This morning, my attention was drawn to politics, if only for a moment. I’d like to offer some thoughts as well as share some thoughts from others:
Black Christians, stop allowing yourself to be ruled by the Democratic Party:
( HT: Andrew Walker)
On that note, a warning…
I am willing to say that it is acceptable to be a Republican and a Christian. But, if only for a moment, consider that the GOP is not the Church of Jesus Christ. For those among the faithful who vote a Republican ticket every time they step in the voting booth, be wary of your faithfulness. You very well may be voting for a man of God. In many ways, the Republican party represents Christian values. There are, however, many man who are not of God with stances not of God. Do not unite yourself with Belial (2 Cor. 6:15). Please, remember to take every though captive to Christ, not just the thoughts of the Democratic party (2 Cor. 10:5)
Young folks, remember to vote…
From Sean Perron:
“The idea that Christians should avoid the polls this year because of their religious beliefs is a disgrace that is blinded by misguided conviction. This trumpet is blown by pastors who think they are calling their brothers and sisters to victory but are actually calling them to retreat while thousands are being killed on the battlefield. If you are an evangelical considering staying at home this election season, please consider the following…”
Read the rest here.
In closing, a classic:
It’s easy for every young Christian out there to get captivated by John Piper’s preaching to the point that they think everything he says is an instant classic. That’s not the case (though he has more classics than I likely ever will). This, however, is a classic.
Friends, we must remember the message of 1 Samuel 8:4-9:
Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
It is not wrong for us to love justice. Humanity as a whole has an innate sense that we want and need to be lead. Still, in our desire for justice and leadership, let us not forsake our God! The people rejected the Lord’s leadership over them in favor of a human king. May it never be for us! Certainly we remember how this turned out (terribly!). Let us not forsake our God. Let us turn to our great high priest, our King, the Lord Jesus Christ and have him rule over us.
Let us act:
Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
(Psalm 2:10-12 ESV)
Let us pray:


Christmas card ideas come handy around Christmas. This day is celebrated in the happiness of Jesus Christ’s Birthday. Christmas brings in the concept of being together, sharing greetings, gifts, and cards. It’s the festival of light. when it’s Christmas, everything around is so lit up and bright.
Handmade Christmas Cards:
A picture can emit thousands of feelings in them. So this year for Christmas make handmade cards for your relatives, friends, and co-workers. Bring a smile on your loved ones faces by going a little out of the box. Take their picture and place them on the chart, making it a beautiful Handmade Christmas card.
“As the tree is evergreen, let the spirit of Christmas Card ever warm our hearts”
When posting a personal picture of whom you are giving your handmade Christmas card, try to avoid more patterns. Just make sweet notes and punches by which the other person smiles seeing your card. Do not get too emotional as Kids Christmas Cards should have a lighter feel. Be like:
- May this Christmas brings in happiness
- May the year ahead be joyous for you
- Happy Christmas, be a Christmas tree
- Gather everybody close to you and be happy
- Your Christmas will be happy and light. Just smile
For giving an elegant look to photo Christmas card idea, put a frame around.
- Handmade card should be color coordinated
- It should match with the picture you have chosen
- Design it with red and white ribbons or stars
- The first step is to take medium card stoke paper. There is a number of ways crafts can be done. Double printing is very in now days print a picture and places another picture on it. It looks quite creative.
- The second step is to take glue and sticking dried flowers and leaves which are easily available in markets.
- Glitters can add a sparkle to your handmade cards. Take glue and spread in on the card paper and spread the glitter on it.
Few handmade Christmas card ideas:
- Christmas tree card
- Santa holiday card
- Card with colorful felt pennants
- Glittered photo card
- Falling snow card
- Ornament card
- Modern ornament card
- 3-D Christmas card
- Vintage sheet card
- Fun felt cards
This Christmas put an extra effort for your closed ones. Put thought and colors to your handmade Christmas cards and make everyone around you happy.
http://www.christmascardideas.org/photo-christmas-card-ideas/ (for more Christmas card ideas read this)


Sweating the small stuff(in my opinion) is an emotional stair case up to freaking out, before an individual encounters an unexpected BIG time dilemma ...
I'd like to share a personal family experience with all of you. Now, my GEM & I are constantly sharing with our 4 opinionated sons about our version of a particular road map, we call life and it goes like this:
- Think deep and hard before you do something; so you won't regret it later time.
- If a girl doesn't like you for who you are, then perhaps she's not the one God has destined for you.
- Most important NEVER turn your back on the Lord; because of a: job, cultural difference to make new friends or to impress someone of the opposite sex.
Jesus Christ will never turn his back on us and he proved it to the world when he died on the Cross ... Or have you forgotten this?
John 3:16 (GW) ~ God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.
Leave everything up the Him; because a champion when it comes to this ...
Psalm 55:22 (HCSB) ~ Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
Written by Pastor Nancy Advincola (c)Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved


Rod Walls will be preaching from John 18:15-27.
Pastor D.R. Randle will be preaching from John 18:1-14.
Bobby McCreery will be preaching from John 17:20-26.
Rod Walls will continue preaching from the Book of John, focusing on Chapter 17 and verses 6-19. We will also be observing the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper after the sermon.
Pastor D.R. Randle will be preaching a special Easter Sunday sermon. We look forward to worshiping the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with you. If you have any questions regarding what to expect, please do not hesitate to contact the church office.
We will be having a time of fellowship Sunday evening at 6:30 pm in the Fellowship Hall. Plan to bring your favorite dessert. Drinks will be provided.
After our Palm Sunday services we will have our final photo session for those who have not yet had their portraits taken, or for those who would like re-takes. Photos will be taken in the Fellowship Hall. Long sleeves and solid colors tend to work the best.
Following the service there will be a time for those members who would like their photographs updated and/or added to the church directory to do so in the fellowship hall. Plan to wear your favorite clothing, preferably solid colors with long sleeves. If you have any questions, please contact the church office or you may email Jerry Heitschmidt directly at firstname.lastname@example.org. There will…
Pascal and Becky Grenade will be visiting Cleveland Road Baptist Church on Sunday, January 24th. Pascal and Becky serve as missionaries to Mauritius. Pascal will be preaching during the service. More information can be found on their blog at http://pascalandbecky.blogspot.com.
A special ordination service is planned to present Ryan Millar to the church as a minister of the Gospel. Everyone is invited to attend. The service will be held in the sanctuary and will begin at 6:00 pm.


PURPOSE AND STATEMENT
“What We Teach”
Emmanuel Bible Church is a bible based Church located in the heart of Vista, California. The purpose of Emmanuel Bible Church is to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ by.
LOVING GOD – Through WORSHIP & SERVING
LOVING EACH OTHER – Through FELLOWSHIP & TRAINING
LOVING THE WORLD – Through SHARING & CARING
THE 5 FOLD PURPOSE OF EMMANUEL BIBLE CHURCH
“Why Do We Exist?”
The purpose for which this church is established and ordained shall be:
To HONOR our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
To bear UNITED WITNESS to the faith of its members in the whole Bible as the Word of God
To make known the GOSPEL in North San Diego County, in other areas of our country and in the whole world in obedience to the MISSION given us in the final command of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19,20; Acts 1:8)
To function properly as a BODY OF CHRIST in agreement with the Scriptures.
To build up our local body of believers to a place of spiritual MATURITY, fruitful SERVICE and mutual LOVE.


Westover Hills Presbyterian Church
2020 Cotham Lecture Series
Rev. Amos Disasa
Nothing to Deserve Death:
The Lynching of Jesus as Seen by a Black American Born in Africa
September 20 and 21, 2010
To see videos of all three sermons (Sunday Morning, Sunday Evening & Monday Evening) Go to Sermons, click on the title of the sermon you want to watch and click on the video of the sermon.
Westover Hills is a community of faith which strives to follow God’s call: we worship together, study and learn together, share fellowship, and engage in mission and advocacy together. We offer opportunities for Christian growth for all ages. If you seek an open, affirming, and inclusive church home, we hope that you will consider visiting with us.
I am pleased to welcome you to Westover Hills Presbyterian Church. Our Church’s prayer is that everyone who worships with us will find strength and encouragement for their faith journey. We are an open community with non-traditional worldviews. We are an inclusive, accepting congregation with diverse leadership.
In my time here, as the pastor I have found Westover Hills to be a warm, caring church family filled with talented people with a generous spirit. I trust that when you visit you will find that as well. The people of Westover Hills are, without a doubt, our greatest asset. They bring a tremendous and varied richness to our church. We have people who are natives of Pulaski County and others who have moved here from all across the country. Some of the members grew up Presbyterian, but many came to us from other traditions. A few have a long history at Westover Hills, but many are newcomers. We are young, old and every age in between. Still, God has woven us into a family that cares for one another and works together in caring for others and who seek justice for all. As different as we are, we rejoice that we are united in Jesus Christ,
I would love the opportunity to get to know you better and answer any questions you might have about our church. I hope you’ll consider worshiping with us soon. God has marvelous things planned for Westover Hills Presbyterian Church and our preschool. We would love to have you come grow in faith with us!


In the Heart of Greenbelt
St. Hugh Council was founded on May 6th, 1992 through the efforts of Father Thomas Crowley, former Pastor of St. Hugh of Grenoble Church - and District and State Officers of the Knights of Columbus. Over the years, the council has become an important part of the life of Greenbelt, serving not only St. Hugh parish, but the greater Greenbelt community.
The Council meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month at 7:30pm in Grenoble Hall at St. Hugh Church.
These Men Called Knights
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic family fraternal service organization with 1.7 million members. It provides members and their families with volunteer opportunities in service to the Catholic Church, their communities, families and young people. Membership in the Knights of Columbus is open to practicing Catholic men in union with the Holy See, who are at least 18 years old. A practicing Catholic is one who lives up to the Commandments of God and the precepts of the Church.


Hey Ya'll! I'm Kerri.
I'm a creative mama to 3 beautiful souls,
Jesus-lover, mental health & special needs advocate,
Wanna-be farmhouse dweller reluctantly living in the frigid North with my heart planted firmly in the South (oh how I miss those mountains <3)
I dream big, love hard and completely dedicated to finding beauty & choosing joy in some of the toughest situations.
In my past life I was a photographer with a blog focused mainly on my business, but as life started to take me in a different direction, it was time to tap back into my roots in Psychology, my love of self-care and my desire to share life, and my story...complete with all of my successes, failures and everything in between.
Thank you for joining me here...hopefully with coffee in hand and a heart wide open <3
I just know we are going to get along wonderfully!


Are you one?
Over the last few weeks, I have had several moments in time that have reminded me that I really do want to be a “civil grace giver”.
A week or so ago at my church, the sermon was one of those moments. I would highly recommend you consider taking the time to listen to the message and see if you get any ah-ha moments as I did. You can click here to watch it.
To be able to be a Civil Grace Giver I believe that you will need to have charity (similar to grace), civility, and clarity.
Social media has many pros and cons. One of the cons I believe is that we say things that we would never say if we were face to face with someone. As Christians, we are called to love God and love others as ourselves. I would submit that if we did that just a little bit better than the world could be such a different place.
There are going to be people that you do not agree with, that is not the question. The question is, how will you communicate with them in a way that points to Jesus. Will you use kind words and listen to understand?
When you are posting on social media I would challenge you to pray before you respond on any post and especially when you are responding to someone that doesn’t agree with you. May our responses be a sweet fragrance and draw people to community and connection while pointing them to Jesus.
Your homework this week will be to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 to see where you are at now. Then you can take a moment to engage in a way that will be helpful.
Next week I will be sharing two podcasts with you from https://followerofone.org/ and share a little more insight about how we can become a Civil Grace Giver.
As always, if I can help you with anything, I would love to connect.
Schedule a “get to know each other” Zoom meeting!
Playlists — music can change your mood, enjoy some of the songs that encourage me.
The Identity Key — you can purchase my book on Amazon.


Our culture has a rich tradition of missionaries. And there are many kinds of missionaries out there putting forth their messages. In this case I’d like to concentrate on the missionaries that both preach and practice what they preach about saving peoples lives. Yes, I guess they could also be called sales people, but not those with a message about cars, or diets or the like. Let’s stay focused on saving lives.
Such a missionary has spent time in the study of their “profession” along with its rules of engagement, dos and don’ts, unique cultural realities, etc. These missionaries are also practitioners of what they preach because people are watching to see if what they say is true in what they do. And they are trainers of their message, lifestyle and culture. They have and live zeal and passion for what they profess. In essence they must be professionals in every sense of the word.
Is not this kind of missionary a good model for the safety professionals? Are we not about making disciples of all the people we come in contact with both on the job and after hours? Should we not have passion and zeal for the saving of people’s lives both on and off the job? How can we be more believable to all with whom we come in contact? What do we need to change in our study and approach to get the people we are trying to reach to become disciples for the messages and practices of a zero injury safety culture?


I know many of my friends who will look at me with a side-eye for discussing my thoughts on God, but it is what it it is. I do believe in God, albeit not some bearded old white man looking benevolently upon us from on high. Here are three pieces I’ve written outlining a few things I believe.
- Preaching to the Converted
- Love is My Religion
- Sunday Advice to Christians from a Ghanaian Non-Christian
This post is however a culmination of thoughts I’ve had over the years regarding my relationship with Christianity. Think of it as a new relationship with it.
Kobby vs. Christians
It was recently brought to my attention by someone dear to me that I speak with a degree of bitterness when it comes to Christianity.
I have heard this before: once or twice right here on this blog. But there was something different in the way in which she said it to me. She spoke in a tone devoid of the kind of self-righteousness, arrogance and judgment that made me leave Christianity behind in the first place.
She spoke with Love.
I try to live my life guided by Love and when I am addressing Christians on this blog, I try to speak with Love. I do not apologize for my criticism of Christianity (especially here in Ghana): I humbly suggest that such criticism is both healthy and necessary. Who the cap fits, let them wear it. I do not always hit the mark however, and I would like to apologize to anyone who has ever been hurt by my tone.
Kobby the Christian
If I do feel bitterness towards Christianity, it is for two reasons: my experience of Christianity as a young believer and my observations of Christianity today as a not-quite-believer. Both are linked. I’ve spoken about my past before, but what I haven’t spoken on much is my own journey.
I was raised, baptized and confirmed Methodist, and I was what I would call a ‘cultural Christian’ by the time I was a teenager in Ghana. I talked the talk (said things like, ‘have a blessed day’), regularly attended church, prayed, fasted, sang in Joyful Way, attended Scripture Union, etc, etc.
All these things are things you cannot really avoid as a Ghanaian Christian though: society expects them from you. They do not require a genuine, deeper understanding of your faith. You are taught them since before Sunday School, all the way into your adulthood. I see many young people today engaged in such ‘Christian culture’. You see it all over their social media.
Those things do not Christians make though. At best, they are a foundation. A shaky one at that. Too many cultural Christians are not driven by the kind of Love that was so compelling that Jesus replaced the entire ten commandments with it. Rather, they wear their spirituality for all to see. It is something that they perform. Mostly in public. They judge. They are holier-than-thou. In short, they become the very Pharisees they were taught to despise.
Love is… HARD!
In my experience, Love is kind… but it is also difficult. It requires hard things of its advocates in real life situations. It requires you not to judge but to be tolerant of people who do not share your faith. Show them love and – who knows – they may actually come to faith. If not? That’s between them and God. It’s not for you to advocate against them, gossip about them, judge them or feel better than them. Who are you anyway? By the standards of Christian faith, your goodness is like a dirty rag in the eyes of God. I don’t care if you are even a pastor: who are you exactly to judge?
Love requires us to make peace with those who would argue with us. To not cheat in a society in which it is made very easy for people to have flings and affairs. It requires us to be kind to those who are unkind to us. Basically, it requires the practical application of everything in Galatians 5:22-23
‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.’
My foundations in faith were cultural. They were not personal. Yes, I prayed and such. But I hadn’t engaged with God as much as I thought. All those churchy things were for society. They were not for God. They were not even for me, really.
Leaving Faith Behind
In the end, I grew bitter about my experience of faith. My growing contempt for Christian hypocrisy lead me away from Christianity – from Christ – as a whole, especially as I started engaging with the world beyond faith. I discovered people of other faiths and what they believed and I realized that their faiths made sense too. Far beyond signs and wonders. I came to understand – for example – from a Jewish perspective why Jesus was not the Christ, in a way that no pastor had ever explained to me without putting a Christian spin on things without knowing it. I dated a Muslim girl I fell in love with because she was one of the warmest, most kind, most loving people I had ever met. I learned about her faith and I discovered that much of the hate-and-fear-fuelled things I had heard about Islam were gross simplifications.
Meanwhile, so many people told me that the problem was that I was going to the wrong church. So they would always invite me to their church. But in between the good, I would see the same things over and over. Judgment. Hypocrisy. Arrogance. Self-righteousness. Fear. Hate. Xenophobia. Again and again and again. Wrapped up in the clothes of faith and love.
Eventually, I attended Bible classes: such was the extent of my desire to return to faith. The Alpha course helped a little. The first time I attended, I met people who did not judge me for having doubts and for having some very troubling questions. Questions that asking in Ghana had people looking at me funny. About Paul. About original sin. About the Fall. About the translation of scripture. About books left out of the Bible. Et cetera. It helped a little. I decided to attend a second time. This time, I met judgment. People looking at me funny. I left and never looked back.
At that moment, I decided that I had been praying for years for clarity in my soul and I realized that I had been ignoring a message that I had been receiving again and again and again. All the people whose faiths I admired – Christian or otherwise – were defined by their capacity for Love, above and beyond that of the average man or woman on the street. The moment I decided to start living a life guided by the kind of Love that we instinctively know without reading books about it, I experienced peace. A real peace.
Returning to Faith
However, I always suspected that it would all eventually lead me back to faith. I don’t know why. I remember reading Brian McLaren’s ‘A New Kind of Christian‘ – given to me by a friend in Geneva – and feeling incredible excitement. Here was someone expressing my doubts and yet who had managed to stay within the fold. I devoured everything I could find online about things like the Emerging Church movement and the house church movement and so-called progressive Christianity:
- A spiritual vitality and expressiveness, including participatory, arts-infused, and lively worship as well as a variety of spiritual rituals and practices such as meditation
- Intellectual integrity including a willingness to question
- An affirmation of human diversity
- An affirmation of the Christian faith with a simultaneous sincere respect for other faiths
- Strong ecological concerns and commitments
Yes, please: I’ll take two.
Ultimately however, I still could not describe myself as a Christian because I could not think of Jesus as ‘the way, the truth and the life’. I read ‘Mere Christianity’ and admired CS Lewis’ attempt, but found flaws in his lines of logic by chapter three. I have heard no argument that makes me feel that there is something inherently superior about Christianity as a religion to any other religion. After having actually engaged with them, I find it hard to take seriously any religion’s claim to exclusivity over the truth. Importantly however, I am committed to keeping an open mind, an open heart and open ears. I could be wrong.
So Why Engage?
Part of my continued engagement was because I missed two things about Christianity: ritual and communion. I don’t believe in being passive about what you believe in. Love in particular requires you to be active. This means being constantly reminded about it and challenged and such, and organized religion – at its best – has a great way of doing this. It keeps you on your toes. Or – at least – it can. The other thing it is great at is communion: connecting you with people with whom you share faith. Maybe its my Christian upbringing, maybe its human instinct, but I need these things. I miss them.
Ghana: Religious or Hypocritical?
By the time I moved back to Ghana from London, it became even more difficult to find a foothold on any kind of path back to faith again. Simply saying you do not go to church here is such taboo, much less asking the deep kind of questions I have. At least, it seems that way from the outside.
One thing that I humbly think needs to change in Ghana is how conservative we are about Christianity. I know there are those who would disagree and argue that ‘you can’t avoid the Cross’. The problem is that that is exactly what loads of people are doing here. Ghana is supposed to be the most religious country in the world. Yet – beyond church attendance – you cannot see it in our lives as a nation at all. Which suggests that we are the most hypocritical nation on earth. For me, I have always said that I will believe that Ghanaians are really imbibing faith when i see it on the road: when I see people drive in respect of the law and in respect of the dignity and humanity of their fellow man. No more blowing your horn as soon as the light turns green. No more forming third and fourth lanes. No cutting people off. No being on the road without a license. No hurling abuse at people. When we are so soaked in our beliefs that you can see it in the way we drive? Then we can talk about being religious beyond simply going to church.
There are so many different types of Christianity. And I don’t mean different kinds of churches all preaching what is ultimately the same conservative Christian message. I think it is very damning of us that the prosperity gospel is what we seem to have taken to rather than something as pro-poor as liberation theology. Both have their flaws but I don’t even see us critically engaging enough to discern something for ourselves. As Africans. At all. I intend to personally challenge this, especially if I find my way back to faith but even while I haven’t. I apologize in advance to anyone who may take offence, but I think it is the least I can do.
So Where Next?
A few of the things my friend told me – and the Love with which she told them to me (reminiscent of another friend of mine actually) – have helped me to course correct my journey. I have started discussions with people whose opinions I value whose faith I admire too. This new year, as part of a broader set of resolutions, I have decided on a few things:
- A fresh start: I will recognize and shed the bitterness of my previous religious engagement.
- Make more time for reflection, meditation and prayer.
- Commune with fellow truthseekers.
- Actively explore the Bible as imperfectly written but ultimately containing a Thread that I must find, pull out and follow
- Read not around the Gospels but the Gospels themselves.
- Give Paul a chance (this will be very hard)
- Actively encourage critical engagement with faith in replacement of mere faith culture’ at Ashesi
Happy new year, everyone.


Elton John Condemns ‘Hypocrisy’ of the Vatican After Same-Sex Union Ruling
John, a fervent advocate for and member of the LGBTQ+ neighborhood, condemned the Vatican’s declaration as “hypocrisy,” considering their monetary investment in his 2019 biopic Rocketman, which illustrates him coming out as a gay male and participating in a sexual relationship with his supervisor John Reid prior to eventually celebrating his marriage to other half David Furnish at the end of the motion picture. The couple, who have actually been together for 15 years, were married on Dec. 21, 2014, at their Windsor estate nine months after same-sex marital relationship became legal in England.
“How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they ‘are sin’, yet happily earn a profit from investing millions in ‘Rocketman’ – a film which commemorates my finding joy from my marital relationship to David ?? #hypocrisy,” the famous performer wrote on Twitter, while tagging the Vatican News and Pope Francis.The Daily Beast post the 73-year-old hitmaker pointed out in his tweet exposed the Vatican’s financial books kept by the Holy See’s Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, previously known as the Financial Intelligence Authority. Money donated for the poor had actually been dubiously bought other ventures, including Hollywood. A$4.5 million expenditure was related to fund the 2019 films Men in Black: International and Rocketman, a movie that illustrates gay sex, which the Vatican labeled as “intrinsically disordered”on Monday. The Vatican’s Secretariat of State apparently contributed ₤ 850,000 toward the biopic, which is approximately 3% of the movie’s budget.Dan Reynolds of Picture Dragons, an extremely public ally to the LGBTQ+community, also took to Twitter to express his dissatisfaction in the Vatican and the heartbreaking message it’s sharing
with young individuals.”So frustrating. It’s not about LGBTQ youth needing marriage or faith. It’s about our leaders informing our youth they are undeserving of the exact same rights afforded to their hetero peers,”he wrote. “That God’s love is subjective. If there’s a God it certainly isn’t leading this.”Released at Mon, 15 Mar 2021 20:13:11 +0000


Pursuit of Excellence
Limited Time Price Drop!
The Living Words
Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.
We founded Premier Jewellery with one goal in mind: providing a high-quality and reliable online store. Our passion for excellence has driven us from the beginning and continues to drive us into the future. We know that every product counts and strive to make the entire shopping experience as rewarding as possible. Click and experience the difference.


Who is this Child King?
For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.
Who is this child on whom all of this authority rests? He is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
But who is he really to me?
Several years ago when I was going through a divorce he was my Mighty Counselor. When my daughter was having open heart surgery he was Mighty God. After the death of my father, he became my Everlasting Father. And today he is my Prince of Peace, with the promise of peace and justice.
As the issues of the world around us seem to compound daily, we find that protests, marches and letter writing to government officials are becoming part of the fabric of our everyday lives. Peace is what we assume we will have once justice is attained, but there is more to peace than its outward expression.
In the Greek and Hebrew texts, peace is often translated as ‘wholeness’ – or inner peace. In Matthew we find the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. The first thing he did was to forgive him; healing his inward condition, then he healed his physical condition. Over and over in the book of Matthew, we get several examples of the importance of the condition of our heart – our inward condition.
Amazingly, this inner peace can be present even in the midst of brokenness, and it is peace in it’s inward expression that will ultimately change the condition of what we experience externally.
We express peace as being the absence of something (the absence of war, abuse, hatred, sickness, poverty etc) True peace however, is more than the absence of something, it is the presence of something. It is found in the presence of our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
Who is this child king to you?


To the Councillors and General Public of Montgomeryshire and Powys, regarding Jane Dodds. This letter is to be posted online as an open letter, to lower the risk of Dodds offending again or becoming an MP.
Dear Councillors and General Public cc Jane Dodds and Karen Arthur,
If this letter regarding Jane Dodds' unsuitability for office is considered to be outrageous, remember, she felt that it was acceptable for a vulnerable adult to be destroyed publicly.
You have an unsuitable candidate for Montgomeryshire Liberal Democrats. Her name is Jane Dodds, and she is unsuitable both as a political candidate and as a social care worker, because she was willing to see a vulnerable adult killed in order to cover up for abusers. Jane Dodds poses a risk to the vulnerable and that needs to be known, and she needs to be withdrawn from any safeguarding or social care cases as she isn't safe to be involved unless she is re-trained and supervised.
Did you know that Jane Dodds was moonlighting as a Safeguarding Caseworker for the Church of England in London, while claiming to be working hard for the people of Montgomeryshire? And did you know that she played a part in nearly killing and utterly destroying a vulnerable adult? An incredibly co-ordinated cover-up that went wrong, because the victim is writing this despite the best efforts of the Church to silence her.
This complaint has also been submitted to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who appears to be working on it so thoroughly that a year after it was submitted to him, he still hasn't brought it to a conclusion. This complaint has also been submitted to Karen Arthur at Powys Safeguarding, but unfortunately she considers abuse and moonlighting to both be good things and beneficial, and has protected Jane Dodds and snubbed the victim, such is the way of the system in protecting their own, even at the cost of the lives of the vulnerable.
When you have read this letter, would you please contact the police and safeguarding, and the Liberal Democrats, as it is leaving or overlooking things like this that allows further abuse and often resulting tragedies, a good man collapsed defending the life of Jane's victim against church-led hate attacks, and all Jane had to say was that the church didn't mean to hurt the victim.
Making a victim out to be nuts is the Church's way of trying to excuse all this, it isn't true, so ignore it. Would you please also contact the Church of England, as they can put the phone down on victims but not real people with your standing, would you remind them that the million pound whitewash that Dodds and her church colleagues, Graham Tilby, Moira Murray, Caroline Venables and others took part in and aided, still needs investigating, as do Dodds and her colleagues. Please have mercy on a destroyed vulnerable adult and help.
Jane Dodd's victim (one of them) is writing this having woken up from nightmares and flashbacks regarding the circumstances in which Jane Dodds became involved, not to safeguard or protect the victim but to silence her and to aid the wrongdoers in proceeding to destroy her. And again, this appears to be one of several cases.
Jane Dodds has long been pretending to be 'Working Hard for the People of Montgomeryshire'. But, she kind of failed to let the people of Montgomeryshire know that she was moonlighting as safeguarding caseworker for the whole of the Church of England, a London-Based job, and why? Is the question. Dodds was in London at least part of the week, every week.
But not full time, so she wasn't providing a full time service either to Montgomeryshire or the Church of England, and as their only safeguarding caseworker on the National Safeguarding Team, I am sure you can imagine that wasn't adequate, if you go by the diocese of Winchester getting hundreds of safeguarding complaints per month because of poor safeguarding, that is thousands across the UK.
Her part-timing in Montgomeryshire was a year before the general election. Dodds was always in such a hurry for her train back to Wales after harming me, that she didn't have time to be responsible and respond to my anguish at her callous stupidity and complicity in harming me.
But her involvement in the Church of England was much more serious.
As you are aware, Montgomeryshire used to have a Liberal Democrat MP, his name was Lord Carlile, and he was and is well known for his foul behaviour towards women, especially abuse victims and his former wife. He became a Lord after his time as an MP. He was a man who stood up and openly defended Greville Janner, (who unfortunately I know wasn't innocent and was quite open in his activities), as well as being close to other prolific peadophiles, and he publicly and shamelessly called his wife 'boring' when he left her for a younger woman. Not a man to be investigating cases involving vulnerable female abuse victims.
Jane Dodds was the National Safeguarding Caseworker for the Church of England when Lord Carlile was 'chosen' to 'investigate whether Bishop Bell had really abused...' a female in the church, who had already been 'apologized to and recompensed' by the Church of England. I am sure you can read that with horror.
The Church had already apologized and recompensed the victim, and they were now willing to publicly undermine the victim...Yes, really. This was not my case but similar, but I wrote to the Church, expressing my horror and explaining that Lord Carlile was not a suitable investigator. I was ignored, of course, the church blanket ignore their victims. Why? Please read these.
1. The way the church and safeguarding treat victims. 2. Why the Church treat victims this way
1. http://jerseytoday.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/shades-of- things-about-to-come.html
2. https://seaofcomplicity .blog/
Now here's a letter regarding Jane Dodds:
You will see 'Enduring and Sadistic Cruelty' or similar mentioned in the first of those articles. Jane Dodds was part of that enduring and sadistic cruelty, she really was, her victim feels the damage so strongly it causes nightmares, and this letter was written straight out of a nightmare.
Unfortunately, despite protests, Carlile was allowed to continue and destroy the victim publicly and give the Church the PR that they use abuse and 'safeguarding' for. They have run a show since Justin Welby was elected, whereby they publicly use the vulnerable, abuse and abuse cases for PR, with no throught for safeguarding the victims, often involving fake and press and media only apologies, which is what has happened to me on a massive scale, destroying my relationships with friends, family and community, destroying me, and leaving me as a terrified fugitive who has been beaten and raped because of the hatred sparked by press and media. Dodds didn't contact me about this, she contacted me purely to defend the church, when the damage was done and they were striking the final blow in the press and media.
Dodds claims to have more than 20 years experience in social care, but her conversations with me made that out to be a lie or 20 years that she has learned nothing from. Incredibly after the press and media had launched the final attack on me and I was utterly destroyed, Dodds tried to say 'We want to make things how they were before for you'. As if she could undo the lifelong damage, the abuse, the branding. She either didn't have a clue or was lying through her teeth. Harry Keeble, the famous Child Protection Officer say 'You should never tell a victim that things are going to be alright...because they aren't'. And Dodds allowed and co-ordinated the protection of wrongdoers and my destruction, what she said to me about making things as they were before wasn't just stupidity, it was pure evil, another blow to an unhealably destroyed fugitive.
Dodds failed to state if she meant before the press attacks, before the abuse, before the church had me repeatedly beaten and imprisoned by police to silence me, before the church - my upbringing was violent and abusive, there is no 'before'. She just trotted out the silly lines and added devastation to the criminal harm that she was party to.
Jane Dodds would have been well aware of Carlile, her, predecessor's attitude and behaviour to women and abuse victims, even if she wasn't personally responsible for his election as investigator on the case, which, considering their strong connection and roles, doesn't seem possible. And she was among those who received my letter of concerns about the Carlile investigation.
Unfortunately the Church treat abuse and investigations as a massive PR campaign, and they love to elect openly conflicted people and pay them to say what the Church want to be said. The use of the Ball case to pretend that things have changed was a horrific act of deceit and a spit of contempt on those of us still suffering the church's abuse and corruption.
Sometimes it is as if the church deliberately test out the boundaries of their unchecked and unregulated depravity, to see if anyone will ever dare to challenge them. No-one who values their life, career or sanity would, the church can kill and are far enough above the law and in with the government and monarchy to simply get away with it, their strategy of conflicted judges, police, lawyers and charity commission officials aids them as well.
But Jane Dodds' role in my case was also very shocking and wrong, she helped the Church to destroy me while she was moonlighting as a safeguarding caseworker for the Church of England.
The Church of England is unregulated and has a lot of power that it has no right to, and one of the things it does, not because it cares but because it enables access to social care, safeguarding and multi-agency systems to enable branding and silencing of victims is, it recruits social care workers such as Jane Dodds.
It appears that the excuse for Dodds carrying out her dual roles was that she was a 'volunteer' for the Church of England. Really? A 'volunteer' in a senior national role with the tens of thousands worth caseload of the abusive church's victims?
This still needs investigating, and the Liberal Democrats do need to look closely at what has gone on. If they don't, they should reconsider their place in politics.
Dodds allowed me to be destroyed, and allowed the former police officer who was defending my life, Bob Hill, to collapse defending my life against the hate attacks sparked by the Church's public destruction of me, this blog was written by Bob a few days before he collapsed defending my life
Read the comments on that blog and you won't have any doubts about the press and media led hate and smears. The press and media said to me that they simply published what the Archbishop had sent to them, no questions, and I asked why they kept doing this without any concern for me and my safety, they repeated that they published what Lambeth Palace's communication teams sent, my side of things was irrelevant. My story remains uninvestigated either by church or by their complicit press and media, I was destroyed without question.
This abuse of power over the press and media by the Church is not being challenged or addressed, and Dodds was silent when she kept contacting me but couldn't explain why she had allowed me to be abused this way. Bob's reports on my case in full, with comments, are on his blog between 2013 and 2015 when he collapsed defending my life. Imagine he had to fight for my life as the church destroyed me publicly, and no authority or agency or organization is doing a thing about this, I will suffer until something is done about it, even ofcom and ipso still haven't acted even though it is evidenced. Because no-one stands up to the church.
One of the biggest safeguarding issues in my case was press and media hatred and mis-reporting on my case, led and egged on by the Church, including senior officials and Bishops, as they spent a million pounds publicly whitewashing my case and protecting the Church's interests. They allowed a conflicted judge to destroy me and discredit me, despite evidence being presented to them that the judge was openly conflicted. They published a load of lies by a church member who claimed to be doing an 'independent report'.
Dodds condoned all of this, she incredibly whined to me that the 'church didn't mean to hurt me'. It doesn't matter what the church meant, they knowingly and persistently publicly destroyed me and nearly killed me. Dodds had no response to my answer thus.
Dodds didn't contact me until the final blows of the Church utterly and publicly destroying me to close the case down, she didn't stop them, refused to explain why she had allowed me to be publicly destroyed, and incredibly, she tried to whimper that 'The Church didn't mean to hurt me' as they nearly killed me. Why exactly does she think I took the Bishop to court as a litigant in person? Just for fun as opposed to saving my life as the Bishop knowingly publicly destroyed me?
Dodd's efforts to defend the indefensible actions of the church in destroying me, destroyed me over again. I had no money, no food, and holes in my shoes and was very ill when I took the Bishop to court to stop him from killing me by handing the knowingly conflicted hate report over to those who had arranged their conflicted judge to create it and destroy me. I wonder how Dodds equates that hatred and negligence with the church not meaning to hurt me?
She was unclear as to why she had contacted me as she wasn't preventing harm to me, she wasn't safeguarding me. She insistently and persistently used my old name, when my name had been changed because of church press and media led hatred against me, and whined about how the Church could 'learn' from people like me, this was horrific under the full spate of the Church's public destruction and discrediting of me. What were the church learning? The extent to which they could abuse their power, murder, without being held to account because they are unregulated and above the law?
The way Dodds behaved showed that despite being safeguarding caseworker, she knew nothing of my experiences and she didn't want to know, and her attitude to me was crushing, she upheld everything I had suffered, while hiding behind a whimpering 'social care' caring mask. It was sickening, and I repeatedly complained to her about her attitude and the harm she had allowed, but she had no answer.
Dodds then quit her moonlighting position, having seemingly only been there to co-ordinate protection of the church as they publicly destroyed me, and arrangement for Lord Carlile to destroy Bishop Bell's victim publicly. Dodds never warned me she was quitting, never explained why she had allowed the church to publicly destroy me, indeed she never explained why she had contacted me at all, as her silly and aimless emails as I was destroyed only harmed and distressed me.
The church, having publicly destroyed me, reverted to silence, to blocking my emails and calls and ignoring my letters, as the other survivors have explained to you in the links above. But Dodds returned to her Montgomeryshire Candidacy without explaining to her constituency that she had been spending their time and money in London, destroying vulnerable adults for the corrupt and abusive Church of England, rather than 'Working hard for the people of Montgomeryshire'.
My case remains unresolved, and the damage by the open press and media attacks on me which Dodds allowed and upheld, can never be healed, nor the years of harm by the church preceding the three year press and media smear attacks. The church have shuffled some of the high profile wrongdoers around while discrediting me over again by upholding them in the press and media, but in their million pounds of whitewash and discrediting, they have never interviewed me nor recorded what has happened to me, nor have they redacted their press and media discrediting of me or recorded my side of things in their complicit press and media. I have been damned and am left damned, Dodds was part of that and condones it.
Dodds went on to compete in the general election despite my complaints to Powys Safeguarding and the Liberal Democrats, and thankfully she lost by enough margin to reassure me that she will never be an MP like her friend and Colleague Lord Carlile, even if favours in kind go on, indeed I was surprised that it wasn't the deal for her to win in return for her services to peadophiles and peadophile protectors, however, she is still guilty of misconduct that put a vulnerable adult or more than one vulnerable adult, at risk of life. And no doubt the unregulated and all-powerful Church of England would try to justify her involvement and her overseeing of harm from a safeguarding position.
Please don't let this matter rest. Dodds can kill without remorse or responsibility, and still feel justified as well as qualified as a social care and political candidate, and that makes her a risk to the vulnerable.
I remain suffering utter anguish and terror of further harm, I am a fugitive, and I am attacked by strangers over the press and media hatred and lies. Dodds condoned this and the complete lack of justice or resolution. There may be other voiceless vulnerable suffering or dead because of Dodds. After all, the church and their intermeshed authorities make suicides over this kind of thing to be 'mental illness' rather than murder.
Jane Dodds is still liable and responsible for her duplicity, and her harm to me and others, would you please remind her to come back and resolve the harm, and to be responsible also for her moonlighting and abuse of dual roles and power.
She shouldn't have stood in the last election. Please would you remind the church of england that this matter is leaving a vulnerable adult in severe and unremitting anguish, they are in denial, having got what they wanted in cover-up for the sake of their image.
It remains a fact and no argument can refute it, that Jane Dodds harmed me and failed to protect me from harm, and acted for wrongdoers in power to do so. She will always pose a risk as she doesn't feel responsible for her actions.
My name is 'JJ', I am also known as 'J*****', 'J****', 'HG' and many other names, but none of them are really mine. The church have renamed or caused my renaming a number of times. I write a daily blog which the church hate because it shows the real me, and not who they say I am, this is my blog:


Check out this 2-minute video in our “Insider Tips” series!
From Shellie Speer, Senior VP, BDI Academy
When working with nonprofit clients, I often hear…
“How can I get churches more invested in our organization?”
Historically, Christians have taken on the responsibility of caring for “the least of these,” in response to a strong and unmistakable biblical mandate. Therefore, churches feel blessed – not burdened – by opportunities to serve the poor and hurting.
With your organization’s encouragement, cultivation and sound financial stewardship, local congregations and youth groups can become some of your most dedicated partners. Donors who, in turn, consider your organization an extension of their ministries.
And remember, your primary purpose in cultivating church partnerships is not necessarily to have your organization included in their annual budgets… though that is definitely a great thing! But by keeping church members aware and involved with your work, they may feel called to support your organization financially on an individual basis.
I’ve put together a series of videos called “Insider Tips” that cover some of my most popular training and consulting sessions:
- Direct Mail
- Major Donors
- Planned Giving
- PR & Media Relations
Each video is just a few minutes long, but is packed with ideas you can implement at your organization. And each one comes with a free strategy guide that offers even more insights on the chosen topic.
Please take a minute to check out my video, Church Relations: A Shared Vision to Reach the Hurting at the link below. And be sure to stay tuned for all my Insider Tip videos!
BDI Academy – led by Shellie Speer – offers personalized mentoring and consulting for nonprofits. And that help is just an email away! Email Shellie now.
You need to read this! Click here to read “Successful Succession” from BDI’s CEO and President, Michael J. Tomlinson.


MESSY CHURCH WILL BE RETURNING IN 2018
Messy Church will be returning on the first Sunday of each month at the Parish Centre in Anson St, Orange, commencing on Sunday 4th February, 2018. All are welcome to come along at 5:30 and join in a family-friendly service. For more info please phone the Parish Office on 6362 5788.
VISION & MISSION PLANNING MEETINGS
What: Three evenings to work together to think about God’s mission and our vision for the Parish, led by Corrina Alchin (Church & Community Engagement Consultant – Uniting).
Who: Everybody! Please come & let your voice be heard and hear the voices of others.
When: Tuesdays 13th, 20th & 27th February. Gathering at 5:30 for a 5:45 pm start. Finish 8pm.
Where: The Parish Centre


12 Days of Christmas
Day 7…a family tradition
The 7th day of the #12 days of Christmas is about tradition as much as decoration. (I like family traditions…a lot.) This year is the first year my boys have small trees in their rooms. They were so excited about the trees and twinkle lights, but even more so when I told them that I had bought an ornament for each of them every year at Christmas and they could hang their ornaments on their own trees if they wanted. It’s a Dwyer family tradition. And it is one of the greatest. Growing up my mother would put a new Christmas ornament by everyone’s seat each year for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a festive favor for any guests we had and an amazing tradition for the kids. It was something I looked forward to each year, as these ornaments went on the small trees we each had in our bedrooms and meant by the time we became adults we already had a collection of meaningful ornaments. By the time we left our parents’ house we would be ready to decorate our very first Christmas trees in our own homes. I love that in doing something so small each year, my mother really was doing something so big. It never occurred to me as a young child that each ornament was part of a larger plan, but I was so grateful when I got older and put up my first tree that I did not need to spend a fortune on ornaments and my tree was covered in beautiful memories. I still hang those same ornaments on the tree each year with my kids. And while I never host Thanksgiving dinner, I love the tradition so much that I have bought a new ornament for each of our sons each December and presented it to them before adding it to our tree. You could also give an ornament as a present for the feast of St. Nicholas if you celebrate that or have your elf bring an ornament for each child every year if your an elf on the shelf family. Or you could add an ornament to the gift wrap on a present to each child on Christmas morning as my grandmother used to do (she may have been in on the plan or she may have just been super fun and festive, she was probably both). But it is a tradition I loved as a child and continue to love as a momma.


About Timothy Moore
Apostle Timothy Moore was born in Baltimore, Maryland to the Late Deacon Wallace and Martha J. Moore. He is married to the beautiful Evelyn Denise Moore and has two daughters and two sons: Qwinnteast, Knicole, Christopher Michael, and Joshua Moore. He received his education in Baltimore City Public Schools where he graduated from Fairmount Hill High. He was blessed with the talent of music at an early age.
He has played music around the United States professionally as a guitarist and vocalist . . .
FEATURED BOOK BY TIMOTHY MOORE
Learn the Secret Language of those who are prosperous in Christ
In Praise and Worship — The Language of the Prosperous, Pastor Timothy Moore reveals that true prosperity consists of a rich spiritual life of fulfillment and devotion, which brings with it every other kind of blessing besides!
Learn the secret language of those who are prosperous in Christ. It’s more than just words — it’s an outflow of genuine adoration and praise in exchange for life from God that’s “Heaven on earth”!
FEATURED MUSIC BY TIMOTHY MOORE
Soon To Be Released!
Be on the lookout for new music from New Street. Click on the button below to find more music from Timothy Moore and New Street.
Apostle Timothy Moore plays the song “Every Praise” during a live appearance on the TBN network.
Stay Up To Date With The Latest Updates and Event Info
“I met Timothy Moore around 2009, and I’ve always found him to be a man of brilliance and integrity in all things. He reaches far beyond the church walls — and speaks and sings to thousands annually in conventions, conferences and concerts.”
Michael Sykes, Nashville Producer


Treat others as you would have them treat you
Join us in helping others be successful
Let's help them be more successful by teaching them functional academics such as reading and money.
About The Village of Triumph (TVoT)
The Village of Triumph is an endeavor that was inspired by God in 1996 when we learned that our youngest daughter would have Down Syndrome. God literally showed me the bible story of 'David and Goliath' telling me that our daughter was 'David' and the downs was her 'Goliath' and with Him, she would be triumphant over it!
As I researched for help, I found that the majority of groups/facilities were mostly geared toward specific disabilities such as Down Syndrome and Autism. As amazing as these groups were, God kept putting it on my heart that these 'kids' need to learn how to associate with individuals that were different from them as well as the ones considered 'normal'.
As God led me more and more toward this dream to help each of them to be as successful as possible, He told me that it was also to teach those who are not part of the 'special needs world' that these 'kids' are more like them than they are different.
At TVoT, we have high expectations for each of our participants. If they struggle learning something the way we are teaching, we figure out a way that works for them.
Everything we do works on Fine Motor, Social and Cognitive Skills through fun activities. Come check us out.


137-Year-Old Gothic Church to Become Climbing Gym
The Church of St. John the Baptist, built in 1884, will soon become New Brunswick, Canada’s largest climbing gym.
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
This spring, you’ll be able to send your project AND confess your sins at the same time.
The Church of St. John the Baptist in the coastal province of New Brunswick, Canada, which was closed by the local diocese in 2018, is re-opening early next year as a rock gym, Climb 1884.
The church, which will feature 8,000 square feet of climbing surface and house roped routes up to 42 feet high, isn’t the first church that has been transformed into a plastic puller’s paradise. Here in the USA, we have our very own: McDoel Baptist Church in Bloomington, Indiana, which is now the Hoosier Heights rock gym.
[Also Read: Leap of Faith: How a Baptist Church Became a Climbing Gym]
That said, Climb 1884, which was constructed in 1884, is certainly one of the oldest buildings to be converted into a rock gym.
Though the owners, David and Mary-Gwen Alston, are renovating the building to accommodate climbers, including the installation of a new roof, brickwork, and modern heating, the exquisite stained glass windows from the original church will remain, along with much of the existing woodwork and other Gothic architectural features. Many of the pews will be repurposed as seating areas, while others are being sold to raise funds for the local New Brunswick outdoor access group, Ascent NB.
The Alstons, avid outdoors folk themselves, also operate a zipline adventure park in the area, TimberTop. Prior to purchasing the church, the couple met with both climbers in the community and former members of the church to hear their thoughts and input on the concept.
“We have a soft spot for these churches,” David Alston told Gym Climber over the phone. “My wife and I were married in a beautiful old church in our city. That church was recently torn down after the congregation shrunk and no one could find a reliable alternate use for the space. Now they’re building a set of condos where it used to be. It’s quite sad. If historic churches like these can’t find a purpose, they’ll eventually be torn down.”
For the Alstons, everything happened quite fast. “I was working on this idea of doing a rock climbing gym in a different space for a couple of months before the church became a reality,” Alston said. “On a Friday night, I came to the conclusion that the space I was looking at didn’t have the square footage to make it a legitimate gym. Within an hour, we get this email from our real estate agent that said, ‘Hey check out this church that just went on the market.’ That Monday we checked it out, we bid, and we owned the church Wednesday.”
While there are a handful of small community college rock walls and a roped wall at a nearby military base, until now there has been no dedicated roped climbing gym in New Brunswick.
Climb 1884 will house auto-belays, top rope, lead, and speed climbing walls, to complement the stellar outdoor rock scene in Saint John and the existing local bouldering gym, which Alston plans to partner with for competitions.
“The idea is to have a good mix of climbing for people who just want to get started and for experienced, competitive climbers,” Alston said. “The cool thing about our area is that most of the outdoor climbing is within an hour’s drive. This region is the center of gravity for climbing in the three maritime provinces, but until now there have only been bouldering gyms here.”
Alston said that they plan to use both the ground floor sanctuary space and the basement, as well as the mezzanine, for a variety of walls and training areas, including a MoonBoard, a crack wall, kiddie walls, and free weights. “It’s unclear whether we’ll be able to cut a couple of holes through the ground floor down to the basement and have full-size (15m) speed walls, or do shorter, unofficial 10-meter walls,” Alston added.
Aside from that, the gym will offer all the standard trappings of a modern rock gym, with yoga classes, instructional courses, a cafe, gear rentals, competitions, after-school programming, and more.
Climb 1884 will open at 56 Broad Street, Saint John, New Brunswick, in May 2022.


From 2009 to 2014, GBIO leaders, including then-GBIO President Rev. Hurmon Hamilton of Roxbury Presbyterian Church, fought and won a battle to replace the deteriorating Dearborn Middle School with a $73 million, state-of-the-art grade 6-12 STEM academy for students in its under-served Roxbury neighborhood.
In 2018, Rev. Hamilton returned to Boston to attend Mayor Walsh’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, but the celebration became a demand for action as key staff positions remained unfunded. Nearly 225 GBIO leaders were present to demand full funding. In response, some positions were filled and GBIO and Roxbury Presbyterian Church continue to monitor progress.


En venninne av AAN sendte inn denne videoen av Fantoft Stavkirke. Kirken er berømt for mange årsaker. Fra
"It would be difficult to find monuments more typically Norwegian than our wooden Stave Churches. They date back to the early days of Christianity in this country, and they were erected by an enthusiastic people inspired by the new Christian Gospel. In structure the Stave Churches are among the finest architectural achievements in Norway, being the result of excellent craftsmanship, age long experience in handling wood as a building material never failing artistic sense, and
deep religious feeling.
We may find it strange that these churches, so nearly perfect in construction could be created barely a
hundred years after the victory of Christianity over Paganism in Norway. It only proves that the new faith
had already at that time penetrated deep into the people's minds.
The construction itself is ingenious. Every single piece of wood has its proper practical function in a cleverly
developed plan. Storms and tempests have been successfully defied through seven or eight centuries. At the beginning of the nineteenth century we could still count about 180 of these Stave Churches in Norway.
However, through an unfortunate failure to appreciate their historic value the number has been depleted,
and counts today only 28.
The foundations of the church consist of a framework of four enormous beams resting on a low stone wall.
On this frame stand the pillars supporting the roof, giving the church a dignified appearance.
The oldest Stave Churches had many pillars, as Fantoft Church too had in its original form. But experienced
builders came to realize that the number of pillars might be reduced without impairing the strength. The outer edges of the supporting beams, which can be observed, resting on the stone wall, have been joined together by a beam of heavy dimensions. Into this beam the «staves have been sunk, thus forming the outside wall.
The staves are overlapping, and finally they find support in the four huge comer pillars, which give the whole building the stability required. So important are the functions of the comer pillars and the supporting beams, that if they should start decaying, the whole church would be doomed to ruin. To safeguard them against humidity an outer corridor was built around the church proper. This corridor also served as a shelter for the congregation after the service, when they would meet friends and relatives living far away.
From the exterior wall a pitched roof rises to the upper part of the pillars, and provides support from the outside.
In the interior the pillars are often joined by horizontal beams that tend to give a feeling of height. All the parts are joined together in a wonderful unity, giving elasticity coupled with toughness. In stormy weather the building will yield slight lye to various stresses, but will never break, behaving like a good ship in heavy seas.
The timber used for the churches is always of selected quality, specially treated, and of imposing dimensions.
The chancel is semicircular, an imitation of the apse of the stone churches.
Originally the bull’s eyes high up under the roof were the only source of light to the church. The roof is covered with shingles. They are cut by hand, and in such a way that the grain in the wood serves as tiny spouts for the water. They overlap in a neat pattern, and provide a most effective roof covering.
At the time when the Stave Churches were being constructed, the craft of wood-carving had reached a very high standard. The ornamentation of these houses of worship is a fine example of this special art. The porch and the ridge of the roof were always richly carved into an ornamental feature. The motives were animals and leaves.
Some figures known from pagan times were retained, but with new significance to them. The serpent and the
dragon signified the evil spirits which tried in vain to enter the church, but instead had had to flee from the place.
Fantoft Church was built at Fortun, a little village at the head of the Sogne-fjord, the district said to be the
homeland of the Stave Churches. Like many other timber churches of the same type, the Fantoft Church dates from the twelfth century. In the year 1879 the village decided to build a new church, and the old one was sold for removal, which unfortunately was the
normal procedure in those days. A citizen of Bergen, Consul F. Gade, realized the importance of saving the old building, bought it, and transported the material to Bergen. Fantoft, a beautiful spot with lovely surroundings, about 5 miles south of Bergen, was chosen for its new site. In 1883 the church was rebuilt, or rather reconstructed after the plan of Borgund Church in Sogn. In the year 1916' the Church was acquired by the late Jacob Kjøde, ship-owner, who took a great interest in the preservation of this venerable house of worship.
The church is today the property of his family.
History records several changes that were made to the church. What actually happened through the middle
Ages is difficult to trace, but it is generally assumed that the church retained its original appearance until about 1650. We then find that many changes had taken place up to about 1700. It may be mentioned that in 1689 a new pulpit was erected. In 1692 the lectern, the altar-piece and the chancel were furnished with various
ornaments, and about the year 1700 the nave was decorated.
The furnishing has always been of a modest character, and out of the little there may have been in the old days, not all has been moved with the church. In the Bergen Museum is kept a relic shrine from the beginning of the thirteenth century. The ancient bells from the same period, or may be even earlier, were transferred to the new church at Fortun. One of them has this inscription: X PC. VINC. X PC. REGNAT. X PC. IPAT.
(Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.) - In this connection it may be of interest to mention that
Norway is believed to possess more bells dating from the middle Ages than any other country.
The Crucifix over the entrance to the chancel is a fine
Specimen of mediaeval art. The two wooden figures in the chancel probably date from the late Middle Ages,
and represent the Apostles John and Peter. It has not been established whether they belong to the original
furnishing of the church.
The Font is made of soft soapstone, obviously from the time when christening by immersion was practiced, in the twelfth century. When the church was pulled down, the font was found on a nearby farm, where it was being used for feeding the pigs. The baptismal basin now in use is more recent, being 500 years old, with an inscription difficult to decipher.
The Woodwork on the pillars at the entrance to the chancel is imitations of similar decorations in the Hylestad Church in Setesdal. They represent scenes from the saga of Sigurd Favnesbane.
The pew to the right in the chancel bears the inscription 1668. The other seats of the church are new. Originally there were fixed seats only along the walls. The congregation knelt on the floor during the service.
On the north wall there is an inscription:
«AVE MARIA GRACIA PLENA DOMINUS TECUM.»
On the same wall there is a very elaborate wrought-iron mounting on the oldest door of the church.
A small green stone, probably a relic from a pilgrimage, hasbeen mounted in the doorpost.
According to tradition the opening on the wall of the chancel is a lepers' window, through which the lepers were allowed to follow the mass and participate in the Holy Communion.
Outside the church is a stone cross, from the days when there were not yet sufficient churches.
The time immediately following the introduction of Christianity about the year 1000. The clergy then used to gather the people for mass and baptism round such stone crosses. Many names of places and farms have still the word «cross» attached to them, a reminder of the cross of worship once standing there."
Takk til vår venninne som sendte inn videoen!


Welcome To St Saviour's Church Website
The bishops have ordered that the church building be closed until further notice. Therefore church will be meeting through virtual technology online via Facebook and other media. If you have any questions regarding how to access this please contact Rev. Cornelius Henry at 020 8555 8464 or email@example.com
We will live stream the service from 11am on Sunday morning.
We are a warm, friendly and welcoming evangelical church in East London.
We are a rich multi-cultural and multi-racial congregation that is part of the Church of England in the Diocese of Chelmsford.
Central to our worship and beliefs is the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are dedicated to the teachings of the Bible and are open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
We aim to be a place where the word of God is taught and the power of the Holy Spirit is experienced. If you are in the Forest Gate area of East London on a Sunday morning please do not hesitate to join us at 10:30am.


We had a less active member assist the saturday morning session, where they talked a ton about marriage and family. He has been living with a woman for a long time and doesn't want to get married yet. We are sure that the Spirit of the session will have touched his heart.
There is also an investigator who has attended church for forever and has never wanted to get baptized. He listened to 2 sessions of conference and told us when we met with him after that he decided that now was the time for him to get baptized.
I had been praying and looking for the answer to know how to leave this area stronger than I foud it, because it has been really hard to get investigators to go to church. We have had a ton of progress with less actives since I got here, but few results with investigators. I felt an answer to my prayers as the apostles and seventy talked about the importance of family, the power of testimony, and the sweet music of the Spirit. I know that as I put their council in practice I'll be able to baptize in this ward before I have to head back.
I was able to watch all sessions of conference live in a small room in the stake center in English, in a small screen. Whenever they started to speak in Spanish, we'd run over to the chapel to see it in Spanish, and then we'd run back over to the English room to keep listening in English. I was sad to not be able to hear Elder Scott speak, do any of you know if he's sick or something?
Well I love you and hope you have a great week!


Several of the letters published in the Ashton Reporter from the men of the 9th Battalion Manchester Regiment have editorial references to the man being a member of the “P.S.A.” Additionally, the Reporter published short articles regarding the meetings and activities of the local P.S.A. brotherhood in Ashton and district and at one point published a P.S.A. “Roll of Honour”.
The Pleasant Sunday Afternoon (P.S.A.) movement was founded by John Blackham, a linen draper from West Bromwich, who was a prominent member of the local community. By the time he was 30 he was already a deacon at the West Bromwich Ebenezer Congregational Church, and was already active in the Adult School Movement which was originally intended to teach literacy to working class adults primarily through the study of the bible, especially the New Testament. No doubt his involvement in this endeavor caused him to think generally about how to increase attendances and especially how to regain the interest of those who had previously attended Church Sunday Schools but had since stopped.
In 1875, when he was 41, he traveled to Birmingham to hear the well-known American evangelists, Moody and Sankey who were speaking at the Town Hall one Sunday afternoon. Unable to get in, due to the large crowds, he ended up attending a small Sunday School bible study class at the Ebenezer Congregational Chapel in nearby Steelhouse Lane. Opened in 1816, this was a very large church with capacity for a thousand worshippers but on that day only a few dozen young men were in attendance. What a contrast. Thousands of people clamored to see the American evangelists preach the word of God but just a few minutes’ walk away, a capable and engaging speaker could barely summon up a handful of faithful men. Blackham had a breakthrough moment and perhaps for the first time clearly saw that in order to fill seats, the format, content and delivery mattered more than anything else. “I realized that if men were to be won, we must give them a service neither too long nor too learned. We must avoid dullness, prolixity, gloom and constraint”, he is later reported to have said.
On his return, he met with the West Bromwich Ebenezer Congregational Church Sunday School officials, and laid out his ideas of how to boost attendance, and reclaim lapsed members, by introducing a new kind of bible study class that would be short and bright and last no more than three-quarters of an hour. Importantly, as a member of a Congregationalist church the only people who needed to be persuaded to do something radical were his local church elders. Evidently, he was able to gain their consent and so he quickly set out to find as many local young men as he could who had previously attended Sunday School but who now no longer regularly attended church. The following Sunday afternoon, around 120 young men that he had recently canvased on the streets of West Bromwich duly arrived at the Ebenezer Chapel to attend the first meeting of what was shortly to become the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon (P.S.A.) movement.
The meetings were wildly successful and the popularity of the P.S.A. meetings slowly spread throughout the Black Country, across the Midlands and to the rest of the country. Within ten years, around 1885, they had reached Ashton-under-Lyne, gained traction and became an integral part of the religious establishment thus earning their place in the Ashton Reporter.
The P.S.A. and the Ashton Reporter
Saturday, September 11, 1915:
On Sunday, at the Ashton P.S.A. Society, at an open service for men and women, the veteran and distinguished elocutionist, Mr. Barnish Barnsdale is announced to recite “The Sermon That Wasn’t Preached”, “What Shall it Be”, and “Unconquered”. These are items that Mr. Barnsdale has made his own, and his elocutionary abilities ae acclaimed everywhere.
P.S.A. Roll of Honour
UNVEILING CEREMONY PERFORMED BY MRS. A. PARK
Saturday, October 30, 1915:
The gathering of the P.S.A. Society’s Bible Class on Sunday morning took the form of an open service, the first of its kind in the 30 years’ history of the class. There was a large attendance, which included a number of soldiers. The special feature of the gathering was the unveiling of the class Roll of Honour, which contains the names of all those who are doing military service in various parts of the world.
Mr. A. Park, J.P., president of the society, was in the chair, and he was accompanied on the platform by Mrs. Park. Several friends, by giving voice and recitations, added to the brightness of the service, and the members of the Singing Class rendered musical items in pleasing fashion.
The Chairman made sympathetic and appropriate reference to the members whose names appeared on the roll, and mentioned the loss they had sustained by the deaths in action of Gunner William Booth, R.F.A., and Staff-Sergeant Harry Owen of the Royal Garrison Artillery.
Ms. Park gave a short address of patriotic and religious character, and then proceeded to unveil the roll of honour, which contains the following names: –
Sergeant Thomas William Boon, 1st South Wales Borderers.
Company Quartermaster-Sergeant John Williamson, 1/9 Manchester Regiment.
Company Quartermaster-Sergeant Herbert Bradshaw, 2/9 Manchester Regiment.
Staff-Sergeant Harry Owen, 1st Siege Battery, R.G.A., killed in action.
Staff-Sergeant Wm. H. Martin, 1/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Walter Eastwood, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Harry Hobson, 2/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Wm. Bromley, 1/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private John Oldham, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Roland Bromley, 2/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private John Seedall, 6th Cheshire Regiment.
Private Frank Briggs, 8th South Lancashire Regiment.
Gunner Wm. Booth, R.F.A., killed in action.
Gunner Geo. H. Watkins, R.F.A., 181st Brigade.
Private James Beaumont, R.A.M.C.
Private Harry Kerrick, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Stanley Townley, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private James Hague, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.


can you hear me here?
‘Can You Hear Me Here? Starring The Robot’ is the second book featuring the emotive blue hued robot. Written by Dan Mauric, this thoughtful picture book walks the reader through the questions found in the book of Psalms, chapter 139. “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your Presence?”
The book goes on sale soon. Link for purchase coming soon!
Book one, ‘The Robot’, touches on themes of identity and the sufficiency of God’s love. The book makes reference to the Second letter of Corinthians, chapter twelve verse nine found in the Bible.


For More Information
South Hills Catholic Academy is an independent Catholic school created and funded by a group of lay people that was born out of and is aligned to On Mission for The Church Alive, the diocesan-wide planning effort to bring about a more vibrant Church.
It will offer a unique educational and spiritual formation opportunity that is targeted for a specific segment of the population in Pittsburgh’s South Hills.
The Academy offering endorsed by Bishop Zubik is built off of three key pillars that make it different and complementary to the Diocesan system:
- Ensuring that a Traditional Catholic education and curriculum is accessible to all children in the southern region of Pittsburgh, especially those of modest means and the growing immigrant population.
- Preparing students for higher education through a curriculum built on a foundation of a traditional education
- Providing a rich tradition of spiritual formation with a vibrant sacramental and devotional life at the center of the school mission
The Academy will be financially independent and supported by South Hills benefactors and modest tuition revenues. The school will have grades Pre-K through 8, with the intent to feed the existing Catholic High Schools.
The Academy Team is developing a plan that allows the Academy to be open for enrollment in January 2021 and in operation for the 2021-22 school year. We will be working with the Institute for Liberal Catholic Education, a nationally recognized organization, to develop the curriculum and operating model for the school.
Over the coming months, we will begin to share specific plans for the Academy in preparation for opening in 2021. Additional information about South Hills Catholic Academy may also be found on our Facebook page @southcatholic.
Our Mission Statement
The mission of the South Hills Catholic Academy (SHCA) is to assist parents in the Christian spiritual, moral and intellectual formation of their children by ensuring the total development of each child – body, mind, and soul.
Adhering to the premise that all knowledge comes from God and can only be understood and lived fully in reference to Him, we endeavor to integrate traditional classroom instruction with a vibrant Catholic sacramental and devotional life by doing the following:
- Offering SHCA students an intensive traditional curriculum covering all the major areas of the liberal arts and natural sciences, in an academic program that is both rigorous and challenging;
- Fostering in the SHCA’s students a fuller understanding of, and deep appreciation for, their Catholic Faith in a manner completely loyal to the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church;
- Promoting a safe and disciplined educational culture for children from diverse ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds – one that fosters authentic Christian friendship and service, and joyfully embraces the uniqueness of each child.
We firmly believe that in today’s complex world, other than an individual’s own family, there is no institution in our society where the challenges that confront young children can be more effectively addressed than by a Catholic School such as SHCA, where our first purpose is to remind our students that they are both loved and lovable in Jesus Christ, and that only in Him will they discover themselves and their calling in life.
South Hills Catholic Academy


Pope Francis I speaks from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, March 13, 2013.
Now that the smoke has cleared—figuratively and literally—in Vatican City, one of the many issues facing the new head of the Catholic Church is pressure to clean up the Vatican's finances.
On the one side are those seeking greater transparency. On the other are those seeking to preserve the status quo and continue to operate under a blanket of secrecy.
The Vatican Bank and America's banks have much in common—both have lost their way, and now efforts are underway to rein them in.


We offer a warm welcome to our church, at the centre of the village of Cilcain, in a building which has been used for worship for at least 600 years. The church has an interesting history, but is alive and giving witness to God in the present day. The church has two aisles, with most services conducted in the south aisle. Here, under the ornately-carved late mediaeval roof are the pews, and at the east end the chancel with altar, choir stalls and organ.
There are services on Sunday mornings as follows:
1st Sunday of the month 11am. Communion, modern liturgy
2nd Sunday of the month 8am. Prayer Book Communion
3rd Sunday of the month 11am. Morning Praise
4th Sunday of the month 11.00am Communion, modern liturgy
On 5th Sundays there is a joint service in this or a neighboring church.
On Wednesdays there is usually a Communion service at 10.30am.
The north aisle was devastated by fire after a Plygain service on Christmas morning 1532. It stood without a roof for 210 years until in the 18th century the vicar of the time paid for it to be refurbished. For more than 100 years, from 1888, it fell into disuse, but has recently been renewed and is now an integral and comfortable area in which services and social meetings are held, including a weekly Communion on Wednesday mornings and a toddlers/ parents group on Thursday afternoons.
The main door to the south aisle is open every day from early on to sunset, and the north aisle on special occasions. Services are held on Sunday mornings and others by arrangement. We welcome visitors, and those who wish to propose using the church for suitable purposes. Please contact the vicar or the churchwardens.