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Global church leaders hold historic meeting

Bolstering efforts to overcome divisions among Christians, high-level officials for global Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, evangelical, and mainline Protestant organizations met together for the first time.

The leaders who gathered “together represent in some sense nearly all of world Christianity,” said Larry Miller, secretary of the Global Christian Forum. That they “are now ready to work hand-in-hand in a common forum is reason for profound gratitude for the past and high hope for the future.”

Haunted by its history, Berlin debates restoring the kaiser’s gilded cross

Berlin is a city haunted by history. It is constantly debating what to do with the reminders of its Nazi past, its communist legacy, or its Prussian kings and imperial kaisers. Now there’s a dispute about one of its oldest symbols of all: a cross.

The debate arose because the reconstruction of the City Palace (Stadt­schloss), a residence of kings and kaisers, which was heavily damaged in World War II and demolished by East Germany’s communist leaders in 1950, is moving into its final phase.

In Iraq, mercurial cleric redefines himself as a nationalist patriot

(The Christian Science Monitor) Yousef Mukthadh, who graduated from law school two years ago and is still looking for a job, has been a follower of Muqtada al-Sadr for as long as he can remember.

“I was young when I first started following the movement—I didn’t know what it meant,” he said. “But as I became older my way of thinking changed,” leading away from blind loyalty.

Religiously affiliated hospitals win Supreme Court case on employee pensions

The Supreme Court ruled that federal pension rules don’t apply to religiously affiliated hospitals, a decision that could also affect similar institutions and their employees.

The 8-0 ruling handed down in June in favor of the hospitals—two with Catholic ties and one with Lutheran ties—reverses lower court decisions that sided with hospital workers who argued that the exemption from pension laws should not extend to hospitals affiliated with churches. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the decision because he was not on the court when the case was argued in March.

NJ mosque wins $3.25 million settlement in discrimination case

A New Jersey mosque will receive $3.25 million in damages and attorneys fees from a township that repeatedly denied it the right to build a permanent house of worship.

The settlement, announced by the Justice Department on May 30, was reached after the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge sued Bernards Township, about an hour’s drive west of New York City. The township, which held 39 hearings on the planned mosque, refused to issue building permits.

Congo’s churches face rising violence

Members of dozens of churches are in hiding and Catholic institutions in particular have been attacked in the Demo­cratic Republic of the Congo in recent months.

Amid a history of low-intensity conflicts stretching back 20 years in the predominantly Christian central African nation, it is unclear whether the violence is connected to the churches’ role in advocating for elections. President Joseph Kabila has remained in office even though his term ended in December. Many suspect him of having stolen the last election, in 2011.

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Churches see benefits in sponsoring art shows

Gillian Ross recalls a time when visual art largely wasn’t welcome in the churches she knew.

“There was just that general feeling that the arts were a little bit risqué and maybe not appropriate for the church to be involved with,” said Ross, an artist and gallery owner who directs the Grace Chapel Art Gallery in Lexington, Massachusetts, which is connected to an evangelical megachurch.