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jrpneblog · 2 months

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Tough task ahead

With nine games to go it looks a tough task for North End to reach the top six even though we have a game in hand. Norwich sit five points above us in sixth place going into this international break and with West Brom ten points ahead of us it seems realistic to say that only sixth spot is open. Hull and Coventry sit two points and one point above us, respectively and with Middlesbrough two points behind us and played a game more it looks like Hull, Coventry, Norwich and ourselves in the fight for the play off place. Having said all of that if we had beaten Stoke the Saturday before last we might well be having a different conversation so it shows how quick things can change in the Championship. We will look a bit more at North Ends Easter programme next week but with Rotherham, Birmingham, Watford and Huddersfield as our next four games it seems pretty clear that the next three weeks or so will give us an idea of where we are ahead of what could be a massive game at Home to Norwich on April 13th. Much debate goes on as to whether we are punching above our weight but I actually dont think we are. The table never lies and we are where we are on merit in spite of the bigger budgets that other clubs have squandered.

Last Saturday we made the longest journey of the season to play Plymouth Argyle with the 600 mile round trip being made worthwhile as Liam Millar`s goal secured all three points. It was great to see over 1,000 North End fans inside Home Park and the travelling faithful gave North End fabulous support from the first whistle to the last. In all honest it was a game North End should have won much much more comfortably than they did. It was a drizzly damp day but North End always had that little bit extra whether it be quality on the ball or the tenacity in the middle of the park typified by my man of the match, Ryan Ledson. Plymouth should have been down to ten after an horrendous tackle by Miller but once again a referee in the Championship got a major decision wrong. It appear it is something we expect and are getting used to but I have to that the general standard of refereeing in the second tier this season is as bad as I have ever seen it.

With it being the International break this weekend my thoughts turn to England and a couple of high profile friendlies over the break against Brazil and Belgium both at Wembley. I think it is fair to say that both our visitors are going through a transition period and England should be mindful of this whatever the results are. The pressure is certainly building towards the 2024 Euros and Gareth Southgate will be expected to reach the final, probably against France if we miss each other on the way. If we are being honest we should have won the Euros in 2021 but we gave an aging Italian side far too much respect in the final. I do think it is a measure of how far we have come that we no expect to be in there at the death and I think history will look kindly on the current England manager once he has passed the baton on.

And finally this week:- what a great FA Cup quarter final the game was on Sunday between Manchester United and Liverpool. The FA Cup is, without doubt, the greatest cup competition in the world but the greedy FA have once again sold out meaning that from the 2025/26 season the Cup will only be shown on TNT. The FA Cup looks like going the way that test match cricket went as the TV rights were sold off to the highest bidder. The are some sporting events that are for the people and should be free to air no matter what. The Football Association Cup stands very high up in that list of sporting events.

MATCH PREDICTION -

BRAZIL (H) Friendly International - Home win

BELGIUM (H) Friendly International - Score Draw

JR`s HIGH FIVES

Harry Kane to score at any time against Brazil 7/5

A £5 Stake returns £12.00 on bet365

SEASONS STATS

Returns £96.00 Stake £160.00

Percentage profit+/-loss - 40.00%

Predictions 33 won 9 lost 24

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ctweddingdj · 1 year

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Wedding Dates to Avoid in 2024-2025 - #30

After listening to this edition you'll know the wedding dates we suggest avoiding in 2024 and 2025.

Your wedding is more important than the date. So have fun picking your wedding date!

It’s best to avoid having your ceremony on any religious holiday since they are sacred to people and you don’t want to risk alienating them.

*** Join us in the Stress-free Wedding Planning Facebook group

We’ll explain why you should avoid these dates and save money at the same time.

From Super Bowl Sunday to April Fool’s Day and Easter to New Year’s Eve, we’ll tell you about the wedding dates to avoid in 2024 and 2025.

The Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast Edition #30: Wedding Dates to Avoid in 2024-2025

Hosts: Sal and Sam

Music: “Sam’s Tune” by Rick Anthony

Get your FREE no-obligation report TODAY:

"8 QUESTIONS YOU MUST ASK A WEDDING PROFESSIONAL BEFORE BOOKING THEM"

Music List Giveaway

Wedding Tip Wednesday on the Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast is sponsored by EMERGE Cosmetics – 10% OFF Coupon code: EBi10

Stress-free Wedding Planning Podcast is Produced by Atmosphere Productions in association with After Hours Events Of New England.

Produced By Atmosphere Productions in association with After Hours Events of New England

Check out our FREE wedding podcast

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bookgeekgrrl · 4 years

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Sunday reading recap (26-Jul-20)

i started this week by re-watching The Old Guard (still amazing) and then FINALLY watching Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, which was as much fun as expected. So that was good.

I also made some progress getting caught up on @thirstaidkitpodcast, including the highly entertaining episode with Jason Mantzoukas. So there was less audiobook listening this week.

How to Fuck With (and Feed) Your Soulmate (BlueSimplicity) - 113K, shrunkyclunks soulmate AU - loved the twist on the soulmate trope; definitely lives up to the 'crack' tag in parts but it’s very funny and enjoyable. Will definitely make you hungry.

In For A Penny (Rose Lerner) - Lerner remains one of my fav historical m/f authors

couldn't get the boy to kill me (voxofthevoid) - 74K, shrunkyclunks - "Captain America and the Winter Soldier are a terrifying duo on the field, working together with a well-oiled precision that tears through their enemies. Captain Rogers and Agent Barnes are distant coworkers, all polite nods and mission briefings. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes are fire and gasoline; it never ends well." - whew the ANGST and also the PORN. no HEA on first series but the sequel series with the HEA is ongoing.

👂 Waiting For The Flood (Spires #2) (Alexis Hall) - slowly catching up on Hall’s back catalog; his prose continues to be wonderful.

Triple Jeopardy (Nero Wolfe #20) (Rex Stout)

👂 💜 A Case of Possession (The Magpie Lord #2) (KJ Charles) - rereading this series for a book club with a friend. she’s not a Sherlock fan so I got to explain the whole ‘Giant Rat of Sumatra’ easter egg. 😛

💜 The Necrofloranomicon (leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)) - 52K, magical AU - one of my fav fics where Bucky's a necromancer who uses his powers to eke a living selling scavanged flowers & Steve's the agent who should bring him in but knows it's not the right thing to do. Love every single thing in this story: worldbuilding, characterizations, plot. Just tremendous. Main story (The Necrofloranomicon) is 47K; a short, lovely sequel (Bloom) is 5K. Glad the sequel publishing prompted a reread of the story.

plus 248K in shorter fic...shorter work shout out to

and the next (mcwho) - 12K - always a good week when we are gifted a new fic from mcwho - this is a 2025 steve and an accidentally time-traveled 1935 bucky

One Does Not Simply Walk Into JoAnn Fabrics (And other millennial lessons from The Winter Soldier) (stevergrsno (noxlunate)) - 11K - just a delightfully fun shrinkyclinks AU where the former WS gets a part-time job at JoAnn’s and crushes on a customer

Coming Out of the Void (Dira Sudis (dsudis)) - 17K, The Martian - this was a great poly BDSM fic! consistently so impressed with how well this author weaves so much emotion with so much hot sex for a really glorious tapestry.

#sunday reading recap #rose lerner #alexis hall #nero wolfe series #kj charles #the magpie lord #fanfic ftw #fan makers are a *gift*

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rjzimmerman · 5 years

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Climate change activists gather in front of the stage at the Extinction Rebellion group's environmental protest camp at Marble Arch in London on April 22, on the eighth day of the group's protest calling for political change to combat climate change. TOLGA AKMEN / AFP / Getty Images

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

Extinction Rebellion, the climate protest that has blocked major London thoroughfares since Monday April 15, was cleared from three key areas over Easter weekend, The Guardian reported.

Police removed protesters from Oxford Circus Saturday, and from the roads Parliament Square and Waterloo Bridge Sunday. The last person to be arrested clearing the bridge was a 70-year-old woman who had been arrested once before during the protests at Oxford Circus.

"I have been a nurse and a childminder most of my life," the woman, who preferred not to give her name, told The Press Association. "The world we are leaving for the children and grandchildren is going to be horrendous and we let it happen. It happened on our watch. So we have to stand up and fight or lie down and fight."

Despite the loss of the three sites, the movement is far from over. On Monday afternoon, around 100 protesters staged a die-in at London's Natural History Museum to call attention to the sixth mass extinction, BBC News reported.

The protesters are calling for the government to "tell the truth about climate change," to reduce UK greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025 and to create a citizen's assembly to help drive the process. They aim to maximize arrests in order to call attention to the climate crisis.

#Extinction Rebellion #London #climate change

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futuremarketreports · 3 years

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Candle Market 2025 Driving Factors | Future Trends, Size, Industry Growth, Key Vendors

The global Candle Market size is projected to reach USD 6.06 billion by 2025, according to a new report published by Million Insights, with a CAGR of 8.4% over the forecast duration. The increasing inclusion of candles as home décor items is predicted to drive the market. Moreover, a significant increase in demand for candles for commercial and residential purposes along with its inclusion for religious needs is expected to provide a boost to the market. Hotels, beauty parlors, spa, and restaurants uses this candles for a soothing effect.

Request a Sample PDF Copy of This Report @ https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/candle-market/request-sample

Market Synopsis of Candle Market:

Scented candles are highly popular among the millennials in countries like Germany, France, and the U.S thus resulting in high revenue share. These are beneficial for health including nervous system stimulation, improved digestion, better concentration, and migraine relief. For example, basil creates a positive mental state while eucalyptus helps in the treatment of diseases like asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, rheumatism, arthritis, and cough.

Yankee Candle Company introduced a Sunday Brunch Candle collection, in April 2019. These are present in jars with a brand name of Rainbow Shake and Easter Basket. The products pertain to seven unique fragrances such as Vanilla, Grilled Peaches, Honey Lavender Gelato, Belgian Waffles, Strawberry Bellini, Sweet Morning Rose, and Blush Bouquet. Louis Vuitton, the French luxury retailer, and fashion house, in 2018, introduced a range of scented candles which included L’Air du Jardin, Feuilles d’Or, Dehors Il Neige, and Île Blanche.

View Full Table of Contents of This Report @ https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/candle-market

Table of Contents:-

Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope

Chapter 2 Executive Summary

Chapter 3 Candle: Market Variables, Trends & Scope

Chapter 4 Candle: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 5 Candle: Application Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 6 Candle: End-use Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 7 Candle: Industrial End-use Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 8 Candle: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis

Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape

Chapter 10 Candle: Manufacturers Company Profiles

Get in touch

At Million Insights, we work with the aim to reach the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Our representatives strive to understand diverse client requirements and cater to the same with the most innovative and functional solutions.

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theblueoceanstrategistblog · 4 years

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The decline in religious giving is not limited to millennials any longer. Three steps to higher levels of giving.

There were problems in the "church" in the area of millennial giving and donations prior to the Covid-19 global downtown. In this piece, mostly written and published by the author in June of 2019, the case was made that there are significant systemic reasons millennials do not give to religious institutions as their parents and grandparents did. Those observations, well documented below, hold true today. This post seeks to update some of those details and deliver some relevance to today's audience. One of the earliest studies on the effect of the pandemic on church giving was conducted by CDF Capital. The following material is from their post in late March. CDF surveyed 269 US-based churches to learn how Sunday services went on March 15. Afterward, they surveyed 93 churches about their Sunday services and offerings for the week of March 22. Here is what they have learned from their responses. Church Attendance Statistics During COVID-19 Most churches have canceled in-person services 86% of churches did NOT hold in-person, on-campus Sunday services on March 22, 2020. This is a massive, yet predictable jump from 54% of churches declining to meet on March 15. Most churches are responding to the pandemic by either skipping Sunday services entirely, or instead engaging in some form of digital service.

Half of churches have begun tracking online attendance

Of churches surveyed, 52% are tracking online attendance. This will continue to be important as churches learn to estimate how many individuals are reached for every unique view online. Online attendance averages slightly higher than regular in-person attendance Most churches tracking online attendance reported higher-than-average views. Overall, online attendance was 8% higher than in-person attendance before COVID-19.

Church Giving Statistics During COVID-19 When someone experiences a crisis, the way they handle their finances tends to change. The COVID-19 outbreak has left many Americans wondering how long they will still have jobs and be able to pay their bills. So how does such a widespread crisis impact overall church giving? Churches continue to report abnormally low tithes and offerings 43% of churches reported a decrease in giving on March 22, 2020. Half of churches surveyed did nor provide giving information, and the remaining 7% reported an increase.

Churches of all sizes experienced this decline Churches report that giving has decreased by 29% since COVID-19. This is a sharper drop off than last week, when churches reported an average decrease of 13% in tithes and offerings.

Given 2015 research by the NAE Financial Health initiative, many churches will face wrenching choices. The median annual church budget in the United States is $125,000. The giving problem post covid-19 is not just a millennial giving problem. In sharing some opinions shared in a late April piece on FaithandLeadership.com, we see a range of pandemic responses. "Tim Wishon oversees the business side of a megachurch with the resources to survive the pandemic. Carmel Baptist has 5,000 members, an average of 2,500 worshippers at Sunday’s three services and a $10 million annual budget -- $23.6 million if you include its K-12 private school and preschool. But the church has a challenge in common with smaller churches: convincing members that giving online can be as meaningful a part of their faith life as dropping a check or envelope in the offering plate. The church has robust, cutting-edge technology, from online giving to the livestreaming by which Carmel has been reaching its congregation during the pandemic. Carmel’s constituency is largely suburban, middle-aged and professional. Members are comfortable living their lives online. And yet, Wishon reports, 50% of the church’s giving pre-quarantine was put in the plate on Sunday mornings. Another 35% was mailed in, and 15% came in online. Passing the plate endures as a powerful, sacrificial act, he said, from farmers offering fruits and vegetables generations ago to children tithing part of their weekly allowance today. Still, the pandemic may at least have introduced people to the ease of giving online. Post-quarantine, 45% of Carmel’s giving has been online, Wishon said. But 55% still comes the old-fashioned way -- through a check in the mail." "It is crucial, David P. King of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving, said, for churches to lift up online giving not just as a convenience but as a theologically sound way to give. The 2019 study (reflecting 2017 data) found that 46% of churches offered online giving -- a number that likely has risen with the recent shutdown -- but that 78% of revenue still came through worship." Bill Wilson of The Center for Healthy Churches, predicts that up to one-third of U.S. churches could be out of business by 2025. He points to LifeWay Research that says 5% of U.S. churches will close within the year because of the pandemic. That’s five times the average closure rate for churches, according to The Christian Century magazine. Wilson, who directs The Center for Healthy Churches, acknowledges that this is all conjecture, given the unprecedented nature and unknown length of the pandemic shutdown. His best guess is that churches will suffer a 33% decline in giving in 2020, in part because there was no live Easter offering. It’s possible that the traditional surge in giving in December will help make up for lost ground, he said, but there’s no way to know. Drawing on his experience with his organization, which has worked with several hundred churches during the past decade, Wilson estimates that one-quarter to one-third of churches operate on thin or no reserves. It is this consultant's opinion that the previously shared research numbers below will be even more extreme in the case of millennial giving in the post cover-19 global environment. According to research by fundraising firm Blackbaud, Millennials born between 1981 and 1995 compose 25.9% of the population but account for just 11% of total U.S. charitable giving. The $481 they give on average is less than the $732 given by Generation X (1969-1979) and the $1,212 given by Baby Boomers (1946-1964). Source: https://www.thestreet.com/story/14445741/1/why-millennials-are-more-charitable.html According to research firm Massolution, Millennials make up 33% of donations on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe or YouCaring. Also, as the Better Business Bureau's Give.org discovered, Millennials were the most likely (60%) of any generation to have donated to hurricane relief after Harvey, Irma and Maria last year, but also more likely (79%) to have researched hurricane charities than Generation X (59%) or Baby Boomers (56%). Source: https://www.thestreet.com/story/14445741/1/why-millennials-are-more-charitable.html Historically, Religious groups have received the largest share of charitable donations. This remained true in 2016. With the 2.9% increase in donations this year, 31% of all donations, or $127.37 billion, went to Religious organizations. Much of these contributions can be attributed to people giving to their local place of worship. Source: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=42 60% OF MILLENNIALS DONATE AN AVERAGE OF $481 TO NONPROFITS EVERY YEAR (Qgiv, 2015) Churches need to recognize that it’s not that Millennials aren’t givers, they just don’t share the default opinion of prior generations that giving charitable donations to the church is the best way for donations to be distributed. They want to know where it’s going and how it’s being used. 44% OF MILLENNIALS PREFER TO USE THEIR MOBILE PHONES TO MAKE SMALL PURCHASES (Snowball Fundraising, 2016) Churches who want to engage Millennial donors are faced with the challenge of demonstrating the good that they’re doing in their communities and around the world. Source: https://pushpay.com/blog/church-giving-statistics/ "With census data showing that Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest generation, it's more important than ever that we understand their giving habits," said Rick Dunham, CEO of Dunham+Company, which consults with nonprofits on their fundraising and marketing needs. "A growing body of research shows that Millennials are more engaged in philanthropy than we thought. Our new study seems to indicate that Millennials will give more to charity as they mature. Anecdotally, we know that factors like job status and student debt can limit how much they give at this stage of their lives." Of those surveyed in the US: Millennials gave $580 to charity in the past year, compared to $799 for Gen Xers, $1,365 for Baby Boomers and $1,093 for Matures; Millennials averaged 40 volunteer hours over the past year, compared to 34 for Gen Xers, 41 for Baby Boomers and 70 for Matures; and Twenty-five percent of Millennials attend church once a week or more, compared to 27 percent of Gen Xers, 28 percent of Baby Boomers and 36 percent of Matures. Millennials surveyed gave an average of $416 to places of worship and $96 to faith-based nonprofits in the past year – compared to only $84 to education, their next biggest type of contribution. In addition, 22 percent of Millennials said they planned to give more to places of worship in the coming year. Millennials agreed with the idea that charities are more effective than government in providing important services, with a mean score of 3.4 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 expressing the highest confidence in charities. Not surprisingly, Millennials were more likely than other generations to use technology and be influenced by it. Fifty-one percent have given a gift through a charity's website, 37 percent said they have used a smartphone to give through a charity's website, and 36 have been motivated to give by something they have seen on a charity's website. Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-of-millennial-donors-indicates-they-will-likely-give-more-as-they-mature-300462347.html http://www.themillennialimpact.com/sites/default/files/images/2018/MIR-10-Years-Looking-Back.pdf

“To engage millennials, causes have to be much more emotional, much more authentic.” Not only do millennials want to engage together; they want to think together. They value peers’ opinions and turn to them first for information. As interviewee Simon Moss, co-founder and managing director of campaigns at Global Citizen, alluded to, today’s 24-hour news cycle and the easy, immediate access to information has put millennials on a far different path for gathering data than previous generations. “To engage millennials, causes have to be much more emotional, much more authentic,” Moss said. “What we’re seeing is that they don’t much care about straight-up news reporting. They want the opinion mixed in; as active consumers of media, they will decide what they think. And a lot of their reaction is just as much, ‘What do I think about the messenger and the issue?‘ as it is, ‘What do I think about the message?’” Source: http://www.themillennialimpact.com/ So how might your church or religious institution begin to attract millennial donors? When you begin to assess the quality of your "ask" to the audience, consider what the audience's desires are as they relate to key strategic factors. In the strategy canvas below, I've shared two disparate areas where donations are made. One is the traditional religious institution and the other is a relative newcomer to the donation world, a micro-donation platform.

In the strategy canvas above, you see the horizontal line features 6 strategic factors known to be key in decision making for millennials around giving. The vertical axis provides measurement from low functionality to high functionality or utility. Church giving has become more mobile and online friendly over the last 6 years with nearly 75% of churches providing some form of mobile or online giving. Millennials did 40% of their smaller purchases on mobile in 2017. They are a mobile-first generation. Most will not even visit your website unless it is on mobile. Ease of use should not be interpreted as putting a few dollars in the plate as it passes during the worship service. Most online and mobile giving takes place the other 6 days of the weeks. Churches that provide and promote online giving now see more coming in via the other days of the week than during the worship service. Millennials see little transparency and connection to the recipient in institutional church giving. Online micro-lending and micro giving platforms afford the millennial to know exactly who is receiving their money and exactly how it is to be used. Little about church giving matches the transparency of these competing platforms. These two strategic factors lead directly to the next two. Cause authenticity and efficiency of the donation. Millennials make up a significant percentage of the donations associated with GoFundMe and IndieGoGo. Women, by the way, make up a majority percentage of donors and recipients in micro-lending platforms. In a recent conversation with a faith-based children's home Public Relations Director, I asked, what is the home's single biggest hurdle? His response? "I’d have to say that our biggest challenge is developing a younger donor base. Many of our donors have been faithful supporters of the Home for many years. We are doing our best to encourage their children and grandchildren to continue to support the work here, but our greatest challenge is developing the younger donors." Conclusions and recommendations. If you'd like to attract more donors, remote members of the community of faith, millennials and Gen Z's to your cause do the following things. 1) Use platforms for giving that allow complete transparency on the cause and the recipients. 2) Allow for "relationships and emotional adoption" in the giving. The millennial giver and now all donors want to give to humans that they feel they could literally go help if they wanted to do so. This doesn't mean citizens of a country or a community-based effort. They will, however, give actively when it's disaster based. 3) For ongoing campaigns, take the campaign down to a specific person and prove the donation helped that one individual. The recovery for churches that had previously adopted online giving will be shorter and less painful for those that didn't have these mechanisms in place prior to the pandemic. Will your community of faith have digital giving at its center in the future? If not, you're selling the mission of the church short. It's said over and over that the history of the church is in members bringing their best to the house of worship, or the sacredness of the passing of the plate is imperative to the worship experience. I would argue that had technology been available 3000 years ago, there would have been histories written extolling the sanctity of online digital giving. It's time for church leaders to bring online giving into the mainstream and meet the culture where it lives. If you have desires as a leader of religious institutions of any type and want to discuss how Blue Ocean Strategy may help grow your mission, don't hesitate to schedule a free chat. Schedule that call here.

Sherman G. Mohr is an Insead Blue Ocean Strategy Institute Certified Blue Ocean Strategist residing in Nashville TN. He's a Co-founder of marketing, tech, and healthcare firms and has worked in consulting religious organizations in online community technologies and giving platforms. Read the full article

#religiousgivingtithingchurchgivingpostpandemicblueoceanstrategychurchleadership

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tripstations · 5 years

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Shangri-La issues statement: Attack on the Shangri-La Hotel Colombo Table One Restaurant

An explosion took place in Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo’s Table One Restaurant on Easter Sunday during Easter Brunch at 9.05 am. As reported on eTurboNews on Sunday the veteran chef was killed with her daughter.

The explosion was part of a coordinated terror attack in Sri Lanka. A statement by Shangri La was received today in regards to the attack on their hotel. The statement says:

It is with great sadness that we can confirm that we are aware of a number of casualties among our guests and colleagues. This includes three of our colleagues who were fatally injured in the course of their duties. We will continue to work closely with local authorities and emergency services to provide our fullest assistance and support to all affected parties. Our hotel remains secured by the military and the police. We have also decided that the hotel will be closed until 30 April.

Our immediate priority continues to be the safety and well-being of all affected. We have also proactively carried out the following measures since the attacks in Colombo:

· We will continue to provide alternative accommodation for our affected guests

· Our team has been assisting with guest requests for transportation and flight arrangements

· We also have staff stationed at the airport and at the hospitals to render assistance where needed

· A dedicated Call Helpline (+603 2025 4619) has been set up for affected guests and/or their loved ones

· We are working closely with relevant embassy officials to support their respective citizens.

Our hotel team remains ready to offer any other assistance to our guests and their families and to provide the necessary support to our colleagues and their next of kin during this very difficult time. As this is an active investigation and out of respect to our guests and staff’s privacy, we are unable to provide further details at this stage.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Original Article

The post Shangri-La issues statement: Attack on the Shangri-La Hotel Colombo Table One Restaurant appeared first on Tripstations.

from Tripstations http://bit.ly/2IzHzRu via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Tripstations

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robwiltontv · 5 years

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Announcement: Vintage Church Launches on Easter On Easter Sunday, April 21st, @vintagechurchpitt will officially launch in Pittsburgh in two strategic locations. Pittsburgh City Sundays at 11a Location: 213 Bailey Ave / Pittsburgh, PA 15211 Pittsburgh West Sundays at 5p Location: 965 Thorn Run Rd / Moon Township, PA 15108 Pastor Rob Wilton, his family, and an amazing team from Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee moved to Pittsburgh in August 2018 to plant a new church. As they began this new work, the Lord united the vision of Pastor Ken Cordray and Living Faith Community Church in the West Hills. Together Vintage and Living Faith merged to plant a multiplying church with the Send Network. This new church has already grown, and people are being changed by Jesus. Through the Send Network, Vintage also began to partner with Pastor Adam Sewell and The Well Church. The Well Church has faithfully lived out their mission to love God, love people, and do something about it. They are strategically located in the city on top of Mount Washington and they host the NAMB-Send Relief work in Pittsburgh. As Pastor Rob Wilton, Pastor Ken Cordray, and Pastor Adam Sewell began to serve Jesus together they recognized that they were STRONGER TOGETHER. In April, Pastor Adam Sewell, his team, and The Well Church will merge with Vintage Church and continue building upon the ministry that they have started in the city. Pastor Adam will transition to serve with Vintage as a Send Relief Missionary for Send Pittsburgh. This partnership will form one multiplying church in two locations in order to lead Send Pittsburgh to plant other Send Network churches and Send Relief centers around the region. Send Pittsburgh will officially re-launch in August 2019 and we will partner with other churches like Reclamation Church, Renaissance Church, and others to plant 25 new churches by 2025. We would love for you to pray, partner, or join us on Easter weekend for this celebration. (at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) https://www.instagram.com/p/BvHlLSsHf_8/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=h5zithoqpf9u

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savetopnow · 6 years

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2018-04-02 14 BUSINESS now

BUSINESS

Business Insider

This device will be the next smartphone

8 details you may have missed on Sunday's 'The Walking Dead'

We finally learn the story behind Negan’s bizarre attachment to his baseball bat on 'The Walking Dead' and it's heartbreaking

Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined

7 theories about the mysterious helicopter that keeps popping up on 'The Walking Dead'

Harvard Business Review

Becoming More Conscientious

To Combat Physician Burnout and Improve Care, Fix the Electronic Health Record

The Most Common Type of Incompetent Leader

5 Things We Learned About Creating a Successful Workplace Diversity Program

Research: When Retail Workers Have Stable Schedules, Sales and Productivity Go Up

Inc

April Fools' Day 2018: Celebrate With These 9 Products (That Will Ignite Your Inner Geek)

5 Ways to Maintain a Healthy Relationship When You're Swamped with Work

A Possible Fix for Small Businesses That Don't Have the Resources to Implement Loyalty Schemes

Why Founders Are Promoting Sports, Health and Fitness to Employees

4 Things Every Leader Should Know Before Starting A Big Data Project

New York Times Business

Your Money Adviser: With New Tax Law, I.R.S. Urges Taxpayers to Review Withholdings

Samuel Belzberg, Corporate Raider in a Family Dynasty, Dies at 89

Advertising: Gothic or Helvetica? For Brands, Fonts Help Tell a Story

As Facebook Struggles, Rivals’ Leaders Stay (Mostly) Mum

How to Fill Unpleasant Jobs in Undesirable Places: Recruit Refugees

Reddit Business

Targeting at ‘Made in China’ 2025 Plan, No Excuse Can Hide the Growing Fears of U.S. to China

Business books to read?

Retailers Race Against Amazon to Automate Stores

Books worth checking out??

Zuckerberg’s congressional survival guide: Tips from experts

Reddit Startup

App idea, dealing with competition

I am starting to get users, but little activity so far

How do you choose the right people for your startup team?

(Academic Survey) EnergyGO: Portable Solar Generators and Battery Storage Systems

Marketplace startup. Not sure where to get other half of users from

The Economist Business and Finance

Wakandanomics

America’s trade strategy has many risks and few upsides

Technology has upended the world’s advertising giants

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newstfionline · 7 years

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Africa’s “reverse missionaries” are bringing Christianity back to the United Kingdom

Lily Kuo, Quartz, October 11, 2017

York, United Kingdom--Fourteen years ago, Reuben Ekeme Inwe’s wife, Roselyn, had a dream. In it Inwe is preaching to a large crowd--not unusual given the young pastor had been delivering sermons in Lagos for years--but this time the faces in the audience aren’t black but white. A material like white sand falls on the building where Inwe and his fictive congregation have gathered.

“We later recognized this was snow. There’s definitely no snow in Lagos,” Inwe says, seated at a cafe in York’s old city center of winding lanes and overhanging second-story shops. Roselyn’s dream, or “vision” as Inwe now refers to it, would be the first of several signs that led the couple to uproot their lives in Nigeria and move to the north of England. Here, their mission is to spread the gospel, specifically among white British nonbelievers.

Today, Inwe leads a church called Hope Centre out of a community center that also hosts mothers’ groups, Zumba classes, and French lessons. He’s worked hard to connect with his English neighbors. He brings their trash bins in from the street, invites them to tea (a new habit for him), and sends them Easter cards. His Twitter profile is a picture of him standing in the snow in his adopted city.

Inwe is what some scholars would call a “reverse missionary,” evangelists from former mission fields in Africa, Asia, and Latin America who believe their calling is to revitalize Christianity in the countries that first brought the religion to them. It’s a phenomenon that marks a shift in Christianity’s cultural center from the West to the so-called global South. By 2025, at least 50% of the world’s Christians will be in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia; in 1950, an estimated 80% of the world’s Christians were in Western countries.

“The fire that we read about in books about this very great country that sent out missions, that same fire was missing,” says Inwe. After his wife’s dream, he visited York, touring churches and speaking to local pastors, and was dismayed at the rising tide of secularism. Today, half of all British adults describe themselves as having no religious affiliation, the highest proportion since the late 1980s. “I knew that if there was anything I could contribute to bringing that fire back I was up for it,” Inwe says.

Inwe isn’t alone. Majority African diaspora churches in the UK that have for years recruited mainly from their own communities are now trying to win over the native English population. Some church leaders are training African missionaries and pastors in cross-cultural understanding to better evangelize in the UK. Others are trying to forge closer relations between African congregations and the “indigenous churches” near them.

The Redeemed Christian Church of God has churches in more than 100 countries, including the UK where it is aggressively planting more fellowships.

Like Inwe, they believe this is their duty. “Britain brought the gospel to us in the past. Now, by God’s providence we are here when Christianity is very much challenged and the UK churches are really declining,” says Girma Bishaw, an Ethiopian-British pastor based in London. “It’s not just coincidence we’re here.”

York, quaint in its cobbled streets and medieval churches, doesn’t make for your typical mission field. The city of almost 200,000 people is 94% white, and more than half of its residents identify as Christian. It was one of the earliest sites of Catholic conversion efforts in the 7th century and its surrounding county, Yorkshire, is nicknamed “God’s own county” for reasons not entirely known.

Still, Christianity is losing its hold here. In 2001, three quarters of the city’s residents identified as Christian. That proportion fell to under 60% as of 2011, the last time a census was taken, and as much as 30% of York’s population identified as having no religion at all, a rate higher than the national average.

Across the UK, social commentators have been sounding the death knell for Christianity. Church membership is expected to fall to just 8% of the population over the next decade, from more than 30% in the early 1900s. Almost all major Christian denominations in the UK churches have seen their numbers decline. Some predict the Church of England, where attendance has more than halved since the 1960s, will cease to exist by 2033.

The denominations that are growing--Pentecostal, Evangelical, and other charismatic congregations--can thank black-majority churches that have expanded to serve the flow of immigrants from West, Central, and East Africa coming throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

They are concentrated in cities like London. On any given Sunday, at least half of all churchgoers in inner London are black, of African or Caribbean heritage, a group that accounts for only 13% of the capital’s population. Researchers found 240 black-majority churches in the south London borough of Southwark, almost half of them in one postcode, operating out of old Bingo parlors, movie theaters, warehouses, and storefronts among kebab shops and convenience stores.

“We suspect that this represents the greatest concentration of African Christianity in the world outside of Africa,” concluded Andrew Rogers, a lecturer in practical theology at the University of Roehampton in London, who led the research project “Being Built Together” between 2011 and 2013.

Now, African diaspora churches are beginning to face an existential threat of their own. Under a Conservative government promising to reduce immigration, church leaders are worried about maintaining growth from the African community. Immigration to the UK has already fallen from a peak of 632,000 in 2014 to 588,000 in 2016, with net migration reaching its lowest point in three years.

“Immigrant members of the church will be outnumbered,” says Yinka Oduwole, head of communications for the Nigerian Pentecostal megachurch Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), which is also Inwe’s home church. Oduwole points out that those of African and Caribbean descent make up less than 2% of the British population. “If we are going to win the nation, we are going to need to carry along the majority groups.”

To do that, RCCG, which already has more than 800 branches in the UK, has been planting new churches not in cities home to large Nigerian communities but places like York or Knebworth, a village north of London with less than 5,000 people where Oduwole has started one. The church expects to have 100 new parishes before the end of the year. The church also runs several food banks.

The church is employing less traditional methods too. A new RCCG drama academy is training future actors and directors to make movies and plays with religious messages. In its first production in March at a small theater in London’s Leicester Square, actresses performed Shakespeare, reciting monologues of Juliet and Lady Macbeth in a mix of West African and London accents. In an epilogue, the cast noted that the famous playwright took inspiration from the Bible and infused his work with “moral dilemmas.”

For some, the mission is inspired by a newfound recognition of the UK as their real home. RCCG, which owns mass tracts of land in Nigeria and commands sizable influence with members that include the country’s vice president and several state governors, is turning its political focus to the UK. Every day at least one RCCG church in the UK has been assigned to pray for the country’s leaders.

Its annual mega service, the Festival of Life, is a prayer meeting of tens of thousands of RCCG members calling for spiritual revival in the UK. (UK politicians like former prime minister David Cameron have started making appearances at the event.) RCCG is also grooming the next generation, British-born children of the African diaspora who have one foot in both worlds, to be leaders and help better integrate the church with its host country.

“When you’re an immigrant to a new country the first phase of your life is trying to settle. You want to get work, to study. Once you’re settled, the problem is your heart goes back to your own country,” says Bishaw, who came to the UK from Ethiopia in 1990. “How can you preach to people that you don’t love? How can you earnestly pray for a country you don’t care about?”

Five years ago, after opening his church to the public as a community center during the London Olympics, he realized that cross-cultural mission work might be possible. “For me, it became a passion to mobilize the diaspora to mission and consider Britain as our own country,” he says.

The idea of the reverse mission has been around for a while. In 1880, a West African preacher named Edward Blyden predicted that one day Africa would be the “the spiritual conservatory of the world.” In the early 1900s, Daniel Ekarte, a sailor from Nigeria, started a church in the slums of Liverpool for both Africans and white British. Around the same time, a Ghanaian businessman, Kwame Brem-Wilson, also founded a pentecostal Sumner Road Chapel in Peckham, London and helped spread Pentecostalism in the UK.

In the 1970s, as former colonies adjusted to newfound independence, religious leaders from Africa, Asia, and South America began calling for a moratorium on Western missionaries to give local churches a chance to “stand on their own feet.” The International Congress on World Evangelization, held in Lausanne Switzerland, declared in 1974, “A new missionary era has dawned. The dominant role of western missions is fast disappearing.”

Since then, the growth of Christianity in the developing world, migration, and the explosion of diaspora churches have given the idea new currency. Today, the largest Christian church in Europe was started by a Nigerian pastor, Sunday Adelaja, who first went to the Soviet Union and Belarus in the 1980s to study journalism. In the US, the Catholic church has been recruiting African priests for years.

“Global migration has changed the face of mission,” says Yemi Adedeji, a pastor at a church in London and associate director at Hope Together, a Christian charity.

In the UK, it’s not just African churches and missionaries who are coming. Prayer Mission UK, a South Korean Christian group, has sent more than 300 Korean missionaries to the UK since 2010. Latin Link, a British charity, brings Christians from South and Central America to help keep Great Britain and Ireland from “abandoning its Christian roots.” The Anglican Church Mission Society, which got its start sending missions to Africa during Great Britain’s colonial expansion, now regularly invites missionaries and pastors from Africa and South America to the UK.

“The typical identify of a missionary in this century will no longer be that of a Westerner serving in some remote areas of Africa, but probably that of a Mexican, a Nigerian, or perhaps a Korean serving practically anywhere in the world,” writes Harvey Kwiyani, a UK-based pastor originally from Malawi, in a 2014 book on the topic, Sent Forth: African Missionary Work in the West.

In the UK, the reverse mission still faces obstacles. At a Sunday service at Winners Chapel, a branch of another Nigerian megachurch, in Dartford just outside London, there are few white faces in the audience. Today’s service on “fruitfulness” is aimed at couples struggling to have children. The pastor delivers his sermon from a platform, pacing and sweating in front of a widescreen projecting his face to the audience.

“You don’t need to have sperm to have a child. You don’t even need to have a womb,” he calls out. A little while later he seems to have changed his mind, promising that “the spirit shall quicken your sperm… quicken your ovaries.” Some of the women begin to cry. A man lies facedown on the ground.

So far, most African diaspora churches like RCCG and Winners, derisively referred to as “happy clappy” churches, have failed to attract a large following among the English. For critics of immigration, the predominately African congregations are yet another example of new migrant communities doing little to assimilate.

The churches often make the mistake of using the same style of preaching as at home. Services are long and meandering, with heavy appeals to one’s emotions. “What worked in Lagos isn’t going to work in Oxford,” says Kwiyani, who is also head of Missio Africanus, an organization based in Oxford that teaches non-Western missionaries how to operate in the UK and Europe.

Kwiyani’s program includes workshops focused on understanding Britishness, advice on how to build rapport with British people, and excerpts of the book Watching the English, an anthropologist’s popular analysis of British social mores. Weekend-long workshops cost up to £70 ($92). One of Kwiyani’s main takeaways is to establish meaningful friendships based on cross-cultural understanding. “If you are going to talk to British people about their faith you can’t do it like we did in Africa,” he says. “You have to build relationships.”

Others are turned off by African churches where senior pastors are often wealthy and respected for their success, a sign of God’s blessing. Both pastor Enoch Adeboye, the head of RCCG, and Bishop David Oyedepo, the head of Winner’s Chapel, own Gulfstream jets. Like megachurches at home in Nigeria or in the US, the pastor is something of a celebrity. After Winner Chapel’s Sunday service, the head pastor is flanked by security guards as he greets congregants.

“There have been instances where the African model of leadership hasn’t transferred well to the UK. You get this ‘big man’ model, who is very much in charge. You have to look after him and respect him,” says Andrew Davies, director of the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Abiodun Ojolowo, who attends the RCCG church in Hackney in east London, believes the obstacle isn’t always communication or the style of African church services. He goes to various outreach days, approaching people on the street and handing out religious tracts. British people are surprisingly open to talking about their faith, he’s found.

“The English people, for them it seems like something they’ve lost,” he says. Sometimes he manages to get them to come to church, but that’s often where it ends. “They come but they don’t stay. Probably they think it’s a black thing.”

#United Kingdom #York #Christianity in UK #Reuben Ekeme Inwe #reverse missionaries

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goje1449jkt0315 · 7 years

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MENU Navigation Categories 1 Count of Saint Germain Previous (Count Folke Bernadotte of Wisborg)Next (Counter-Reformation) Count of Saint Germain by an unknown artist The Count of Saint Germain (c. 1710–1784) was a mysterious gentleman who appeared among the royal families of Europe in the eighteenth century, known as der Wundermann. His varied and unique talents reportedly included chemistry, alchemy, music, and magic. He had no visible means of support, but no lack of resources either. From historical and personal reports, he has been at various times considered a prophet, a charlatan, a healer, a spy, and a visionary. Myths and speculations about Saint Germain began to be widespread in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when he was often referenced in Theosophy. He is said by some to have been the founder of Freemasonry which inspired several of the American Founding Fathers. Others say he may have written most of the works of Shakespeare while simultaneously being the scientific genius known to history as Francis Bacon. Contents [hide] 1 Life 2 Saint Germain and the New Age 3 Alter egos and incarnations 3.1 Who was Saint Germain? 4 Legacy 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links 8 Credits In several New Age movements, he is identified as the Avatar of the Age of Aquarius and is considered an Ascended Master on a par with history's greatest spiritual teachers. Life There are many versions of the origin, lineage, and life of The Count of Saint Germain. One describes him as the son of Francis II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania, by Rákóczi's first wife. [1] Another identifies him as the illegitimate son of Maria Anna of Pfalz-Neuburg, the widow of Charles II of Spain. Still another account describes him as the illegitimate son of the king of Portugal (presumably John V) by a Jewish mother. Such conflicting reports have yet to be reconciled or completely dismissed, and all that can be said about Saint Germain for certain in regard to his actual birth, childhood and death—as well as much of his life—is that the evidence is based mostly on anecdotes and legendary accounts. Adding to the confusion is the fact that there were several historical men of eighteenth century Europe with the surname of St. Germain. It is possible that he was a friend of Rousseau known as Claude Anglancier de St. Germain. Another prominent St. Germain was Count Claude-Louis de St. Germain, a French general who also served in Prussia and Denmark. Also notable were Pierre-Renault de St. Germain, French governor of Calcutta in the 1750s, and Robert-François Quesnay de St. Germain, active in several secret societies. Stories of the Count in India and at Masonic meetings can probably be traced to them. According to some sources, especially those who believe him to have been of Transylvanian Rákóczi nobility, Saint Germain was not familial, but was invented by him as a French version of the Latin Sanctus Germanus, meaning "Holy Brother."[2] Saint Germain and the New Age Obverse of the Great Seal of the United States, thought by some to have been designed by the Count of Saint Germain Several contemporary groups in esoteric and New Age traditions honor Saint Germain as a Christ-like Ascended Master with paranormal powers such as the ability to teleport, levitate, walk through walls, and influence people telepathically. During his life, he reportedly removed flaws from precious stones and created an elixir that prevented aging. He was ambidextrous and could compose simultaneously a letter with one hand and poetry with the other, or two identical pieces of writing with each hand. The Masons and Rosicrucians credit him with inspiring the Founding Fathers to draft the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, as well as providing the design of the Great Seal of the United States. [3] In New Age beliefs, Saint Germain is regarded as the "Cosmic Master of the Seventh Ray," thus governing one of the seven metaphysical principles that rule both individual souls and the unfolding of each Astrological Age. He is associated with the color violet, the jewel amethyst, and the Maltese cross. Since, according to Theosophy, the next Astrological Age—the Age of Aquarius—will be governed by the Seventh Ray (the Ray of Ceremonial Order), Saint Germain is sometimes called "The Avatar of the Age of Aquarius" whose current 2150 year cycle began in the mid-twentieth century. Alter egos and incarnations Saint Germain as pictured by various Theosophical and New Age groups Saint Germain is believed to have adopted numerous "alter egos," as well as numerous incarnations, including some of history's greatest geniuses. There have been reports that he was immortal, an alchemist who had discovered the "Elixir of Life", and a prophet with mystical powers. There are sketchy accounts of his visits with Marie Antoinette and her intimate friend, Madame d'Adhémar, noting his prophetic abilities, and warning of the coming French Revolution, including the impending death of the king and queen. Francis Bacon, thought by many to have also been Saint Germain Several groups believe that Saint Germain was also Francis Bacon. In that "life," he is seen as the author of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare, as well as of a code concealed within Shakespeare's works (and others) that reveals explosive secrets dealing with murder, scandal, corruption and lies at the highest levels. One particular account describes how he made it appear that he, as Francis Bacon, died on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1626, and then proceeded to attend his own funeral in disguise. He then purportedly traveled secretly to Transylvania. It is claimed that he had incarnated in that area a number of times in previous lifetimes and felt particularly at home there. Finally on May 1, 1684 he is believed to have attained his physical Ascension, without death. Not wanting to leave humanity without his direct visible assistance, Saint Germain then asked the Karmic Board for a special dispensation to allow him to function in a physical tangible body among embodied mankind for a limited time period—even though he was already an Ascended Master. He was granted his request at the direct intercession of the Goddess of Liberty, and reappeared as "Le Comte de Saint Germain," the "Wonderman of Europe" in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Certain Theosophists claimed to have met Saint Germain, including Annie Besant, and said to have encountered the Count in 1896. Charles Webster Leadbeater claimed to have met him in Rome in 1926. In Leadbeater's 1925 book, The Masters and the Path, Saint Germain is called both the "Comte de St. Germain" and the "Master Rakoczi." Leadbeater said that Saint Germain showed him a robe that had been previously owned by a Roman emperor and that Saint Germain told him that one of his residences was a castle in Transylvania. [4] Guy Ballard and wife Edna, with a portrait of Saint Germain In Rosicrucian Max Heindel's writings, the Count of Saint Germain is described as one of the later incarnations of Christian Rosenkreuz, an enigmatic individual born in the fourteenth century and legendary founder of the Rosicrucian Order. According to this author, Rosenkreuz had been Lazarus in a previous life, a biblical character in the New Testament, and Hiram Abiff, the master of the construction of King Solomon's Temple of Freemasonry, in an earlier existence.[5] In Alice A. Bailey's books, Saint Germain is referred to as the "Master Rakoczi" or the "Master R." His title is said to be the "Lord of Civilization," telepathically influencing people who are seen by him as being instrumental in bringing about the new civilization of the Age of Aquarius. Bailey has said that "sometime after AD 2025" Jesus, Master Rakoczi, and the others in the Spiritual Hierarchy (except Gautama Buddha) would "externalise," i.e., descend from the spiritual worlds, and live physically on Earth in ashrams surrounded by their disciples. Saint Germain, according to Bailey, is the Master of the Seventh Ray, and thus the Avatar of the New Age. Guy Ballard, founder of the "I AM" Activity, claimed that he met Saint Germain on Mount Shasta in California in August of 1930, and that this initiated his training and experiences with other Ascended Masters in various parts of the physical and spiritual worlds. [6] The Ballards also published a portrait quite unlike the historical one that featured a dark, bearded, Christ-like figure. It was soon replaced with a blonder, more Californian version. Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, in whose teachings Saint Germain is a prominent figure Colombian esoteric writer Samael Aun Weor considered an Immortal, someone who, using the art of Alchemy, has overcome death. He also identifies Saint Germain with Master Rakoczy, Roger Bacon, and Francis Bacon, claiming that he is still alive and living in Tibet with the same youthful physical body he possessed in the medieval period. Mount Shasta, California, center of several New Age movements in which Saint Germain is a central figure In 1957, at age 18, while involved in "I AM" Activity, the young Elizabeth Claire Prophet had an experience with Saint Germain that changed her life. She reportedly opened a book to a picture of Saint Germain and recognized him as "the oldest friend I had ever known." Shortly thereafter she met Mark L. Prophet who became her teacher, then husband. Together they wrote more than 75 books on the Teachings of the Ascended Masters, identifying Saint Germain as one of the three most prominent of them. The other two are El Morya, and Jesus. The Prophet couple taught that Saint Germain is to the "Age of Aquarius" what Jesus was to the "Age of Pisces." After Mark Prophet's death, Elizabeth would go on to found the Church Universal and Triumphant, which attracted thousands of followers in the 1970s and early 1980s, with Saint Germain as a central figure. Who was Saint Germain? Perhaps more controversial than anything else about the Count of Saint Germain are the accounts of his appearances at various times in history, his so-called past lives. For those occult and religious traditions accepting the concept of reincarnation this is surely no leap of faith. For those not having such pretext or cultural and religious context, it turns the entire life of Saint Germain into fantasy, pure speculation, fabrication, or quite simply, blasphemy. According to several of the twentieth-century New Age groups mentioned above, Saint Germain was embodied as the following, among others: The ruler of a Golden Age civilization in the area of the Sahara Desert 70,000 years ago The High priest of Atlantis 13,000 years ago, serving in the Order of Lord Zadkiel in the Temple of Purification, located near where the island of Cuba is now The prophet Samuel, (eleventh century B.C.E.), who served as prophet, priest, and the last and greatest of the Hebrew judges Hesiod, Greek poet whose writings serve as a major source of knowledge for Greek mythology and cosmology (circa 700 B.C.E.) Plato, the great philosopher of Athens. (427 - 347 B.C.E.) Saint Joseph, of Nazareth. Husband of Mary and Guardian of Jesus, first century C.E. Saint Alban, late third or early fourth century, the first British martyr Proclus, c. 410 - 485 C.E. Athens. The last major Greek Neoplatonic philosopher Merlin, c. fifth or sixth century, Britain. Magician and counselor at King Arthur's Camelot who inspired the establishment of the Order of the Knights of the Round Table Roger Bacon, c. 1220–1292 C.E., England. Forerunner of modern science renowned for his exhaustive investigations into alchemy, optics, mathematics, and languages Organizer of various Secret Societies in Germany in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, where he operated as the legendary Christian Rosenkreuz Christopher Columbus, 1451–1506 C.E. Francis Bacon, 1561–1626, England. Philosopher, statesman, essayist and literary master, author of the Shakespearean plays, father of inductive science and herald of the scientific revolution. Legacy The legacy of The Count of Saint Germain remains within the mystical and esoteric appeal of his life as well as in his teachings contained within the various purportedly "channeled" materials available. Who was he? Where did he come from? It appears that most of the details of his physical life itself are unknown or at least incomplete. However, his reported goal or vision of enshrining the "violet flame" or fleur-de-lis as the threefold flame of God-identity in every heart, attributed to him by various authors and channelers, continues to inspire millions of adherents of New Age religion. Notes ↑ Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Count of St. Germain (Garber Communications, 1988, ISBN 978-0893452391). ↑ Werner Schroeder, Ascended Masters and Their Retreats (Ascended Master Teaching Foundation, 2004), 250-255. ↑ Manly P. Hall, (original 1928) The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Murine Press, 2005). ↑ C. W. Leadbeater The Masters and the Path (Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1996). ↑ Max Heindel, "Freemasonry and Catholocism" Retrieved March 10, 2008. ↑ Godfre Ray King, Unveiled Mysteries (Kessinger Publishing, 2007). References Bailey, Alice. The externalization of hierarchy. New York: Lucis, 1957. OCLC 41738369 Bernard, Raymond. Great Secret Count St. Germain. Mokelumne Hill Press, 1993. ISBN 0787300950 Chacornac, Paul. El Conde de Saint Germain. Editorial Sirio, 2001. ISBN 978-8478082124 Cooper-Oakley, Isabel. Count of St. Germain. Garber Communications, 1988. ISBN 978-0893452391 (transl. from The Comte de St. Germain. Milan, Italy: Ars Regia, 1912) Fuller, Jean Overton. The Comte de Saint-Germain: Last Scion of the House of Rakoczy. East-West Publications, 1988. ISBN 978-0856921148 Hall, Manly P. The Secret Teachings of All Ages. "An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy Being an Interpretation of the Secret Teachings Concealed within the Rituals, Allegories and Mysteries of all Ages." Murine Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0975309346 Heindel, Max. Freemasonry and Catholicism, Rosicrucian Fellowship. 1996. ISBN 0911274049. Retrieved March 10, 2008. King, Godfre Ray. Unveiled Mysteries. Kessinger Publishing, 2007. ISBN 1432501690. King, Godfre Ray. The Magic Presence. St. Germain Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1878891075 Prophet, Elizabeth Clare. Saint Germain: Master Alchemist. Summit University Press, 2004. ISBN 978-0922729951 Prophet, Elizabeth Clare. Saint Germain's Prophecy for the New Millennium. Summit University Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0922729456 Prophet, Elizabeth Clare. Violet Flame to Heal Body, Mind and Soul. Summit University Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0922729371 Prophet, Elizabeth Clare. Inner perspectives: Teachings of the Ascended Masters. Summit Lighthouse Library, 2001. ISBN 978-0922729760 Leadbeater, C.W. The Masters and the Path. Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1925, (Reprint: Cosimo Classics 2007). ISBN 978-1602063334 Prophet, Mark L. Meeting the Masters: Teachings of the Ascended Masters. Summit University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0922729852 Saint Germain (channeled). Saint Germain on Alchemy: Formulas for Self-Transformation. Summit University Press, 1988. ISBN 978-0916766689 Saint Germain (channeled). The Most Holy Trinosophia. Philosophical Research Society, 1983. ISBN 978-0893144173 Schroeder, Werner. Ascended Masters and Their Retreats. Ascended Master Teaching Foundation, 2004. ASIN B00070R1KA External links All links retrieved May 7, 2015. Comte Saint Germain. themediadesk.com. Isabel Cooper-Oakley [1912] The Comte de St. Germain. www.sacred-texts.com. The Saint Germain Foundation. www.saintgermainfoundation.org. Reginald Merton Comte Saint-Germain: The Immortal German Alchemist. www.alchemylab.com. "Count of St Germain: the Mysterious Rosicrucian, who was the Father of the American Republic" — Chapter Eleven from Great Secret: Count St. Germain by Raymond Bernard. www.reversespins.com. Saint Germain. www.ascension-research.org. Masonic Work and Austrian Traditions: St. Germain and Mesmer. www.sacred-texts.com. Masonic Tradition. www.sacred-texts.com. Credits New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: Count_Of_Saint_Germain history Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed. Categories: CreditedHistory This page was last modified on 18 May 2016, at 23:32. Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. 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