He grew downward in humiliation before God, and he grew upward in his adoration of Christ.

Handley Moule captures the essence of Simeon’s secret of longevity in this sentence: “‘Before honor is humility,’ and he had been ‘growing downwards’ year by year under the stern discipline of difficulty met in the right way, the way of close and adoring communion with God” (Moule, 64). Those two things were the heartbeat of Simeon’s inner life: growing downward in humility and growing upward in adoring communion with God.

But the remarkable thing about humiliation and adoration in the heart of Charles Simeon is that they were inseparable. Simeon was utterly unlike most of us today who think that we should get rid once and for all of feelings of vileness and unworthiness as soon as we can. For him, adoration only grew in the freshly plowed soil of humiliation for sin. So he actually labored to know his true sinfulness and his remaining corruption as a Christian.

I have continually had such a sense of my sinfulness as would sink me into utter despair, if I had not an assured view of the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save me to the uttermost. And at the same time I had such a sense of my acceptance through Christ as would overset my little bark, if I had not ballast at the bottom sufficient to sink a vessel of no ordinary size. (Moule 134f.)

He never lost sight of the need for the heavy ballast of his own humiliation. After he had been a Christian forty years he wrote,

With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that the circumstance of God’s having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me (Ezekiel 16:63). . . . There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they should be viewed together; just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the scapegoat. The disease did not keep him from applying to the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the disease. By this I seek to be, not only humbled and thankful, but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and Saviour continually. (Carus, 518f.)

Please do read it all.

If you’re a preacher, Charles Simeon has influenced you more than you realise. Find out how: http://t.co/D9fE5aY4cv http://t.co/wEtSDLF4fh

— Moore Theological College (@MooreCollege) May 13, 2015

John Stott on Charles Simeon at Taylor University from Randall Gruendyke on Vimeo.

‘He stood for many years alone, he was long opposed, ridiculed, shunned, his doctrines were misrepresented, his little peculiarities of voice and manner were satirized, disturbances were frequently raised in his church or he was a person not taken into account, nor considered in the light of a regular clergyman in the church.’

-–as quoted in William Carus, Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon (New York: Robert Carter, 1848), p.39

2 January 1858: death of the Rt Revd Daniel Wilson, aged 79. He had served as fifth Bishop of Calcutta and first Metropolitan of India since 1832. His area of episcopal oversight included SE Asia: Singapore (visited five times) and even Australia (until 1835). #anglican #166years https://t.co/lgwOfagrpB

— Anglican Historical Society (@AustAnglican) January 2, 2024

If we wish to appropriate the wisdom of Charles Simeon as theorist on expository preaching, we must first make clear to ourselves what we mean when we speak of expository preaching. This is necessary because the word expository has often been used in a restricted sense to denote simply a sermon preached from a long text. Thus, Andrew Blackwood wrote: “An expository sermon here means one that grows out of a Bible passage longer than two or three verses . . . an expository sermon means a textual treatment of a fairly long passage.”² He went on to suggest that young pastors should preach such sermons “perhaps once a month”³ and to give hints on the problems of technique they involve.

Without suggesting that Blackwood’s usage is inadmissible for any purpose, I must discuss it as too narrow for our present purpose—if only because it would exclude all but a handful of Charles Simeon’s sermons (his texts, you see, are far too short!). We shall find it better to define “expository” preaching in terms, not of the length of the text, but of the preacher’s approach to it, and to say something like this: expository preaching is the preaching of the man who knows Holy Scripture to be the living Word of the living God, and who desires only that it should be free to speak its own message to sinful men and women; who therefore preaches from a text, and in preaching labors, as the Puritans would say, to “open” it, or, in Simeon’s phrase, to “bring out of the text what is there”; whose whole aim in preaching is to show his hearers what the text is saying to them about God and about themselves, and to lead them into what Barth called “the strange new world within the Bible” in order that they may be met by him who is the Lord of that world.

The practice of expository preaching thus presupposes the biblical and evangelical account of the relation of the written words of Scripture to the speaking God with whom we have to do. Defining the concept in this way, we may say that every sermon that Simeon preached was an expository sermon; and, surely, we may add that every sermon that we ourselves preach should be an expository sermon. What other sort of sermons, we may ask, is there room for in Christ’s church?

Read it all.

13 Nov 1836, Charles Simeon, evangelical Anglican clergyman, died, aged 77. Educated @Eton_College & @Kings_College. Vicar of Holy Trinity Cambridge for 54 years. One of founders of @cmsmission, @CMJ1809 & @biblesociety. Set up trust to appoint vicars to parishes that continues. https://t.co/S5QNw1jUSY

— Revd Nicholas Pye (@RevdPye) November 13, 2025

O loving God, who orderest all things by thine unerring wisdom and unbounded love: Grant us in all things to see thy hand; that, following the example and teaching of thy servant Charles Simeon, we may walk with Christ in all simplicity, and serve thee with a quiet and contented mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

"The preacher has invariably proposed to himself three things:I. Unity in the design II. Perspicuity in the arrangement III. Simplicity in the diction." —Charles Simeon https://t.co/bGDFVmIq2N

— Paterson (@shawnpaterson) October 26, 2026

O Eternal God, our heavenly Father, who hast given to us thy children an abiding citizenship in heaven, and, in the days of our pilgrimage, a citizenship also upon earth: Give us thine aid, as we journey to that heavenly city, so faithfully to perform the duties which befall us on our way, that at the last we may be found worthy to enter into thy rest; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

This mornings rising sun.. https://t.co/rcDZhDtAkP

— Glenn Hutton (@GlennHutton6) November 12, 2026

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greeting.

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.

–James 1:1-15

A Cold Frosty Morning. 1°C. Partridge https://t.co/teoMLpnnCE

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) November 12, 2026

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Read it all.

Today, we honor and thank the generations of heroes who wore the uniform in service to our great nation. Happy Veterans Day, America. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/CuOlV4zWmO

— U.S. Army (@USArmy) November 11, 2026

Loving God, We ask for blessings on all those who have served their country in the armed forces. We ask for healing for the Veterans who have been wounded, in body and soul, in conflicts around the globe. We pray especially for the young men and women, in the thousands, who are coming home with injured bodies and traumatized spirits. Bring solace to them, O Lord; may we pray for them when they cannot pray. We ask for, echoing John Paul II, an end to wars and the dawning of a new era of peace, as a way to honor all the veterans of past wars.

Have mercy on all our Veterans. Bring peace to their hearts and peace to the regions they fought in. Bless all the soldiers who served in non-combative posts; May their calling to service continue in their lives in many positive ways.

Give us all the creative vision to see a world which, grown weary with fighting, Moves to affirming the life of every human being and so moves beyond war. Hear our prayer, O Prince of Peace, hear our prayer.

Every Veterans Day at 11:11 a.m., the sun lines up perfectly with the Anthem Veterans Memorial in Anthem, Arizona. https://t.co/4ybRODhyc8

— James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) November 11, 2026

Lord God of hosts, who didst clothe thy servant Martin the soldier with the spirit of sacrifice, and didst set him as a bishop in thy Church to be a defender of the catholic faith: Give us grace to follow in his holy steps, that at the last we may be found clothed with righteousness in the dwellings of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Today is Martinmas, the feast of St Martin of Tours, a major festival in medieval Europe which heralded the approach of winter with fire and feasting.St Martin is the patron saint of soldiers, often shown sharing his cloak with a poor man to protect him from the winter cold. https://t.co/RX0iNkzHdS

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) November 11, 2026

Heavenly Father, who hast called us by thy grace to be a colony of heaven here on earth: Deepen within us, we beseech thee, a sense of our citizenship with the saints in glory; and grant that through all the days of our pilgrimage in this world we may humbly walk with thee in the way of holiness, and faithfully care for the needs of others, till we come to thy everlasting kingdom; through the mercy of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Morning everyone I hope you are well. Sunrise over Waterhead with mist clearing across Windermere on a chilly morning. Have a great day.#LakeDistrict https://t.co/l1pJ0C9wbN

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) November 11, 2026

Lord of the nations,
Saviour and judge of all:
remove from human hearts all bitterness and hate,
grant to those who have died in war your mercy and forgiveness
and bring us all to the peace of your eternal Kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who suffered and died,
and now lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, world without end. Amen.

‘And the Victory that day was turned into Mourning unto all the People’Today is Remembrance Day, formerly Armistice Day, popularly Poppy Day, marking the end of the fighting on the Western Front #OTD 11 November 1918. The Liverpool Cenotaph on St George’s Plateau.#MonthOfTheDead Day 11.

— Simon Knott (@TheSimonKnott) November 11, 2026

O King and Judge of the nations: We remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our armed forces, who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy; grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, now and for ever.

Today, 11 November, many across the Anglican Communion mark a day of remembrance.It is a day to remember those who lost their lives in war and conflict, and all whose lives have been forever changed by violence, suffering and loss. It is also a time to hold in prayer those who mourn loved ones, those who carry the physical and emotional wounds of war and communities still living amid conflict and displacement.Remembering the sacrifices of the past, we pray for a world shaped by peace, justice and reconciliation.Let us pray:God of peace, comfort those who grieve, bring healing to those who suffer and guide the nations of the world towards understanding, compassion and lasting peace. Give those with influence the wisdom learned from the struggles of past generations and the vision to pursue harmony.Amen.#Anglicans

— Anglican Communion (@AnglicanWorld) November 11, 2026

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ”˜Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ”˜Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

–Luke 15:1-10

Een beetje mist en een opkomende zon kan mooie plaatjes geven. Fijne woensdag😀 #zonsopkomst #mist https://t.co/v4nkCjMSHp

— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) November 11, 2026

The appointment of the first female Dean of Exeter Cathedral has been announced by Downing Street.

The Very Reverend Arwen Mary Folkes, currently Vicar of St Mary-the-Virgin in Eastbourne, is due to start in her new role in Devon on 9 May 2027.

Folkes was born in Barnstaple in North Devon and baptised in Bideford, before growing up at the Lizard Lighthouse in Cornwall, where her father was one of the last live-in lighthouse keepers for Trinity House.

She said: “It seems I have been entrusted with a new lighthouse, and a rather bigger one this time.”

Read it all.

First female Dean of 970-year-old cathedral https://t.co/7gElus9usu

— BBC South West (@BBCSpotlight) November 10, 2026

‘Once again, remember that we are praying to our heavenly father. He is not too busy to care, and he is not too impotent to help. I think of the times my young kids have said, “dad, don’t let my head go underwater.“ “Dad don’t leave me in the store by myself.“ “Dad, you’ll sit next to me on the plane, right?“ I love requests like that. They honor me as a father. They are not too hard for me and it brings me to light to guide and to guard my children. how much more does your heavenly father love to guard and to guide you?

–Kevin Deyoung, The Lord’s Prayer (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2022), p.88, quoted by yours truly in the sermon posted below

The Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us How to Pray Every Other Prayer | Kevin DeYoung https://t.co/mKali2xTAE https://t.co/jRZbfxjSji

— J. Warner Wallace (@jwarnerwallace) April 11, 2023

You may listen directly here:

Or you may download it there.

Or you may watch it there:

Not knowing, therefore, what he was bound to think concerning the incarnation of the Word of God, and not wishing to gain the light of knowledge by researches through the length and breadth of the Holy Scriptures, he might at least have listened attentively to that general and uniform confession, whereby the whole body of the faithful confess that they believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son , our Lord, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. By which three statements the devices of almost all heretics are overthrown. For not only is God believed to be both Almighty and the Father, but the Son is shown to be co-eternal with Him, differing in nothing from the Father because He is God from God , Almighty from Almighty, and being born from the Eternal one is co-eternal with Him; not later in point of time, not lower in power, not unlike in glory, not divided in essence: but at the same time the only begotten of the eternal Father was born eternal of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. And this nativity which took place in time took nothing from, and added nothing to that divine and eternal birth, but expended itself wholly on the restoration of man who had been deceived : in order that he might both vanquish death and overthrow by his strength , the Devil who possessed the power of death. For we should not now be able to overcome the author of sin and death unless He took our nature on Him and made it His own, whom neither sin could pollute nor death retain. Doubtless then, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit within the womb of His Virgin Mother, who brought Him forth without the loss of her virginity, even as she conceived Him without its loss.

But if he could not draw a rightful understanding (of the matter) from this pure source of the Christian belief, because he had darkened the brightness of the clear truth by a veil of blindness peculiar to himself, he might have submitted himself to the teaching of the Gospels. And when Matthew speaks of the Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham Matthew 1:1, he might have also sought out the instruction afforded by the statements of the Apostles. And reading in the Epistle to the Romans, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an Apostle, separated unto the Gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scripture concerning His son, who was made unto Him of the seed of David after the flesh Romans 1:1-3, he might have bestowed a loyal carefulness upon the pages of the prophets. And finding the promise of God who says to Abraham, In your seed shall all nations be blessed Genesis 12:3, to avoid all doubt as to the reference of this seed, he might have followed the Apostle when He says, To Abraham were the promises made and to his seed. He says not and to seeds, as if in many, but as it in one, and to your seed which is Christ Galatians 3:16 . Isaiah’s prophecy also he might have grasped by a closer attention to what he says, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is interpreted God with us. And the same prophet’s words he might have read faithfully. A child is born to us, a Son is given to us, whose power is upon His shoulder, and they shall call His name the Angel of the Great Counsel, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Father of the age to come. And then he would not speak so erroneously as to say that the Word became flesh in such a way that Christ, born of the Virgin’s womb, had the form of man, but had not the reality of His mother’s body. Or is it possible that he thought our Lord Jesus Christ was not of our nature for this reason, that the angel, who was sent to the blessed Mary ever Virgin, says, The Holy Ghost shall come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you: and therefore that Holy Thing also that shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God Luke 1:35, on the supposition that as the conception of the Virgin was a Divine act, the flesh of the conceived did not partake of the conceiver’s nature? But that birth so uniquely wondrous and so wondrously unique, is not to be understood in such wise that the properties of His kind were removed through the novelty of His creation. For though the Holy Spirit imparted fertility to the Virgin, yet a real body was received from her body; and, Wisdom building her a house Proverbs 9:1, the Word became flesh and dwelt in us , that is, in that flesh which he took from man and which he quickened with the breath of a higher life.

–Letter 28.II

"Christian, recognize your dignity and, now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return to your former base condition by sinning," Pope Saint Leo the Great (400 – 461). More: https://t.co/v405FCTIof https://t.co/oNhW7wg4XU

— Bishop Earl Boyea (@BishopBoyea) November 10, 2026

O Lord our God, grant that thy Church, following the teaching of thy servant Leo of Rome, may hold fast the great mystery of our redemption, and adore the one Christ, true God and true Man, neither divided from our human nature nor separate from thy divine Being; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

St. Pope Leo the Great (c. 400–461) led the Church from 440 to 461. A brilliant theologian and defender of Christian doctrine, he strengthened papal authority and famously confronted Attila the Hun. He is honored as a Doctor of the Church. https://t.co/bc1tCbY6CO

— Friar Mario Conte (@FriarMario) November 10, 2026

O God, whose blessed Son came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil and make us children of God and heirs of eternal life: Grant that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves as he is pure; that, when he comes again with power and great glory, we may be made like him in his eternal and glorious kingdom; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Is it a cathedral? Is it in a city? No – it’s a church in the town of Beverley. And what a church! Its glorious Gothic west front simply sings✨. I’ve added this view to my Atelier: https://t.co/UEqnLHTOA6 https://t.co/gt1BvnjaBs

— Andy Marshall 📸 (@fotofacade) November 10, 2026

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” Once more they cried, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And from the throne came a voice crying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” –for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.” Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

–Revelation 19:1-10

Early Morning Light. 3°C after a slight frost. Fieldfare. https://t.co/Ksj29KsD6T

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) November 10, 2026

Maternity care needs more attention from the leadership of the Church of England, the midwife leading numerous NHS inquiries has said.

Since Donna Ockenden was first appointed to chair an independent review of maternity services at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust in 2016, she has been called upon to lead inquiries at Nottingham, Leeds, and Sussex.

The inquiry at Nottingham University Hospital Trust — the largest of its kind in NHS history — found that more than 500 mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm, or died, between 2012 and 2025.

The House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee has described England’s maternity services as being “in a state of crisis”. A national review that ran from 2022 to 2024 found that poor care had become normalised.

Read it all.

🤰Maternity care needs more attention from the leadership of the Church of England, the midwife leading numerous NHS inquiries has said. #ChurchTimes #Maternity #Healthcare https://t.co/5UCif4O4Js

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 6, 2026

The New York Times feature marking the band’s 50th anniversary — the hook for this week’s “Crossroads” podcast — starts with U2 returning to Mount Temple to celebrate on the stage where the quartet did one of its first gigs. The lengthy interview: “50 Years In, What’s the Point of U2? Bono and the Edge Have Answers.”

God showed up very early in the Times interview. David Marchese asked this basic question: “When you say there are ideas that you want to be in the mainstream, what are they?” Bono replied:

The metaphysical thing, the gospel side of U2 — that was only allowed in rock ’n’ roll if you were Black. You can’t be white people talking about God, because generally white people who talk about God make our audience very nervous, you know? But not in the Black church in America. Coming to the United States, we’d just seen those televangelists, and we were like, Wow, these people are in deep trouble. Then you walk into a Black church and you hear the abandonment of the singing and that feeling — it’s fervor, but not freaky fervor. So being able to sing songs of faith and devotion and songs of doubt, to put the gospel with the blues, which is rock ’n’ roll.

That leads to this follow-up: “You said that talking about God in your music can be a little uncomfortable for your audience, but I would argue that U2’s religious impulse is hugely important to your audience. It’s a big part of why people feel so connected to the band.” The Edge responded:

I mean, yes, but we weren’t seeing it as a selling point. We were seeing it as the thing we have to speak about because it’s where we’re coming from. But people have said that we’re the band that people who don’t know that they believe in God like. It’s in the work in such a natural way. There’s no polemic there. It’s just our search, our inquiry. And it involves so much doubt. It has to, I think. Because if it’s not dogma, then it’s constantly in flux. I would say I’m agnostic about half of the week, and then the rest of the week I’ve got an incredibly strong faith. But it’s always changing, ready to be upgraded.

A “selling point”? This sounded rather familiar to me, for some obvious reasons….

Read it all.

So, @U2 has carried on for 50 years. Guess what? The big Qs in a long @NYTimes piece are the same Qs Bono and Co. faced in 1982. How do I know that? I was there and asked the Qs. @ActonInstitute @amsacramone @GetReligion @scottderrickson @Joeinblackhttps://t.co/sv5PVN9ezJ https://t.co/kG80vY3Wl8

— Terry Mattingly (@tweetmattingly) November 6, 2026

The central thesis of his new book, Rethinking Christianity, is that what the likes of Ash heard is absolutely correct. The sea of faith around these islands is rising. “I am seeing,” he tells me, “a growth in young people wanting to talk about Christianity. Others have seen it, but right now no one really wants to emphasise it. It is probably best just to let it happen.”

The burnt fingers at the Bible Society, coupled with a still extant British reluctance to talk about Christianity – “We don’t do God”, as Alastair Campbell once put it, on behalf of Tony Blair – appear to have warned many commentators off. Not McGrath, though. This academic and author, best known as the biographer and champion of CS Lewis – both men were born in Belfast, albeit McGrath’s accent gives no hint of it – likes to step up when others hold back. He was, 20 years ago, the first leading Christian to lock horns in public with Richard Dawkins, following the publication of the evolutionary biologist’s global bestseller, The God Delusion.

In public debates with Dawkins, he dismissed the claims of the “New Atheists” that Christianity was a fraud. Dawkins and his sort, McGrath now says, “were aggressively asserting atheist beliefs, but posing as if they were telling incontestable truths”. In response, McGrath and his wife, Joanna Collicutt, a clinical psychologist and Anglican vicar, published a strong defence of religion titled The Dawkins Delusion. “I probably unwisely allowed myself to have a reasonably high profile,” he reflects.

Dawkins has, in recent weeks, been celebrating the 20th anniversary of The God Delusion, making appearances and writing articles (including in this paper). But the scientist is the deluded one, McGrath suggests. “The New Atheism seems to have tanked. It’s on its way out, because people have seen that it was never really answering the big questions.”

Read it all.

Theologian Alister McGrath: Christianity is back because it answers the big questions https://t.co/4sDVPgWjTK

— Benedict Rogers 羅傑斯 (@benedictrogers) November 3, 2026

The National Security Agency told organizations that if they couldn’t fix their websites immediately, they should take them offline. Not patch carefully. Not watch for suspicious activity. Pull the plug, according to the NSA’s Oct. 21 advisory.

The flaws were in PHP, the programming language behind most of the world’s websites, and they would let anyone run commands on a server without a password. Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and the Czech Republic temporarily took down some government sites.

How serious was it? The prime minister of Japan went on X.com to tell her country to get ready to patch. I have spent two decades in this business, including at the Pentagon and now at Vanderbilt University, where my lab specializes in cybersecurity. I have never seen a head of government issue a patch notice like this. It won’t be the last.

Here is what should worry you: This was pretty much the best-case scenario. The flaws were found with the help of artificial-intelligence models, including OpenAI’s, and handled the way we would want. They were reported quietly in August to PHP’s maintainers, who spent two months working with OpenAI and outside security researchers on a fix before releasing it publicly. OpenAI says that, to its knowledge, AI found these flaws before attackers did.

That is luck, not a system….

Read it all.

AI saves the day—and could bring doom tomorrow. OpenAI identified a bug in the web and reported it. Will the next one be found by bad guys with a Chinese open model? asks Brett Goldstein https://t.co/bo3vtS8SYq

— Wall Street Journal Opinion (@WSJopinion) November 9, 2026

Gracious God, we offer thanks for the lives and work of Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, and Margery Kempe, hermits and mystics, who, passing through the cloud of unknowing, beheld thy glory. Help us, after their examples, to see thee more clearly and love thee more dearly, in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior; who with thee and the Holy Spirit livest and reignest, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ever heard of the 14th century English hermit, Richard Rolle?Richard Rolle was a 14th century English mystic and prolific religious writer. Although he was never canonised, the Church of England commemorates him on 23 January.Regulars at Choral Evensong won’t be surprised to hear that one of Richard Rolle’s earliest mystical experiences occurred while listening to a choir – and he continued to hear music from heaven whenever he chanted the Psalms.He wrote of two other forms of mystical experience: a feeling of physical warmth and a sense of sweetness. His experiences contributed to the medieval practice of affective meditation, initiated by St Anselm of Canterbury, in which Christians imagine the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures of events in the Gospels.You can continue reading this fascinating piece by our Librarian, Emma Laws: https://t.co/rcWBekqsxS#ExeterCathedral #YourCathedral

— Exeter Cathedral (@ExeterCathedral) January 23, 2026

Almighty Father,
whose will is to restore all things
in your beloved Son, the King of all:
govern the hearts and minds of those in authority,
and bring the families of the nations,
divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin,
to be subject to his just and gentle rule;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Nahe Deggendorf, das Tor zum Bayrischen Wald. Beim Betrachten des Sonnenunterganges kommt ein Gefühl der Ruhe, der Freiheit und der Verbundenheit mit der Natur auf. https://t.co/0BybtJT5iR

— Mittelfranke (@Rubenbauer16) November 8, 2026

The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethu′el:

Hear this, you aged men,
    give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days,
    or in the days of your fathers?
Tell your children of it,
    and let your children tell their children,
    and their children another generation.

What the cutting locust left,
    the swarming locust has eaten.
What the swarming locust left,
    the hopping locust has eaten,
and what the hopping locust left,
    the destroying locust has eaten.

Awake, you drunkards, and weep;
    and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
    for it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation has come up against my land,
    powerful and without number;
its teeth are lions’ teeth,
    and it has the fangs of a lioness.
It has laid waste my vines,
    and splintered my fig trees;
it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down;
    their branches are made white.

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth
    for the bridegroom of her youth.
The cereal offering and the drink offering are cut off
    from the house of the Lord.
The priests mourn,
    the ministers of the Lord.
The fields are laid waste,
    the ground mourns;
because the grain is destroyed,
    the wine fails,
    the oil languishes.

Be confounded, O tillers of the soil,
    wail, O vinedressers,
for the wheat and the barley;
    because the harvest of the field has perished.
The vine withers,
    the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are withered;
and gladness fails
    from the sons of men.

Gird on sackcloth and lament, O priests,
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
Because cereal offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

–Joel 1:1-13 

Early morning vibes from Surfside Beach, South Carolina 🌅 #earlymorningvibes @EdPiotrowski @jamiearnoldWMBF @AndrewWMBF @LiamKennyWPDE @jgreenhillwx https://t.co/KkAsxMNeJz

— Cathy Kelley (@catsunrisechick) November 9, 2026

God, our refuge and strength,
bring near the day when wars shall cease
and poverty and pain shall end,
that earth may know the peace of heaven
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Never Forget All Veterans. https://t.co/aGd8Y4kFAt

— Historygirl (@janeyellene) November 8, 2026

O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.

–Psalm 96:1-4

Morning everyone I hope you are well. A wander down the very quiet valley alongside Langstrath Beck. Have a great day.#LakeDistrict https://t.co/UfhlYRo1r5

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) November 8, 2026