In CS Lewis’ novel, The Magician’s Nephew, there is a description of a dying world towards the start of the book.
It is a land – Charn – which was once a great civilisation, but now is dead. As events unfold for the two children in the story, Polly and Digory, a terrible, tolling bell starts to chime, sounding over and over again, until ‘the air… was throbbing with it and they could feel the stone floor trembling under their feet…’ and the building around them begins to collapse.
The global shape of the Christian church has seen a paradigm shift in recent years. Churches in the global south, originally planted with much sacrifice by missionaries in partnership with early indigenous converts, have multiplied exponentially. In contrast, Christian affiliation and influence and church attendance in the formerly Christian global north and west continues to decline rapidly.
In the more economically developed countries, mainline historic denominations have seen catastrophic collapse in attendance, despite retaining economic assets, while newer churches are holding their own or growing slightly. There is an undeniable close link between this decline and failure to hold on to and communicate the apostolic gospel.
Fox News has reached a US$787.5m settlement with the voting equipment company Dominion.
The case concerned a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false claims that Dominion sought to swing the 2020 American presidential election. Dominion accused Fox of airing claims that their machines were involved in a plot to steal the election away from Donald Trump, alleging that the network knew such claims were false but aired them anyway because they feared losing viewers to rival networks.
The Prime Minister’s proroguing of Parliament was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court at the end of September. Mayhem ensued as MPs were recalled. Boris Johnson wants a General Election. The opposition parties do not want one until a no-deal separation from the European Union is avoided. But it was the incandescent rage and abuse voiced by both sides in the chamber which caused alarm. The country is already divided and such staggering levels of unbridled fury can only make things worse – as this winter’s tale of bruising politics unfolds.
‘Mid toil and tribulation…’
In CS Lewis’ novel, The Magician’s Nephew, there is a description of a dying world towards the start of the book.
It is a land – Charn – which was once a great civilisation, but now is dead. As events unfold for the two children in the story, Polly and Digory, a terrible, tolling bell starts to chime, sounding over and over again, until ‘the air… was throbbing with it and they could feel the stone floor trembling under their feet…’ and the building around them begins to collapse.