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        <title>Christian Today | Life</title>
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            <title>Christian Today | Life</title>
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        <lastBuildDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2026 22:40:52 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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                <title><![CDATA[Church needs men willing to speak up, says marriage campaigner]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/church-needs-men-willing-to-speak-up-says-marriage-campaigner</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/church-needs-men-willing-to-speak-up-says-marriage-campaigner</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff writer]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[community group, therapy, counselling, mental health, community]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2026 07:23:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Tony Rucinski calls for a biblical vision of masculinity rooted in courage, self-control and sacrificial service.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Christian men must overcome their fear of disapproval and take greater responsibility in their churches, families and communities, the chief executive of the Coalition for Marriage has said.
Speaking about biblical masculinity, Tony Rucinski warned that harmful male behaviour was not confined to anger and aggression, but could also include remaining silent when something needed to be said. Specifically, he challenged men to speak truth in the face of "darkness". 
"The Church is bereft of men who will say the right things at the right time," he said.
Discussing ‘toxic masculinity’, he said the term was typically associated with aggression and anger.
"But actually ... toxic masculinity can also be silence. It can also be not saying what you should say," he said. 
The biblical model, he argued, is a man who recognises his strength, brings it under control and uses it for godly purposes.
Referring to Jesus’ description of his followers as the salt of the earth, he questioned whether Christians were fulfilling their responsibility to resist moral decay.
He argued that churches could be guilty of prioritising harmony at the expense of biblical convictions. Drawing on James 3:17, he said the passage placed purity before peace, whereas Christians sometimes reverse that order.
"The problem in the Church these days, especially among some of the men, is that we switch those two words around so that peace and harmony becomes the priority at the expense of biblical purity and doctrinal purity," he said. 
Rucinski said fear of criticism could also prevent Christian men from addressing difficult issues. Courage requires a willingness to live with other people’s disapproval, without becoming unpleasant or deliberately seeking confrontation, Rucinski suggested.
"If you can live with the disapproval of others, you will discover a superpower," he said.
Rucinski was addressing the annual conference of the International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice, held in Poland at the weekend. 
Drawing on the biblical teaching that God gives a spirit of power, love and self-discipline rather than fear, he argued that Christian masculinity should combine strength with restraint and a willingness to serve others.
He acknowledged that these qualities applied to women as well as men, while challenging male delegates to consider how they were putting them into practice.
His call to courage was accompanied by an emphasis on humility and sacrifice. Following Christ, he said, meant being prepared to serve others at personal cost.
"How much am I really willing to serve other people sacrificially?" he asked.
"This is serious stuff. And this is at the heart of Christianity."
Rucinski also challenged men to develop a clearer sense of purpose, asking them to consider what vision they had for their families, churches, work and wider lives.
Spiritual maturity requires deliberate effort, he said, encouraging delegates to identify three specific areas in which they needed to grow rather than settling for a general desire to become better Christians.
Prayer and Bible reading are essential to that process, he suggested, even if starts with only a few minutes each day.
"Do you have a quiet time? Do you have a time, even if it's two minutes a day, when you spend time in God's Word and you talk to Him and you ask Him to teach you from His Word?
"It's absolutely essential that you do that. If you want to grow muscle, you must eat protein. It's impossible to develop muscle without it. And similarly, if you want to grow in grace, you must chew on the word of God. There is no way around that, no way at all."
He also stressed the importance of friendship, fellowship and accountability between men, saying growth could involve uncomfortable conversations and correction.
"If we want to improve as men, we can’t do that on our own. We need to find other men to help us improve," he said. 
Turning to marriage and family life, Rucinski warned men against becoming so preoccupied with other commitments that they neglect their closest relationships.
"Don’t outsource your soul. Work out what’s important and make sure that you tend to it properly," he said.
He described a husband’s leadership in terms of taking responsibility, enabling others to flourish and accepting accountability when things go wrong.
Speaking about his own challenges growing up, he shared that his mother, who struggled with alcoholism, had died in his arms when he was a teenager and he had never known his father. He encouraged men not to allow what they had lacked in childhood to determine the kind of fathers they could become.
"It turns out being a father is much more rewarding than having a father," he said.
Speaking to Christian Today after the session, Rucinski argued that churches were failing to communicate a compelling sense of Christian purpose to men.
Asked about the appeal of figures such as Tommy Robinson and whether churches should be doing more to engage with masculinity, he said the Christian faith offered something different but churches are not adequately communicating this.
"Men want to be involved in a mission. Men want to be involved in fighting for something good and righteous," he said.
"The Church isn’t giving them anything. It’s soppy. It’s love songs. It’s just not what men want."
He argued that the Gospel’s account of an eternal struggle between good and evil could speak powerfully to that desire for purpose.
Closing his conference address, Rucinski encouraged men to seek forgiveness for past failures and respond to God’s calling.
"It doesn’t matter how rubbish you’ve been. None of that is relevant if you repent and come to Christ for forgiveness," he said.
"Men, the Church desperately needs you to speak up, to speak out, to speak truth to power, to speak truth in love, to be men, to stand up and to glorify Him."]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Mercy Ships anaesthetist receives MBE]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/mercy-ships-anaesthetist-receives-mbe</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff writer]]></dc:creator>
                                                                                                                            <media:content  url="https://www.christiantoday.com/media/original/img/9/92/99282.jpg">
                            <media:title><![CDATA[Dr Michael McBrien receives an MBE for his work with Mercy Ships]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Mercy Ships) ]]>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Dr Michael McBrien receives an MBE for his work with Mercy Ships. ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2026 10:56:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Ninety per cent of Sub-Saharan Africans do not have access to the treatment they need.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
A consultant anaesthetist from Belfast has been awarded an MBE for his work with the Christian medical charity Mercy Ships.
Founded in 1978, the charity operates two hospital ships which sail the coasts of Africa and provide life saving and live changing treatment to those who need it.
Every year around 2,500 medical professionals volunteer their services and travel with the ships.
According to Mercy Ships, safe surgery is unavailable, unaffordable, or both, for 90 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa. This year the charity conducted 3,000 life-changing surgeries.
One of those taking part in the work is Dr Michael McBrien, a Consultant Anaesthetist from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. Dr McBrien was presented with his MBE by the Princess Royal at Windsor Castle as part of the King’s Birthday Honours.
Dr McBrien has worked with Mercy Ships since 2011 and this year signed up for his 16th stint with the charity.
Speaking of his experiences, Dr McBrien said, “Every patient is special, but the one I will always remember is Sambany. He had the largest facial tumour we’d ever seen. Six of his friends took it in turns to carry him on their backs as they walked for two days to get to the ship for help. 
“I remember anaesthetising him and spending all day with him in theatre as the surgeons operated. The following morning I took the breathing tube out and over the next two weeks witnessed his miraculous recovery. It was truly life-saving surgery.” 
Dr McBrien said he felt “quite emotional” upon learning he had been awarded an MBE.
“I’m just a small cog amidst an incredible crew who serve on board, so I’m happy to receive this award on behalf of all the volunteers," he said. ]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[LGB identification falls sharply among US teenage girls]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/lgb-identification-falls-sharply-among-us-teenage-girls</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/lgb-identification-falls-sharply-among-us-teenage-girls</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Samantha Kamman]]></dc:creator>
                                                                                                                            <media:content  url="https://www.christiantoday.com/media/original/img/9/89/98947.jpg">
                            <media:title><![CDATA[social media, teens, teenagers, young people, youth]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2026 10:10:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[The steepest decline occurring among girls in the ninth-grade - those aged 14 to 15.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that fewer younger teenagers are identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual, with the steepest decline occurring among ninth-grade girls, prompting debate over what may be driving the change.
According to an analysis of the CDC’s 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, 17% of ninth-grade girls identified as lesbian or bisexual in 2025, down from 30% in 2021. Over the same period, the share identifying specifically as bisexual fell from 26% to 13%.
Researchers and conservative commentators have offered differing explanations. Some point to cultural influences, while others caution that the available data does not explain the decline.
“‘Why?’ is exactly the question,” Glenn T. Stanton, director of Global Family Formation Studies at Focus on the Family, told The Christian Post.
Stanton pointed to Twenge’s acknowledgment in her analysis that she did not know what was causing the change. “That is refreshing from an academic,” he said.
Stanton suggests that social influences and changing cultural attitudes toward gender and sexuality could help explain the trend. He said that the earlier rise in LGBT identification among young people may have been influenced by social contagion and described it as a cultural fad that could be fading.
“I think another related reason young teens might not be identifying with LGB is because those are fundamentally binary ‘old school’ identities and it’s now all about the 126 different genders there supposedly are, so the youngest among us know the cool thing is to identify with the Q, which of course, is not a thing,” Stanton said.
“Made-up human identities don’t tend to stick, because they are made up. And gender ideology is the pursuit of making up new sexual and gender identities,” he added.
Twenge’s analysis found that the decline was less pronounced among older teens. Among 12th-graders, LGB identification fell from 18% in 2023 to 16% in 2025. Among ninth-graders, it fell from 17% to 11% over the same period. Among sexually active students, ninth-grade girls also appeared to show the largest decline in reporting at least one same-sex partner.
Twenge suggested the culture may be undergoing a generational shift but acknowledged she is not entirely certain.
Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, attributed the trend to the Trump administration’s funding cuts, writing in a post on X: “Amazing what happens when you cut the Department of Education and USAID.”
Twenge noted, however, that the declines began during the Biden administration. She also questioned why, if politics were the main cause, political changes would affect ninth-graders more than older high school students.
“It maybe has something to do with it, but it’s clearly not the only thing going on. It’s a mystery,” Twenge said in a statement shared by The Washington Post.
Twenge said she plans to examine several possible explanations, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, politics and social media. The CDC survey does not establish what caused the changes in reported identity.
A 2025 analysis published by the Manhattan Institute and written by Eric Kaufmann, a Canadian professor and conservative writer, suggested that transgender and queer identification among Generation Z has been declining since 2023.
The report, “The Decline of Trans and Queer Identity among Young Americans,” analyzed data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s annual survey of U.S. undergraduates, which included more than 60,000 students in 2025.
According to Kaufmann’s analysis, 3.6% of respondents identified as a gender other than male or female in 2025, down from 5.2% in 2024 and 6.8% in both 2022 and 2023.
© The Christian Post]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[St Martin’s Day: The soldier who renounced war]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/st-martins-day-the-soldier-who-renounced-war</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/st-martins-day-the-soldier-who-renounced-war</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Neil Rees]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[war]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2026 07:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[11 November is St Martin’s Day, or Martinmas, which recalls a former soldier who pursued peace, and also Armistice Day, when the First World War ended. This is the story …]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
11 November is St Martin’s Day, or Martinmas, which recalls a former soldier who pursued peace, and also Armistice Day, when the First World War ended. This is the story …
Martin the soldier
Martin was born in the Roman province of Pannonia, probably in AD 316, at Sabaria, which is now called Szombathely in modern Hungary. His father was a Roman army officer, and Martin grew up principally at Ticinum, which is the modern city of Pavia near Milan in northwest Italy. Although his parents were pagan, Martin embraced Christianity while still a boy, against his parents’ wishes, but was later compelled to follow his father into the Roman army. While he was in the Roman army, he was baptised and came to take the Bible very seriously.
Martin and the beggar
While on duty one bitterly cold day near the gate of Amiens in northern France, Martin encountered a poorly clothed beggar. Having nothing else to give him, Martin drew his sword, cut his military cloak in two, and gave half to the man. According to the early biography written by Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin personally, Martin later dreamed that he saw Christ wearing the piece of cloak he had given away. Martin recalled the words of Jesus, “I needed clothes and you clothed me” in Matthew 25:36, and “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” in Matthew 25:40. Martin realised that he had not simply helped a beggar. In Christian understanding, he had served Christ himself.
Non-violence
After a while, Martin realised that being a Christian, following the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), who instructed us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43–48), and being a soldier did not sit easily on his conscience. His ancient biographer records him telling the Emperor Julian: “I am a soldier of Christ: I am not allowed to fight.” Accused of cowardice, Martin reportedly offered to stand unarmed before the enemy. The expected battle did not take place, and he subsequently left military service and became a proponent of non-violence. His Christian pro-life views led him to oppose warfare and executions.
Bishop Martin
He was then associated with Hilary of Poitiers, one of the leading Christian bishops of the period. Later, Martin established a monastic community at Ligugé, near Poitiers in western France, which is generally regarded as the earliest monastery in Gaul.
Then, in 371, Martin became missionary Bishop of Tours, in northwest France. A later legend says that Martin only became bishop reluctantly and hid among geese to avoid becoming a bishop, but their honking betrayed him. Martin was an unusual bishop because he kept the austere habits of a monk. He established another monastic community at Marmoutier, outside Tours, which he used as a base to evangelise the area. St Martin is widely credited in France with helping to spread winemaking throughout the region of Touraine.
Opposition to executions
One of the lesser-known episodes in Martin’s life shows his pro-life principles. There was a controversy surrounding Priscillian, a Spanish Christian teacher who was denounced as a heretic at the Council of Zaragoza in 380. Priscillian was sentenced to death, and although Martin disagreed with Priscillian theologically, Martin also disagreed with the death penalty in principle. However, he was overruled, and Priscillian and several followers were brought before the imperial authorities at Trier and executed in about 385. His intervention failed, but his pro-life stand remains an important early Christian protest against execution.
St Martin
Martin died at Candes in Gaul on 8 November 397. He was buried at Tours on 11 November, and that date became his feast day. He was never formally canonised, but he was recognised as a saint through the continuing devotion of the Church.
Unlike many of the earliest saints, Martin was not a martyr. He became one of the outstanding early Western examples of a “confessor”, someone honoured for the witness and holiness of his life. His shrine at Tours became one of the great pilgrimage centres of medieval Europe, and his image as a mounted soldier dividing his cloak appeared in manuscripts, paintings, statues, and stained glass.
Martin is traditionally regarded as a patron saint of beggars, travellers, innkeepers, winegrowers, and winemakers. He is also considered to be the patron saint of soldiers, despite the fact that his Christian commitment eventually led him to renounce fighting.
Traditions
Across Europe, 11 November became known as St Martin’s Day. In English, St Martin’s Mass became shortened to “Martinmas”, just as Christ’s Mass became Christmas. Many Martinmas traditions arose in different countries. Across mediaeval Europe, Martinmas stood at the transition between harvest and winter. In medieval Britain, Martinmas was an important feasting day at the end of the agricultural year, when people ate goose or beef and celebrated before winter. Martinmas was associated with slaughtering livestock for winter, and “Martinmas beef” was beef salted and preserved for the months ahead.
In parts of Germany, the Netherlands and Flanders, some children still process through dark streets on Martinmas, carrying lanterns and singing songs about Martin, sometimes following a rider portraying him on horseback. Roast goose became a traditional Martinmas meal in Germany, Austria, and Sweden. In winegrowing districts of France and Germany and elsewhere, the feast also became associated with tasting the new wine.
Church dedications
Across Europe, hundreds of churches were dedicated to St Martin. There are cathedrals dedicated to him at Utrecht in the Netherlands, Mainz in Germany, Bratislava and Spiš in Slovakia, Lucca in Italy, and Ypres in Belgium.
There are 179 churches dedicated to St Martin in the Church of England, including the oldest church building in England, in Canterbury, where St Augustine preached when he brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons in Kent in the year 597. The Venerable Bede specifically says that this first church in England was dedicated to Martin of Tours. However, more famous now is the present-day St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, which was consecrated in 1726 and celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2026.
Etymology
Martin’s cloak also became attached to a famous explanation for two English words. The surviving portion of the cloak was revered as a relic. Medieval Latin called a cloak a cappa; its shrine became known as a cappella, or “little cloak”, and its custodian as a cappellanus. It is often remarked that, through French, these words gave English the words “chapel” and “chaplain”.
A saint for 11 November
For some 1,500 years, 11 November has commemorated a Roman soldier who embraced non-violence. Then, fittingly, the First World War ended on the Western Front at 11am on St Martin’s Day, 11 November 1918. One place of particularly intense fighting was Ypres, where St Martin’s cathedral was destroyed.
In France, many Catholics who had prayed for the end of the war were quick to attribute the victory to St Martin, the patron saint of soldiers who advocated peace. Immense celebrations were held in Paris and at Martin’s shrine in Tours. A week after the war ended, on 17 November, a large military Mass was held at Tours, which included soldiers from all the allied nations, high-ranking clergy, and French politicians. The flags of the Allies were placed before Martin’s tomb alongside laurel wreaths.
11 November
Thus, the messages of Armistice Day and Martinmas, which both fall on 11 November, have now become entwined. Since 1918, the same date has become associated with the remembrance of those who served in war and with the hope for peace.
Collect
The Anglican collect for St Martin’s Day is:
God all powerful,who called Martin from the armies of this worldto be a faithful soldier of Christ:give us grace to follow himin his love and compassion for the needy,and enable your Church to claim for all peopletheir inheritance as children of God;through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Alister McGrath: New Atheism has ‘tanked’]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/alister-mcgrath-new-atheism-has-tanked</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/alister-mcgrath-new-atheism-has-tanked</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff writer]]></dc:creator>
                                                                                                                            <media:content  url="https://www.christiantoday.com/media/original/img/9/45/94562.jpg">
                            <media:title><![CDATA[Alister McGrath]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ Alister McGrath ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Sat, 07 Nov 2026 07:14:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[“I am seeing a growth in young people wanting to talk about Christianity."]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Twenty years on from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, New Atheism has “tanked” according to one of the movement’s most outspoken opponents, former professor of divinity, Alister McGrath.
Speaking to The Telegraph, McGrath, who is now emeritus professor in science and religion at Oxford University, said that the New Atheism championed by the likes of Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens had failed to provide meaningful answers to the questions of life and that the young in particular are once again interested in faith.
“I am seeing a growth in young people wanting to talk about Christianity. Others have seen it, but right now no one really wants to emphasise it. It is probably best just to let it happen,” he said.
Referring to his days debating Dawkins, McGrath said the New Atheists “were aggressively asserting atheist beliefs, but posing as if they were telling incontestable truths … I probably unwisely allowed myself to have a reasonably high profile.”
He added, “The New Atheism seems to have tanked. It’s on its way out, because people have seen that it was never really answering the big questions.”
Human beings, McGrath, said, “are all looking for meaning, significance, purpose - and more than that.”
He continued, “In my view, Christianity can engage all of these significantly and persuasively. This goes beyond beliefs, to where we’re dealing with the deepest longings and aspirations of humanity.”
The approach of the New Atheists has also been criticised by their own spiritual successors, some of whom argue they failed to properly engage with or understand the faith and beliefs they were raging against.
On his podcast earlier this year, Alex O’Connor, who might best be described as a New New Atheist, criticised his intellectual forbears, saying, “I do not believe that any of the popular New Atheists from that sort of time period … had the slightest understanding of the subject material that they were dealing with.”
O’Connor added, “I speak with love of Christopher [Hitchens] because he was such an influence over me and also someone like Richard Dawkins … but I just don’t think they engaged with the material.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[AI and the Gospel: navigating faith and evangelism in the digital age]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/ai-and-the-gospel-navigating-faith-and-evangelism-in-the-digital-age</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/ai-and-the-gospel-navigating-faith-and-evangelism-in-the-digital-age</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Anita Laryea]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[artificial intelligence, AI]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2026 08:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[As AI changes the way people search for answers, build relationships and explore faith, churches are facing new questions about how to engage with technology without losing the human connection at the heart of the Gospel. Christian Vision’s Heinz Oldewage shares his thoughts.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
As AI changes the way people search for answers, build relationships and explore faith, churches are facing new questions about how to engage with technology without losing the human connection at the heart of the Gospel.
These are just some of the issues that will be considered during Digital Day 2026 on 12 November. Digital Day is an annual event hosted by Christian Vision and bringing together church and ministry leaders with tech experts and innovators. 
Christian Vision’s Heinz Oldewage speaks to Christian Today about the opportunities and challenges of AI, the growing potential of anonymous online spaces for faith conversations, and why discipleship matters more than digital reach. He also shares his hopes for Christians using technology to serve God's kingdom and why he remains optimistic about what God can do through imperfect tools.
Digital Day explores the opportunities and tensions created by technology. From your perspective, what is the biggest spiritual challenge we're facing in the digital sphere in 2026?
The biggest challenge right now is discernment. The same technology that could put the gospel in front of someone who would never walk into a church can also counterfeit spiritual authority, or malform the very people we’re trying to reach. Five years ago, I think it was easier to sort digital tools into things to embrace and things to avoid. Now, it seems opportunity and danger often come in the same package.
The question facing us isn’t really whether to use these technologies. I think we will, and I think we should. The real issue is that wisdom takes time, and the pace of change right now isn’t forgiving to anyone who dares slow down. That, to me, is the spiritual battle of 2026: slowing down long enough to discern how exactly we should pursue these opportunities, when the world is rushing headlong down every path that looks remotely profitable.
Do you think digital culture is making people more open to talking about faith, or is it making those conversations harder to have?
I do think it's making people more open to talking about faith, although it depends on the context.
At Christian Vision, we do a lot of work in unreached contexts, places where there are very few evangelical Christians. What we find is that digital platforms allow people to have conversations anonymously. That anonymity gives people the freedom to ask questions they would never ask in public.
People can explore questions about faith, their background and their beliefs in ways that simply wouldn't be possible otherwise. In those contexts, digital is a real blessing.
In the West, however, digital culture can sometimes create barriers. People are exposed to so many misconceptions about the Church, Jesus and God that we often have to overcome those misunderstandings first. Even so, there are still opportunities. People often open up online about things they would never discuss face to face, particularly when they feel safe or anonymous.
With technology becoming such a big part of everyday life, how can we make sure our faith is shaped by Scripture rather than by what algorithms tell us?
As a digital native, one thing that stands out to me is that digital technology actually allows me to engage with Scripture more than ever before. Bible apps, Christian content, podcasts and online communities have all contributed significantly to my spiritual walk.
There are tremendous opportunities to engage with God's truth digitally. At the same time, we must recognise that technology can be a distraction. We've all lost an hour scrolling through social media without realising it.
We need to be intentional about the time and influence we allow digital platforms to have in our lives. But I'm not a doom-and-gloom person when it comes to technology. Digital tools can help people engage with Scripture in ways that were previously impossible.
For example, my youngest child loves watching Bible stories on YouTube. I'm grateful for that because it helps him engage with God's Word. It doesn't make YouTube perfect, but it does illustrate the opportunities that exist.
More and more people are turning to AI for answers before speaking to a pastor or someone in their church. How can the Church respond while still helping people find genuine connection and spiritual guidance?
My starting point is gratitude. Whenever I see evidence that people are searching for truth, meaning or God, I see opportunity rather than something to fear.
I recently saw figures showing just how many faith-related questions are being asked of AI systems. The numbers are enormous. While I certainly have concerns about how AI answers questions, what those statistics reveal is that people are searching for meaning and spiritual truth.
Of course there are pitfalls. We shouldn't be naïve about those, but I've also seen God work through imperfect tools. I've known people come to faith after watching films that didn't even explain the gospel particularly well. If God can work through imperfect films, I believe He can also work through imperfect AI systems. The Holy Spirit can still draw people towards Jesus.
Are there any ethical concerns around AI that Christian leaders should be talking about more?
Absolutely. One of the clearest lines we've drawn at Christian Vision is that we will never use AI to impersonate human beings. If AI is being used, people should know it's being used.
I think we have to be especially careful in areas like evangelism and discipleship. These are deeply human processes. While chatbots can serve helpful purposes, there comes a point where people need genuine human interaction.
People need relationships. They need community. They need to connect with faith communities where discipleship can happen naturally over time.
Anything that moves people away from those relationships should concern us.
If we look at digital evangelism today compared with five years ago, what's changed the most?
One of the biggest shifts has been moving away from vanity metrics.
Five years ago, success was often measured by reach. How many people saw a message? How many views did a video get? And digital makes it relatively easy to achieve large numbers if you have the resources.
At Christian Vision, we reached the point where more than a million people a day were watching a gospel message from start to finish. That's exciting, but today our attention has shifted elsewhere.
Now we're asking deeper questions. Are people moving towards discipleship? Are lives actually being changed? Are people taking meaningful steps of faith?
Across digital ministry, there has been a growing emphasis on depth rather than simply scale. That's an encouraging sign of maturity.
What has surprised you most about the way people are discovering Jesus or exploring faith online?
What surprises me most is how often conversations that begin with hostility end up becoming meaningful.
When our digital reach started growing significantly, we received huge amounts of abuse and criticism. Initially, we focused our attention on people who seemed interested in faith and ignored many of the negative responses.
Eventually, though, we began engaging with those hostile comments. To our surprise, many of those conversations quickly became thoughtful and constructive.
Often, the people who react most strongly against the gospel are actually wrestling deeply with questions about faith. We've learned that those conversations can become some of the most fruitful opportunities we encounter.
Are there any digital platforms or emerging trends that churches are missing when it comes to reaching people with the gospel?
I wouldn't necessarily say churches are missing them, but I do think there's a need for deeper engagement.
There are increasingly fragmented digital communities gathering on platforms such as Discord and Reddit. These spaces are often shaped around shared interests, identities or hobbies, and they provide unique opportunities for meaningful conversations.
Most importantly, though, I believe the Church needs to engage seriously with this AI moment.
None of us has all the answers. We're still figuring things out. That's one of the reasons Digital Day exists. We want churches, ministries and Christians to come together, share experiences and learn from one another.
My encouragement would be simple: engage prayerfully, humbly and actively. Don't stand back from the conversation.
What advice would you give a young Christian who wants to use technology to make a difference for God's Kingdom?
The biggest thing I'd say is this: nobody has this figured out.
Sometimes younger people assume that somebody, somewhere, already knows exactly how Christians should navigate this AI moment. As a result, they wait for others to lead.
My advice is don't wait. Jump in. Experiment carefully. Talk to other Christians who are thinking about these issues. Learn from people with different perspectives.
That's what we do at Christian Vision. We intentionally surround ourselves with people who see things differently because it helps us recognise opportunities and risks we might otherwise miss.
So get involved, stay humble and learn alongside others.
Finally, if there's one thing you'd love everyone at Digital Day to think differently about when it comes to sharing their faith in the digital age, what would it be?
You don't have to come up with the perfect system.
You don't have to solve every problem. You don't have to get everything exactly right before God can use you.
I've seen countless examples where God has taken something imperfect and used it in extraordinary ways. What He asks of us is obedience. He asks us to take the gift, talent or opportunity we've been given and do something with it.
So often we approach these conversations as though everything depends on us. It doesn't.
Some of our biggest mistakes have led to some of our most encouraging stories. God takes what we bring in humility and sincerity, and His Spirit brings about the change.
My hope is that people leave Digital Day understanding that they can bring whatever imperfect offering they have and trust God to use it.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Belief in ghosts and magic linked to faith and trust in science, study finds]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/belief-in-ghosts-and-magic-linked-to-faith-and-trust-in-science-study-finds</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/belief-in-ghosts-and-magic-linked-to-faith-and-trust-in-science-study-finds</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Duncan Williams]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[ghosts, halloween, horror]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2026 10:18:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[A new study suggests that Americans who believe in God while placing strong trust in science and reason may be more likely to believe in ghosts, curses and other supernatural phenomena.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
A new study suggests that Americans who believe in God while placing strong trust in science and reason may be more likely to believe in ghosts, curses and other supernatural phenomena.
The research, published in the academic journal ‘Social Forces’ during the summer, examined how religious belief and what researchers describe as ‘secular rationalism’ can coexist.
Its findings challenge the assumption that people who move away from traditional religious authority will necessarily abandon supernatural beliefs.
The study was led by Ruiqian Li, a research assistant professor at the School of Public Affairs at American University, alongside academic co-authors. It analysed data from the 2025 Baylor Religion Survey, a nationally representative survey of 1,812 American adults conducted by Gallup in early 2025.
Faith, reason and supernatural beliefs
The researchers used four survey questions to measure secular rationalism, which they defined through attitudes including the belief that science is the only way to understand the world, that morality should be based on reason rather than religious teaching, and that people should interpret spiritual matters for themselves rather than rely on religious authorities.
They compared these attitudes with respondents’ beliefs in six supernatural phenomena, including ghosts, curses and communication with the dead. They also examined beliefs about miracles, including whether miracles still happen today and whether God is their source.
One of the most striking findings concerned Americans who continued to believe in God while strongly agreeing with secular rationalist ideas.
Among this group, about 40 per cent leaned towards belief in magic, compared with 19 per cent of those who believed in God but did not share the same rationalist outlook.
A similar pattern emerged among people who attended religious services. Among this group, 28 per cent of those with stronger secular rationalist beliefs leaned towards belief in magic, compared with 19 per cent of those who did not.
However, this relationship was no longer evident among people who never attended religious services or did not believe in God.
The findings suggest that the combination of personal spirituality and scepticism towards religious institutions may be significant in shaping beliefs about the supernatural.
Religion without religious authority?
Li and the co-authors suggest that some people continue to believe in God and maintain links with religious communities while no longer accepting that churches or religious leaders should determine what they believe about supernatural phenomena.
The researchers point to practices such as astrology, tarot and psychic services as examples of supernatural interests that do not necessarily require membership of a religious institution.
Their findings come amid wider changes in American religious affiliation. Around three in 10 American adults have no religious affiliation, according to figures cited in the research.
However, the absence of a formal religious identity does not necessarily mean a person rejects spirituality. The study cites Pew Research Center findings indicating that only a small proportion of Americans without a religious affiliation identify as atheists, while many retain some belief in something beyond the natural world.
The researchers argue that this distinction matters when considering whether declining participation in organised religion will inevitably lead to a more secular society in which supernatural beliefs disappear.
An ancient relationship between magic and religion
The research also places the findings in a broader historical context, noting that magic, religion and scientific thinking have not always been treated as mutually exclusive.
It cites French sociologist Émile Durkheim, who wrote in 1912: ‘The magician has a clientele, not a church.’
The observation highlights a distinction between individual supernatural practices and organised religious life. Belief in magic does not necessarily require a shared doctrine, a congregation or an established religious hierarchy.
The study also refers to archaeologist Chris Gosden’s argument that belief in magic predates both organised religion and modern science, and that the three have coexisted for much of human history.
For Li and the co-authors, the findings offer a more detailed picture of how these different outlooks can overlap in contemporary America.
More research needed
The researchers caution that their findings provide a snapshot rather than evidence of how people’s beliefs develop over time.
Because the survey captured attitudes at a single point in time, it cannot establish whether people are moving away from organised religion, returning to faith or maintaining a relatively stable combination of religious and rationalist beliefs.
Further research following the same participants over a longer period would be needed to understand how their views change.
The study also leaves questions about why supernatural beliefs appeal to younger Americans and how such beliefs spread.
Its central finding is that trust in science and reason does not automatically rule out belief in the supernatural. Among some Americans, particularly those who retain a belief in God, the two appear capable of existing side by side.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Many churches lack AI policies despite widespread support among pastors, study finds]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/many-churches-lack-ai-policies-despite-widespread-support-among-pastors-study-finds</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/many-churches-lack-ai-policies-despite-widespread-support-among-pastors-study-finds</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Obianuju Mbah]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[bible, bible study, laptop, faith]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:38:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[New research reveals a significant divide between church leaders’ recognition of the need for responsible AI practices and the measures currently in place within their congregations.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Most Protestant pastors in the United States are using artificial intelligence (AI), but most of their churches have yet to establish policies or guidelines governing its use, according to research from Barna Group.
The findings form part of Barna’s wider ‘Faith & AI’ research, conducted in partnership with Gloo through its multi-year ‘State of the Church’ initiative, which examines how emerging technologies are influencing religious life and ministry.
They reveal a significant divide between church leaders’ recognition of the need for responsible AI practices and the measures currently in place within their congregations.
In an online survey of 442 Protestant pastors across the United States conducted in December 2025, 94% agreed that churches should provide some form of guidance on the use of AI.
However, 79% acknowledged that their own churches had neither written policies nor informal guidelines addressing the technology.
Only 4% reported having an official AI policy, while a further 17% said their churches offered informal guidance.
Opinions were almost equally divided over how such guidance should be introduced.
Some 45% favoured a formal written policy, while 49% considered informal guidelines sufficient. Only 6% believed churches did not need either.
The research suggests that AI is already a familiar tool for many church leaders, particularly when preparing teaching materials and managing administrative responsibilities.
Just 13% of pastors reported not using AI at all.
Half reported using the technology to explore ideas, while 36% used it for research into biblical and theological subjects.
Around a third used AI to develop questions for small group discussions or assist with administrative work, at 34% each.
Nearly a quarter (24%) said they had used it when drafting or revising sermons.
Barna’s vice president of research, Daniel Copeland, said: “Pastors are predominantly using AI for behind-the-scenes work—for studying, research and administrative tasks. They’re using it to prepare for ministry, not to replace what happens when they’re actually with people.”
However, pastors were considerably more cautious about allowing AI to perform tasks traditionally associated with spiritual leadership.
While 64% felt positive about using AI to develop programmes for Bible studies and small groups, the proportions were substantially lower for other religious activities.
Only 37% felt positive about AI writing prayers, while 33% felt positive about its use in composing worship songs.
Fewer than three in ten felt positive about AI interpreting Scripture (29%) or writing sermons (27%).
The greatest reluctance concerned spiritual counselling, with just 10% expressing a positive view of AI being used for this purpose.
Separate findings from Barna’s research suggest that practising Christians are generally more open than pastors to the technology being used for certain religious activities.
Among practising Christians surveyed, 58% expressed positive views about AI writing sermons and the same proportion about it interpreting Scripture, while 47% viewed its use in spiritual counselling favourably and 73% responded positively to it creating church programmes.
As AI becomes more widely available, Christian leaders are considering how its use might affect the authenticity of preaching and the responsibilities of those delivering spiritual teaching.
During Barna’s ‘Preaching in the Age of AI CoLab’, an online learning event, Sharon Hodde Miller, co-lead pastor of Bright City Church in Raleigh-Durham, emphasised: “As Christians, we believe our integrity matters just as much as, if not more than, the outcome.”
She cautioned against judging the use of AI solely by whether the resulting sermon is accurate or beneficial to listeners.
Miller encouraged pastors to acknowledge the sources and influences behind their sermons, highlighting transparency and humility as important aspects of ministerial integrity.
Carey Nieuwhof, an author and founder of the Art of Leadership Academy, similarly urged church leaders not to rely too heavily on technology during the creative and spiritual process of sermon preparation.
Speaking on Barna’s ‘Faith & Culture Report’ podcast, he recommended that pastors undertake the initial work of writing sermons themselves before considering AI as an additional resource.
“One of the best things that you can do is write the first draft yourself,” he said.
He added: “I think if you are uncomfortable disclosing how you use AI, you are overusing it.”
Despite considerable agreement among pastors that guidance is necessary, Barna acknowledged that introducing policies could present practical difficulties for churches.
Among the questions facing church leadership teams highlighted by the research organisation are who should determine acceptable uses of AI, how compliance should be assessed and how guidelines can remain relevant as the technology develops.
Barna also noted that its research does not establish why so many congregations have yet to introduce policies or guidelines, despite the strong support for providing guidance among pastors.
Nevertheless, the organisation suggested that the findings highlight the need for churches to consider how AI should be incorporated into ministry, particularly in areas such as preaching, biblical interpretation and spiritual care.
“Guidelines could help ministry teams stay aligned on AI use, and they could bring transparency and build trust with congregants,” Barna concluded.
It continued: “For leaders, AI offers a quick way to ease the Sunday-to-Sunday work of preparing sermons, planning worship and handling administration. Drafting a policy is one way for a leadership team to slow down and decide where AI fits.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[New index examines how faith-based businesses put beliefs into practice]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/new-index-examines-how-faith-based-businesses-put-beliefs-into-practice</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/new-index-examines-how-faith-based-businesses-put-beliefs-into-practice</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff writer]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[workplace, company, employment, staff, work, business]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2026 09:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[A pilot study of 100 organisations explores how religious beliefs shape investment, governance and social responsibility.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
A new report has been published examining how faith-based businesses and financial institutions actually put their beliefs into practice.
The new “Multi-Faith Economy Index” was developed by Consulus, which bills itself as a “global creative change firm” that works towards “an Economy of Communion”.
The index, launched at Lambeth Palace, examines how faith-based businesses and foundations put their faith into practice in their daily practices and business decisions.
Businesses were asked 10 questions about issues like faith identity, capital and investment, governance, people and society, and impact. Each answer was given a grade of between 0 and 2, meaning the maximum score on the index is 20.
The pilot index looked at 100 organisations and granted any that scored 18 or above the title of “thought leader” in the sector.
The banking category was dominated by Islamic institutions, with all but one of the 14 “thought leaders” in the sector being Islamic. Cologne-based Pax Bank was the lone Christian bank granted thought leader status.
The realm of asset management was more equally split, with three Islamic thought leaders in the sector and two Christian thought leaders, namely CCLA Investment Management, which was founded in 1958 to manage the Church of England’s investments and US-based Thrivent Asset Management, which was founded by Lutherans.
Among foundations, Christians were more dominant. Two of the four thought leaders in the sector are explicitly Christian - Catholic Relief Services and Caritas Internationalis. One was Islamic and one was founded by a Christian but is devoted to religious understanding in general - the John Templeton Foundation.  
The index noted that faith-based institutions had developed from merely avoiding “sin” industries and moved increasingly towards investing in social good. 
Consulus stressed its report was just a pilot and that scores were based on the published output of organisations, not on their actual actions – meaning that many institutions may actually deserve a higher ranking, but do not have one because they have not publicised their efforts.
The group said that it would develop its framework and use a larger sample of organisations for future editions.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[St Thomas: the apostle, the missionary, the martyr, and the legend ]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/st-thomas-the-apostle-the-missionary-the-martyr-and-the-legend</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/st-thomas-the-apostle-the-missionary-the-martyr-and-the-legend</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Martyn Whittock]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Saint Thomas, Apostle Thomas, Doubting Thomas]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Sun, 01 Nov 2026 11:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[The historical Thomas is elusive. ]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they are surrounded by a great “cloud of witnesses.” (NRSV) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will be thinking about some of the people and events, over the past 2000 years, that have helped make up this “cloud.” People and events that have helped build the community of the Christian church as it exists today. 
The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of how the Good News of Jesus rapidly spread out from the Judean and Galilean heartlands of the faith within a generation. However, we can sometimes forget about the apostolic missionaries whose travels and preaching are not recorded in the New Testament, for these too made a huge impact on the geographical spread of Christian faith. 
Of all the apostles, Thomas is perhaps the one whose reputation has travelled furthest from the New Testament heartlands and, indeed, from the Greco-Roman Mediterranean generally. In the Christian traditions of the East, he is remembered as the great missionary of the Persian and Indian worlds; a founder of ancient Christian communities; a martyr, and a leader whose legacy has shaped communities for nearly two thousand years.
The historical Thomas is elusive. The New Testament tells us little about his life, and says nothing about where he went after the Resurrection. As a result, the rich stories of his missionary career belong to a later body of literature and oral tradition and there are certainly questions about some of these as evidence. However, it would be going too far to classify all those traditions as mere inventions.
A number contain details that fit what is known about the ancient world of the East which suggests they may refer to real events. Others preserve memories cherished by early Christian communities which may contain ancient traditions. The challenge for us is to distinguish what can reasonably be reconstructed from the later traditions and, at times, the world of Christian legend.
Thomas in the gospels
Thomas appears in all four Gospels as one of the Twelve. His name is particularly prominent in John’s Gospel, where he emerges as a distinct personality rather than simply a name in an apostolic list.
John tells us that Thomas was also called “the Twin” (Greek Didymus). When Jesus announces his intention to travel to Jerusalem it is Thomas who responds courageously: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). Consequently, Thomas is not simply the hesitant “doubter” of later popular imagination.
Thomas also appears again during Jesus’ farewell discourse, when Jesus tells his disciples that they know the way to the place where he is going and Thomas comments that they do not know where he is going, and asks how they can know the way (John 14:4-7). This results in one of the most famous sayings in the gospel when Jesus replies: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
However, Thomas’ defining episode, however, comes after the Resurrection.  Absent when the risen Jesus first appears to the other disciples, Thomas refuses to accept their testimony without physical evidence. Then when Jesus appears again - and Thomas is present - Jesus invites him to inspect the wounds. Then Thomas makes the dramatic confession: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) Jesus responds with the blessing of those who have not seen and yet believe.
After this, the New Testament tells us little more about him. Thomas appears among the apostles in Acts 1:13, but Acts does not record his subsequent travels or death. A later source – the Gospel of Thomas, discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945  - dates from the second or, perhaps, third century and contains sayings (“hidden words”) attributed to Jesus, revealed to Thomas, and showing Gnostic influences.  Other - also later sources - claim to chart his career after the Resurrection. 
Consequently, anything we know of his missionary career comes from sources outside the New Testament. These, though, tell us of extraordinary journeys.
Take 1. The missionary travels of Thomas - as far Parthia?
The earliest (extra-biblical) traditions do not agree. One important tradition connects Thomas with Parthia. This was a great Iranian empire stretching across parts of modern Iran, Iraq and into Central Asia. The third-century Christian writer Origen - whose testimony is preserved in Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History (published in 324-325) - states that Parthia was Thomas’ missionary field. According to Origen: “Parthia ... was allotted to Thomas as his field of labour.” 
This is much earlier than the Indian traditions which link Thomas with Kerala. This does not mean that we should dismiss these, rather it gives primacy of place to Parthia in terms of the date of recording of the supporting literature.
Another important early source is Clement of Alexandria (died c. 215), who preserves the tradition of an earlier (Gnostic) writer named Heracleon (active c. 175). This states that Thomas died a natural death and conflicts with the later - and much more famous - account of Thomas’ martyrdom in India. This is a reminder that early Christians did not possess a single (and universally agreed) biography of the apostle. But the traditions point East, away from the Mediterranean world that we know well from the Acts of the Apostles.
Take 2. The missionary travels of Thomas - as far as India?
The most elaborate account of Thomas’ later life is found in the Acts of Thomas. This is an early Syriac Christian work and is generally dated to the third century. It now survives in both Syriac and Greek versions. As a genre it might be described as a ‘religious adventure-romance.’
In the Acts of Thomas, Thomas is chosen by God to evangelise “India”. This term was used to describe areas to the east of the Parthian world and could extend to the River Indus (even if not necessarily into southern India), so it may be comparable to the Parthian tradition, just outlined. It may also have influenced the later Keralan traditions (see below). 
Thomas is reluctant to go, so Jesus appears to him and sends him eastward in the company of a merchant named Abbanes (or Habban), who has received Thomas as a slave from Jesus. Thomas then arrives in the territory of a king called Gondophares. Having presented himself as a craftsman, the king gives him money to construct a palace. However, Thomas distributes the money to the poor and tells the king that he is building a heavenly palace. The king is angry at this, but a miraculous experience leads him to grasp Thomas’ meaning and, so, the king embraces Christianity.
The story is plainly influenced by the theology of the emerging asceticism of the third century onwards. Marriage is frequently rejected in favour of sexual renunciation, and the apostle’s ministry is portrayed as a struggle between Christian holiness and worldly power and lifestyle. Thomas performs miracles, challenges elites, converts households and (indicative of its time of compilation) preaches an uncompromisingly ascetic form of Christianity.
So far, so legendary. But there is some supporting evidence. Surviving coins and inscriptions reveal the existence of an Indo-Parthian ruler named Gondophares in the mid first century. He ruled a kingdom covering parts of modern-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, and northwest India. His coins bear his name in Greek letters and Kharosthi script. Now, this does not prove that Thomas met him as described in the text, but it indicates that the compiler had access to genuine information when it came to choosing the location, at least, of Thomas’ exploits. Consequently, it might preserve fragments of a historical memory within a largely fictional account. 
Take 3. The missionary travels of Thomas - Edessa?
Thomas also became associated with Edessa. This was a major city in northern Mesopotamia (now Şanlıurfa in Turkey). According to an early tradition, a king named Abgar wrote to Jesus asking him to come and heal him. In reply, Jesus promises to send a disciple instead. In a version of this tradition, preserved by Eusebius, that disciple is named as Thaddaeus. However, the later Doctrine of Addai (late fourth or early fifth century) claims that the apostle Thomas sent another Christian, named Addai, to Edessa. His preaching converted the king and established a Christian community there.
This adds yet another facet to the traditions around Thomas and reveals how the connection with the East was picked up by later Christian communities there. In this case, Thomas replaced the less famous Thaddaeus. The tradition was clearly malleable! 
What is clear is that Edessa became one of the great centres of Syriac Christianity, and Thomas became enmeshed in its (claimed) early sacred history. This was consistent with many Christian communities who sought a connection with first-century apostles. This was underscored by a sixth-century document called the Chronicle of Edessa, which records the transfer of Thomas’ relics to a church in Edessa dedicated to him, in the year 394. It also records the making of a silver reliquary for his bones c.441. Clearly, by the late fourth century a cult of Thomas existed in Edessa.  
Take 4. The missionary travels of Thomas - the later Keralan connection
Today, the best-known tradition regarding Thomas is that he travelled to southern India, founding Christian communities there. Here, the so-called ‘Saint Thomas Christians’ of Kerala, on India’s tropical Malabar Coast preserve a tradition that Thomas arrived there in the year 52. Preaching among both Jewish and indigenous communities, he established seven churches. He later travelled eastwards, where he was martyred at Mylapore, near present-day Chennai (capital city of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal). Given Roman trade connections with southern India, this is all possible.
The tradition is strongly held but does not have an early literary base. Nevertheless, though late in its present written form, it preserves earlier church foundation-histories, songs and ritual performances. One, the Ramban Pattu (Song of Thomas), tells of the apostle’s arrival with the merchant Habban (as in the Acts of Thomas) and his missionary work. Passed down orally for centuries by the Christian Nasrani (Nazarene) community, it was formally written down in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century. 
Similarly, the Margam Kali Pattu (The Song of the Way) is an ancient ritual folk song and circle dance that dates, in its present form, to the seventeenth century. The Veeradiyan Pattu (Bard’s Song) is another traditional Malayalam (a Dravidian language closely related to Tamil) folk song. Once again, the surviving text can only be definitively traced back to the seventeenth century. Both claim to preserve stories of Thomas’ Indian ministry. These traditions are a powerful part of the living cultural inheritance of Kerala’s Christians.
There is also a long-standing tradition of Thomas’ tomb being located at Mylapore. By the Middle Ages the shrine there was sufficiently famous to attract pilgrims. However, the existence of an ancient Christian shrine does not, of itself, prove that Thomas was buried there.
As with the community at Edessa, these traditions connect South Indian Christians with the first generation of believers, rather than with later colonial-era missionaries. These claims of ancient apostolic roots are very important to these communities, even if historians are cautious regarding accepting them as reliable. 
Thomas and South India. How convincing is the evidence?
The Acts of Thomas is an imaginative work; the Kerala traditions are much later still in terms of evidence for their first recording. What is most thought-provoking is the way these traditions combine. The orientation is always to the East. 
Eastern Christianity had ancient roots buttressed by strong later traditions - including in southern India - even if we struggle to find early literary evidence to substantiate later claims. There was certainly trade and travel connecting the Roman, Parthian and Indian worlds. So, what to make of this? Thomas’ link to Edessa is fairly late and has the hallmarks of legend. Thomas in Parthia is very convincing. Thomas in Kerala is a possibility, but the tradition is Early Modern in its current form and first-century roots (though possible) are much harder to prove.
What is clear is that medieval Indian Christians (from late antiquity onwards), maintained close relationships with the Church of the East and the ancient Christian communities of Mesopotamia (Parthia). One possible process for the development of the Thomas tradition is: early and convincing eastern missionary work in the Parthian world; picked up and embellished by the compiler of the Acts of Thomas and claims made there regarding the origins of Christian communities even further to the east; further embellished, but connected to Edessa, by the compiler of the Doctrine of Addai; Keralan Christian communities (founded early but by unknown missionaries) made a connection with the “India” tradition and claimed it as their origin story in oral accounts, not reaching written form until the Early Modern Period. 
It is a reminder both of how far and fast the Christian message spread in the century after the earthly ministry of Jesus, assisted by existing trade routes, and also how much we do not know about the mechanics and personnel involved. Alternatively, perhaps Thomas did go beyond Parthia, to found communities and die as a martyr in southern India. It is a fascinating possibility, and we cannot rule it out. It is certainly integral to the cultural history of the Nasrani (Saint Thomas Christian) community of Kerala. Thomas was far travelled.
Martyn Whittock is an historian and a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England. His recent books, exploring how ‘deep stories’ influence later community identities, include:  Trump and the Puritans (2020), American Vikings. How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America (2023) and Vikings in the East. From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin (2025). He explored the history of the spread of Christianity from its original heartlands in the co-written Christ: The First 2000 Years (2016).]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Churches challenged to make single Christians feel fully part of church life]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/churches-challenged-to-make-single-christians-feel-fully-part-of-church-life</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Anita Laryea]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Bible study, Christians, church, fellowship]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Sat, 31 Oct 2026 13:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Churches need to move beyond assumptions that marriage and family are the normal markers of a fulfilled Christian life and create communities where single people are fully valued, speakers at the inaugural Single Friendly Church Network conference have said. ]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Churches should strengthen their welcome for single Christians and ensure they feel fully valued in the life of their congregations, speakers at the inaugural Single Friendly Church Network conference have said.
The conference, titled ‘Belonging’, was held to initiate Single Friendly Church Week, a campaign by the Single Friendly Church Network seeking to inspire a culture shift in churches across denominations so that people can feel valued regardless of their relationship status. 
Sorcha Connell, executive director of the Single Friendly Church Network, said churches across different denominations were often failing to recognise the social, emotional, spiritual and financial realities experienced by single Christians. 
She suggested the problem was primarily “relational rather than doctrinal”, and warned against a model of church life in which Christian maturity can appear to be measured against expected relationship milestones. 
“When we treat faith like a ladder we start believing that whoever is climbing fastest, whoever is hitting the expected milestones, is doing it right and whoever isn’t must be doing it wrong,” she said. 
She continued: “The church was never meant to be a ladder, it was meant to be a table, wide enough and low enough for everyone in the room to feel included, to feel like they belong.” 
Connell highlighted that singleness encompasses a wide variety of experiences, including people who have never married, those who are divorced or widowed, single parents, people actively dating, and Christians married to someone who does not share their faith. 
She pointed to figures from the Office for National Statistics which show around 8.6 million people in the UK living alone. She also cited a 2012 Christian Connection survey of more than 3,000 single Christians, in which 43 per cent agreed that their churches “don’t know what to do with them”. 
More recent research by the Single Friendly Church Network in 2026 underlined the importance of friendship. According to Connell, over 95 per cent of respondents said having Christian friends “mattered enormously to them”. 
“Friendship is the chosen family. As a single person, that’s critical,” one participant told the organisation. 
Connell said many churches have a strong family focus, with talks and courses for different groups but few specifically addressing single people, while church celebrations frequently centre on occasions like Mother’s and Father’s Day, weddings, engagements and births. 
She also highlighted research by the network into single people’s experiences of Christmas. More than half of those surveyed said they would not attend their own church on Christmas Day. According to Connell, this was not because they had lost their faith, but because a day so strongly associated with family and togetherness could be painful for those experiencing it alone. Some said they would prefer to attend a carol service during Advent instead. 
“I don’t say this to shame anyone’s Christmas dinner rota. Many churches do this beautifully,” she said. “But how single people actually feel in our congregations does not always seem to reach the people who are leading the worship, writing sermons, planning the year, organising events.” 
She challenged churches to ask: “How do single people feel in your community?” 
Connell said it was telling that when the network’s church engagement manager wears a “Jesus was Single” T-shirt at events, it causes people to “stop and consider this” and “sparks conversations”. 
“We often subconsciously think ‘single’ means ‘alone’,” she said. 
Jesus, she said, “was not single while waiting for another stage of life to begin, but throughout his adult life”. His example challenges the idea that having no spouse means having an incomplete life. 
“When people hear the word ‘single’ they sometimes think it means isolated,” she said, pointing instead to the friendships and community surrounding Jesus throughout his ministry. 
“Jesus was indeed single; his life was not incomplete,” she added. 
The Single Friendly Church Network is seeking to bring about a culture shift in churches so that single Christians are welcomed and valued through every stage of life. The charity works ecumenically across denominations and traces its beginnings to concerns raised by single Christians in 2012 before its launch as a charity in 2023. 
Jackie Elton, founder and trustee of Single Friendly Church, described how her own experience of singleness eventually contributed to the movement. 
In her late twenties, she recalled speaking to her vicar about why she did not appear to be heading towards marriage. Instead of offering clichés about waiting and praying for the right person, she said he encouraged her to ask deeper questions about who she was and where her life was going. 
Elton later launched the dating website Christian Connection in 2000. Initially, she believed online dating could effectively “solve the problem of singleness” by helping Christians marry. However, the experiences of people using the site complicated that assumption. 
Elton said traditional approaches to singles ministry had also often reinforced the assumption that marriage was the ultimate destination. 
“There’s been a lot of singles ministries, where a lot of them were for young people before they got married and telling them what to do before they got married and how to get married,” she said. 
She continued: “They were very marriage focused, and were often led by married people.” 
She recalled that Christian Connection itself initially approached singleness primarily through the lens of dating, but the experiences of people using the site began to challenge that assumption. 
“It wasn’t just about dating,” she said. In her experience, some users were looking for community, events and an opportunity to talk about their experiences of church. 
Those experiences eventually contributed to a major survey of single Christians. Around 3,000 people responded within a week, many using the opportunity to write at length about their experiences of church. 
Elton said the response was “overwhelming”, with 42 per cent saying they felt their churches did not see them. 
The answer, she concluded, could not simply be another programme for singles.
“We need to change culture, we need to change all those attitudes of people saying, ‘well we don’t really have any single people in the church’,” she said. 
Rev Kate Wharton, a trustee of Single Friendly Church, turned the conference’s attention to mission and argued that becoming more welcoming to single people could strengthen the whole Church’s witness. 
“Being single-friendly as a church isn’t just good news for single people. In fact it makes the whole church do better at community and that is good for mission,” she said. 
Drawing on Acts 2, Wharton said the biblical picture of the Church was of believers sharing life, food, possessions, worship and mutual care. 
She cautioned that churches can unintentionally organise themselves around an ideal of marriage, family and children rather than around Christ. 
“When churches are built that way, almost certainly not on purpose, they create a hierarchy that says that some people’s lifestyles and relationships have more value than others, that marriage is the expected life destination, that singleness is just a waiting room,” she said. 
Single-friendly churches could offer a compelling alternative by cultivating intergenerational friendships, hospitality, generosity and shared life, she suggested. 
Churches also needed to think about which milestones they celebrate, Wharton said. Engagements, weddings and births are routinely marked, but significant moments in single people’s lives, such as moving home, starting a new job, graduating or receiving an award, may receive less attention. 
Against a culture that still measures adulthood and success through a linear series of relationship and family milestones, Wharton said the Church has a different account of human flourishing to offer. 
“Success in life is following Jesus, it’s our life being hidden with Christ,” she said. 
She continued: “This is not just missionally relevant, it’s missionally imperative, we have a different story to tell and it is a far better story than the one our culture is trying to write.” 
She concluded that singleness should perhaps not be regarded as a problem for churches to fix but as a challenge to rediscover what Christian community really means. 
“We sometimes talk about singleness like it’s a problem the church needs to solve, but perhaps singleness is actually giving the church a question it needs to answer,” she said. 
“What does it mean to belong to one another, because we belong to Christ?
“If we can become that kind of church, for people who arrive on their own we might discover that we are becoming much more like the church Jesus always intended for everyone.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Half of Christian questions on ChatGPT are attempts to understand the Bible]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/half-of-christian-questions-on-chatgpt-are-attempts-understand-the-bible</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/half-of-christian-questions-on-chatgpt-are-attempts-understand-the-bible</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff writer]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[ChatGPT, OpenAI, artificial intelligence, AI]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2026 08:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Some searches could be people attempting to learn about other faiths.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Figures from OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, have shown that every week the AI chatbot receives around 70 million enquiries on the subject of religion.
Unsurprisingly it is the world’s two largest religions, Christianity and Islam that receive the lion’s share of interest.
The analysis, which looked at requests from September 2025 to September 2026 found that 45 per cent of religion-related interactions were about Islam and 34 per cent were concerned with Christianity.
Hinduism accounted for just four per cent of requests, Judaism two per cent and Buddhism one per cent.
OpenAI also found that religion-based requests tended to surge around religious holidays, with Islam-related requests rising during Ramadan and Eid, and Christian requests increasing at Easter.
As to the nature of the requests, a little under a third were about understanding religious texts (22 million a week on average), while around 16 million were focused on the meaning of religious practices and holidays. Similar numbers asked questions about beliefs, meaning and spiritual guidance.
Around half of Christian-related interactions asked about passages of scripture, with just 13 per cent about worship, sermons or church practices.
"The common thread is that people are using AI to deepen their understanding of their faith, not to replace it," said OpenAI. 
In their report, the company said that while artificial intelligence was being used by believers to support their religious lives, it should not become a replacement for genuine spiritual guidance.
“AI should help people pursue what matters to them, including their faith, while strengthening rather than replacing human relationships and institutions," it said.
"Religious life is rooted in shared traditions, personal conviction, and connections among people. AI can support those activities, but it cannot and should not substitute for them,” the researchers wrote.
“AI is not - and should not become - an arbiter of religious truth or a replacement for spiritual guidance. Those roles belong to individuals, religious leaders, and congregations.
"What AI can do is to give people tools that help them practice their faith, deepen their understanding, and connect more meaningfully with those who share their beliefs.”]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Francis of Assisi and the battle for his legacy: poverty, power and the medieval Church]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/francis-of-assisi-and-the-battle-for-his-legacy-poverty-power-and-the-medieval-church</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/francis-of-assisi-and-the-battle-for-his-legacy-poverty-power-and-the-medieval-church</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Martyn Whittock]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[St Francis of Assisi]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Fri, 30 Oct 2026 07:11:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Eight hundred years after his death, Francis of Assisi’s radical embrace of poverty still raises challenging questions about wealth, power and the Church’s faithfulness to the gospel.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they are surrounded by a great “cloud of witnesses.” (NRSV) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will be thinking about some of the people and events, over the past 2000 years, that have helped make up this “cloud.” People and events that have helped build the community of the Christian church as it exists today. 
The Name of the Rose is a 1980 historical murder-mystery novel by Italian semiotician and author Umberto Eco, which was also adapted into a 1986 feature film and a 2019 television miniseries. 
The backdrop to the novel is a major 14th-century dispute over Franciscan poverty, both within the Franciscan Order and between the Franciscans and Pope John XXII. Eco sets the novel in 1327, precisely when this controversy was reaching a particularly dangerous stage.
The fictional William of Baskerville – who is central to the novel – is a Franciscan sympathetic to the radical idea of renunciation of worldly wealth, and the abbey where a series of murders occur is hosting a crucial (and potentially explosive) theological meeting between representatives of the Franciscan side and the papal side.
The disagreement that is central to this meeting centres on this question: ‘Did Christ and the apostles themselves possess property?’ If they had possessed absolutely nothing, then radical Franciscan poverty could claim to be the authentic model of Christian life. This question – and its answer – had huge social and political ramifications, as well as theological ones. 
The fictional detective investigation that occurs in the book is taking place against a very real historical struggle in which theological disagreement could lead to accusations of heresy, excommunication, imprisonment, or worse. And it was all rooted in an increasingly bitter and violent falling-out over the legacy of Francis of Assisi. 
It’s all a long way from modern images of the saint preaching to birds and wild animals. In the 800th year since the death of this famous saint (in October 1226), it is worth reflecting on his legacy in the century after his activities. For those who debated it at the time, the discussion soon became explosive …
The impact of Francis of Assisi
When Francis of Assisi died, on 3 October 1226, he left behind no theological system or blueprint for reforming the Church. Instead, he left an example of Christian discipleship that embraced personal poverty, humility, service to the marginalised, and imitation of Christ that has inspired many since. However, within a century his followers were bitterly divided over what this example required of them and of the Franciscan Order. Did they represent a radical authentic model of Christian life? And, if so, how could they coexist with the powerful and immensely wealthy institution that the Christian Church had become? 
They were wrestling with the challenge of how should the Franciscan Order adapt to institutional demands made on it by the Church hierarchy, while remaining faithful to its founder? At the centre of this quest was a matter of authority: who possessed the authority to interpret the meaning of the Francis-phenomenon: the pope, the Order’s leaders, or those within the movement (as well as on its periphery) who were committed to implementing this lifestyle in ways that challenged the power-structures of their contemporary society?
These questions culminated in the 14th-century confrontation between Pope John XXII and leading Franciscans, particularly Michael of Cesena and William of Ockham. The dispute over poverty rapidly became a struggle over ideas about ownership of property, over papal authority and the relationship between the radical demands of the gospel and the institution of the medieval Church.
The debate over the legacy of Francis
Francis had made poverty a way of imitating Christ. It was not simply an ascetic discipline. Though born into a prosperous merchant family in Assisi, he had renounced his inheritance and – in stark contrast – had embraced preaching, service and dependence upon others. His clear concern for outcast lepers and the poor, along with his love of God’s creation, expressed a distinct spirituality which was grounded in humility, service and fellowship. He became known as “il poverello” (little poor man), and it was said that he married “Lady Poverty.”
Francis died in October 1226 and was canonised by Pope Gregory IX as early as 1228. This was a stellar post-mortem career. During the later 1220s Assisi became a centre of pilgrimage, as the Franciscan movement expanded across Europe.  Unlike monks, who lived principally within monasteries, the friars were so-called ‘mendicants,’ depending upon alms while preaching, teaching and serving urban communities. They soon became very popular and, as they did so, their popularity prompted some animosity from established - monastic - Orders and parish clergy.
However, expansion brought practical difficulties. The Franciscan Order soon acquired houses to accommodate friars, churches, books and administration. How could it sustain these (apparent) necessities while professing the poverty of Christ and his apostles that had underpinned the life of Francis? It was a tricky question, to put it mildly.
The Rule of Francis, approved by Pope Honorius III in 1223, made poverty central to the Franciscan vocation. Yet his followers soon needed authoritative interpretations of his intentions as to how to take the movement forward. One who made a significant contribution to this was named Bonaventure, who was minister general from 1257 to 1274. He attempted to reconcile Francis’ spiritual example with ongoing institutional requirements. He is often called the ‘second founder’ of the Franciscan Order, as he balanced the radical poverty ideals associated with Francis with the institutional needs of a rapidly growing movement. 
He did this by establishing a legal and theological distinction between the use of goods and the ownership of goods. He argued that the Franciscan Order completely renounced all dominium (legal ownership) of property, books, and buildings and, instead, transferred these entirely to the Holy See (the Papacy). The friars merely maintained the usus (use) or usus pauper (restricted, poor use) of these necessities to carry out their ministry. To curb what he viewed as the twin dangers of extreme laxity and fanatical extremism within the Order, Bonaventure drafted the Constitutions of Narbonne. This set uniform rules on what friars could wear, eat, and use; it barred friars from directly handling money; limited the size and decoration of Franciscan churches; and set boundaries on how resources could be managed through the oversight of external papal agents (procurators).
Francis was notoriously sceptical of academic theology, as he feared it bred pride and destroyed the spirit of holy prayer. In contrast, Bonaventure was a master at the University of Paris and argued that, in order to preach effectively against heresies and to guide the Catholic faithful in growing urban centres, friars needed education and so he reframed study as a form of spiritual work.
The result was a strategy of reimagining Francis, in order to heal the deep ideological rifts between the so-called ‘Spirituals’ (who demanded a return to Francis’ literal and rigorous poverty) and the ‘Relaxati’ (who favoured institutional structures). Bonaventure spiritualised the – very literal – poverty of Francis and presented him, instead, as a Christ-like figure, and identified him as “the angel of the sixth seal” (Revelation 7:2-3). This presented Francis as a unique prophetic herald sent at the end of time. Crucially, though, instead of framing Francis as a rebel against the hierarchy of Church and state - as some 13th-century ‘Spiritual’ Franciscans (influenced by the apocalyptic theories of Joachim of Fiore) had done - Bonaventure reimagined him as a herald sent by God to save and support the Catholic Church.
In Revelation, the angel of the sixth seal marks the servants of God with a sign to protect them from the coming cataclysmic judgments. In the view of Bonaventure, those who followed Francis’ example did not need to exactly imitate his embracing of poverty. Instead, they were to imitate his Christ-centred spirit. In this way they would be marked as rescued from judgement.
To many later observers, Bonaventure saved the Franciscan Order from fracturing into obscure, extreme, ascetic sects and being suppressed by a Church hierarchy that was deeply suspicious of the socio-economic radicalism of its theology. In so doing, he established it as one of the most powerful intellectual and missionary forces of the Middle Ages.
To others it was a sell-out to the world. Bonaventure had removed the detonator from the explosive charge that was Francis of Assisi! This brings us back to the controversy that nearly tore the Franciscan Order apart. 
A debate turns into a crisis
Pope Nicholas III had issued a decree in 1279 which stated that friars could use necessary goods without owning them, while legal title would be held by the Holy See (the Roman Church) or others. Some ‘Spirituals’ considered this an evasion of Francis’ intentions, believing that the poverty of Christ and the apostles was a model for the whole Church.
The term Fraticelli was a term applied to various dissident Franciscan groups, particularly those separated in some way from the recognised Order. It was not synonymous with all ‘Spirituals’ - some of these sought reforms within the Order, while others became separatists.
Pope John XXII (pope 1316 to 1334) brought these disagreements to a head. In 1317, he issued a bull (a decree) which required recalcitrant Spirituals to obey their superiors. Four friars were burned as heretics at Marseille in 1318, while others suffered imprisonment. Things were turning very nasty indeed.
The controversy became explicitly theological in 1321, when an inquisitorial investigation in southern France examined the assertion that Christ and the apostles had owned nothing. The issue was whether absolute poverty was an admirable religious practice or a doctrine grounded in Christian faith. If the latter it had huge implications. In response, in 1322, the Franciscan general chapter at Perugia declared that Christ and the apostles had possessed no property, either individually or in common. Michael of Cesena, who was the Order’s minister general, supported this position. As a result ‘evangelical poverty’ was becoming central to Franciscan identity.
Pope John challenged this declaration through a series of decrees. In 1322 he abandoned the papacy’s legal ownership of Franciscan possessions, arguing that the distinction between ownership and use was impractical, particularly for consumable goods. This overturned the compromise established by Bonaventure as it made Franciscans owners of their property!
In 1323 he condemned as heretical the assertion that Christ and the apostles had possessed nothing, individually or collectively. John maintained that the Church (led by the pope) alone had the authority to interpret scripture and administer property. The Franciscans, on the other hand, feared that abandoning Christ’s poverty would allow institutional interests to undermine the Church’s spiritual credibility. Battle lines were being drawn that included: scriptural interpretation, papal authority and the extent to which religious institutions could accommodate themselves to the world without compromising their principles.
The confrontation reached a decisive stage in 1328. Summoned to the papal court at Avignon, Michael of Cesena refused to abandon the Franciscan position. He then fled from the anticipated severe papal reaction with a number of associates, including the English Franciscan theologian William of Ockham, who argued that popes could err and that the authority of the Church could not be equated with the judgement of a single office-holder (ie an individual pope).
Those fleeing Avignon sought protection from Louis IV of Bavaria (the Holy Roman Emperor). Louis was engaged in a political struggle with the papacy and this transformed the poverty controversy into a confrontation over imperial and papal power. The Franciscan criticism of Pope John now had political consequences.
Resolution of the crisis
The controversy was finally resolved institutionally rather than through agreement over the matter of ‘evangelical poverty.’ In 1328, after Michael of Cesena and his associates went into exile, Pope John removed him from his position within the Franciscan Order. The Order accepted papal authority under new leadership. Most Franciscans remained within the Church, though some left in protest. 
Michael of Cesena died in exile in 1342, while Ockham continued writing against papal abuses until his death, probably in 1347. While their arguments did not overturn Pope John’s rulings, strict poverty survived as a Franciscan ideal at least. The Observant Franciscans pursued a more rigorous observance of the Rule in the 15th century, followed later by the Order of Capuchins.
The Dolcinians: a related but distinct movement
The Fraticelli were not the only ones in conflict with the worldly wealth and power of the medieval Church. The Apostolic Brethren (and later the Dolcinians), belonged to a wider medieval search for a return to (what they considered) apostolic Christianity. 
Gerard Segarelli founded the Apostolic Brethren in northern Italy during the later 13th century, emphasising poverty and itinerant preaching. Some disaffected Franciscans joined the movement. He also condemned the wealth and worldly power of the Church. The movement eventually spread throughout Lombardy and into Germany, France, Spain, and England, although it is hard to identify the connections between all these groups. Segarelli was executed as a heretic in 1300 and Fra Dolcino became leader.
Under Dolcino, the movement developed a more radical opposition to ecclesiastical authority, connected to apocalyptic end-times beliefs, and it eventually engaged in armed resistance against troops sent by ecclesiastical and feudal authorities and also attacked and looted villages that were loyal to the established Church or who did not support what was becoming an apocalyptic guerrilla movement. 
Dolcino and his remaining followers were finally defeated in 1307; and he was burned at the stake in northern Italy. However, that was not the end of the movement. Fifteen years later (in 1322), about thirty Dolcinians were burned alive in the marketplace at Padua. This is the background to the events described in The Name of the Rose novel.
They did not have a direct organisational connection with the Franciscan Fraticelli but, instead, represent a related radical current and clearly added to the papacy’s determination to both defend the status quo and stamp out similar trends among the Franciscans.
The complex legacy of Francis of Assisi
Today, the legacy of Francis is mostly seen as a pursuit of personal holiness expressed through self-denial, rejection of worldly wealth, association with the marginalised, alongside a holistic appreciation of God’s nature as revealed in creation. This is a worthy legacy.
However, in the century after his death there was a much sharper edge to the discussions regarding the significance of his life and teaching. Then it took the form of an increasingly bitter conflict over the place of wealth, power, and political imposition of ecclesiastical decisions, in the life and mission of the Church and regarding its alliances with secular authorities. 
Arguably, 800 years since Francis died, in 1226, that is a debate that is still to be resolved. It is a reminder that the legacy of Francis of Assisi goes deeper than personal poverty and preaching to the animals and birds!
Martyn Whittock is an historian and a Licensed Lay Minister in the Church of England. The author, or co-author, of fifty-eight books, his work covers a wide range of historical and theological themes. In addition, as a commentator and columnist, he has written for several print and online news platforms and been interviewed on TV and radio news and discussion programmes exploring the interaction of faith and politics. His books A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages (2013) and the co-written The Story of the Cross (2021), include explorations of the complex nature of medieval Christian faith and practice. His latest book Vikings in the East. From Vladimir the Great to Vladimir Putin (2025), explores the medieval ‘deep story’ that both unites and divides Russia and Ukraine.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Abraham, Elisha and the faith that makes room for others]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/abraham-elisha-and-the-faith-that-makes-room-for-others</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/abraham-elisha-and-the-faith-that-makes-room-for-others</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Irene Lancaster]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[tea, serving, hospitality, friendship, loneliness, community]]></media:title>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2026 09:21:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on hospitality and compassion through the lens of Abraham’s welcome to strangers and Elisha’s care for a grieving mother.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Jewish academic and Hebrew scholar Irene Lancaster reflects on hospitality and compassion through the lens of Abraham’s welcome to strangers and Elisha’s care for a grieving mother.
‘Vayera’ (‘And G-d appeared …’ Genesis 18-22:24) is the fourth Torah portion in Genesis. It is filled with foundational narratives of divine revelation, radical hospitality, moral argument and supreme testing.
The key themes are first of all, Abraham’s hospitality. Although G-d ‘appears to Abraham in the heat of the day by the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:1),’ Abraham interrupts his direct communion with G-d to run and welcome three weary strangers (v 2). 
The second theme is Abraham’s willingness to argue with G-d. When G-d shares with Abraham that He intends to destroy the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham steps forward. ‘Will the Judge of the earth not do Justice (Genesis 18:25)?’
Jewish commentators from Rashi (1040-1105) onwards highlight that Judaism encourages moral dialogue and pleading for human life, even on behalf of notoriously wicked cities.
The third theme is the birth of Isaac and Hagar’s exile. Abraham’s wife gives birth to Isaac in very old age (Genesis 21:2 ff), fulfilling the covenant promise, which eventually leads to the painful dispatching of Sarah’s handmaiden and her son Ishmael into the desert (Genesis 21:14). 
Commentators explore the emotional and ethical tension of these family dynamics, together with G-d’s attentiveness to Ishmael in his distress (21:17 ff).
The fourth theme is the Akeda story (the Binding of Isaac: Genesis 22). The climax of the Sedra is G-d commanding Abraham to offer his much-beloved son, Isaac, as an offering on Mount Moriah. 
Commentators wrestle deeply with the theological implications - why Abraham obeyed; the redefining of human sacrifice; and the enduring test of absolute faith.
Let’s circle back to the beginning: why does G-d appear to Abraham in Genesis 18:1?
According to Rashi, G-d was ‘visiting the sick’ after Abraham’s circumcision in old age!
Then the visitors arrive with the news that Sarah will have a child in very old age. After that, Abraham has his big conversation with G-d about justice and the punishment of the people of Sodom.
Whatever the reasons, the fact is that G-d appears to Abraham, but Abraham interrupts G-d in order to offer hospitality ‘in the heat of the day’ to the three guests, who turn out to be angels! 
Was G-d testing Abraham by sending him the guests just at that very moment in the hope that Abraham will understand that human need overcomes spiritual heights? If that is the case, it is a very bold step in the history of human religious development.
Only at Genesis 18:17 does Abraham return to his conversation with G-d. G-d even asks Himself: ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m doing? And, what is more, Abraham is surely to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through him, for I am very close to him (v 19).’
Why is this the case? Abraham is to become both great and blessed, because the children of Israel are compassionate, retiring and benevolent. The practice of charity is particularly important, according to Rambam (Maimonides 1135-1204), because it is the characteristic of the true descendant of Abraham.  
There is a link with hospitality, unexpected childbirth and even resurrection of the dead in the accompanying Haftorah for this Sedra. 
In II Kings 4:8 ff, the prophet Elisha travels to Shunem, near present-day Afula in the Haifa district of Israel. 
‘A prominent woman … insisted that he should break bread’. This became a habit with Elisha, so she told her husband that they should ‘make a small walled attic and put in it a bed, table, chair and lamp, so that whenever he visits us he can turn in there.’
Elisha asks what he can do to repay her hospitality and she says that she doesn’t have a child. Elisha blesses her with a son. 
This little boy dies suddenly and Elisha revives him by placing himself on the lifeless body. This miracle teaches us that we should try our utmost to breathe life into everything we do. We must try our hardest, just as Elisha did, and Abraham before him. We shouldn’t just wait for others or give up at the first hurdle.
Whether we are a patriarch or a prophet, or even an ordinary citizen, no small task is too insignificant for us. And sometimes, like Abraham and Elisha, we have to give up our important appointments to attend to the seemingly less important or hopeless human cases.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Number of children waiting for adoption surges as couples pursue IVF and surrogacy]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/number-of-children-waiting-for-adoption-surges-as-couples-pursue-ivf-and-surrogacy</link>
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                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[Staff writer]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[children, parenting, family]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2026 09:07:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[Christians are divided on the ethical questions raised by IVF.]]></description>
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The number of parentless children waiting for adoption has soared in recent years thanks in large part to couples turning to IVF, surrogacy and egg freezing, a new study has suggested.
The study, conducted by children’s charity Coram and Adoption England, found that the gap between the number of children in need of adoption and the number of approved adopters has increased 52 per cent in the last five years.
The situation is projected to worsen, with the gap expected to reach 87 per cent by 2030. At present, England alone has 1,600 children waiting for an approved adopter.
Carol Homden, the Chief Executive of Coram, said that couples with fertility problems were increasingly undergoing more rounds of IVF before even considering adoption.
“We need to make sure adoption is considered a viable option for forming your family, as surrogacy is very legally complex and uncertain, while IVF, even now, does not always work, and places many emotional and physical demands”.
Economic as well as cultural factors are also at play in the system.
Alastair Sutcliffe, a professor of general paediatrics at University College London, argued that fertility clinics do little to promote adoption, as to do so would clash with their financial incentives.
Professor Sutcliffe also claimed that if even a small portion of couples struggling with fertility considered adoption then “Britain’s adoption crisis would quickly be solved”, he said according to The Christian Institute. 
The use of IVF has long raised ethical concerns among Christians. Typically the process involves fertilising a number of eggs in lab conditions. While this can result in the creation of a viable embryo that goes on to become a human life, the process often results in the destruction of fertilised eggs which are not utilised.
While the Catholic Church opposes the process on the grounds that the destroyed embryos represent human life, Protestant denominations tend to take different views. While some echo the views of Rome, others see the process as a legitimate use of medical science to help couples become parents.
The process has grown in use in Britain in recent decades. In 2004, 10,200 babies were born as a result of IVF, a figure which had more than doubled to 21,400 in 2024.
The process is by no means guaranteed to work though. While 21,400 babies were born via the process in 2024, the number of women undergoing IVF that year was 53,000, suggesting a less than 50 per cent success rate.]]></content:encoded>
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                <title><![CDATA[Halloween: behind the masks]]></title>
                <link>https://www.christiantoday.com/news/halloween-behind-the-masks</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">https://www.christiantoday.com/news/halloween-behind-the-masks</guid>
                                                            <dc:creator><![CDATA[J John]]></dc:creator>
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                            <media:title><![CDATA[Halloween]]></media:title>
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                                    <![CDATA[ (Photo: Getty/iStock) ]]>
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                                                                            <pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2026 07:57:00 +0000</pubDate>
                <description><![CDATA[The tragedy of Halloween is not that it asks the wrong questions, but that it gives us the wrong answers. Our children deserve better.]]></description>
                <content:encoded><![CDATA[
Halloween has become big business. What was once a relatively minor date on the calendar has grown into a major cultural event, filling shops, schools, neighbourhoods and social media with pumpkins, skeletons, ghosts, witches and increasingly elaborate costumes.
For retailers, Halloween is a commercial opportunity. For many adults, it is harmless fun. For children, it means dressing up and collecting sweets or candy. Yet behind the masks lie some surprisingly serious questions.
Christians have long expressed concerns that Halloween can encourage an unhealthy fascination with the occult and turn darkness, evil and death into entertainment. Those concerns remain. But there is another issue we should consider.
Halloween raises some of life’s biggest questions and then gives us some very poor answers. That matters, particularly when so much of Halloween is aimed at children. The stories we repeatedly tell can subtly shape the way we see the world. What entertains us can eventually educate us.
So let’s look behind the masks.
1. Evil Is Closer Than We Think
Halloween gives evil a costume. It has scars, fangs, claws, blood and a frightening face. Evil is portrayed as something out there: the monster at the window, the stranger at the door, the creature lurking in the darkness.
Certainly, evil exists around us. There are dangerous people, destructive influences and genuine spiritual realities of which we should be aware.
But Jesus taught something far more uncomfortable: evil is not merely out there; it is also in here. He said, ‘For out of the heart come evil thoughts – murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander’ (Matthew 15:19 NIV).
The human problem cannot simply be blamed on monsters, villains or other people. Every one of us has the capacity for selfishness, dishonesty, cruelty and wrongdoing. The most frightening place evil can hide is not behind a mask but within the human heart. It is easy to point a finger at the darkness around us but Jesus asks us to examine the darkness within us.
And that is why Christianity offers far more than improved behaviour. Jesus offers forgiveness, transformation and a new heart.
2. Evil Rarely Looks Evil
At Halloween, the more gruesome the costume, the more successful it is. Evil is presented as hideous, grotesque and instantly recognisable.
If only it were that easy.
Some of the greatest evils in history have arrived looking respectable, attractive and persuasive. Deception rarely introduces itself by saying, ‘Hello, I’m deception.’ The Bible warns us that ‘Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light’ (2 Corinthians 11:14 NIV).
Evil does not always come carrying a pitchfork. Sometimes it comes carrying a promise. Fraudsters appear trustworthy. Manipulators can be charming. Temptation rarely looks like disaster at the beginning; if it did, nobody would be tempted. 
And physical appearance has absolutely nothing to do with moral character. A scarred face may conceal a beautiful heart, while an attractive face may conceal destructive intentions.
We need discernment. The important question is not simply, ‘Does it look good?’ but ‘Is it good?’
3. Evil Is No Joke
Halloween turns darkness into entertainment. Death becomes decoration: skeletons hang from houses; gravestones appear on lawns; horror becomes humour.
Of course, most people taking part are simply having fun. Yet there is a danger in repeatedly treating serious realities as trivial ones. Evil is not imaginary. Its consequences fill our news reports, courtrooms, hospitals, broken homes and wounded lives.
And death is not a plastic skeleton hanging from a doorway. Death is the painful reality of losing someone we love.
Some things are too serious to be made small.
The Bible takes evil seriously because God takes people seriously. Evil wounds its victims, damages those who practise it and separates human beings from the God who made them.
Sin is not simply breaking God’s rules; it is breaking God’s heart, damaging God’s world and ultimately breaking ourselves.
Yet Christianity does not leave us frightened by evil. It tells us that evil is real and then announces that evil does not have the final word.
4. Evil Does Not Win
This is where the Christian message becomes gloriously different.
Halloween is full of darkness, but where is the dawn?
The ghosts remain ghosts. The dead remain dead. The demons remain threatening. Darkness gets the costumes, the decorations and the final scene.
But Christianity tells a better story.
The Bible does not tell us to entertain evil, negotiate with it or surrender to it. It says, ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7 NIV).
At the heart of Christianity stands the cross of Jesus Christ. There, what looked like evil’s greatest victory became its decisive defeat.
Paul writes that Christ, ‘having disarmed the powers and authorities . . . made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’ (Colossians 2:15 NIV).
At the cross, evil did its worst and God demonstrated his victory.
And the story did not end at the cross. There was an empty tomb. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Christianity does not deny the darkness; it declares that the Light has overcome it.
Death is real but Jesus is risen. Evil is powerful but Jesus is greater. Darkness exists but darkness does not win.
The cross tells us evil has been defeated. The empty tomb tells us death has been defeated. That is not frightening news. That is fantastic news.
The Better Story
My deepest concern about Halloween, then, is not simply that it raises dark subjects. In fact, it raises questions that every human being eventually has to face.
What happens when we die?Why is there evil in the world?Is there a spiritual realm?Can evil be defeated?Who – or what – ultimately has the last word?
These are not merely Halloween questions. They are human questions. And here lies the real tragedy ...
The tragedy of Halloween is not that it asks the wrong questions, but that it gives us the wrong answers. Our children deserve better. Indeed, we all deserve better than fear without hope, darkness without dawn and death without resurrection.
Christianity offers a better story:
Light over darkness.Truth over deception.Hope over fear.Life over death.Christ over everything.
The Christian faith does not pretend evil is unreal. It proclaims something infinitely better: evil is real, but evil is not ultimate.
Jesus is.
And this is where the issue becomes personal. Christianity is not merely about recognising darkness; it is about choosing the light.
The apostle Paul gives Christians a wonderfully concise instruction: ‘Reject every kind of evil’ (1 Thessalonians 5:22 NIV). Older translations famously put it, ‘Abstain from all appearance of evil’ (KJV). That is good advice in every generation.
We do not need to become fascinated by darkness in order to understand it. We do not need to play with evil in order to prove that we are not afraid of it. You don’t have to explore the darkness when you already know where the Light is.
Perhaps, then, amid all the pumpkins, masks and costumes, Halloween gives Christians an unexpected opportunity. It opens the door to conversations our culture often prefers to keep closed. So let’s have those conversations. Let’s ask the big questions. Let’s speak honestly about evil, death and eternity – but let’s speak even more confidently about forgiveness, hope, resurrection and Jesus.
And let us continue to pray as Jesus taught us: ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’ (Matthew 6:13 KJV).
Halloween may celebrate the darkness but we have something far better to celebrate: the Light has come, the tomb is empty, and Jesus has won.]]></content:encoded>
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