Stephen Hawking claimed to explain the beginning of the universe from “nothing”, but their “nothing” turned out to be a set of mathematical laws that allegedly pre-existed (or existed independently of) the material universe. But maths has no causal power. Mathematical equations are inherently conceptual. Thus, the attempt to circumvent the problem of the beginning with what was called “quantum cosmology” led inexorably back to the need for a pre-existing mind.

Second, physicists have discovered that we live in a kind of “Goldilocks universe”. In other words, the fundamental laws and parameters of physics are finely tuned against all odds to make a life-friendly universe.

Read it all.

Who wrote the digital code?

"Discoveries in molecular biology have revealed digital code in even the simplest living cells. Francis Crick and James Watson elucidated the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. Crick then developed his famed “sequence hypothesis”. He proposed that… pic.twitter.com/itAlWDyGN2

— Nancy Pearcey (@NancyRPearcey) September 23, 2026

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

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

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

Read it all.

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

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

O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
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.

From Hamnøy looking out to Reine, Lofoten 😍 Photo Olivia Leefe #Norway 🌈 pic.twitter.com/OTBGMAmKMT

— Elusive Moose (@elusive_moose) September 23, 2026

On that night the king could not sleep; and he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mor′decai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands upon King Ahasu-e′rus. And the king said, “What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mor′decai for this?” The king’s servants who attended him said, “Nothing has been done for him.” And the king said, “Who is in the court?” Now Haman had just entered the outer court of the king’s palace to speak to the king about having Mor′decai hanged on the gallows that he had prepared for him. So the king’s servants told him, “Haman is there, standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” So Haman came in, and the king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” And Haman said to himself, “Whom would the king delight to honor more than me?” And Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor, let royal robes be brought, which the king has worn, and the horse which the king has ridden, and on whose head a royal crown is set; and let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble princes; let him array the man whom the king delights to honor, and let him conduct the man on horseback through the open square of the city, proclaiming before him: ‘Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.’” Then the king said to Haman, “Make haste, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do so to Mor′decai the Jew who sits at the king’s gate. Leave out nothing that you have mentioned.” So Haman took the robes and the horse, and he arrayed Mor′decai and made him ride through the open square of the city, proclaiming, “Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to honor.”

Then Mor′decai returned to the king’s gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning and with his head covered. And Haman told his wife Zeresh and all his friends everything that had befallen him. Then his wise men and his wife Zeresh said to him, “If Mor′decai, before whom you have begun to fall, is of the Jewish people, you will not prevail against him but will surely fall before him.”

While they were yet talking with him, the king’s eunuchs arrived and brought Haman in haste to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

–Esther 6:1-14

Het grijs maakt plaats voor zonneschijn. Fijne woensdag😀 #zonsopkomst #reflectie pic.twitter.com/nllUMjcDDV

— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) September 23, 2026

For the First World War, he analyses three poets: Rupert Brooke, for whom the war was relief from an empty life, void of meaning; then Siegfried Sassoon, who wrote: “I died in hell — (They called it Passchendaele)”; and finally, Wilfred Owen, who in his “Anthem for Doomed Youth” wrote of “these who die as cattle”. The Second World War with the death of millions, the Nazis, the Holocaust, the Soviet Gulag, and the obscenity of death by atomic bomb — all of this undercut Christian moral and social values based on the faith. Existential angst and helplessness replaced churchgoing.

The 1960s brought massive social and technological challenges, which eroded support for the Church. Hayward describes how faith became to be regarded as the past, not the future. There was a widespread loss of trust in all institutions. Football came to replace church as the centre of community. For Hayward, the final critical event was when the churches were closed when they were most needed, in the pandemic.

Ironically, Hayward wisely sees that the pandemic and the lockdown gave the Church a chance to reset. People had space and silence to ask themselves what life was for, what their life was. People started to go on Alpha courses, return to church on Sundays, become interested in spirituality, not just religion, feel a deep need to care for the poor, needy, the homeless, and to look again to Jesus Christ and his teaching. Hayward gently concludes that when a tide goes out, the tide flows back, perhaps even more powerfully.

Read it all.

📙 Review: Lyle Dennen considers a hopeful commentator #BookReviews #ChurchTimes https://t.co/mwQx2fQF7E

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 22, 2026

The roughly 4% unemployment rate measures something very different from what people often hear in the mainstream media or from well-meaning thought leaders: “all-time low,” “full employment” and similar descriptions.

They are mistaken.

The government also reports a measure called U-6. It includes the unemployed people, those “marginally attached” to the labor force and people working part time who want full-time work. The U-6 measure raises the 4% to about 8%….

The monthly number today of about 4% represents roughly 6.5 million Americans who are unemployed, looking for work and not working.

When including prime working-age (25-54) men and women “not working,” what I call real unemployment is closer to 12%. About 22 million out of work.

Read it all.

@cspanwj Unemployment: A National Misunderstanding Most of us accept use the term, &, most of us are sure this is correct. But we know there are more important measurements that suggest different gov't actions. https://t.co/ou67ovSHP5

— 34Hunter (@mikefreema38742) September 21, 2026

As part of those concrete steps to rebuilding trust, I hope that the CoB is considering these questions:

What is the plan for releasing the Lathrop report? This report examines the Provincial Office’s handling of the disciplinary process for Bp. Stewart Ruch, and its publication (with appropriate redactions) would increase transparency and display a desire for accountability. (Additionally, thoughtful preparation will avoid the problems that plagued the release of the Husch-Blackwell report during the investigation into Bp. Ruch.)

Will the transcripts of the Ruch trial be released? Given the many irregularities in that trial, making the transcripts available would show that the province is willing to be transparent about its own processes.

Will the College release the presentment against Bishop Edgar? As of now, we do not know what charges were brought against Bp. Edgar, nor who brought them, which shrouds the disciplinary process in secrecy and veils potential conflicts of interest on the part of the presenting bishops.

As the province transitions to the new disciplinary process outlined in the recently passed revisions to Title IV of the canons, how specifically does the province intend to care for reporters and whistleblowers? What are the protections against retaliation for those who raise concerns?

What specific steps will the province take to rebuild trust after the Wood trial concludes? Regardless of the outcome, the ACNA must grapple with how to move forward and demonstrate its commitment to caring for reporters and keeping the disciplinary process transparent….

What message does it send to the province that a presentment could be filed so swiftly against Bp. Chip Edgar for blessing a school chapel [as I have noted elsewhere this is NOT the heart of the issue it is participation in and reception of the Eucharist] alongside an Episcopal priest, while it took significantly longer—and much persistence from reporters—for presentments to be filed against Bps. Ruch, Jones, and Wood?

Read it all.

Today on Substack, we’re naming questions we hope the College of Bishops addresses as it convenes this week. Which questions would you prioritize?https://t.co/dFw7dfdeys

— anglicanrenewal (@anglicanrenewal) September 21, 2026

The Bishop of Lincoln, the Right Reverend Stephen Conway, has resigned amid an ongoing investigation into an allegation of sexual assault.

It follows his arrest in February.

Conway’s resignation, which will formally come into effect on 1 October, was confirmed in a statement from the Church of England.

Read it all.

Bishop of Lincoln resigns amid sex assault inquiry https://t.co/y4tPSjkZXd

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 21, 2026

Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith We give thee heartfelt thanks for the pioneering spirit of thy servant Philander Chase, and for his zeal in opening new frontiers for the ministry of thy Church. Grant us grace to minister in Christ’s name in every place, led by bold witnesses to the Gospel of the Prince of Peace, even Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Lord, who hast warned us that without thee we can do nothing; and by thy holy apostle hast taught us that in thy strength we can do all things: So take and possess us, that our weakness may be transformed by thy power; that we be no longer our own, but thine; that it be not we who live, but thou who livest in us; who now reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king’s palace, opposite the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne inside the palace opposite the entrance to the palace; and when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she found favor in his sight and he held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Then Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter. And the king said to her, “What is it, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given you, even to the half of my kingdom.” And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come this day to a dinner that I have prepared for the king.” Then said the king, “Bring Haman quickly, that we may do as Esther desires.” So the king and Haman came to the dinner that Esther had prepared. And as they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “What is your petition? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” But Esther said, “My petition and my request is: If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it please the king to grant my petition and fulfil my request, let the king and Haman come tomorrow to the dinner which I will prepare for them, and tomorrow I will do as the king has said.”

And Haman went out that day joyful and glad of heart. But when Haman saw Mor′decai in the king’s gate, that he neither rose nor trembled before him, he was filled with wrath against Mor′decai. Nevertheless Haman restrained himself, and went home; and he sent and fetched his friends and his wife Zeresh. And Haman recounted to them the splendor of his riches, the number of his sons, all the promotions with which the king had honored him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and the servants of the king. And Haman added, “Even Queen Esther let no one come with the king to the banquet she prepared but myself. And tomorrow also I am invited by her together with the king. Yet all this does me no good, so long as I see Mor′decai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.” Then his wife Zeresh and all his friends said to him, “Let a gallows fifty cubits high be made, and in the morning tell the king to have Mor′decai hanged upon it; then go merrily with the king to the dinner.” This counsel pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

–Esther 5:1-14

Finally, we will ask what went wrong.

The postmortem will be this. Many people panicked about the possibility of strong AI models killing us all. That fear was not based on peer-reviewed scientific research showing a high chance of doom, nor was doom indicated in any market prices of the time, including measures of risk. It was a story, just like this is a story, and it was spread on social media. The key point of the doom story was that, if America keeps the No. 1 spot in AI models, the models will be so strong they will do us all in, or lead to unimaginable catastrophes. We were too afraid to have America keep the lead, forgetting that if truly destructive AI is our fate, the doomer scenario can come from Chinese AI as well.

Today, we cannot say for sure that the AI doom scenario is false. But is it a story we wish to live by? Is belief in it a good way to protect and extend life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Will it help us much, or for long, if it is Chinese AI that turns on us and does us in?

In my view, successful societies accept challenges and meet them. Solving problems, bit by bit, is the best way to ensure that we have the capabilities to meet big and truly existential risks, should those risks come along. Debating the chances of our doom, ex ante, on a highly speculative basis, is unlikely to provide the same kind of expertise and talent cultivation. It is instead more likely to demoralize and immobilize us.

So which America are we going to choose?

Read it all.

Tyler Cowen: A Doomsday Scenario for American AI https://t.co/3qm0eVwQ3I

— Mark Semonian (@msemonian) September 21, 2026

Iran, China and groups in Israel used artificial intelligence in novel ways in recent months to create first-of-their-kind influence campaigns on social media, ratcheting up concerns among U.S. officials and security researchers about the fast-evolving technology.

The countries and groups combined A.I. tactics to ramp up the speed and scale of online campaigns beyond what people could easily achieve and with minimal human interaction, U.S. officials and security researchers with knowledge of the efforts said.

First, the countries and groups turned to Chinese “open-source” A.I. models, which are increasingly powerful systems that are freely available to download and modify. Then they used those A.I. models to create “agents,” which are bots that can operate software and complete tasks on their own.

Once hundreds of those A.I. agents were let loose, they autonomously opened networks of fake accounts on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok, the officials and security researchers said. The agents then rapidly seeded the fake accounts with false posts about politics and current events to sway opinions and inflame issues.

Read it all.

there’s more to the effect of our modern screen life on our reading habits than merely the choice between glass and paper. The personal computers of the 1980s gave us word processing, making the typewriter obsolete; the early internet of the 1990s gave us email (I remember thinking that this was reviving the lost art of letter writing that had been killed by the telephone); and by the turn of the century the bounty promised by the web looked truly impressive: digitized books and primary sources for research, online journals, a proliferation of news and commentary. (Yes, also the logorrhea of early blog culture, now reappearing on Substack.) Then came the smartphone, the jazziest (though not the first) being the iPhone, debuting in 2007. Now in the hands of billons worldwide, these devices have fundamentally changed our daily lives, for good and for ill. They are designed to seize and keep our attention, to amuse us endlessly with ever-changing stimuli, and to lure us into an in-the-cloud world that contains much of the human race’s knowledge yet also makes us dumber. As Wolf writes: 

No self-respecting internal review board at any university would allow a researcher to do what our culture has already done with no adjudication or previous evidence: introduce a complete, quasi-addictive set of attention-compelling devices without knowing the possible side effects and ramifications for the subjects (our kids). 

What we are all experiencing—and Wolf confesses her personal struggle to return to deep reading of books—are “decreasing attention spans, pushed beyond their cognitive limits by a flotsam of distractions and information that will never become knowledge.” 

Convinced that consistent, attentive reading is essential for the development of both our reason and our compassion, Wolf is worried about the effects of our contemporary screens on our capacity for self-government. This is even more explicitly the concern of British writer James Marriott, a journalist at The Times. Marriott’s The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society has been out for a few weeks in the UK, and is soon to be published here in the U.S. (This one, dear reader, I acquired on paper from the publisher.) 

Marriott is a worried man, and he works hard not to be too alarmist—to use his indoor voice, as it were. But The New Dark Ages, which I hope will be widely read, is a brief, brisk, and persuasive book about the damage our screen life is doing to our social and political life. He puts the matter starkly in his introduction: “As reading fades I believe that we may find ourselves facing a post-literate future that resembles the pre-literate past: mystical, tribal, and autocratic.” We fill our eyes (and now increasingly our ears, too) not with the pages of books or even with the extended narratives and arguments to be found in newspapers and magazines, but instead with TikTok and YouTube videos, podcasts, X memes, Instagram posts, and Reddit rants.  

Read it all.

“As reading fades I believe that we may find ourselves facing a post-literate future that resembles the pre-literate past: mystical, tribal, and autocratic.”https://t.co/1igjBHxPox

— Jordan J. Ballor (@JordanBallor) September 21, 2026

We thank thee, heavenly Father, for the witness of thine apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of thy Son our Savior; and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Today is the Feast of St. Matthew. Jesus called him from life as a tax collector to be an Apostle.

(The Call of St. Matthew, by Caravaggio) pic.twitter.com/vUuiB7BcVs

— Christian Culture (@Christian8Pics) September 21, 2017

O Lord, you have taught us that without love, all our deeds are worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the true bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whoever lives is counted dead before you; grant this for the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Good morning Monday Marvels!😊 It's the start of another new week!🤩 I hope everyone has had a great weekend 🥳 Now to put on those smiles and have ourselves a fab day, folks!😘#MondayVibes pic.twitter.com/1VZDsSwNjs

— Kate 🏄‍♀️🌊🤙〓〓🏴‍☠️🤿🪼⛵️⚓️🌅 (@CornwallK8) September 21, 2026

When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mor′decai, so that he might take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mor′decai to learn what this was and why it was. Hathach went out to Mor′decai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, and Mor′decai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mor′decai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people. And Hathach went and told Esther what Mor′decai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mor′decai, saying, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law; all alike are to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live. And I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days.” And they told Mor′decai what Esther had said. Then Mor′decai told them to return answer to Esther, “Think not that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Then Esther told them to reply to Mor′decai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Mor′decai then went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.

–Esther 4:4-17

Purple skies sunrise through the trees at Armadale, Isle of Skye #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @ThePhotoHour @StormHour @VisitScotland @BBCHighlands pic.twitter.com/neQrlS161J

— James MacInnes (@Macinnesplant) September 21, 2026

O Spirit of the living God, who dost sanctify the lives of thy people, and dost build them up into a holy temple for thy habitation: Grant us so to know thy indwelling presence that we may be set free from lesser desires, and by thy grace may be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ our Lord.

—New Every Morning (The Prayer Book Of The Daily Broadcast Service) [BBC, 1900]

People kept walking up to me asking me what I saw. They assumed I was taking a picture of a bull moose or something. Nope, just a stunning long exposure sunrise. pic.twitter.com/t4z0TI59H6

— Kristin Mae Photography (@Kristin_Mae) September 20, 2026

Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.

If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

–James 1:19-27

Einen wunderschönen Sonntagsmorgen 😊

📸 Obernbergersee (gelegen in einem kleinen Seitental des Wipptales) pic.twitter.com/lboiXZ9OCK

— Renate Umundum (@RUmundum) September 20, 2026

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who dost feed the birds and clothe the flowers, and who carest for us as a father for his children: We beseech thee of thy tender goodness to save us from distrust and vain self-concern; that with unwavering faith we may cast our every care on thee, and live in daily obedience to thy will; through thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This morning’s Sunrise at (1) Norah Head lighthouse and at (2) Gosford City waterfront 🇦🇺

Happy Monday & new week greetings to you – enjoy 😊🌸🦘🤗
(📸J.Picot) pic.twitter.com/5eOejnIVXG

— Anthony Sider (@BudgetDude) September 14, 2026

So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for

‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your poets have said,

‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.”

Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

–Acts 17:16-34

Morning everyone I hope you are well. Earlier in the week and looking into the "Jaws of Borrowdale". Have a great day.#lakedistrict pic.twitter.com/rZbgGagDHj

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) September 19, 2026

Lambeth Palace said on Thursday that it had withdrawn an interfaith award given to a Muslim cleric by the Archbishop of Canterbury last week (News,18 September).

Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi was given the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation last Friday — 11 September — for his “outstanding work as an ambassador of interfaith harmony in Pakistan”. He was described in the citation as a “prominent Muslim scholar and religious leader in Pakistan, known for his unwavering commitment to promoting religious tolerance and interfaith harmony”.

The Church Times understands that Mr Ashrafi’s nomination was made before Archbishop Mullally’s time in office.

Photos of Mr Ashrafi receiving the award from the Archbishop next to his wife wearing the niqab attracted attention after being published on social media on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, began publishing links to previous comments made by Mr Ashrafi.

Read it all.

Lambeth Palace said on Thursday that it had withdrawn an interfaith award given to a Muslim cleric by the Archbishop of Canterbury last weekhttps://t.co/GYqfoUtH6o

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 18, 2026

Today, Trinity Anglican Seminary announced the launch of Holy Order, a new podcast exploring how Scripture and the Anglican tradition—in all its richness and depth, both catholic and reformed—forms Christians for faithful living in a disordered age. Though produced by the seminary, the show is not about Trinity itself. Rather, it extends the seminary’s teaching ministry beyond the classroom, making the formative riches of Scripture and the Anglican tradition more accesible to the wider Church and the world at a time when many are seeking a deeper, more rooted faith.

Hosted by the Very Rev. Dr. Bryan Hollon, Dean and President of Trinity Anglican Seminary, and Cooper Nye, Director of Executive and Academic Communications, Holy Order offers thoughtful conversations on theology, culture, history, and the Christian life through the lens of the Anglican tradition. Each episode stays true to the name of the show by connecting timeless Christian wisdom with the questions and challenges of the present day, bringing listeners from a problem–a point of confusion or disorder–toward clarity and order. 

“Holy Order reflects Trinity’s deepest commitments: to forming leaders for mission, being rooted in scripture, serving the Church, and creating lifelong learners,” Hollon said. “We see it as a teaching ministry, and our hope is that these conversations serve not only clergy and seminary students, nor Anglicans alone, but anyone seeking to deepen their faith and follow Christ.”

Hollon added: “I am convinced that Anglicanism is a really good way to be a Christian. I love the riches of our tradition, and I believe they are precisely what so many are searching for today. My hope is that Holy Order will introduce some to the Christian faith and help others go deeper in it.” 

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Trinity Anglican Seminary’s new podcast extends our teaching ministry beyond the classroom, exploring how Scripture and the Anglican tradition can bring clarity and order to the questions and challenges of our disordered age.

Listen and subscribe: https://t.co/79I9NEm3tw

— Trinity Anglican Seminary (@TASeminary) September 9, 2026

Mr. Kramer doesn’t shy away from pointing the finger at Germany’s newer demographic sources of antisemitism, even as he cites the latest official figures, which show right-wing extremism as the single largest identifiable source of antisemitic crime. In 2024, he says, 48.4% of antisemitic offenses were classified as right-wing, compared with 31.1% as fueled by “foreign ideology” and 11% by “religious ideology.” He stresses that “antisemitism linked to Islamist and anti-Israel milieus has risen sharply since Oct. 7 and is now a major part of the threat picture.”

And so, 25 years after it opened, Berlin’s Jewish Museum must face up to an existential challenge. It’s no longer enough to “explain Jewish culture to Germans from a Jewish perspective,” as Ms. Berg describes the institution’s founding mission. It must adapt to—and push back against—a spate of ugliness and violence in Germany that flows from sources old and new, from a resurgent right that many believe is nostalgic for a Nazi past and from an arriviste cohort of Islamist Jew-haters who teem in Germany’s cities.

“We cannot ever be complacent,” Ms. Berg says, as she navigates the barriers outside her buildings, each bollard proof of how hard it is for a German Jew to live in peace.

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Fun Fact: Daniel Libeskind, who designed the Jewish Museum Berlin, and the National Holocaust Momument in Ottawa, is the uncle of Canada's NDP leader, @avilewis. https://t.co/edrdD9AwDz

— Phil Pothen 🇨🇦 he/him (@pothen) September 9, 2026

One of the most persistent news stories about religion in recent years has been the decline of Christianity and the rise of the “nones,” or people who have no religion in particular. The nones narrative suggests that American Christianity is in free fall. One headline in recent weeks announced that even young Latinos, part of what is often regarded as one of the most religious ethnic groups, are “abandoning churches to be ‘nones.’”

Look closer, however, and you can find data suggesting that Christianity is flourishing. Some signs indicate that young American men are attending church more than they did in previous generations. High-profile intellectuals such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was one of the leading figures of the New Atheist movement, have publicly announced their conversion to Christianity. And even the Pew Research Center, a chief promoter of the nones story, has admitted that the nones have plateaued at less than 30 percent of respondents.

What is really happening? Rather than experiencing simple growth or decline, American religion is in a state of churn. Some sectors are falling fast, while others show phenomenal growth.

Throughout history, Americans have routinely misinterpreted religious change as decline. Headlines about the demise of faith may be attention-grabbing, but they conceal a more complicated and interesting reality….

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“Drawing on a dazzling range of disciplines and data, Byron Johnson and Thomas Kidd's The Death of Religion demonstrates that much of what we’ve heard about religion's demise is unfounded. There are causes for worry, but there are also strong reasons to think that religion… pic.twitter.com/IIAcJypgp4

— Thomas S. Kidd (@ThomasSKidd) September 14, 2026

Grant unto us, O God, that in all time of our testing we may know thy presence and obey thy will; that, following the example of thy servant Edward Bouverie Pusey, we may with integrity and courage accomplish what thou givest us to do, and endure what thou givest us to bear; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Church of England also commemorates Edward Bouverie Pusey, Priest, Tractarian, 1882

Image: Dr Pusey in a detail of the East window (Ninian Comper, c.1935–9) of the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament at Pusey House, Oxford. Photo via https://t.co/kdBn9nXyLO pic.twitter.com/vyQzgAJs8a

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) September 16, 2024

Almighty God, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking: Set free thy servants from all anxious thoughts for the morrow; give us contentment with thy good gifts; and confirm our faith that according as we seek thy kingdom, thou wilt not suffer us to lack any good thing; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Intense colour in the sky this morning before sunrise here in Glastonbury. It happened very quickly and didn't last very long. pic.twitter.com/KGVZGx8vmg

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) September 18, 2026