Fresh snow to start the week

Friends fear he's had to look up something on this diagram again.

You may laugh, but the Macbeths are a much better role model for a marriage than Romeo and Juliet. They discuss their problems (killing the king of Scotland), share their hobbies (killing the king of Scotland), and resolve their conflicts (by killing the king of Scotland).

I’m on this talking about my book, which has a section on how Remainiacs came into existence and its role in the anti-Brexit world (meta!)

Surprising (but good!) to have the Lord’s Prayer in Cornish at Synod morning worship. (Following invitation to pray in the language closest to our hearts.)

Synod is being addressed by the Primate of Igreja Episcopal Anglicana do Brasil – IEAB and the Bishop of the Amazon, Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto. Bishop Marinez speaks through an interpreter- it’s not true that the Anglican Communion only speaks English, or only a child of the British Empire.

Time to bring a twitter series to Bluesky: Given the incredible number of 20th-century churches in Northrhine-Westphalia (the topic of my dissertation), I’m going post one or two every day. None of these images are mine, they're all credited in the alt text, and I'll take any down if asked

Urs Küry, Christian Oeyen, Die altkatholische Kirche Zwar ein altes Buch, aber genau deshalb interessant. Führt in die Geschichte und Lehre der altkatholischen Kirche mit dem Stand der 1970er-Jahre. Inkl. der ökumenischen Bemühungen. Für Interessierte zu empfehlen.

I mean personally yo puedo hablar Espanol pero la primera idioma I learnt at school in France was English, entonces it only feels fair that la gente aqui does the same, thank you very much

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

On this day in 1992, George H.W. Bush sent a memo to all White House staff about how fat his dog was

"frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others — speedily and according to the benefactor's own plans — is a recurrent motive." Tolkein An arresting and sobering passage on the (mis)use of power with apparent good motivations

I hope the abyss in @stephenkb.bsky.social's newsletter becomes a returning character

Guten morgen

A publisher who lays off a reporter whose pen is freezing because she's covering a frigid war zone while dodging missiles is not an editor you want to work for, in a more perfect world

"To complement the existing BBC News Persian video and digital services, the radio programme will be available on mediumwave and shortwave across Iran to increase the population’s access to news and information." www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

Spent the last few days revisiting Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi", this time as an audio book. It's such a brilliant book of wonder, delight and gratitude that make betrayal, loss and anger seem even more raw. "The Beauty of the House is immeasurable; its Kindness infinite."

Saturday walk

It's always the right time for cheese.

Austria’s armed forces have just published their annual risk monitor report. It names “confrontation between Russia and the EU” as the greatest risk to national security: "A long-term low-intensity confrontation characterized by cyber operations, disinformation, and nuclear deterrence rhetoric."

Do this.

This new one from John Swinton is short and accessible but packs a necessary punch. A great entry point into his work.

Josef Grünwidl ist neuer Erzbischof von Wien. Im Rahmen eines Festgottesdienstes im Stephansdom legte @KardinalWien seinem Nachfolger an der Spitze der Erzdiözese Wien die Hände auf und weihte ihn zum Bischof: www.kathpress.at/goto/meldung...

www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/airport-bo... Great piece on “airport book brain” - the tendency of politicians to swallow simplistic solutions. Latest example the Jonathan Haidt book shaping policy on teens and social media

When CS Lewis is good, he’s brilliant: “Somewhere ahead he could hear birds singing. He knew the night was over at last. He could see the mane and ears and head of his horse quite easily now. A golden light fell on them from the left. He thought it was the sun. 1/5

Was meant to be sitting in a plane flying to Washington today for meetings with partner churches in Virginia over the next week. However, the snow storm and expectation that everything will be cancelled means has pushed everything back to April - and I am instead sitting with a relaxed espresso

Die Zahl der Toten im Iran ist unfassbar. Sogar das Regine selbst spricht von über 5.000. Ärzte von mindestens 16.500 und 330.000 Verletzten. Was für ein schreckliches Massaker, es übersteigt die Vorstellungskraft www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

Turned the page whilst preaching today to find page 3 missing. That got the adrenaline going! Page 3, it turns out, had fallen onto the floor at home.

Ukrainian Railways made an unscheduled train stop for the 7-year-old daughter of a missing Ukrainian Defender. Iryna Vlasenko, a resident of the Khmelnytskyi region, had tickets to Kyiv for her seriously ill, bedridden daughter.

Evening light in Bad Ischl

Good morning

Something incredible I learned (re-learned?) tonight is that the blog post where the first SARS-CoV-2 genome was shared - six years ago on Saturday - included the most iconic footnote of all time

Good morning

“Any idealized vision that people bring into the Christian community blocks true fellowship; it has to be broken apart before genuine community can thrive.” Coming back to this insight from Bonhoeffer for sermon prep. He is so clear-sighted about the way our dreams of community destroy community

Today is a public holiday in Austria and I am spending part of it reading @alicehunt.bsky.social fascinating book about the political and cultural developments in 1650s Britain

In local news, the Glöcklerlauf has taken place in Bad Ischl

Book early for this: our event with Rowan Williams exploring the books that have shaped his life. 3rd March 6.30pm. Free. In person and online www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/the-a...

Getting off US tech and platforms is more important than ever. I personally already use 🇨🇭 protonmail & calender [gmail / google cal] 🇧🇪 ecosia [google search] 🇲🇫 cryptpad [google docs] ... and actively look for more options. See below for inspiration:

“If a woman dares to show herself in public in any way, then she can and will be sexually harassed with the aid of genAI-driven tools that can easily turn her face into highly realistic pornography” is an absolute red-alarm human rights disaster

Today I was in Vienna preaching on the German verse of the year ("God speaks: behold, I am making everything new") at the Mollardgasse Baptist Church. In the sermon I drew partly on how a belief in God's newness encouraged that church to speak prophetically against the Nazis in 1940s. Seems timely

The very simple question that should be asked over and over is “what good are all these AI companies giving us that outweighs the environmental devastation, skyrocketing utility costs, murders and suicides, revenge porn, general psychosis, and CSAM-on-demand”

If you want a change of pace and topic - I have been listening to this today whilst cooking soup, and it is a really insightful and generous discussion.

Good morning

Reminder: Today is THURSDAY. If you work at a church, you have three more days before Sunday.

Happy New Year 2026

I am increasingly convinced that the great(est) political crisis of our time is the near complete decoupling of ideology from material reality. It is the defining feature of government policy not just on both sides of the Atlantic but, arguably, across Eurasia. With few exceptions...

We have eaten Raclette and made a puzzle of 299 dogs and 1 cat. Must be time for bed soon...

Festive playpark reading

Le Carré "showed that the so-called end of history following the collapse of the Berlin Wall had not actually brought the triumph of capitalism but a world without a centre, ripe for new forms of colonization and exploitation... history produces no winners" Boehmer/Matthews

Boxing Day