Richard Bickersteth

[David Cameron @David_Cameron]

This terrible news has really knocked me for six. Alex Younger was a truly outstanding Head of MI6 during my time as PM and an exemplary public servant. He has been taken from us far too soon.

Due to the nature of their work, few fully understand the service and sacrifice made by those working in our intelligence and security services - but be in no doubt, Alex made our country a safer place and we all owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for that.

I had the privilege to continue working with Alex and to remain good friends after we both left office; I will miss him dreadfully. He was a remarkable man - tremendously knowledgable and insightful, but also such fantastic company and fun to be with. Kind, thoughtful; a good man in every sense.

At a time when our world is more confrontational, volatile and, frankly, dangerous, his expertise and great wisdom will be deeply missed. My thoughts and prayers are with Sarah and his family at this sad time.

https://t.co/jbGkmTjfUr

[Christopher Landau @talkChristianly]

Just had a sparky conversation about church planting in rural contexts.

My argument was that the church in this country did much of its planting in rural areas at least 600 years ago.

In many places we don't need a new church, we need to renew the existing church.

🧵...

[James Heale @JAHeale]

Farewell to arms 🫡

[Lindsey Graham @LindseyGrahamSC]

I was so honored to be able to attend King Charles III’s address to a Joint Session of Congress. Simply put: The King nailed it.

His speech was a much-needed morale boost for Congress, as he glowingly praised our nation and highlighted the role Congress plays in our democratic republic.

The speech was a terrific combo of wit, humor, history and appreciation. I believe most members of Congress feel better after the speech than they did before. Though I will admit it was a bit odd that the unifying feeling had to come from the King of England… but so be it!

[Sorcha Eastwood MP @SorchaEastwood]

Will the real Keir Starmer please stand up? Is it the man who said that his govt would tread lightly on the lives of people? The man that said he'd have a decade of national renewal? The man who said we'd get better and then engulfed us all in this while the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. We deserve better 👏

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

Brilliant, bold and challenging address by King Charles to the U.S. Congress which was (very unusually!) united in regular standing ovations. The best speech of his life, right when his country needed him to step up and repair the Special Relationship. Bravo, Your Majesty! 🇬🇧 🇺🇸

[Tim Farron @timfarron]

If the Easter accounts are true, then there is hope - and the evidence is stronger than you might think. I’d love it if you’d check these out…

https://t.co/wkrD6q2ooE

https://t.co/DE1aRIHylZ

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

If you can’t get enough. Here’s 8 more minutes of pure deconstruction of the regime. 😂

[HM Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex @LL_EastSussex]

The Lord-Lieutenant was delighted to welcome His Majesty The King to East Sussex today to inaugurate the King Charles III England Coast Path and open the Seven Sisters National Nature Reserve.

The King walked a section of the coast path and unveiled plaques to mark the occasions

[Richard Bickersteth @RBickersteth]

@WestLondonMan Luke, think you dropped an “h” on the link! Can you repost as I would love to listen to it.

[Marcus Walker @WalkerMarcus]

It’s the first Presidential Address of @ArchbishopSarah and it’s really parochial in the absolute best sense of the word. She has pledged to lead “not by developing new programmes and initiatives but by being a shepherd”, she has promised to prioritise the local, she has - and this may sound small but it landed very well - said ‘thank you’ to those keeping our churches going.

[Archbishop of Canterbury @ArchbishopSarah]

It was a privilege to give my first Presidential Address to @Synod as Archbishop of Canterbury today. I reflected on the faithful service of churches across this country and around the Communion, the hope we have in Jesus Christ, and holding difference with grace as we serve God’s world together.

[Mike Pence @Mike_Pence]

“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: PRAYER BREAKFAST AMBUSH — Democratic congressman calls out Trump’s moral failings right to his face.

At the National Prayer Breakfast, Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) did something Washington almost never sees anymore: he told the truth — in a prayer — while standing just feet away from Donald Trump.

And it was brutal

With Trump looming behind him, eyes cast downward, Jackson calmly asked God to do what Trump apparently cannot: grow a conscience.

“Today we remind him that the lives of millions of people are in his hands and that he has the power to turn mourning into dancing or to reduce the country into cosmic elegy of chaos and suffering,” Jackson intoned. “And it is because of this that we pray that the best of this president would rise among us for the sake of this nation, for the sake of this world, we pray that goodness and mercy would announce themselves in his life in new and powerful ways."

He prayed that the president would be “mindful of the poor,” focused on alleviating suffering in the Midwest, and remember that families in places like Minneapolis are burying loved ones — not looking for culture wars.

Essentially Rep, Jackson said that this presidency is failing real people, but he got to say it directly in front of the person who most needs to hear it.

Jackson, the son of civil rights icon Jesse Jackson, invoked Matthew 25 — the passage where faith is measured by how we treat “the least of these.” It was a not-so-subtle reminder that compassion isn’t “wokeness,” it’s Christianity. And that hoarding power while people suffer isn’t strength — it’s moral rot.

“Many people are not lazy,” Jackson prayed. “Many people are simply tired. Many people simply are not okay.”

That line hit like a thunderclap.

The room erupted in applause. Online, progressives and faith leaders alike praised Jackson for speaking truth to power in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. — who, as many were quick to note, is literally Jackson’s godfather. Courage, as one commentator put it, is contagious.

Others joked darkly that Jackson should expect retaliation. “Somebody’s about to get audited,” one person quipped — because under Trump, even prayer can be treated as an act of rebellion.

And that’s the most damning part of all.

When a call for compassion, dignity, and shared humanity is instantly recognized as a direct attack on Trump and the GOP, it tells you everything you need to know about what they stand for now.

Jonathan Jackson didn’t shout. He didn’t insult. He didn’t grandstand. He just prayed.

And in doing so, he exposed the emptiness at the heart of Trump’s so-called values — right there at the breakfast table.

Please like and share!

[Michael Wear @MichaelRWear]

I've attended the National Prayer Breakfast for much of the past two decades. I staffed the President and worked on his speech there for four years. I wrote extensively about the breakfast in my first book. One purpose of the Breakfast in history has been to position presidents and political leaders in such a way that they are humbled--their remarks typically focused on ways they fell short, the nation's reliance on grace that politics and politicians can't provide, etc.

Not until this president has someone gone to the breakfast to make so much of himself, and so little of God. And he does it every year. These aren't policy disagreements. These aren't differences resulting from Church-State separation. This is Donald Trump going to a convening that has a central focus on the power of relationship with Jesus as the transformative force in the world, and he uses that opportunity to make light of prayer and suggest he'll go to heaven because he's earned his way in. He goes to a convening built on the premise that Jesus transcends all divides in society, including partisan ones, and says an entire group of people *who are specifically recruited and asked to be in the room and on the program* actually do not belong there. Like he did at a memorial service for one of his most prominent supporters, in previous years he's gone to the breakfast to directly contradict Jesus' teachings on loving your enemies.

During the Clinton years, the Clintons sat on the dais while Mother Teresa lovingly confronted him on the issue of abortion. Now, people sit at their own breakfast while this president mocks their deepest beliefs to their face. And he tells them they love it. He tells them they're lucky to have him.

[The Prince and Princess of Wales @KensingtonRoyal]

A pleasure to meet the new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally at Lambeth Palace - the first female leader of the Church of England.

[Rt Hon Alistair Burt @AlistairBurtUK]

@BBCSteveR @BBCiPlayer @edmcgown @BBCBenTavener @BBCPanorama Brilliant film, portraying a very fine broadcaster to whom the nation is surely indebted at present.

[Maria Polachowska @mpolachowska]

Essential viewing tonight 20:00 BBC 1. @BBCSteveR, fitting recipient of the Charles Wheeler Award 2025. @shirinwheelerEU https://t.co/Eev7LLFKZg

[Dan Hitchens @ddhitchens]

Senior Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier is not mincing her words about Lord Falconer’s proposal to force the AS bill through the Lords. She writes in today’s Sun on Sunday:

“It only just scraped through the Commons by 23 votes because MPs were told that the Lords would scrutinise it carefully. And that’s what the Lords are doing, with every debate revealing more holes and more problems with this proposed law.

“We all have a stake in letting them do their job. If we get this wrong, we end up with a deeply flawed bill. The consequences would be devastating and Parliament would be responsible.”