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(Church Times) Justin Welby says slavery reparations would amount to ‘group punishment’

Reparations for slavery would amount to a “vast fine on the entire British people for a crime they did not commit”, the former Archbishop of Canterbury the Rt Revd Justin Welby said this week.

“You may be able to fine individual people for their conduct, but not everyone for their nationality,” he wrote in The Independent on Tuesday. “Group punishment is a moral evil. It mixes up the guilty and the innocent even when it is about contemporary times, let alone two centuries past.”

The article was published on the same day as a speech made by the King at the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in St John’s, Antigua. The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons was a “shameful chapter of history” that “fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow”, the King said.

The UK Government has so far resisted calls for reparations, although the Prime Minister has indicated that a formal apology may be forthcoming.

Read it all.

Posted in Anthropology, Church History, Church of England, England / UK, Ethics / Moral Theology, Race/Race Relations, Religion & Culture, Stewardship, Theology

(Bloomberg) Trump Now Has to Govern Through a Midterm Meltdown of His Own Making

he architect of the Republican midterm collapse stepped out from the rubble on Tuesday night and insisted it wasn’t his fault.

“I wasn’t on the ballot,” President Donald Trump posted to social media. “And if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE.”

Except, of course, the Trump name was stamped on every brick. His war of choice in Iran drove up US gas prices and alienated supporters drawn to his pledge of no more foreign conflicts. Allegations of profiteering by the president and those close to him, and his obsession with gilding the White House, went down badly with voters struggling to pay their bills. His handpicked Senate candidates in ruby-red states like Texas and South Carolina proved so unpalatable that Democrats won for the first time in decades.

“The Democratic strategy was to nationalize the election and make it all about Trump. To tell voters they can end Trump and end Trumpism right now. That pitch resonated with people on the left,” said Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist. “This became a referendum on the president.”

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., House of Representatives, Politics in General, President Donald Trump, Senate

(WCIV) Dorchester County (where we are) voters approve one-cent education sales tax

Dorchester County voters have approved a new one-cent education sales tax that will help fund school construction, renovations and other improvements in Dorchester School Districts Two and Four.

With 100% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, unofficial election results showed 31,643 voters, or 59.96%, supported the referendum, while 21,128 voters, or 40.04%, voted against it. The tax is expected to take effect April 1, 2027, and will remain in place for up to 15 years.

Read it all.

Posted in * South Carolina, City Government, Politics in General, Taxes

Nancy Mace’s former very red South Carolina house seat (where we are) goes narrowly blue

Democrat Nancy Lacore, a former Navy Admiral who was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is projected to win in the traditionally red House district in South Carolina against Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

Nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report shifted the race for Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R) 1st District seat from “lean Republican” to a “toss-up,” as Lacore out-fundraised Honeycutt, a Charleston County Council member. Mace unsuccessfully ran for governor in the Palmetto State earlier this year.

The Democrat notched just under 50 percent of the vote, while Honeycutt trailed with just over 48 percent, with all votes tallied as of early Wednesday.

Read it all.

Posted in * South Carolina, House of Representatives, Politics in General

(NYT) Republicans lost control of the House and Senate as voters offered a stinging rebuke to President Trump’s agenda

In the end, it wasn’t just a wave. It was a wipeout.

A Democrat won a Senate seat in Kansas for the first time since the Herbert Hoover administration. The party picked up Senate seats in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Republicans even fell short in House districts in the South where they had tried to give themselves an edge by drawing new, gerrymandered maps.

The sweeping Democratic victories on Tuesday night offered a decisive rebuke to President Trump and his aggressive, often chaotic second-term agenda.

The party seized control of both houses of Congress. Voters rejected Republicans in conservative states that supported Mr. Trump by double-digit margins just two years ago, in places that had not seen competitive elections for major seats in decades.

Even some Democrats were stunned by the extent of their wins, which included defeating Greg Abbott, the three-term Republican governor of Texas; and Susan Collins, the five-term Republican senator from Maine.

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Politics in General, President Donald Trump

A prayer for the day from the Church of England

God of glory,
touch our lips with the fire of your Spirit,
that we with all creation
may rejoice to sing your praise;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Posted in Church of England, Spirituality/Prayer

From the Morning Scripture Readings

‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name for ever; may his glory fill the whole earth!
Amen and Amen!’

–Psalm 72:18-19

Posted in Theology: Scripture

(Church Times) We are still a relatively wealthy Church, C of E General Synod members are told

New General Synod members are reminded of the “relative wealth” of the Church of England in a paper produced for the opening session (17-18 November) of the quinquennium.

Funding our Church’s Mission has been produced by the Archbishops’ Council and the Church Commissioners to help members to engage with the National Funding for Diocesan Ministry Review that is currently under way. It provides an overview of finances, attendance, and clergy numbers.

“In financial terms, the Church of England is exceptionally well-resourced in comparison with many other provinces of the Anglican Communion,” the paper states. “Its historic endowments, investments, and institutional resources give it a financial capacity that much of the Communion simply does not share. That relative wealth brings both opportunity and a particular stewardship responsibility.”

At a briefing on Thursday, the Synod’s secretary general, William Nye, said that it was “salutary just to be reminded of that occasionally”. It was a point often made by bishops, who, on returning from visits elsewhere in the Communion, were “often buoyed up, joyful, encouraged about what they’ve seen and what God is doing through those dioceses and provinces in places of extraordinary poverty”.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England, Parish Ministry, Stewardship

The Latest Edition of the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina Enewsletter

Clergy Retreat November 9-11
Pray for our clergy as they gather in Flat Rock, NC, November 9-11 for a time of rest and renewal. Dr. Jerry Root, professor emeritus at Wheaton College, as well as a visiting professor at Biola University, Talbot Graduate School of Theology, and Moody Bible Institute, will be the keynote speaker.  

Read it all.

Posted in * South Carolina, Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), Media, Parish Ministry

(Bloomberg) US Voters Head to Polls in Biggest Referendum on Trump’s Presidency

America’s referendum on President Donald Trump’s second term is underway.

With polls set to open Tuesday morning for the US midterm elections and tens of millions of early ballots already cast, voters say they are frustrated by the high cost of living, fuel prices that spiked after the launch of the Iran war and uncertainty over where their jobs and the world’s largest economy are headed in the age of AI.

Democrats are expected by many to take control of the House of Representatives, with opinion polls signaling for months that the party has a wide enough advantage with voters to overcome headwinds from Republican-led redistricting efforts.

Winning the Senate is more uncertain but has shifted from being a Democratic pipe dream mere months ago to a real possibility, with the GOP unexpectedly playing defense in traditionally safe bastions like Kansas, Texas, Alaska and South Carolina.

Read it all.

Posted in America/U.S.A., Politics in General

Richard Hooker on Richard Hooker’s Feast Day

But I am besides my purpose when I fall to bewail the cold affection which we bear towards that whereby we should be saved, my purpose being only to set down what the ground of salvation is. The doctrine of the Gospel proposeth salvation as the end, and doth it not teach the way of attaining thereunto? Yes, the damsel possessed with a spirit of divination spake the truth: “These men are the servants of the most high God who show unto us the way of salvation” [Acts 16:17] — “a new and living way which Christ hath prepared for us through the veil, that is, his flesh,” [Heb 10:20] salvation purchased by the death of Christ.

–Learned Discourse on Justification (my emphasis)

Posted in Christology, Church History, Church of England, Soteriology

A Prayer for the Feast Day of Richard Hooker

O God of truth and peace, who didst raise up thy servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Church of England (CoE), Spirituality/Prayer

A prayer for the day from  the Pastor’s Prayerbook

O most loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee, who carest for us; Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which thou hast manifested unto us in thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Posted in Uncategorized

From the Morning Bible readings

For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.

–Psalm 62:5-8

Posted in Theology: Scripture

(Church Times) Bishop Philip North–Money alone will not solve C of E’s woes

Professors John Craven and Robin Gill are to be thanked for bringing to our attention in their report, Wasted Money in a Diminishing Church (News, 23 October), the serious financial issues that will face the Church of England over the next few years, and the unsustainable deficits faced by many diocesan boards of finance (DBFs). This is why the church economy will be the subject of a major debate early in the new General Synod.

So much of their report is inaccurate or unrealistic, however, that I fear that it will skew that debate in unhelpful directions. I, therefore, want to push back in three areas.

First, the report reaches a strange conclusion. The authors decide that the way to address what they diagnose as fundamentally a financial problem is to make the deanery the heart of the Church’s administrative life.

Most area deans, however, want to be pastors, not middle managers, and I can readily see why. With an eviscerated diocesan structure, area deans would have to take on, alongside their parochial responsibilities, duties now fulfilled by archdeacons and bishops.

Read it all.

Posted in Church of England (CoE), CoE Bishops, Ecclesiology, Ethics / Moral Theology, Parish Ministry, Pastoral Theology, Stewardship, Theology

(Gallup) The Issues Voters Say Matter Most This Midterm

The economy, healthcare and the situation in Iran lead in importance to U.S. voters in this year’s election, among 11 issues rated. Half of registered voters say the economy and healthcare are extremely important to their vote, and 47% say the same about Iran. Roughly four in 10 rate income and wealth distribution (44%), gas prices (42%), immigration (40%) and abortion (38%) as extremely important.

About a third rate crime and the Israeli-Palestinian situation (35% each) as extremely important, while construction of AI data centers (30%) and climate change (29%) rank lowest.

These results are based on registered voters interviewed in an Oct. 1-19 Gallup survey, which asked Americans to say whether each issue is extremely important, very important, moderately important or not that important to their vote for Congress this year. Majorities of voters rate every issue except climate change as at least very important.

The 50% of voters rating the economy as extremely important this year is essentially unchanged from 49% in the 2022 midterms amid high inflation, but well above the 34% recorded in 2018, when 55% of Americans rated economic conditions as excellent or good.

Read it all.

Posted in * Culture-Watch, America/U.S.A., Politics in General

(Bloomberg) Becasue of the Shale Revolution. America Is Making a ‘Fortune’ in an Energy Crisis

The Iran war has triggered the largest energy crisis in history, or so the conventional wisdom says. Epochal stuff — but only half-true, because oil is only half the story.

Thanks to the shale revolution and an enviable geological endowment, US and Canadian natural gas consumers are dodging the economic fallout of the Iran conflict. For America, long worried about its reliance on foreign fossil fuels, it’s an embarrassment of riches.

While European and Asian consumers are now paying north of $30 per million British thermal unit for their gas, US buyers pay around $3 per mBtu. Last week, US gas prices briefly touched a two-year low of $2.5 per mBut — in the middle of an energy crisis. Canadian costs are even lower, at about $1.5 per mBtu.

The price difference between gas in Europe and Asia versus North America, reaching now a ratio of 12 times, has never been wider; not during the 2022 gas shock following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nor in 2011-2012 after the Fukushima nuclear accident, which forced Japan into gas to keep the lights on.

Read it all.

Posted in * Economics, Politics, America/U.S.A., Economy, Energy, Natural Resources, Globalization

(Telegraph) ‘The clergy are stupider than ever’: The lost art of the inspirational sermon

Congregations are “less biblically literate” than in the past, [Fergus] Butler-Gallie argues. For this reason, modern churchgoers require “more extrapolation and more zoning in on what the readings actually mean” in order for the Bible to be brought alive. But this, he says, is something “fewer and fewer clergy are prepared to do”.

Bishop North is pragmatic about what people take away from a sermon. “People remember very little about the content of the sermon: all that they remember is what a sermon makes them feel,” he says.’

When preaching, he is “trying to create an environment in which I make the scriptures speak to today, such that there is a genuine encounter with the God of Jesus Christ.”

“The last thing I’m looking for is originality. I’m not trying to say something new: it’s all been said.”

Read it all.

Posted in Ministry of the Ordained, Parish Ministry, Preaching / Homiletics

A prayer from the Church of England for all Souls Day

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

Posted in Death / Burial / Funerals, Ecclesiology, Spirituality/Prayer

A prayer for the day from the Church of South India

Grant, O Lord, that as thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ prayed for his enemies on the cross, so we may have grace to forgive those that wrongfully or scornfully use us; that we ourselves may be able to receive thy forgiveness; though the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

Posted in Spirituality/Prayer

From the Morning Bible readings

Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth.

Revelation 14:1-13

Posted in Church History, Spirituality/Prayer

A prayer for the day from the Church of England

Almighty God,
you have knit together your elect
in one communion and fellowship    
in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord:
grant us grace so to follow your blessed saints
in all virtuous and godly living
that we may come to those inexpressible joys
that you have prepared for those who truly love you;
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.

Posted in Church History, Ecclesiology, Spirituality/Prayer

From the Morning Scripture Readings

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord, upon many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful,
    the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars,
    the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
    and Sir′ion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness,
    the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

–Psalm 29:3-8

Posted in Theology: Scripture

A Prayer for the day from the Pastor’s Prayerbook

Jesus, our Master, do thou meet us while we walk in the way and long to reach the heavenly country; so that, following thy light, we may keep the way of righteousness, and never wander away into the darkness of this world’s night, while thou, who art the Way, the Truth, and the Light art shining within us; for thy mercy’s sake.

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

Posted in Spirituality/Prayer

From the morning Bible readings

Then I saw another beast which rose out of the earth; it had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men; and by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the sword and yet lived; and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak, and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, its number is six hundred and sixty-six.

–Revelation 13:11-18

Posted in Theology: Scripture

(NYT) After Reinventing Mathematics, Can A.I. Eradicate Computer Bugs?

In September, OpenAI announced that its new artificial intelligence technology needed less than a week to solve the Navier-Stokes problem, a mathematical puzzle that bedeviled the world’s smartest humans for decades. In the weeks that followed, the company released a deluge of additional findings that stunned leading mathematicians and raised new questions about the future of an academic field that has long been viewed as the pinnacle of human achievement.

But the implications of A.I.’s newfound mathematical skills extend well beyond academic research. Using similar techniques, Silicon Valley is now building A.I. systems that aim to eliminate the dangerous flaws, or “bugs,” in the world’s computer software. Just as an A.I. system can prove a math problem, it can prove that a software application is bug-free — at least in theory.

This sweeping effort to guarantee the integrity of computer software, which scientists call “software verification,” is vitally important as the internet faces its biggest cybersecurity threat in decades. Now that the leading A.I. systems can hack into computer software, by identifying and exploiting its flaws with stunning speed, the world needs a new breed of A.I. that can remove these flaws.

&Truth, a new start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif., is among the many companies working to build this kind of technology. Much like the Silicon Valley start-ups Axiom and Logical Intelligence and leading A.I. labs like Anthropic and OpenAI, &Truth hopes to verify the world’s software using a specialized computer programming language called Lean, the same tool that allows A.I. technologies to solve million-dollar math problems.

Read it all.

Posted in Corporations/Corporate Life, Globalization, Science & Technology

(WSJ Houses of Worship) Faith Bottum–The Days of the Graveyard May Be Numbered

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

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

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

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

Read it all.

Posted in Death / Burial / Funerals, Parish Ministry, Religion & Culture

(JE) Anglican Church in North America Dioceses Report Attendance Growth

New diocesan data for the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) released this past week shows a 2.55 percent jump in churchwide Average Principal Sunday Attendance in 2025, an increase of 2,509 from 96,009 in 2024 to 98,514 in the most recent reporting year. The data is viewable below in the PDF form it was provided in.

The numbers, drawn from the 2025 congregational report, place the ACNA among a small number of U.S.-based denominations including the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Assemblies of God (AG), each of which report annual growth of 2-3 percent. It does, however, mark a slowdown from the double-digit growth reported for each of the prior three years rebounding from the period of COVID restrictions at the beginning of the decade.

ACNA Executive Director Deborah Tepley announced in June at the denomination’s annual Provincial Council held at Cornerstone Church in Tulsa an attendance increase of 1,402 persons (1.5 percent) from 97,032 persons in 2024 to 98,434 in 2025. Numbers from that 2025 mission index have since been adjusted by a data analyst who corrected 2024 figures, revising them downward from 97,032 to 96,009, accounting for the greater percentage attendance increase in 2025 compared to the initial announcement. The ACNA previously reported a 13.4 percentage increase for 2024.

Read it all.

Posted in Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), Evangelism and Church Growth, Parish Ministry

A Prayer for the Feast Day of John Wyclif

O God, whose justice continually challenges thy Church to live according to its calling: Grant us who now remember the work of John Wyclif contrition for the wounds which our sins inflict on thy Church, and such love for Christ that we may seek to heal the divisions which afflict his Body; through the same Jesus Christ, who livest and reignest with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Posted in Church History, Spirituality/Prayer

A prayer for the day from the Pastor’s Prayerbook

O Eternal God, who committest to us the swift and solemn trust of life; Since we know not what a day may bring forth, but only that the hour for serving Thee is ever present, may we wake to the instant claims of Thy holy will, not waiting for tomorrow, but yielding today.  Lay to rest, by the persuasion of Thy Spirit, the resistance of our passion, our indolence, or our fear.  Consecrate with Thy presence the way in which our feet may go, so that the humblest work may shine and the rough places may be made plain.  Lift us above unrighteous anger and mistrust, into faith, and hope, and charity.  In all things draw us close to our Saviour Christ, that Thy lost image may be traced in us again, and all men, looking at us, may know that we have been with Thee; Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

Posted in Spirituality/Prayer