On our View from Earth blog, “Sandra’s Diary” looks at last week’s celebration of St Francis of Assisi. • Andrew Barr marks the fiftieth anniversary of Radio One and the revolution in radio. • Gail warns of the threat of Alexa and the like. • In the news, sermons in churches have wrestled with the horror of the mass shooting in Las Vegas and the contradictions of human nature. This has gone alongside Harvest Festival services. • The Synod of the Church of England tried to focus on climate change but had to wrestle with sanctions for the Scottish Episcopal Church over its celebrations of gay weddings and the attacks by the BBC after the archbishop of Canterbury dared to say the churches have reacted better to revelations of sexual abuse than did the BBC. • Our reflection marks the four hundredth anniversary of the work of St Vincent de Paul which led to Vincentian priests, Daughters of Charity and the lay organisation “St Vincent de Paul”.
