The impact of the Tudors on Wales, England, and Europe is known to every school pupil in Britain: King Henry VIII and his succession of wives, his part in the Reformation that spilt the continent, and the Church of England that emerged from and has somehow survived these turbulent beginnings.

Visitors will soon be able to see where it all began, in the 1400s: the family church of the Tudor dynasty. No need to book, queue, or register months in advance: the medieval St Gredifael’s, Penmynydd, on Anglesey, is to become the newest addition to the collection of buildings maintained by the Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC). Yet this marks a big improvement in the church’s fortunes: it has been closed for more than ten years. The FoFC, with the help of an anonymous benefactor, are to carry out repairs and reopen it for visits and occasional acts of worship.

Wales’s religious heritage is disappearing, or being sold off, at possibly the fastest rate since the Reformation. According to the National Churches Trust (NCT), 25 per cent of historic churches and Nonconformist chapels in Wales have closed in the past decade. The National Churches Survey, published by the NCT in October, found that those who ran nearly ten per cent of places of Christian worship in Wales believed that they would “definitely” or “probably” not be open for worship in five years’ time.

Dwindling congregations and soaring maintenance bills have resulted in congregations’ merging, relocating, or closing their buildings, and the auctioning or demolition of churches. A handful, such as St Gredifael’s, are saved by heritage charities such as the FoFC.

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"Wales’s religious heritage is disappearing, or being sold off, at possibly the fastest rate since the Reformation."

Declining attendance means closure for churches in #Wales, but valuable history could be lost, reports Abigail Frymann Rouch https://t.co/7zLUeIUczJ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) February 1, 2026

We’re abandoning our humanistic core. The elements of our civilization that lift the spirit, nurture empathy and orient the soul now play a diminished role in national life: religious devotion, theology, literature, art, history, philosophy. Many educators decided that because Western powers spawned colonialism — and they did — students in the West should learn nothing about the lineage of their civilization and should thereby be rendered cultural orphans. Activists decided persuasion is a myth and that life is a ruthless power competition between oppressors and oppressed groups. As a result of technological progress and humanistic decay, life has become objectively better but subjectively worse. We have widened personal freedom but utterly failed to help people answer the question of what that freedom is for.

The most grievous cultural wound has been the loss of a shared moral order. We told multiple generations to come up with their own individual values. This privatization of morality burdened people with a task they could not possibly do, leaving them morally inarticulate and unformed. It created a naked public square where there was no broad agreement about what was true, beautiful and good. Without shared standards of right and wrong, it’s impossible to settle disputes; it’s impossible to maintain social cohesion and trust. Every healthy society rests on some shared conception of the sacred — sacred heroes, sacred texts, sacred ideals — and when that goes away, anxiety, atomization and a slow descent toward barbarism are the natural results.

It shouldn’t surprise us that, according to one Harvard survey, 58 percent of college students say they experienced no sense of “purpose or meaning” in their life in the month before being polled. It shouldn’t surprise us that people are so distrusting and demoralized. I’m haunted by an observation that Albert Camus made about his continent 75 years ago: The men of Europe “no longer believe in the things that exist in the world and in living man; the secret of Europe is that it no longer loves life.”

We could use better political leadership, of course, but the crucial question facing America is: How can we reverse this pervasive loss of faith in one another, in our future and in our shared ideals? 

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The deepest cultural wound isn’t politics or economics.

It’s the loss of a shared moral order.

When nothing is sacred—no heroes, no texts, no ideals—anxiety rises, people atomize, and barbarism quietly returns.https://t.co/CryYvXJk5x#culture #meaning #morality #trust…

— Art Berman (@aeberman12) February 2, 2026

Everliving God, we rejoice today in the fellowship of thy blessed servant Brigid, and we give thee thanks for her life of devoted service. Inspire us with life and light, and give us perseverance to serve thee all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end (moved from yesterday).

Today's the feast of St Brigid of Kildare, 5th/6th Century Abbess and Mother Saint of Ireland. She stands with her wolfhound in glass of c1920 in Plymouth Cathedral that's credited to Hardman & Co (but could it be by someone more interesting?) pic.twitter.com/yG0XJ4y4At

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) February 1, 2026

Almighty and everliving God, we humbly beseech thee that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Snowdrops are also known as ‘Candlemas Bells’, as they bloom around #Candlemas. This Christian celebration of light echoes the older pagan festival of #Imbolc, and is observed on 2nd February to mark the ritual purification of Mary after the birth of Jesus. pic.twitter.com/yXjtITpZsf

— VenetiaJane's Garden (@VenetiaJane) February 2, 2026

O thou who in the days of thy humiliation didst command the winds and waves, and they obeyed thee: Do thou so dwell within us, that we may be safe from all dangers, and steadfast in all temptations; and evermore keep us in thy peace, for thy holy name’s sake.

It was a very still, calm morning today in Glastonbury. Photo was taken about an hour before sunrise. pic.twitter.com/L5TVmdK30p

— Michelle Cowbourne (@Glastomichelle) February 2, 2026

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old received divine approval. By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking. By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was attested as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

–Hebrews 11:1-6

The frozen three rivers of Pittsburgh. Was a beautiful day out there today. The 20° weather today actually didn’t feel as numbingly cold as it has the past few days. #pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/NcVA0zjDPw

— Dustin McGrew (@dmcgrew) February 2, 2026

O God, you know that we are set in the midst of many grave dangers, and because of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright: Grant that your strength and protection may support us in all dangers and carry us through every temptation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

#HelloFebruary just like that.. Skye Bridge, Kyle of Lochalsh #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @ThePhotoHour @StormHour @VisitScotland pic.twitter.com/vgs7g4of5N

— James MacInnes (@Macinnesplant) February 1, 2026

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

–Galatians 5:22-24

O God, who dost satisfy the longing soul and fillest the hungry with good things: Grant that we, like thy servant Marcella, may hunger and thirst after thee above the vain pomp and glory of the world, and delight in thy word above all manner of riches; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God world without end. Amen.

Saint Marcella of Rome: a woman of wealth who chose radical simplicity, turned her home into a monastery, and spent her life in prayer, study, and service to the poor. Quiet strength. Lasting holiness. ✨ pic.twitter.com/LHSg9bny5t

— Duncan Irvine (@DuncanIrvine1) January 31, 2026

O Thou, who searchest the hearts of men: Look with mercy upon our sins, especially our sins against the truth; forgive them and help us to walk this day in the light.  Deliver us from timid silence; give us courage to speak the truth with boldness, and grace to speak the truth with love; and save us in thought, word, and deed from the perils of self-deception; 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)

Sunrise across Sound of Sleat from Ardvasar, Isle of Skye #Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @ThePhotoHour @StormHour @VisitScotland pic.twitter.com/Hb4r4pw60y

— James MacInnes (@Macinnesplant) January 31, 2026

And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men stood in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I fetch a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on–since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.” And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

–Genesis 18:1-8

A quiet winter scene to close out the week. Stay safe and warm this weekend.

Photo by Christopher Ewing pic.twitter.com/UfazNFWkcW

— US Department of the Interior (@Interior) January 30, 2026

William Nicholson’s original script will barely be changed in the production at the Aldwych Theatre, which opens next week, apart from updating a story that a character reads from a newspaper. Raised as a Roman Catholic, Mr Nicholson initially had no time for C. S Lewis, sharing his mother’s view that the Narnia author was a “drippy Protty”. But, when his colleage in the BBC’s religious department Norman Stone — filmmaker, Lewis fan, and Christian — suggested creating a television drama about Lewis’s relationship and marriage to an American mother-of-two, Joy Davidman, Mr Nicholson was transfixed by their slow-burn love story.

“I personally connected, as a much younger person — I was 36 at the time — to the whole question of fear of commitment in love, which is maybe more of a male thing, but it was certainly something I was experiencing. I wanted to love and be loved, but was very afraid of committing myself to a full love affair, love relationship, marriage, children.”

Lewis’s loss of his mother at the age of ten probably affected the author’s ability to form close relationships, Mr Nicholson thinks. “When the person who is most central to your life, who gives you your sense of being loved, disappears and leaves you in pain, it’s reasonable to conclude that something closed off at that point, and had to be opened again. I responded to the fear of being made vulnerable by love. I made that one of the central themes, because that related strongly to me. I wasn’t married at the time; so I was able to channel a bit of myself into Lewis, and Lewis into myself.”

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"Shadowlands speaks to something deep in all of us about loss, love and loss, and the fear of loss."

The story of C. S. Lewis’s marriage, exploring love, loss, and faith, is back on stage, says @SusanGrayMeets #CSLewis #Shadowlands #grief #theatre https://t.co/ltrjwQftU9

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 31, 2026

President Trump announced on Friday that he was nominating Kevin M. Warsh to serve as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, positioning the former central bank governor to take a pivotal role in steering an institution that has faced a barrage of attacks from the administration over its reluctance to more aggressively lower interest rates.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Warsh, saying, “He will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.”

“On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting’ and will never let you down,” the president wrote.

Mr. Trump repeated that line during remarks at the White House and said that while he did not get a commitment from Mr. Warsh to cut rates, he expected that he would do so.

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President Trump picks a reinvented Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Fed. Warsh, who served on the US central bank's Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011, would succeed Jerome Powell when his term ends in May. As a Fed governor from 2006-11, Warsh called for higher rates even… pic.twitter.com/qtG5DGUtUv

— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) January 30, 2026

The last few years have taken a real toll on pastors, causing many to consider quitting ministry. But new data from Barna Group suggests that fewer pastors are now thinking of walking away.

According to Barna’s latest findings, 24 percent of U.S. senior Protestant pastors say they have seriously considered leaving full-time ministry within the past year—a decline from the peak levels recorded during the height of the pandemic era. While still a substantial share of leaders, the decrease signals a meaningful shift after several years marked by intense vocational strain.

For much of the past five years, Barna’s research has documented rising pressure on pastors. Early in the pandemic, pastors were forced to navigate church closures, rapid shifts in ministry models, health concerns and political division—often all at once and with limited support. Emotional exhaustion intensified during the COVID-19 years, ministry demands multiplied and leaders faced heightened conflict and polarization within their congregations.

By 2022, those overlapping pressures culminated in an alarming reality: roughly two in five pastors said they had seriously considered quitting ministry altogether.

Since 2022, the share of pastors considering quitting has steadily declined.

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(Barna Group) 'By 2022, those overlapping pressures culminated in an alarming reality: roughly two in five pastors said they had seriously considered quitting ministry altogether.

Since 2022, the share of pastors considering quitting has steadily declined. The drop to 24 percent…

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) January 31, 2026

ames Edward Lesslie Newbigin was born on December 8, 1909 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England to Annie Affleck and Edward R. Newbigin, a shipping merchant. His earliest memories were happy ones, with a caring mother and a devout and politically radical father. He attended a Quaker boarding school called Leighton Park in Reding, Berkshire. By the time he headed to Queen’s College, Cambridge in 1928 he had left his religious upbringing but not dismissed it as irrational. In the summer of 1929, at age 19, while serving the unemployed of South Wales, Lesslie’s sleep was blessed with a vision of the Cross that touched the depths of human misery and offered hope. He was quickly drawn into evangelistic and ecumenical relationships and in 1930, at a Student Christian Movement (SCM) gathering in Stanwick, experienced a call to ordained ministry. On completion of his degree, he moved to Glasgow to work as staff secretary for the SCM. He returned to Cambridge in 1933 to train for ministry at Westminster College and in July 1936 he was ordained by the Presbytery of Edinburgh to work as a Church of Scotland missionary stationed in Madras, India. One month later, he married SCM colleague Helen Henderson, and together they set off for India where they lived for decades and together had one son and three daughters.

Newbigin took quickly to the native Tamil language, and began his work as a village evangelist. He became troubled by the competing denominational missions that often resulted in a separation of converts by caste. He saw this as a public contradiction to the gospel of reconciliation, and a primary obstacle to missionary work. In response, Newbigin became one of the key architects seeking the local organic reunion of the church. On August 15, 1947, India gained its independence from Britain. A month later, on September 27, 1947 the Church of South India was founded, which brought Congregational, Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian denominations into organic union. That same year, at age 37, Newbigin was elected and consecrated one of the new Church’s first bishops, over Madurai and Ramnad. He served there for 12 years, during which he read what he called the “seminal” works of Roland Allen, and thus became “anxious to win the local village congregations away from a wrong kind of dependence on the mission bungalow.”(1)

The “South India miracle” quickly made Newbigin a prominent figure in the growing international ecumenical scene. He was a consultant for the inaugural assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948. Between 1951 and 1953, Newbigin served on the “Committee of Twenty-Five” theologians in preparation for 1954. In fact, he was elected chair of the high-powered committee, which included Karl Barth, Emil Brunner and Reinhold Niebuhr. It was during this decade that Barth wrote the three ecclesiological paragraphs in his Church Dogmatics and that Newbigin published The Household of God—his most systematic book on ecclesiology. An insider (peritus) at Vatican II claimed Newbigin’s Household of God influenced the writing of Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic statement of the church which stressed its missiological and eschatological nature as a pilgrim people.

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An absolutely essential Newbigin text, but often overlooked. This is one of the first I tend to recommend. It's later Newbigin, lecture form, clear and pointed. pic.twitter.com/SQnvOt84Xv

— Cody Whittington (@_cwhittington) December 10, 2023

Almighty God, we give you thanks for the ministry of Lesslie Newbigin, who labored that the Church of Jesus Christ might be one: Grant that we, instructed by his teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

We can all use a Barthian Bishop in our life.

1.29

Feast of Leslie Newbigin pic.twitter.com/X30DHb91Uo

— David Szomor (@curiouscurate) January 29, 2026

O God, who knowest us to be set in the midst of so many and great dangers, that by reason of the frailty of our nature we cannot always stand upright; Grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations; 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)

That Sky! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/WnDnHpfubq

— North Yorkshire (@visitnorthyork) January 29, 2026

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiber’i-as. And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a multitude was coming to him, Jesus said to Philip, “How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” This he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what are they among so many?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!” Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

–John 6:1-15

Still have a few images of that amazing sunrise a few days ago in #Pittsburgh to share, and here's one of them from the North Shore. This is a panorama from the riverwalk showcasing the clouds starting to light up over the city with the railing connecting the bridges. pic.twitter.com/azLCYcwndE

— Dave DiCello (@DaveDiCello) January 29, 2026

The Most Revd Sarah Elisabeth Mullally became the first woman to take office as Archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday, at the confirmation in St Paul’s Cathedral of her election.

“This is our habemus mamam moment,” the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, told the congregation, her declaration a play on the words used to announce that a new pope has been elected, as the congregation began to applaud.

In the charge to the new Primate of All England, the Archbishop of York suggested that “while the world may be very interested in the fact that you are the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, I think God is very interested in the fact that this is the first time Sarah has been the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

Archbishop Cottrell’s advice to her was to be herself: “Continue to be the person who exercises the gifts, wisdom, and experience that your life has given you; and continue to be the one whose life is shaped and nurtured by the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Read it all.

Election of first female #ArchbishopofCanterbury confirmed at St Paul’s Cathedral

‘Continue to be the person who exercises the gifts, wisdom, and experience that your life has given you,’ Archbishop of York tells the Most Revd Sarah #Mullallyhttps://t.co/Tykp53tKDn

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 28, 2026

Sports events have always attracted betting. The more prestigious the level of play and the event involved (say, the Super Bowl and World Series) the greater the wagering.  

But the Supreme Court disastrously crossed a red line in the 2018 case Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. In it, the Court ruled that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992, which prohibited states from sponsoring, advertising, or “authoriz[ing]” sports gambling, was unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the “anticommandeering” doctrine that the Court had previously read into the Tenth Amendment. That is, since the Tenth Amendment states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” the 1992 Act unconstitutionally dictated to state governments the limits of their powers. (Coincidentally, the Court first enunciated its anticommandeering rule in an unrelated case during the same year that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was enacted.) 

On purely textual grounds, there is reason to doubt the correctness of the anticommandeering doctrine, since as the great constitutional scholar Walter Berns pointed out in a 1962 essay titled “The Meaning of the Tenth Amendment,” the Tenth Amendment, read literally, is  just a tautology: it says that the powers that the Constitution doesn’t delegate to the federal government are thereby reserved to the states and/or the people, without specifying just what those powers are.  

In fact, as is well known, since at least the late 1930s, federal courts have consistently adopted an extremely broad view of Congress’s powers under the Constitution, especially when it comes to domestic spending and regulation: consider the extensive volume of New Deal legislation that the Supreme Court upheld starting in 1936, along with Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” which authorized the establishment of entire cabinet departments that are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution; Obamacare; and Joe Biden’s egregiously mislabeled “Inflation Reduction Act.” But while the Murphy decision hinged on a somewhat arcane distinction between the federal government’s authorizing or prohibiting a particular mode of conduct and its imposing the burden of such a prohibition on the state governments, subsequent events have demonstrated the imprudence of that decision. Among those harms are an explosion of publicly advertised sports betting: many of the ads during televised sports events are sponsored by gambling companies like Draft Kings and FanDuel, duping people who can ill afford to lose substantial amounts to do just that. Each ad is accompanied by a 1-800 number that problem (that is, addicted) bettors can call for “free help.” (What if cigarette ads were once again posted on television, accompanied by the counsel, “Got lung cancer? Call for free help!”)  

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Online Gambling Corrupts Sports—And Americans, Too https://t.co/bHmZmgqXgU

— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) January 29, 2026

Most Americans believe the United States is declining in global power and influence, and nearly two-thirds say China’s power now equals or exceeds that of the United States, according to a nationally representative poll designed by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace scholars.

A majority of the Americans surveyed thought the United States is one of several powerful countries rather than the most powerful nation. Nearly three-quarters expected China to overtake the United States in power and influence at some point. Almost half, 47 percent, said China has already surpassed the United States or will do so within the next five years.

Respondents wanted the United States to be a formidable power in almost every world region. If China overtook the United States in power and influence, they would view that development negatively. At the same time, a solid majority—62 percent—said their lives would not get worse if China gained more power than the United States. This striking finding casts doubt on whether the American public would be willing to bear significant costs to maintain a power position superior to China’s.

Very few of the Americans polled said U.S. global power and influence was unimportant to them. Millennial and Gen Z respondents, however, were less fervent and more ambivalent about the value of American power than older generations. Meanwhile, Democrats were more likely than Republicans to see the United States as one of multiple powerful nations and as being in decline. Most Democrats thought their lives would not get worse if China surpassed the United States in power and influence, whereas most Republicans thought their lives would get worse.

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There's this view that Americans are provincial 'America Fuck yeah!' types. The elites are, but the voters aren't. Most Americans think that China is more technologically advanced than the U.S. https://t.co/wWzyrCjn5h pic.twitter.com/LCmtDtPrNn

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 27, 2026

Majorities of Americans continue to support charitable causes, with 76% reporting that they gave money to a religious or other nonprofit organization in the past year and 63% saying they volunteered their time to such an organization.

Americans’ current levels of charitable activities are somewhat different from what they were in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial contributions have eased slightly, registering five percentage points lower than in 2021, but volunteering is seven points higher now.

Meanwhile, a steady 17% of U.S. adults say they gave blood in the past 12 months.

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Americans continue to support charitable causes with 76% saying they gave money to nonprofits in the past year and 63% saying they volunteered their time to nonprofits. https://t.co/a5vdAcC1YS pic.twitter.com/a8na0r5603

— Grace Platon (@GracePlaton) January 27, 2026

Holy God, we bless thee for the gift of thy monk and icon writer Andrei Rublev, who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, provided a window into heaven for generations to come, revealing the majesty and mystery of the holy and blessed Trinity; who livest and reignest through ages of ages. Amen.

Andrei Rublev 1360 1437 Trinità pic.twitter.com/TO9YBpTmE7

— Ugo Ramella (@RamellaUgo) July 7, 2023

O Thou light of my heart, Thou bread of my inmost soul, thanks be to Thee, my joy and my glory, my confidence and my God, thanks be to Thee for Thy gifts.  Preserve them to me, for so wilt Thou preserve me myself, and those things shall be enlarged and perfected which Thou hast given me, and I myself shall be with Thee, Who didst give me being ——  O Lord, my God, I lay my whole heart upon the altar of Thy praise, a whole burnt-offering of praise I offer to Thee.  Let the flame of Thy love set afire my whole heart; let nothing in me be left to myself, nothing wherein to look to myself; but may I burn wholly before Thee.  Lord, let Thy fire consume all that is mine: let all be Thine.

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

Quintessential Icelandic mountain scene #2: Vestrahornhttps://t.co/eLFwdPzZvP#iceland #photographer @ThePhotoHour @StormHour pic.twitter.com/k9X3Q7LMGK

— Adrian Hendroff (@adrianhendroff) January 28, 2026

A Psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes, he does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, round about him a mighty tempest.

–Psalm 50:1-3

Slovenia pic.twitter.com/G5MiK98XrC

— Jure Kravanja Yurko (@JureYurko) January 29, 2026

The next Bishop of Ely is to be the Rt Revd Sarah Clark, Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow since 2019, in Durham diocese, where she is also currently the Acting Bishop, Downing Street announced on Tuesday.

She succeeds the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, who was translated to Lincoln in May 2023 (News, 26 May 2023). Since then, Ely has been served by its Acting Bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon, Dr Dagmar Winter.

In July 2024, it was announced that the Crown Nominations Commission had not been able reach a consensus over the next Bishop of Ely, and that it was unlikely that the process would begin again before spring 2025 (News, 19 July 2024).

Bishop Clark was educated at Loughborough University before training for ordination at St John’s College, Nottingham. She has an MA from Keele University. She served her title at St James’s, Porchester, in the diocese of Southwell & Nottingham, and remained in parish ministry in the diocese until her present appointment. She was Rector of Carlton-in-Lindrick from 2002 to 2009, before becoming Team Rector of Clifton and Dean of Women’s Ministry. She was appointed Archdeacon of Nottingham in 2014.

Read it all.

The next #BishopofEly is to be the Rt Revd Sarah Clark, Suffragan Bishop of Jarrow since 2019, in Durham diocese, where she is also currently the Acting Bishop, Downing Street announced on Tuesday#churchofengland #bishopsappointments #durhamdiocese https://t.co/hFnwrUsvb9

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) January 27, 2026

Investors are betting the Trump administration will run the economy “hot” ahead of midterm elections, with buoyant stocks and a weaker dollar reflecting expectations of strong growth and rising inflation.

A string of robust economic data has defied predictions of a slowdown in the US, sending credit spreads to the tightest levels of the century and helping stocks hit fresh record highs this month.

At the same time, fund managers said there is a growing belief that President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, deregulation push and campaign for lower interest rates will add more fuel to the economy this year, as the president seeks to bolster support ahead of November’s congressional polls. “There is a carefully engineered plan to have the US economy humming into the summer,” said Arif Husain, head of global fixed income at T Rowe Price.

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Investors bet on ‘hot’ US economy heading into midterm elections https://t.co/Qs7rCZ017g

— Financial Times (@FT) January 28, 2026

When Elon Musk was at Davos last week, an interviewer asked him if he thought aging could be reversed. Musk said he hasn’t put much time into the problem but suspects it is “very solvable” and that when scientists discover why we age, it’s going to be something “obvious.”

Not long after, the Harvard professor and life-extension evangelist David Sinclair jumped into the conversation on X to strongly agree with the world’s richest man. “Aging has a relatively simple explanation and is apparently reversible,” wrote Sinclair. “Clinical Trials begin shortly.”

“ER-100?” Musk asked.

“Yes” replied Sinclair.

ER-100 turns out to be the code name of a treatment created by Life Biosciences, a small Boston startup that Sinclair cofounded and which he confirmed today has won FDA approval to proceed with the first targeted attempt at age reversal in human volunteers. 

The company plans to try to treat eye disease with a radical rejuvenation concept called “reprogramming” that has recently attracted hundreds of millions in investment for Silicon Valley firms like Altos Labs, New Limit, and Retro Biosciences, backed by many of the biggest names in tech. 

The technique attempts to restore cells to a healthier state by broadly resetting their epigenetic controls—switches on our genes that determine which are turned on and off.  

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The first human test of a rejuvenation method will begin “shortly” https://t.co/oHGyByBoyM

— MIT Technology Review (@techreview) January 27, 2026

Thomas Aquinas was born in the family castle at Roccasecca in 1225. At five, he began school at Montecassino, the great Benedictine monastery that was almost visible from the promontory on which the family castle stood.

The commanding site of the monastery offered military advantage, and the ongoing struggle between the forces of the emperor and those of the pope made Montecassino unsafe. Thomas was therefore enrolled in the University of Naples, where he first met members of the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans.

Like the Franciscans, the Dominicans were a mendicant order whose friars vowed to live faithfully in poverty, chastity and obedience. Dominic had wanted his followers to be well trained for the refutation of heresy, so the order also emphasized education.

Attracted by the Dominican ideal, Thomas joined the order in 1244. This shocked his family. They took him captive and held him for a year, seeking to dissuade him from his decision.

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St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), a child of Italian nobles, decided to become a mendicant (begging) friar of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). He became a Doctor of Theology at the University of Paris, and wrote the Summa Theologica, one of the world's great Theological texts. pic.twitter.com/GDcxWR55cw

— Christian Culture (@Christian8Pics) February 27, 2018