Travel along, if you dare, with Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit" – either in J.R.R.Tolkien's beloved 1937 novel, or through the first installment of Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on the book, which opens in theaters on Friday (Dec. 14).
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) The former rector of the nation's largest Episcopal church has become a Roman Catholic.
The Rev. Larry Gipson was dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham from 1982-94 and rector at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, where his parishioners included former President George H.W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, from 1994-2008.
Episcopal Bishop Kee Sloan of Alabama voted in favor of his church’s new ritual for blessing same-sex unions—but he won’t allow priests in his diocese to perform it.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (RNS) The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the driving force
behind the Birmingham integration efforts that energized the national
civil rights movement, died Wednesday (Oct. 5) at age 89.
Shuttlesworth said he never feared death, and repeatedly put himself
on the line during his struggle against Jim Crow segregation in the
1950s and early 1960s.
PELHAM, Ala. (RNS) Five years ago, Living Word Church had dwindled to 40
members, had lost its founding pastor and was unable to pack more than
about 80 people into its 280-seat sanctuary and unsure of the future.
Now, it's part of one of the nation's largest megachurches -- and
could serve as a model for the thousands of small U.S. churches that are
closed every year.
A new Alabama law that makes it a crime to offer rides to
undocumented immigrants is the "meanest" immigration law in the country,
according to a United Methodist bishop and respected theologian.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) Mormon missionaries are often unwelcome guests
when they knock at local front doors wearing white dress shirts and
holding a Book of Mormon.
But after a tornado, when Mormon missionaries arrive in work clothes
carrying chainsaws to help clear fallen trees, they are a welcome sight.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (RNS) EWTN Global Catholic Network, the
Alabama-based international media enterprise founded by Mother Angelica
in 1981, has signed a letter of intent to acquire the National Catholic
Register newspaper.
(RNS) Jewish and Muslim groups want to know if they have a place in
Alabama after Gov. Robert Bentley, just hours into office, said people
who have not accepted Jesus as their savior are not his "brothers and
sisters."
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