Almighty God, most blessed and most holy, before the brightness of whose presence the angels veil their faces: With lowly reverence and adoring love we acknowledge thine infinite glory, and worship thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternal Trinity.  Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be unto our God, for ever and ever.

Another day dawns, another lovely sunrise – no two are ever the same. #BushyPark 17.06.25 @theroyalparks @TLTeddington @Teddington_Town @TeddingtonNub @SallyWeather @itvweather @Visit_Richmond1 @TWmagazines @SurreyLife pic.twitter.com/hrZ2a9ThkI

— Sue Lindenberg (@patlinberg) June 17, 2025

The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people; for they perceived that he had told this parable against them. So they watched him, and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might take hold of what he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Show me a coin. Whose likeness and inscription has it?” They said, “Caesar’s.” He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him by what he said; but marveling at his answer they were silent.

–Luke 20:19-26

IC434 Horsehead and flame nebula in Orion by cosmonautroger: https://t.co/bld1GQ4DdY pic.twitter.com/o2JCN6qCiQ

— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 16, 2025

Based on the 2022 Cambridge Hulsean Lectures, this short book (c.50,000 words) is a finely argued text that successfully covers a wide range of issues. Imagination is seen at work in ordinary, everyday perception in the interaction between what we suppose ourselves to see and how this is modified and restructured by more social determinants such as wider inherited assumptions and presumed roles. This is to reject the existentialist search for an internal, self-sufficient authenticity, and instead to find “Christian faith . . . as a mode of seeing the world which beholds in that world an unseen depth of goodness, significance and love which we do not make but in which we can participate”.

In the next chapter, the late plays of Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett are then used to illustrate how we can be challenged to revise those roles, sometimes in a more explicitly Christian direction, while, in the subsequent chapter, the way in which the visual artist or poet encourages new ways of perceiving (depth perception) is explored, and the parallel drawn with Christian faith in its capacity to “invest that world imaginatively (or inspiredly) with an unseen depth of divine intention and spiritual significance”.

Read it all.

Book review: David Brown considers the part played by the imagination in theologyhttps://t.co/y892qeqqoe

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 16, 2025

Mr Khamanei’s recent sermons have been chilling. “We will show them no mercy,” he said of Israel on June 13th, referring to the “evil, despicable, terrorist Zionist identity”. But he also has hinted that whoever or whatever might replace him could make things worse. His successors might abandon his fatwa against nuclear weapons that has prevented Iran from breakout, warn his advisers. A different leader, a military commander or a monarch, might rush to a bomb and wave the nationalist card. After all, it was the Shah who pushed forward Iran’s nuclear programme in the 1970s. Mr Khamanei suggests that his exit could spark violent struggles between the regime’s competing clusters of clerics, democratic reformists and the armed forces. Separatists might resurface in Kurdish and Azeri provinces, as after the fall of the Shah. A civil war is possible, as in Syria and Iraq, a prospect that terrifies many Iranians.

All this means that the mockery of the regime that followed Israel’s opening salvo is turning to fear for the country. Iranians share anonymous maps online of Tehran’s neighbourhoods slated for evacuation ahead of an Israeli attack. “It feels like we’re the only ones left,” says a carer after Israel struck the state broadcasting station close to her home. The authorities have begun rationing petrol. With no clear alternative leadership and ever more fearful, Iranians increasingly wonder if they are better off sticking with what they have. Yet an entrenched regime with nothing to lose could pose an even greater threat to its foes, neighbours and citizens.

Read it all.

Israel’s shock-and-awe campaign has humiliated the Iranian regime and revealed the failure of its military strategy. Some hope it may trigger an uprising or a coup d'état, in turn creating chaos or national renewal https://t.co/PxTO843ImH

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) June 16, 2025

The nerd brigade is reporting for duty.

They probably won’t win any push-up contests and might not be sharpshooters. Yet for part of the year, a set of brainy Silicon Valley executives will trade their corporate-branded vests for U.S. Army Reserve uniforms because they know a heckuva lot about artificial intelligence.

The chief technology officers from Palantir and Meta Platforms—Shyam Sankar and Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, respectively—will join Kevin Weil and Bob McGrew of OpenAI pedigree to make up the inaugural cohort of a new Army innovation corps.

Their mission: swap C-suites for bases and bring some badly needed tech upgrades to the Army.

Read it all.

The Army’s Newest Recruits: Tech Execs From Meta, OpenAI and More https://t.co/zmZFh5tInf

— Trip (@TripKrant) June 13, 2025

Prayer for Camp Jubilee this summer

O God, by thy Holy Spirit thou givest to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise thy Name for the gifts of grace manifested in thy servants George Berkeley and Joseph Butler, and we pray that thy Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today in the Church's calendar, we celebrate the lives and work of George Berkeley and Joseph Butler.https://t.co/06BIIzSl5Q pic.twitter.com/bcFGW7mc3G

— Holy Trinity VCR (@htvancouver) June 17, 2019

O Lord God Almighty, eternal, immortal, invisible, the mysteries of whose being are unsearchable: Accept, we beseech thee, our praises for the revelation which thou hast made of thyself, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons, and one God; and mercifully grant that ever holding fast this faith we may magnify thy glorious name; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end.

Gorgeous sky looking from Downtown Charleston this morning! pic.twitter.com/S2SuRVX1aB

— Joey Sovine Live 5 (@JoeySovine) June 16, 2025

As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard; therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunken? Put away your wine from you.” But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman sorely troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your maidservant as a base woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have made to him.” And she said, “Let your maidservant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her countenance was no longer sad.

They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elka′nah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her; and in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.”

–1 Samuel 1:12-20

Gorgeous sky looking from Downtown Charleston this morning! pic.twitter.com/S2SuRVX1aB

— Joey Sovine Live 5 (@JoeySovine) June 16, 2025

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday.

We honour the mystery of the Holy Trinity: one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Bible verse:
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all… pic.twitter.com/SVSfE6iR1C

— Anglican Communion (@AnglicanWorld) June 15, 2025

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’”) And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

–John 1:14-18

Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow. Praise Father, Son, & Holy Ghost. Blessed Trinity Sunday. pic.twitter.com/zFLHrL4CAy

— Catholic Frequency (@CatholicFQ) June 15, 2025

Almighty God, who hast revealed to thy Church thine eternal Being of glorious majesty and perfect love as one God in Trinity of Persons: Give us grace that, like thy bishop Basil of Caesarea, we may continue steadfast in the confession of this faith, and constant in our worship of thee, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; who livest and reignest for ever and ever.

St. Basil the Great, Bishop, Doctor of the Church (379)

He is the author of a monastic rule from which St. Benedict derived many points. His solid and eloquent words silenced the Arian heretics. Two of his brothers became bishops, his mother and sister are honored as saints. pic.twitter.com/4AszJVC9u0

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) June 14, 2025

Almighty and everlasting God, who in days of old didst cause thy Word to grow mightily and to prevail: We praise and magnify thy holy name for the manifestation of thy presence in this our day, and we beseech thee to pour out thy Spirit upon the Church, that thy way may be known upon earth and thy saving health among all nations; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles,empowering them with divine inspiration&guidance.Just as flames danced upon their heads,let this Pentecost renew our faith&fill our hearts with the warmth of divine love.#Pentecost #feastofpentecost pic.twitter.com/v4usaCfCut

— The John Bradburne Memorial Society (@BradburneJohn) May 19, 2024

One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” He answered them, “I also will ask you a question; now tell me, Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know whence it was. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

–Luke 20:1-8

Moonset in Schermerhorn pic.twitter.com/708TpB1S3k

— Albert Dros (@albertdrosphoto) June 14, 2025

In cities, both big and small, across large swaths of Europe and North America, it is becoming common to see groups of Africans engaging with the Christian faith.  

As African migration — driven largely by economic hardship and the search for better opportunities — continues to grow, churches are becoming more than just places of worship.

Churches have evolved into spiritual lifelines and vital community hubs that help preserve cultural identity, reinforce moral values and provide a sense of belonging far from home. In addition to preserving the African way of worship, these churches have also made Christianity vibrant across large parts of North America and Europe, where faith has lost much of its cultural and societal importance.

African Christians are increasingly occupying a prominent place within the multicultural religious and social landscape of these communities. In the past four years, Nigeria and Zimbabwe have topped the list of African countries with the highest numbers of immigrants to the United Kingdom. Alongside this trend, there has been a notable surge in African churches across the U.K. and Europe.

This dynamic has taken on many forms. For instance, services in these African-dominant churches are characterized by energetic singing, dancing and lengthy preaching. The doctrine is typically rooted in Pentecostal or evangelical traditions, with emphasis on divine intervention, prosperity, healing and spiritual warfare. Many incorporate African music styles into worship.

Read it all.

As African migration to Europe and North America — driven largely by economic hardship and the search for better opportunities — continues to grow, churches are becoming more than just places of worship. https://t.co/UBBL4RYqSB

— Religion Unplugged (@ReligionMag) June 11, 2025

Leading scientists have launched an international campaign to stop the creation of synthetic bacteria that could threaten life on earth.

Eminent researchers at a landmark gathering in Paris urged international action to prevent the emergence of so-called mirror life — manufactured microbes that they fear could overwhelm the immune defences of humans, other animals and plants. 

The scale of the danger was still hard to predict but could affect “the preponderance of life as we know it today on this planet”, David Relman, a microbiologist and immunologist at Stanford University, told the Financial Times on the sidelines of the event. “There is a scenario in which a future mirror organism becomes a widely pervasive invasive species and displaces and disrupts many critical ecosystems across the planet — including our own,” he said. “We have to be concerned about the possibility of an extreme, potentially existential, threat.”

Read it all.

Scientists rush to stop mirror microbes that could threaten life on earth https://t.co/Smbs2Nt64o

— Financial Times (@FT) June 13, 2025

The long-standing debate over whether there was a military solution to the threat of Iran’s nuclear program will soon be academic. We will learn in the coming days, weeks, and months whether Iran’s centrifuges and missile factories can survive the wrath of Israel’s air force and Mossad.

It’s too soon to assess the success of the first of what Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said would be a multiphase operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. But for now Operation Rising Lion, what Israel is calling this operation, looks ambitious and lethal.

Let’s start with the fact that Israel is going after the regime’s leadership. Already, Iranian state television is reporting the chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hossein Salami, has perished.

State media is also reporting that the command of Iran’s military, General Mohammad Bagheri, along with his deputy, Gholamali Rashid, have perished in the Israeli attack.

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The strike may be a catalyst for the collapse of the Islamic Republic altogether. https://t.co/Cwu7R9bFAD

— The Free Press (@TheFP) June 13, 2025

Decades of Israeli warnings against Iran’s nuclear program and preparations for military action to thwart it culminated early Friday morning with the Jewish state launching a major offensive against the Islamic Republic, striking nuclear sites, military facilities, missile bases and senior leadership.

Jerusalem said it had engaged in a “precise, preemptive strike” against Iran, declaring an imminent threat from its nuclear program and announcing a domestic state of emergency as citizens braced for retaliation. Top officials warned of a potential prolonged conflict, noting that Tehran had the power to inflict significant pain upon Israel.

Multiple waves of Israeli strikes were reported throughout Iran for several hours, starting at around 3 a.m. and into the morning. Over 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft were involved in the opening strikes, and fighter jets dropped over 330 munitions on some 100 targets, the IDF said.

Read it all.

Israeli military officials said that “at the end of the operation, there will be no nuclear threat” from Iran

After years of preparation, Israel launches major offensive against Iran and its nuclear programhttps://t.co/bjWHWsdqPG

— Oren Kessler (@OrenKessler) June 13, 2025

Almighty and everliving God, whose servant Thomas Cranmer, with others, did restore the language of the people in the prayers of thy Church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with the understanding, that we may worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer wrote and compiled the first two editions of the Book of Common Prayer, a complete liturgy for the English Church. The use of the new prayer book was made compulsory on June 9, 1549. https://t.co/tPkaLQ2n8f pic.twitter.com/ozKIChy6TF

— Trivia Encyclopedia (@edpearce080759) June 9, 2025

O God, who according to thy promise hast given thy Holy Spirit to us thy people, that we might know the freedom of thy children and taste on earth our heavenly inheritance: Grant that we may ever hold fast the unity which he gives, and, living in his power, may be thy witnesses to all men; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A nice morning out at Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado. #Colorado #COwx #photography #stormhour pic.twitter.com/WW2WeWDAFs

— Michael Ryno Photo (@mnryno34) June 12, 2025

And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”

And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people hung upon his words.

–Luke 19:41-48

Friday morning sunrise a rather wild affair 😎 pic.twitter.com/NWO5SgOddU

— graham ross (@grahamr27165817) June 13, 2025

Distributing large sums of the Church Commissioners’ funds to dioceses through the Strategic Investment in Mission and Ministry Board (SMMIB) is a mistake, the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson, said this week.

Bishops would prefer to have sufficient funds to prevent further cuts to stipendiary clergy posts and pastoral reorganisation.

“When I talk to my colleagues, I think the reality is that a number of them are applying for grants from SMMIB for projects they are not that convinced are going to make a huge difference to the life of their diocese,” he said on Wednesday. “What they would really like is, ‘Just give me some more money so I can keep my stipendiary head-count up.’ There is very clear evidence that maintaining levels of stipendiary clergy leads to church growth.”

Read it all.

‘What will stabilise things is a well-motivated clergy workforce which is well-supported and well-financed’. My interview with Bishop of Hereford who’s calling for less of Commissioners’ money to be allocated through grants & more to prevent clergy cuts https://t.co/bt9dSr4rRH

— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) June 12, 2025

On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.

–Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York, Harper Perennial ed., 1988 of 1982 original), pp. 52-53

The apostles are said to have baptized three thousand on the very day of Pentecost when they had received the Holy Ghost. pic.twitter.com/ACLbOCw9tz

— St. Thomas Aquinas (@Aquinas_Quotes) May 19, 2024

One of the perennial challenges of older generations is providing guidance to younger generations without becoming bitter old scolds. One of the perennial challenges of younger generations is retaining their agency while being open to the wisdom of their elders. 

And perhaps no conversations are more sensitive in these intragenerational dialogues than those concerning marriage and childbearing. Whether elders are warning against the losses of ease and freedom that come with settling down or asking when they can expect grandchildren, the pressure to get it right can be intense. 

For Christians, added pressures come from Scripture and tradition. The Bible clearly teaches that “he who finds a wife finds a good thing” (Prov. 18:22, ESV throughout) and that “children are a heritage from the Lord” (Ps. 127:3). And in many evangelical churches, young people feel a certain expectation to marry young and have children promptly. But at the same time, the world—and often fellow Christians too—pressures young people to be autonomous individuals. Maximize your liberties, they’re told. Trim your responsibilities and pursue pleasures and success….

This need is urgent, because there’s reason to think younger generations are abandoning the basic institution of society: the family. Birth and marriage rates in America are both in decline, and a recent Pew study showed that American teenagers value career, friendship, and wealth over marriage and children. In fact, they deemed having a lot of money nearly twice as important as having kids. 

Read it all.

Of Note: Young people who feel anxious and conflicted about marriage and family need a positive example, not a lecture.https://t.co/SWqENMJbB8

— The Institute for Family Studies (@FamStudies) June 12, 2025

IBM earlier this week said it has a plan for building what it calls the world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer at its New York data center before the end of the decade.

The computer, called IBM Quantum Starling, will be housed in its Poughkeepsie, N.Y., center and have 20,000 times the computational power of today’s quantum computers, the tech giant said.

“I feel more comfortable than ever that a fault-tolerant quantum computer will exist before the end of this decade,” said Jay Gambetta, IBM’s vice president of quantum. “We are putting error-correction in detail on our roadmap because we believe now we’ve solved all the scientific challenges.”

Read it all.

We’re excited to share our plans for IBM Quantum Starling, expected to be the world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

This new system, to be delivered to clients by 2029, is expected to perform 20,000x more operations than today’s quantum computers. Read more… pic.twitter.com/zFitqHly4U

— IBM (@IBM) June 10, 2025

Almighty God, who didst lead thy pilgrim people of old by fire and cloud: Grant that the ministers of thy Church, following the example of thy servant Enmegahbowh, may lead thy people with fiery zeal and gentle humility. This we ask through Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Today the Episcopal Church commemorates Enmegahbowh, Priest & Missionary, 1902

An Odawa Indian from Canada who came to the US as Methodist missionary in 1832, he is the 1st recognised Native American priest in the Episcopal Church, having been ordained deacon 1859 & priest 1867 pic.twitter.com/xZMWe8mIQc

— The Anglican Church in St Petersburg (@anglicanspb) June 12, 2024

O God, who didst graciously send on thy disciples the Holy Spirit in the burning fire of thy love: Grant to thy people to be fervent in the unity of faith; that abiding in thee evermore, they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

🌞💙Guten Morgen, ihr Lieben 💙🌞
Ich wünsche euch einen schönen Donnerstag, mit herzlichen Grüßen aus dem Tuxertal! pic.twitter.com/XltRl9IWNC

— Brigitta Neurauter (@BrigittaNeurau2) June 12, 2025

And when he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he drew near to Beth′phage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village opposite, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat; untie it and bring it here. If any one asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” So those who were sent went away and found it as he had told them. And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their garments on the colt they set Jesus upon it. And as he rode along, they spread their garments on the road. As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

–Luke 19:28-40

Morning everyone I hope you are well. Pre dawn tranquility along the River Brathay. And to think this was totally flooded 24 hours earlier after the overnight rain! Have a great day.#LakeDistrict pic.twitter.com/8RMMHKt6Yy

— Rod Hutchinson (@lakesrhino) June 12, 2025

Three

very different people — C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and T. S. Eliot — all thought that Charles Williams was the most genuinely good person that they had ever met. Eliot for example wrote: “He seemed to me to approximate, more nearly than any man I have known familiarly, to the saint.” On the other side, it has to be noted that he had a troubled marriage and, like Eliot, a “Beatrice” figure in his life.

Seventy years ago, the works of Williams, with their strong Christian themes, were widely appreciated. Today, he is little known, though an excellent Wikipedia article on him indicates the extraordinary range of his writings and the influence that he had not only on Eliot and Lewis, but on Dorothy Sayers and Dante studies more generally — all this while he had a full-time job at the Oxford University Press.

Stephen Barber however, has remained a big fan not only of his novels, but also of his much more difficult poetry. In this book, he assembles writings of his own on Williams, of varying length and purpose….

Read it all.

Book review: Richard Harries reflects on lesser-known work of a spiritual influencerhttps://t.co/HBvAOS57BX

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) June 10, 2025