Alexei Navalny -speaking out despite the risks, the threats, and the intimidation. Exposing and resisting corruption. Falsely accused numerous times. Poisoned with Novichok. His life saved in Germany, for him to return to Russia, only to be arrested at the airport and after a series of ‘sham’ trials, be sentenced to 28 years in prison, and now be murdered by the Russian State. Imprisoned too is Alexandra Skochilenko, an artist, sentenced to 7 years for attaching to a few shop labels, antiwar messages. Meanwhile, released, in some cases 17 years early, to fight in the war, are numerous men who have committed the most gross civilian murders. Killing appears not to disturb the Russian leader, who is now responsible for over half a million deaths. This ocean of blood is rising, drowning so many, destroying so much. Meanwhile, the leader of the Russian Church, Kyrill, has called Putin’s rule, ‘a miracle of God’, and has supported the invasion of Ukraine and described Ukrainian resistance as evil.
The Church has failed yet again miserably to uphold Christ’s message of love and goodness. Navalny and Skochilenko are the Christs of our time. Focus your prayers, your worship and your devotions on them, not the carpenter of bygone centuries, or the Church, that has betrayed Jesus’s legacy, for God in Christ lives today among us and we fail to recognise Christ at our peril, in the brave women and men, like Navalny and Skochilenko, through whom God’s light shines on and God’s truth prevails, over the corrupt leaders of church and state, and who have the means to lead us to peace, even from their prison cells, and even chillingly, from their graves. The forces of evil always seek to crucify and silence the Christ. Our hope and belief, is that Christ's voice can never be silenced.
ARCHBISHOP JONATHAN BLAKE - MY LIFE - PART ONE
ARCHBISHOP JONATHAN BLAKE - MY LIFE - PART TWO
I AM PROUD OF MY WRITING, FOR JESUS’S SAKE, THAT HAS HAD ME FOUND INNOCENT IN HEAVEN, BUT TWICE A CRIMINAL ON THE EARTH. THE FIRST IN 1990 WHEN I WROTE A BIBLICAL TEXT ON THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT IN PEACEFUL PROTEST ABOUT THE BOMBING OF YOUNG IRAQI RECRUITS DURING THE FIRST GULF WAR. THE SECOND, IN 2016 WHEN I WROTE ON MY BLOG, TO ALERT THE PUBLIC ABOUT A PAEDOPHILE, AND WAS SUCCESSFUL IN FORCING THE AUTHORITIES TO STOP HIM HAVING ACCESS TO CHILDREN. THERE WAS ALMOST A THIRD! IN 1997, WHEN I WAS ARRESTED FOR NAILING MY PROPOSALS FOR REFORM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ON THE DOOR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. WORDS ARE POWERFUL MESSAGES THAT CHALLENGE CORRUPTION, CONFRONT THE WICKED AND CREATE A BETTER WORLD. JESUS IS THE WORD OF GOD AND HIS FOLLOWERS ARE CALLED TO COMMUNICATE HIS WORDS, IRRESPECTIVE OF THE COST.
"You brave, courageous and wonderful man. To stand up for the truth
in the face of suppression and oppression is truly an act of a pure heart."
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