“For us, learning to pray isn’t something done in isolation, but something done in context: in the parish and in community at college. It’s something we learn by doing it together. The way we pray as a community is a key way of learning to pray." #Ordination #Petertide #prayer

"Martha was an extraordinary woman who acted as spiritual adviser to many, including Desmond Tutu and Rowan Williams" Obituary: Maggie Ross, Sister Martha Reeves

"What we need is a culture shift towards emphasising people rather than processes." Social mingling over coffee, joining a home group . . . John Allister suggests better ways to include neurodivergent people #Neurodiversity #Autism #Dyslexia

Take a look at the latest cartoon by @jamesdfmellor.bsky.social 👇 🐟

“A minority secular world-view has captured the agenda . . . more than 80 per cent of the world’s population have a sacred world-view" The Sustainable Development Goals are restricted by a secular world-view, argues @askwilliamblake.bsky.social #SDGs #Sacredness #UN #UnitedNations

"Suppose that half our parishes each accompanied ten young adults over a period of years." As AI reshapes work, churches should recover a tradition of apprenticeship and formation, says Andrew Barnett

"I experienced, very directly, the profound human need to be seen in our suffering." Philippa Smethurst reflects on trauma and the long shadow of memory

"Martha was an extraordinary woman who acted as spiritual adviser to many, including Desmond Tutu and Rowan Williams" Obituary: Maggie Ross, Sister Martha Reeves

"An archdeacon’s ministry as assistant to the bishop has been interpreted down the centuries in many ways." Adrian Leak celebrates a ministry that is mainly behind the scenes #Archdeacon

Our full list of Petertide ordinations from across the dioceses #Petertide #Ordination #Deacon #Priest

"Even those who have been ascendant fear, like Germany pre-1914, that their zenith is near, and that decline may be, too." 📚 Alexander Faludy reviews 'The Coming Storm: Power, conflict and warnings from history' by Odd Arne Westad #Books #Nato

Five years on from Cuba’s largest demonstrations since the 1959 Revolution, which ushered in a Communist government, increased restrictions on religious life have become the “new normal”, a new report says. #Cuba

Not every deacon becomes a priest Gill Newman tells Sarah Lothian about a distinctive ministry #Deacon #Ordination

Striking sayings or writings from the past week. Readers’ contributions welcome #quotesoftheweek #quotes

“Seven years have been taken from me for doing my duty as a C of E chaplain in a school with a C of E ethos. . . No minister, teacher, or chaplain should be punished for upholding Christian teaching in a Christian setting.”

The Anglican and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh, the Most Revds John McDowell and Eamon Martin, have described the placing of a replica mosque on top of a bonfire in Moygashel as “grossly offensive” Read more UK news in brief ⬇️

How do ordinands convey what they have learned about prayer to their congregations, asks Ed Beavan #Ordination #Petertide #prayer

"The sabbath is holy because it is rest, pure being, contemplation. It is trusting receptivity, which prepares us for heaven, rather than the constant striving that so often dominates our lives, and burdens the Church with moralistic and impossible agendas," ✍️ Angela Tilby

The impact of cuts to foreign aid on “the most fragile communities globally, especially women and girls” was outlined in the House of Lords last week.

Couples will be able to marry almost anywhere, including forests, beaches, cruise ships at sea, canal boats, and at home, under Government proposals that “shift the focus from bricks and mortar to people and promises”.

Medieval wall paintings in a Gloucester church with possible links to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn have been awarded a grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund to complete their restoration project.

Short “ponder” stops along the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way are being offered by a priest who featured in the BBC series Pilgrimage. #Pilgrimage

The latest issue of the Church Times is out today 🗞️ #Petertide ordinations: lists, photos, case studies, and features ✝️ In the news: reports from the General Synod meeting in York And short “ponder” walks along the North #Wales Pilgrim’s Way are being offered by a priest 🥾

The Serbian Orthodox Church has denounced the imposition of a prison sentence on its Patriarch, for mistreating a priest while he worked in Slovenia a decade ago. #SerbianOrthodoxChurch

A priest who preached a sermon arguing for freedom of belief over gender identity has secured a legal agreement with the school that dismissed him six years ago www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/202...

The “inability” of the National Safeguarding Team’s (NST) staff to say that they believed a survivor’s account of rapes was “one of the most damaging” aspects of its handling of her case, an independent review said #survivor #safeguarding #churchnews

"It is an impressive and eclectic collection of works rendered in the Expressionist style that Hutchins favours." Jonathan Evens sees a retrospective with Stations of the Cross #JonathanHutchins

"If theology’s function is to inflame our love for God and neighbour, then there comes a point when books and learning must give way to a higher form of wisdom." #Faith William Crozier celebrates St Bonaventure, whose feast is kept on 15 July

The #sealofconfession “undermines the view for many of the sincerity of our commitment to #safeguarding itself”, the new lead safeguarding bishop, the Bishop of Tewkesbury, the Rt Revd Robert Springett, has warned #churchsafeguarding #churchnews

An investigation into why the public have lost confidence in the Church of England is required, the General #Synod heard on Monday afternoon #trust #churchnews #churchtimes

#Podcasts 🎧 Azariah France-Williams on Talking Rubbish — The Recycling Podcast, with James Piper and Robbie Staniforth, The Slow Newscast, Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith, and Nomad Podcast

📚 Anthony Phillips reads essays on the place of the Penitential Psalms

Gerry Lynch listens to a #SeaSunday service from #PortsmouthCathedral, and the audio diaries of a priest and his wife’s first year at an HTB-linked church in #Wales #radioreview 📻

Notebook: Michael Arditti on a Francisco de Zurbarán exhibition, reviewing theatre, attending a friend’s funeral, and the perils of autocorrect

"Norman argued that, for the previous 20 years, the content of the Christian faith . . . had been 'drained away into the secular pool of idealism' and liberal ideologies." Edward Norman, who died in April, deplored the politicisation of Christianity, writes Rod Garner

Motion affirming no fundamental objections to ‘committed, intimate, same-sex’ relationships falls in House of Bishops Earlier during the Synod, Christian Concern held fringe meeting in support of gay conversion practices #Synod #churchnews #churchtimes

Jayne Manfredi on a six-part ‘masterpiece’ by the celebrated historical documentary-maker Ken Burns, and an exploration of the turbulent life of the former glamour model #theamericanrevolution #katiepricenothingtohide #tvreview 📺

“Volunteer burnout” is among the risks to the protection of built heritage set out in a new parliamentary report #churchnews #churchtimes

The General #Synod, after hours of impassioned debate and procedural delays, has voted to “hear” a document that describes Israel as a “colonial enterprise” that inflicted a “genocidal war on Gaza” #gaza #palestine #churchnews #churchtimes

Clergy who are disqualified from driving as a result of a series of minor driving and highway offences will have to report the fact to their bishop, under the new Clergy Conduct Measure Rules #drivingoffence #Clergy #synod #churchnews

"Like Iona, this is a 'thin place', where you can feel the peace and holiness all around you." #FaithforHolyPlaces Clare Stevens on Gartan, County Donegal, the birthplace of St Columba www.churchtimes.co.uk/artic...

"His work revisits biblical gestures and saintly figures, using the codes of our time — youth, colour, fashion, and intimacy — and creating a tension between historical imagery and present-day sensibilities" Jonathan Evens on Renaud Muraire’s Canterbury exhibition #RenaudMuraire #churchtimes

"The Church of England, like the State, does not have anything like a written constitution, and its processes are full of ambiguities that are not easily resolved," ✍️ Angela Tilby

"Afterwards, the sides agreed to repeat the fixture next summer, again on the last Monday in June. How lovely it would be if other dioceses joined, too" Adam Prior reports on a match between London/Southwark and St Albans #Cricket

"The author claims no longer to be a Christian, but the reader of this book cannot but learn massively by sharing in these challenges and advances of Christian morality." 📚 Henry Wansbrough reviews Love Thy Stranger: How Jesus transformed our moral conscience by Bart D. Ehrman #bartehrman #books

“Many in the Church have been wounded,” and, to heal, trust must be nurtured, the #ArchbishopofCanterbury said in her sermon at York Minster on Sunday, midway through the meeting of General #Synod #churchnews #churchtimes

"No top-down theology for him. This was theology from below. 'Where you are is where it begins!'” 📚 Leslie Griffiths reviews a Festschrift in honour of John Vincent #Books

Nicholas Cranfield sees Colnaghi’s vinous show 🎨 #VinoVeritas

“We take the musical material we’re given and, rather than just singing it absolutely straight, we’ll sing it and then intersperse it with dances that we’ve developed.” Texts about St Cuthbert set to thousand-year-old chants will be heard at a music festival this month, Susan Gray discovers

Our “democracy is under threat today,” the Bishop of Leicester has said. Unless this threat is addressed, “the temptation will be to look for even more radical solutions, and history gives us plenty of examples of where that can lead,” he said #synod