iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Who like the Lord? thunders Michael the Chief Raphael, the Cure of God, comforteth grief; and as at Nazareth, prophet of peace, Gabriel, the Light of God, bringeth release.

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Gregk Foley @gregk.co.uk · 16/09/2026

Fair play to the wife of a Caribbean man and mother of mixed race children being informed by the BBC reporter that she’s in the minority in her community regarding immigration and responding with, “Yes, I’m surrounded by bigots.”

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Yes, and, 'further up and further in' still gives me chills.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Annual appeal for chaos with Ed Miliband, please.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I had to turn this off. It was truly horrible.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Pagan??? Britain??? Civilised??? I know being an Anglo-Saxon historian is niche, but this is a new Dark Ages low.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Dropped in at the Weston to see the Muses before they go back on the Clarendon building. Felt for Polyhymnia, who is too busy with her rhetoric to notice her wardrobe malfunction. (Alternatively: isn't it interesting that the muse of rhetoric is depicted with one bare boob?)

A photo of a white marble-effect statue of the muse Polyhymnia. She has a halo (? It looks like a bobbly plate) and is holding a scroll in one hand, while the other is raised rhetorically. Unfortunately however she is experiencing a nip slip.

Caption for the statue. 'I am Polyhymnia, the muse of rhetoric - of persuasion, eloquence and the power of the spoken word. High above the city I once stood in quiet contemplation, my stillness reflecting the discipline of thought and expression. Taken down in 2024, I have since been strengthened and renewed. My name suggests "many hymns" yet my true art lies in language shapes to persuade. I now hold a scroll bearing the word suadere - to persuade.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Dolly Parton yesterday and Tim Curry today, good Lord. It's like 2016 all over again.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

THIS. Ever since Gordon Brown's 'bigoted woman' it has been a totally untouchable axiom that concerns about immigration are well founded and unchallengeable. If we had a media and/ or political climate where we were able to challenge these views we might be in a better place.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

'wordy, old prose' 🤢 My attention span is as shot as anyone else's, but I would be utterly ashamed to have AI read my books for me. Beyond parody. (If your attention span, too, is shot, might I recommend: naomialderman.substack.com/p/lets-do-a-...)

naomialderman.substack.com

let's do a 'couch to 5k' for reading

we're going to work ourselves back to good 'reading fitness' over the next eight weeks. come and join us.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Is there anyone who would like to talk about That Hideous Strength or am I shouting into the void? (Always shouting into the void.)

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Harry Stopes @harrystopes.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

So often when I read these stories about yet another case of the Home Office being xenophobic jobsworth pricks I think that the % of British people who actually think the people in question don’t deserve to stay in the UK is absolutely tiny. Why are we pandering to them?

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Have decided that dinner with friends is a religious observance on Mary, Martha and Lazarus day.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Used to get invasions of cockchafers in the library at @riponcuddesdon.bsky.social . So enormous! So noisy!

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

My sister's a surgeon. It would not go well.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

My 9yo and I are enjoying the whole Sherlock Holmes canon via audiobook right now. There are some words he doesn't know and some concepts that need unpacking, which is *literally the point of reading*. (I am however gatekeeping drug use and suicide.)

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Dr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

“You try leading a choral evensong without an LGBTQ person being involved, and see how far you get.” (Graham Kirk-Spriggs) #GeneralSynod

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

A question for ecclesiastical historians and/ or seventeenth century literature people: did George Herbert or any of his contemporaries write or use vesting prayers?

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Have reached the Thomas the Tank Engine stage with child #2. Increasingly disturbed by the way that the engines are able to think and speak but otherwise have no control over their bodies without the mediation of their Driver and Fireman. Terrifying.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I saw someone say that 'public discourse wants Scandinavian levels of public service at USA levels of taxation' and... yes. But how can we change that when everyone is too risk-averse to do anything buy buy into the narrative?

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

This is horrific. People will die. *Children* will die. Children will despair. Children will believe (and with reason) that their lives are less valuable than the opinions of older generations.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Received my first ever email addressed to 'Dear Mother and Father' (a clergy email, not an email from my children!) This is also the week I'm in the Church Times caption competition. I call House on Anglican bingo.

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Dr Inigo Purcell @inigopurcell.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Have a slot to present at the big giant conference in my academic field in July and I have mostly been really hoping, throughout the year, to get enough work to pay for it. This has not happened. If you do have the disposable funds to help I would be very grateful.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

I have many thoughts about the 'youth unemployment is too high' conversation. But the narrative that employing young people is entirely incompatible with paying young people a living wage and allowing them basic human and employment rights enrages me.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

This will not, I think, be new to anyone on Bsky. But it is clear and depressing.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Having a 9 year old means that in the last two weeks alone I have explained: OCD; neurodiversity; ADHD; autism; trans rights; sex; gay sex; mental illness. I haven't done a stellar job of any of these but it would have been much worse without Bluesky (and Twitter RIP) and all of you, so thank you.

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Dr Jo Edge 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 @hagenilda.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Begging folks with open ended academic jobs not to forget there’s a whole underclass of permanently casualised academics who’ve been facing redundancy as standard for years. 12+ in my case. I get it’s awful facing redundancy ofc! Just…this isn’t unprecedented for us. It’s the norm.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Sticking my head in the sand over All This, and very much enjoying the Colin Buchanan collection An Evangelical among the Anglican Liturgists. (You know he's an evangelical because Catholics would say 'amongst.')

A photo of text from the book mentioned, in which the highlighted sentence reads 'Liturgical creativity is an area in which no Anglican has had any fun or job satisfaction since Thomas Cranmer.'

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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

This morning I’ve seen Olly Robbins’s appearance before the select committee described as ‘box office’, while a commentator flagged up another key political moment with the words ‘bring the popcorn’. That’s one of our main problems right there.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Light's abode, celestial Salem To God be the glory How great thou art (when Christ shall come with shout of acclamation/ and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart/ there shall I bow in humble adoration/ and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art) Anthem - Harris, Bring us O Lord God

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

#TheBisexualExperienceOfHavingYourD&DCharacterComeOutSoYouCanReadTheRoom

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

This is the second case I've heard of in the last week. Indefensible.

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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

I hope the new Permanent Secretary at the Home Office is going to be able to look at the UK Visas and Immigration’s practices www.thetimes.com/article/1644...

The UKVI rejected the application, explaining that they were not satisfied the applicant was genuine given they had quoted the wrong founding year. The university subsequently confirmed that the applicant had provided the correct year and the UKVI caseworker was incorrect, but the decision could not be reconsidered.
In another case a foreign student was rejected from obtaining a visa to study at the University of East Anglia due to a dispute over whether the university was in Norfolk. The applicant asserted correctly that it was, but the UKVI caseworker appeared to confuse Norfolk with Norwich, which is the capital of the county, and rejected the application - believing the applicant was wrong.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Current shortlist: Dobble Jenga Fluxx Carcassonne Castle Panic Articulate Azul/ Alhambra probably too geeky? Thoughts?

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Curating a selection of board games to entertain 18 members of the bishop's staff for an evening was not what I'd expected from 'other duties as assigned '!

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Some people collect icons of the patron saints of the churches they have served, I'm collecting tattoos... (a swan, for Hugh of Lincoln)

My upper arm, with a fresh tattoo of a swan. The swan is sitting on water, but his wings are just at the point of unfurling. He's looking across (at a healed tattoo of blossom). My arm is pretty red because it was just finished when I took the photo.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

I have found @leonore2.bsky.social and the Ruth Harwood Trilogy ruthharwoodtrilogy.blogspot.com?m=1. Thank you!

ruthharwoodtrilogy.blogspot.com

The Ruth Harwood Trilogy

E G Ferguson

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

I don't think there is a more usable translation than the NRSV, taken all in all, but the first reading tonight really does show up its shortcomings. 'When the queen of Sheba had observed... the seating of his officials... his valets and their clothing...'

A still from the 1990s 'Jeeves and Wooster.' Stephen Fry, playing Jeeves, is on the left, wearing a dark suit and looking disapproving. Hugh Laurie, as Bertie Wooster, is on the right, wearing a grey suit with red tie and straw hat and looking silly.

Jeeves, for those who don't know, is the archetypal literary valet, and when the reading talks about 'his valets and their clothing' it makes me picture this. Which I suspect was not intentional.

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Margaret Killjoy @margaret.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Both completely unsurprising and completely unacceptable. The trans women (and other trans people) I know feel the same. They're just trying to live a normal life - maintain jobs, friends, families, leaving the house - and the last ~decade's vendetta against trans women is doing incalculable harm.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Reposting this again - there are still two weeks of the consultation. They will all be read and considered, so if you have thoughts, please do contribute (and share widely off-sky!) There are significant conservative voices in the diocese who will be speaking up - let the reader understand.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

I know how problematic Queer Eye is but it still makes me cry every time. Also Tan 💔 the KINDEST and the WISEST.

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Robin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 14/01/2026

The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

#nicheCofEskeet: does anyone know where I can get a copy of the General Synod papers that established Common Worship - The Worship of the Church as it Approaches the Third Millennium from 1991, and a set from 1994? They don't seem to be online any more.

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Phil White @revdphilippa.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

'[The BBC] doesn't have to treat truth and falsehood as equally valid.' Write this on the lintel of Broadcasting House!

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Helen King @helenking.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

If you live or work in Oxford diocese (that means Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) then please fill in this questionnaire about what you’d like to see in the next bishop: oxford.anglican.org/consultation

oxford.anglican.org

Consultation - Diocese of Oxford

Anyone living, working or worshipping in the diocese can contribute their views on who should be our next Bishop of Oxford.

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