This is the content I am here for today (Dies Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Domini Iesu Christi) and, as usual, did not know I needed it until Giacomo said/sung it…🎶🧌👹🎶…🍞🍷

The Irish Times asked me to put a bit of a response together to the Pope's so-called 'AI encyclical'

The Rt. Rev. Vicentia Kgabe, Bishop of Pretoria, preached that the priesthood is “not a reward, or a spiritual achievement,” but “an invitation into servanthood.” #Anglican #News https://livingchurch.org/news/news-anglican-communion/botswana-ordains-14-women-as-priests/

Here’s the text of the encyclical: www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

In Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo apologizes for the Doctrine of Discovery, which sanctioned colonialism & slavery, to talk about AI. Here, I thought I went off the rails in Data Empire, where I insist the Doctrine of Discovery is critical to the history of data’s power www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

In the interest of being a good professor, if you want to read the pertinent sections of Magnifica Humanitas on slavery, the "apology" and the implications for AI, skip to sections 172-181 of the Encyclical.

I know some of y'all are in your feelings pro and con about the encyclical but let me just say getting a Pope to admit the church was complicit and needs to be on the right side of an issue is huge for an institution responsible for a lot of really bad things.

Yesterday’s vestry prayer. Entering into Pentecost after the manner of Pope Leo in the Easter season, and on the eve of Magnifica Humanitas

Quoting Gaudium et Spes (Vatican 2), sounding like the Didache. I am vibrating.

This is also a generation whose entire lives have been lived in austerity, with playgrounds, youth services, libraries, community centres, high streets, etc. disappearing and disinvested. That doesn’t get a mention in this report on Milburn’s review. And even covid seems a bit of an afterthought.

It is a "boost for Burnham", but it's much more a boost for the principle that if you stick to a regional growth strategy for 30+ years you can see productivity and living standard improvements at the end of it. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

“Leave us not orphans…let thy Spirit, bringing peace to the world, manifest…” Vida Dutton Scudder (1861-1954) and the Sarum Rite for Ascensiontide and the ‘stormy present’

prayers with colleagues from NCL diocese and the cloud of witnesses at Gaberone Cathedral tomorrow for the ordination of 14 deacons as priests in God’s church. These are the first Anglican women to be ordained in Botswana, so if you’re the praying sort do pray for them 🙏🏻 ⚓️

⛅️ Today, Thursday 14 May, is Ascension Day. Join us at Newcastle Cathedral for a Choral Eucharist this evening at 6pm as we celebrate the ascension of Jesus into heaven, forty days after his resurrection: newcastlecathedral.org.uk/event/festal-choral-eucharist-ascension-day

So here is the ex-twitter thread I promised on Julian. 1/ Today is the the feast of Mother Julian of Norwich, a patron of the anxious and those with poor mental health. The two are connected for me and so forgive me while I make some personal observations about life, mental health and Julian.

One of the things that worries me about the kind of dramatic electoral shift we are seeing here is that there are going to be a heck of a lot of new councillors with no real experience or understanding of what local government actually entails, and a lot of expertise and institutional memory lost.

Those of you who have known me in recent years know that papal AF1 drip is something I have been waiting for…

Sigh. Forgot my contribution earlier to #bikesatpollingstations - sorry all. Here is a cargo bike prior to a visit to a polling station today

Cycling on the north east's wagonways continues to be a terrible experience in late spring.

Easter Day at Christ Church, New Haven. It’s still smoky. ⚓️

Excellent news for the field www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo...

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη! Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

Hell accepted a body

Do you work wonders for the dead? * will those who have died stand up and give you thanks? Will your loving-kindness be declared in the grave? * your faithfulness in the land of destruction? Will your wonders be known in the dark? * or your righteousness in the country where all is forgotten?

Holy Saturday

This section of Levertov lands differently (again) this Holy Saturday. The harrowing as a discernment of the depths of divine compassion, including those left bereft of human care, is focussed by the inclusion of the figure of “Didmas” - poets.org/poem/ikon-ha...

Good Friday, 3rd April 2026 St Hilda’s Marden, North Tyneside

I first used this in a corona-tide liturgy for Good Friday 5 years ago. Margaret (the visual artist and co-author) offered the digital images from the book for use in parishes. Her engravings, with the prayers and reflections of Professor Sonderegger remain piercingly relevant

Newcastle East Deanery (esp. Byker / Walker) has been a place of hospitality during this Lent and Passiontide. I’m looking forward to beginning the Triduum at Walker Parish Church (ChCh) tomorrow evening, 7pm

19.03.26 - Joseph of Nazareth Josephine Yu “prayer to st Joseph: for the restless” - josephineyupoet.com/prayer-book-...

Mothering Sunday in the Diocese of Newcastle featuring an invitation to share in the hospitality of one the mother churches of the diocese at St Mary’s, Holy Island

My “nearly” namesake seems cool. Maybe that’s what not spelling our name with an “h” gets you?!? Much to ponder…

Awake, and judge all the nations; ♦ show no mercy to the evil traitors. They return at nightfall and snarl like dogs ♦ and prowl about the city. They pour out evil words with their mouths; swords are on their lips; ♦ ‘For who’, they say, ‘can hear us?’

Best Summary of the #bm100

Annual reminder if God forbid you are thinking about it, giving up coffee for Lent is presuming to choose a penance for everyone around you.

One for @stadio.football listeners ahead of the World Cup later this year.

Happy birthday @nationaltrust.org.uk - 131 years old today. Thank you for looking after the quiet places as well as the grand ones.

Comedy is all about timing. In this case, 3 decades.

Popping back onto Bluesky to note something. This evening, at the youth club I run, I discovered the song “What Did the Fox Say” is older than many of the young people we have with us. Obviously, that makes me feel ancient. But that also means there are young people who…

Before sunrise on Tynemouth Longsands -

The Episcopal Church includes the diocese of Venezuela and has this to say: ⚓️ www.episcopalchurch.org/ogr/episcopa...

A bit of social history at Cable Street with the 🦑🦑🦑🦑 on the way to New Year‘s Panto at Wilton’s under bright blue East London skies

Sharing ministry with my residentiary colleagues and our Anglican Communion Canon at Newcastle Cathedral has been a joy during 2025. Here is Dr Brown-Douglas’ sermon on attending to when and where God is with us: youtu.be/FKRFo-I3SFI?...

A Christmas gift from the four squids. I’ve been understood…

Suffragette Christmas card from the Women's Social and Political Union, 1909. UK.#Womensart

READ THIS: Still probably the best #ChristmasEve tradition I’ve heard. Iceland definitely does Christmas well — my Reykjavik clients had funny comments about this! Are you planning to curl up with a great new book on cities this #Christmas? Share your pick with us using hashtag #UrbanismBookClub!

Es ist ein Ros entsprungen! Impeccable timing by the churchyard roses. Happy Christmas! 🌹✨️ "A Spotless Rose is blowing, Sprung from a tender root, Of ancient seers' foreshowing, Of Jesse promised fruit; Its fairest bud unfolds to light Amid the cold, cold winter, And in the dark midnight."

@stadio.football Santa has visited North Tyneside! Thanks to the elves (!?!) @ryanhunn.bsky.social & @okwonga.bsky.social for new decor for our Cargo Bike from the Social Club

On the eve of the Great O antiphons, posting my metricised versions of the Common Worship texts. Tune: anything in Long Metre, but particularly written with the two tunes for /Come thou redeemer of the earth/ in mind. Intending to sing each verse on its day, either side of a Magnificat at EP.

Go and see this exhibition if you are in the North East! @wobblygoose.bsky.social's work is AMAZING!!!!!