David Bunce

I think the use of chatbots for stuff like this is intended to train people to use it to avoid everything that’s painful or hard. It can write the obituary, the breakup text, the complaint letter. It’s meant to separate humans from their difficult feelings. Seems bad.

That is very true about churches!

LeGuin wrote about the desire for 'unassailable safety' as one of the deep roots of evil, and I think about that a lot.

Ahhh Glenfinnan

Home - Spurgeon's College Spurgeon’s College Announces Closure After 169 Years of Service London, 31 July 2025 With deep sadness and great regret, the Board of Trustees of Spurgeon’s College announces that, the College will cl...

Thinking of the staff and students of Spurgeon's College who are grappling with the news of the sudden and unexpected closure after 169 years of history. The college was the biggest training centre for UK Baptist ministers and has a long and distinguished history.

AI is perfect tech for 21st-century capitalism: almost no legitimate use cases, unhelpful even when there is a use case, causes cognitive disability and emotional distress in users, destroys privacy, exploits labor, harvests data, disastrous for the environment, unprofitable – and totally ubiquitous

UK, France and Germany call for immediate end to humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

where are you in the cycle?

"the exclusion of the experiences and expectations of the psalmists from our worship—and thus from our horizons of expectation—has in large part crippled the evangelistic efforts of the church in the West and turned us all into spiritual pixies."

Coming back to a classic essay from Carl Trueman

Now back home with tomatoes and my own kids and otherwise peaceful bliss. And still a little something in my eye

After five years of children and youth work, the final camp came to an end tonight. Going to bed with misty eyes but also relief at a job well done. Now my wonderful colleague Alice (left) takes up the batton

if you’re curious, the 6.30pm slot on radio 4 attracts about 1.5m listeners

2025 Annual Survey of UK Public Opinion on Foreign Policy - British Foreign Policy Group BFPG's 2025 Annual Survey of Public Opinion on Foreign Policy finds that public trust in the US has plummeted, as Britons turn back towards Europe.

Public support for the U.K.’s “special relationship” with the U.S. has collapsed, with Brits “turning decisively towards Europe and the EU.”

bfpg.co.uk/2025/07/2025...

„Wir erleben einen Rückwärtstrend und eine Retraditionalisierung“ Foto: Benjamin Lassiwe, Logo: BEFG. Der Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden hat zum ersten Mal eine Präsidentin. Natalie Georgi erklärt, vor welchen Herausforderungen der größte Bund von Freiki...

Natalie Georgi ist die erste Frau, die an die Spitze des Bundes Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden (BEFG) gewählt wurde. Wie geht der BEFG mit dem Mitgliederschwund und der Anerkennung von lgbtqi+ Personen um? Welche Zukunft hat die BEFG-Hochschule in Elstal?

"The church is called not to fix sorrow, but to journey with the one who bears it. If we lose this sense of pilgrimage, evangelism becomes grossly instrumentalised, a tool to convince people of new ideas or sell them on new religious interests"

Andrew Root

as a parent of kids with SEND needs and someone working with children - THANK YOU.

It's maddening to me how much Covid is at the root of so many of today's crises and we just...don't talk about it?

Take the spike in children needing SEND provision. Did anything huge and traumatic happen recently that might have affected thousands of kids? No? Must be parents making it up

Andrew Root looks at this memoir as part of his book on the gospel amongst contemporary mysticisms (partly including "wellness"), I think

FBI: Do u know Karl Marx

Mahmood Mamdani: Haven’t met him

FBI: No, he's dead

Mamdani: Wow, what happened?

FBI: No, no, he died long ago

Mamdani: Why are you asking me?

FBI: He wrote that poor people should not be poor

Mamdani: Sounds wonderful

readingfanon.blogspot.com/2013/07/in-c...

maybe interesting to @rostaylor.bsky.social

Media urged to extend its engagement with newer denominations ‘The lived reality of Christians and the impact they are having in the UK, is often under-reported’ says report

The national media are failing to look beyond “traditional streams” of the Church and struggle to describe “contemporary” expressions of Christianity, a new report suggests.

alles alles Gute liebe Natascha. Ich hoffe, dass du schnell wieder zu Kraft kommst - und doch auch genug Zeit für Erholung bekommst!

“When asked about Government welfare policy, one of McSweeney’s synthetic voters gave it seven thumbs up with all three of their hands.”

A photo of the instruction book from the new shredder

The German language instructions for new shredder have translated paper jam as "Marmelade" - the kind of jam that goes on your toast.

A lot of people are saying if Jesus were in America today MAGA would probably have him detained and deported but according to Jesus he has already been detained and deported and continues to be detained and deported with every inhumane arrest of his sisters and brothers.

Origin Story is always excellent (and this series has also been great), but this double episode on MLK Jr raises an already high bar to new levels.

Go and check it out and if you are convinced, sign up to become a Patreon to keep @dorianlynskey.bsky.social and @iandunt.bsky.social in books

Preparing to run my final children's camp in this job and this year I have several young volunteers who were themselves participating children during the first years of my job.

It is so cool to watch young people grow up and begin to shape things themselves. That's the why of youth work.

A man wrapped up against the cold, surveys a frozen plain

The secret German weather station on the Arctic island of Svalbard. Part of the 'Weather War'.

The team, led by Lieutenant Wilhelm Dege, were the last German troops to surrender in WW2, finally doing so FOUR MONTHS after Germany had officially surrendered.

It was not for want of trying. /1

My fear as a child was big cats (panthers etc) in the UK breaking into my bedroom.

We lived on a housing estate in Tamworth 😅

"The God of Abraham cares little for human capacities and capabilities. God comes to Abraham because he has no capacities (not even the ability to have a child). Abraham, even out of his incapacitieis, holds tight to the capacities to God, who meets him and calls him by name" Andrew Root