Reading for today: We are the Church - the Body of Christ

No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as “what a man does with his solitude.” 

It was one of the Wesleys, I think, who said that the New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion. We are forbidden to neglect the assembling of our- selves together. 

Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents. The Church is the Bride of Christ. We are members of one another.

By C.S. Lewis
From The Weight of Glory

Child of Hope Uganda - Farm Life!

Take a wander round the Child of Hope farm with Moses, one of our Directors in Uganda. In this video, he shows off the tractor and irrigation system bought through grant funding, and introduces some of the pupils who volunteer their time to help out on the farm. Keep an eye out for a few rabbits, chicks and pigs along the way too!

The farm plays a big part in life at Child of Hope. It feeds pupils, teaches practical skills that will stay with them well beyond the classroom, and brings in income that goes straight back into the schools.

Want to help make more of this happen? You can support Child of Hope's work by making a donation, or by sponsoring a child from just £15 a month — covering education, healthcare and welfare for your sponsored child, and every child at Child of Hope.

www.childofhopeuganda.org

Supermarket giant Tesco weighs takeover bid for Majestic Wine

Tesco is exploring a surprise move to buy Majestic Wine Group, Britain's biggest specialist wine chain - a deal which would further expand the supermarket giant's retail footprint.

Sky News has learnt that Tesco is among the bidders participating in an auction of Majestic Wine.

A formal sale process kicked off several weeks ago, roughly six months after Majestic's owner, Fortress Investment Group, appointed bankers to explore its options for the business.

The value of a prospective deal was unclear this weekend, although analysts said that Majestic's recent performance meant a sale would generate hundreds of millions of pounds for its owners.

A number of other bidders are also involved in the process, although their identities were unclear on Saturday.

I really hope that things work out here - Majestic is my favourite place to buy wine. The Petersfield store is a real treat - bright & airy, well stocked, helpful staff, great deals - highly recommended if you're after stocking up the the vino! 

news.sky.com

BT agrees rescue deal to buy broadband operator TalkTalk

The UK's biggest broadband provider, BT, has agreed to buy rival operator TalkTalk to save the company from collapse.

The takeover would end of months of speculation over the future of TalkTalk and mean services for its millions of customers will continue as normal.

BT chief executive Alison Kirkby said it provided "a safety net" for those who rely on TalkTalk. The administrator said it also provided certainty for TalkTalk's 900 staff.

However, Virgin Media called the deal a "stitch up" which allows BT to "tighten its grip" over the market. The government has given itself the power to have the final say on the takeover, citing its importance to critical public services.

TalkTalk has 1.5 million retail customers and one million wholesale customers across the UK.

BT's Kirkby told the BBC's Today programme: "Two and a half million customers, including vulnerable households, and key emergency services might have lost their services if Talk Talk had failed, which it was on track to do.

Fed up of poor service from your Internet Service Provider? 
Contact Donline to find out about a better way.

www.bbc.co.uk

Apple says it’s tightening macOS ‘Full Disk Access’ controls due to new risks from AI agents

Days after a journalist claimed that Meta’s Muse app on Mac read their private messages — a claim that Meta disputed — Apple announced that it’s introducing additional controls around a setting called “Full Disk Access” on macOS. The feature was designed to allow backups to function properly, but AI agents have now increased “the risks associated with this level of access,” Apple said.

Apple’s statement comes shortly after Inc. columnist Jason Aten reported that Muse knew the content of his private messages — even though he claimed to have not given the AI agent permission. The report raised questions about the level of security and trust users have in desktop-based Artificial Intelligence, which can control things on their systems and read their files and messages.

The decision to limit the Mac feature also comes after a Wired report cited that a flaw in ChatGPT’s Mac app could have allowed hackers to access sensitive data.

AI agents that run on the desktop allow users to provide their respective apps with greater access to the files, messages, and other personal content on their computers by adjusting macOS settings.

www.techcrunch.com

Nadella has lost the plot calling Copilot an OS again - it’s a web app on Windows 11!

Satya Nadella has once again called Copilot a “new OS for work” when it is clearly an app, and that too a web app. As spotted by Windows Latest, this time the analogy comes in a leadership update, less than a week after Microsoft unveiled the latest Copilot, which was when the CEO first called Copilot an OS, at least on X.

"We’re building Copilot as a new OS for work that spans every model, every form factor, and every task. Today, we’re announcing our biggest update to Copilot to date"

I already have the “new” Copilot app on my PC, albeit without Home, Code, or Autopilot, because they are still not out yet. This app, however, is the replacement for the terribly named Microsoft 365 Copilot app, and you can get it too if you update it in the Microsoft Store.

Well, the thing Nadella keeps calling an OS is a regular Windows app, and when I went through the installation folder of build 154.0.4258.37, I found that copilotapp.exe is a rebranded Microsoft Edge launcher with a complete Chromium build behind it.

Microsoft is talking about a new operating system for work, but it’s actually an app on Windows 11 that runs in a browser. This is some Inception-level stuff! READ MORE...

www.windowslatest.com

Pygmalion’s Passion: A Christian argument against the use of AI

Andrew Caspersen writes: Long before the digital age, artists have pondered both the promise and peril of artificial intelligence. Homer’s Iliad described automaton tripods made by Hephaistos that might be confused with Elon Musk’s dream of putting an Optimus robot in every home. Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells of Pygmalion, disappointed in his marital prospects, carving his perfect woman and bringing her to life with the help of Venus. She was the first romantic chatbot, a reflection of Pygmalion’s self-love. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein warns us what can happen when scientific hubris puts the creation of life and intelligence in its crosshairs. More recently, we have Frank Herbert’s Dune, with the maxim “thou shall not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.”

Yet we are here, crafting such a machine. Many, perhaps the majority of us, have deep reservations about AI, yet struggle to explain why. We think it could create trouble but also see the great benefits. As a result, nearly all the arguments have been around the outcomes of AI. This is the modern approach - judging something by what it can do, rather than what it is.

If artificial intelligence were a tree, then nearly every discussion we are currently seeing concerns its fruits. An AI optimist predicts a cure for cancer, where a pessimist sees the elimination of the doctor-patient relationship. Mass prosperity! Or is it mass layoffs? For every rotten apple I spot, another sees a juicy golden delicious. How can we make sense of it all?

Arguing about the fruits is problematic. First, predictions are tricky business. Remember when social media was supposed to bring people together? Second, Christianity focuses on the means, not the ends. We care more about whether eggs are getting cracked than how tasty the future omelette may be.

Let’s go from the fruits to the branches. Are there certain features or applications of AI that are inherently wrong? Yes! Marc Barnes uses natural law to show why conversing with a chatbot is a corruption of inter-personal communion. D.C. Schindler explains the essential duplicity of AI, which tricks the subconscious into accepting its personhood.¹ These arguments reveal the rot in some of the branches of the AI tree.

They got me thinking: is there an argument against the tree itself, from the roots to the fruits? Perhaps it goes something like this.... READ MORE...

paulkingsnorth.substack.com

U2 at 50: How Bono's band became icons of rock by singing about God

 

On Saturday, 25th September 1976, four teenagers decided to get together to make music. Fifty years of faith-fuelled songs later, Steve Stockman charts the spiritual journey of Saint Bono and his band

When the annals of 20th and 21st Century Church history are written, many heroes of the faith will make the pages. Billy Graham, Mother Teresa and Pope Francis will be among those heralded as saints who changed the global face of Christianity. But the historians would be remiss if they didn't also include the one rock band who, over the course of 50 years, have used the currency of their fame to literally change the world, and have done it from the foundation of a Christian faith.

As they reach this landmark anniversary, now is a good time to stop and reflect on the impact U2 have had on the Church and indeed the world.

September 1976 was no golden age in rock history. The top 40 was littered with bland and anaemic pop: Abba, Bay City Rollers, The Wurzels and (dare I say it) Cliff Richard. Something needed to change, and thankfully it did! The next year would see punk rock and the new wave transform the doldrums of 70s pop and prog rock. The Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Stranglers and The Ramones all brought vibrant new life.

During this gestation period, four teenagers from Mount Temple School in Dublin were getting together in the drummer’s kitchen. There was something blowing in the north Dublin air that they would later describe in the song ‘Lucifer’s Hands’: “The spirit’s moving through a seaside town / I’m born again to the latest sound / New wave airwaves swirling around my heart.”

As we celebrate 50 years of U2, it is hard not to plumb the depths of their 2014 album, Songs of Innocence, to gain some insight into what went on in Larry Mullen’s kitchen. READ MORE...

www.premierchristianity.com

29th September - Michaelmas and the Feast of All Angels

Michaelmas, celebrated on September 29, is an old church feast celebrating the angels. It also functions as one of the traditional quarter days in England, which include Lady’s Day (March 25), Midsummer (June 24), and Christmas (December 25). These days, placed near equinoxes and solstices, marked when leases began, land was exchanged, debts were paid, or servants were hired. Some also call Michaelmas the “Feast of Michael and All Angels”; it’s also known as “Goose Day” because the traditional meal on Michaelmas in England is roast goose, which supposedly brings luck against poverty in the coming year.

In the Bible, Michael is one of the chief angels of God (Daniel 10:13). In Revelation 12, Michael leads the holy angels in a battle against Satan, with the result that the devil “was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him” (verse 9). The angel’s association with spiritual warfare and the placement of Michaelmas at the beginning of the colder, darker months—when the powers of evil were believed to be stronger—make the feast of Michaelmas a plea for protection against evil.

www.gotquestions.org

‘Doom Loop’: OpenAI and Microsoft Admits LLMs Are Destroying the Web and Built on Theft

Executives working on AI at Microsoft and OpenAI admitted what its critics have been saying all along: Large language models are predatory pieces of technology that have been built on what a Microsoft executive called “an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” and the “largest theft of labor in human history.” An internal Microsoft document said generative AI products have created a “doom loop” that is killing “the entire web.” 

Those statements and a series of other mask-off moments feature heavily in an unredacted court filing that was unsealed Thursday in the behemoth New York Times vs OpenAI copyright lawsuit that has been winding its way through the court system for years. In a filing asking for summary judgment (basically, a filing with the court asking it to rule), lawyers for the New York Times laid out a series of admissions made by Microsoft and OpenAI executives in documents and depositions that until now had remained either sealed or redacted at the request of Microsoft and OpenAI. 

It’s easy to see why the AI companies wanted to hide this from the public. The statements, taken together, are some of the most damning indictments of the ways LLMs were trained, how they worked, and the immediate threat they pose to human labor. It is a reminder that even as AI becomes more powerful and companies try to shift the narrative to the supposed existential risk of “superintelligent” AI, the tools they have already built were created by stealing from human creativity and labor and are by definition existential threats to the human labor market.

“Millions of people around the world will soon consider large models ‘hoovering up’ all their work to be an astonishing theft of unprecedented proportions,” an internal Microsoft document cited in the case read, adding “almost no one intended for content they created to be used in this fashion, nor are they compensated for its use.”

www.404media.co

The Copilot+ PC brand is dead: Microsoft and PC makers quietly pull back on tarnished Windows 11 AI PC branding

In 2024, Microsoft and Qualcomm kicked off a new category of Windows hardware it called "Copilot+ PCs" that set the baseline for a new wave of AI-first computers, and launched with exclusive features that would not be made available on PCs that didn't meet a new set of system requirements.

The launch didn't go smoothly. Copilot+ PCs were met with immediate backlash from security researchers after discovering that Copilot+ PCs blockbuster feature, Recall, was woefully insecure. This forced the company to delay Recall and ship this new category of devices without its leading AI experience.

This pretty much tarnished the Copilot+ PC brand, and over the last two years more and more OEMs have dropped the moniker from marketing materials and product names. In fact, even Microsoft has seemingly stopped mentioning it.

www.windowscentral.com

Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges

Korean outlets were the first to report the problems, which affect Samsung’s Bespoke AI line of fridges. Star News Korea, per a Google-provided translation, said that most of the affected devices were four-door fridges from 2024 or later.

Affected fridges “suddenly lost power and stopped functioning immediately after” trying to issue a firmware update through SmartThings, Samsung’s smart home platform, per Star News Korea. The SmartThings app then showed the devices as offline. Some users said that their fridge’s internal display was stuck showing the message “Checking SmartThings app during update.”

There are numerous reports on Samsung’s Korean community forum detailing the problem. Some users claim that they have owned their affected fridge for just a year or less.

www.arstechnica.com

Praying Without Words

In our loud and busy world, praying and contemplation offer a wonderful respite. What is contemplation? Unlike other prayer forms, contemplation does not rely on words or images. They may come, but they are only incidental to the prayer. This prayer is much more intuitive. It is a focused effort to rediscover what we already know in our bones of God. It seeks the experience of God.

Ever since Adam walked with God, belief has been founded on that experience, especially as some individuals have known it. Judeo-Christian faith began with Abraham’s call to leave home for an unknown land where he would become the father of many nations.

It took on a clearer form when Moses stood before a bush that was burning yet not consumed by flames. The voice that spoke from that bush called him to lead a band of Hebrew slaves out of Egypt and across the desert.

We cannot order up such an experience, of course. All we can do is create the circumstances that can enable it to happen. I suspect that the experiences we have had came about because we were focused on the moment. Gone were the concerns about what we had to accomplish that day—all the things that crowd our minds and hearts.

It is that state of receptiveness that contemplation tries to create in us. We work at being fully present to the moment and content to relax in God’s presence with us and within us. READ MORE...

www.franciscanmedia.org

Reαd carefully: how to spot – and avoid – a homoglyph attack

You’ve read the email carefully and it looks legitimate. The link it asks you to click on has none of the usual red flags: there are no weird numbers or extra parts to the URL. You feel safe to proceed. But if you had looked slightly closer you may have noticed something slightly wrong with one of the characters. 

Fraudsters can use letters from different alphabets to create URLs and email addresses that look almost identical to the real thing, but in reality send anyone who clicks on them to a spoof website or inbox. From there they can harvest personal details to use in their scams. READ MORE & STAY SAFE OUT THERE!

www.theguardian.com

Reading for today: The Soul, and God's love

This signature on each soul may be a product of heredity and environment, but that only means that heredity and environment are among the instruments whereby God creates a soul. I am considering not how, but why, He makes each soul unique. If He had no use for all these differences, I do not see why He should have created more souls than one. Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you. 

The mould in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the Divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. 

For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you—you, the individual reader, John Stubbs or Janet Smith. Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him and not another’s. All that you are, sins apart, is destined, if you will let God have His good way, to utter satisfaction. The Brocken spectre ‘looked to every man like his first love’, because she was a cheat. But God will look to every soul like its first love because He is its first love. Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it—made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.

By: C.S. Lewis

From: The Problem of Pain

Microsoft closes the book on Publisher and unplugs Project Online

Microsoft will retire Project Online and remove Publisher from Microsoft 365 over the coming weeks, while support for perpetual versions of Publisher and for Office 2021 will end shortly afterward.

Publisher, Microsoft's desktop publishing application, dates back to the Windows 3.x era. Microsoft announced its retirement in 2024 and will remove it from Microsoft 365 subscriptions on October 1, 2026. Support for perpetual versions will end on October 13 alongside Office LTSC 2021 and Consumer Office 2021.

Project Online will retire on September 30. The following day, Project Online Essentials – a licensing SKU that gives users limited access to Project Online and Project Server – will reach end of life. It has not been available to new customers since October 2025.

The retirement could catch out organizations that have not migrated. Essentials provides relatively inexpensive licenses for users who needed to update tasks, submit timesheets, and view project information without the broader capabilities of Microsoft's more expensive plans.

www.theregister.com

A Pilgrimage on Two Wheels

Revd Marcus Collie, vicar of Midhurst and Rector of All Hallows, Woolbeding, has completed an extraordinary five‑day motorbike pilgrimage, praying in 100 churches across Sussex and raising vital funds for Ride + Stride and the Sussex Historic Churches Trust.

Starting on Monday 24 August at the 12th‑century parish church of St Mary’s in Rye, Marcus rode his Suzuki V‑Strom east to west, finishing at Chichester Cathedral after visiting a century of historic churches in just five days. The journey took him through towns and villages across the Diocese of Chichester, pausing at churches that have long been at the heart of local community life and in many cases, beneficiaries of the Trust’s grants for repairs and restoration.

Marcus undertook the pilgrimage under the banner of Ride + Stride, our annual event that encourages people to travel by bike, foot, or other human power to visit churches and raise money for their upkeep. Nationally, Ride + Stride raises more than £1.5 million each year, with funds split 50:50 between participating churches and their county Historic Churches Trust. In Sussex, that money supports everything from urgent roof repairs and bell restoration to conservation work that keeps these buildings open and usable for worship, events, and community activities.

By choosing an ambitious, high‑profile challenge, Marcus has helped draw attention to the importance of these historic buildings and the ongoing need for support. His ride also ties directly into the Trust’s work: many of the 100 churches he visited have previously received grants for vital repairs, making his pilgrimage a rolling celebration of the very projects Ride + Stride helps to fund.

Marcus, who became vicar of Midhurst and Rector of All Hallows, Woolbeding in 2023, is no stranger to creative fundraising. After breaking his foot in 2024, he organised a “Ride and Hobble”, leading a group of parishioners who use mobility aids on a gentle route through Midhurst, finishing with refreshments in church. This year, he swapped walking aids for a motorbike, but kept the same spirit of community, prayer, and practical support for local churches.

Kim & I can totally get behind doing a motorcycle pilgrimage. Back in 2016 (10 years ago!) we did the Camino de Santiago on my last bike - Holly the Honda Crosstourer. A wonderful way to travel the pilgrims path - especially if you really cannot allocate the time. We would one day like to walk the Camino de Santiago - but you really need to allow a minimum of 6 weeks. With Kim's work for Parkinsons' UK & me running Donline - sadly that's just not possible. Perhaps when we retire? God willing...

www.chichester.anglican.org

Motorcycle exhaust modifications face ban

Riders who have fitted an aftermarket exhaust, remapped their bike’s ECU, or removed emissions hardware could be committing a criminal offence for the first time, if a Department for Transport (DfT) proposal makes it into law.

In simple terms, the plan says a bike’s emissions control system has to keep working exactly as well as it did when new, for its entire life. If it doesn’t – whatever the reason – riding it, letting someone else ride it, or making the change yourself could all become prosecutable offences, with fines from £1000 up to unlimited in a magistrates’ court.

Crucially, this isn’t just about new bikes. The rules would apply retrospectively to every motorcycle, moped and scooter registered since January 1, 2001.

Most of the changes being targeted are already technically illegal or restricted to track use, but this would be the first time they would become prosecutable on the road. Type approved end cans would not be affected.

www.motorcyclenews.com

Anthropic researcher quits with warning AI ‘could kill us all’

Safety boss endorses expert’s claims, saying there is a 10pc chance humanity could be wiped out.

A researcher at Anthropic has resigned, warning that AI labs are developing technology that could “kill us all” by the end of the decade.

Jacob Coxon, who specialised in training new AI systems for both Anthropic and its rival OpenAI, said he feared the two companies were locked in a dangerous race to develop bots they could not control.

He said: “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.

“Do not underestimate the power of this technology. These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionise any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources.”

www.telegraph.co.uk

Why you can’t save yourself: what the Bible says about Grace and Salvation

BibleGateway: For years I thought I could save myself. Nominal Christianity had trained me to trust in myself, to lean on my own goodness, my own discipline, my own hard work.

Sometimes it looked like trying to be a “good person.” But according to Scripture, none of us are good (Romans 3:12). Other times it looked like trying to control my life through planning, preparing, and protecting. That didn’t work either (of course). And in the end, both are the same lie: self-salvation.

The Gospel tells a better story. Grace is not God mopping up the messes I can’t handle. Grace is God saving me when I can’t handle anything (Romans 3:23). Salvation is not the reward of my effort; it’s the gift of Christ’s finished work (Ephesians 2:8). He saved me; apart from Him I could do nothing (John 15:5).

What about you? Maybe you’ve been living like I was, trusting in your goodness, your planning, your hustle, your ability to hold it all together. Maybe you’ve dressed it up in religious language, so it sounds like faith, but underneath it’s still just you trying to save yourself. Friend, that doesn’t work. READ MORE & REFLECT...

www.biblegateway.com