In one of its first published reports, the National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices counters a popular story line—that congregations in the US, as a whole, are shrinking.
After surveying more than 1,200 congregations from 2014 to 2017, NSCEP researchers found that, nationally, there are more congregations experiencing growth in attendance than there are ones experiencing decline. What is changing, however, is how those congregations generate revenue.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has elected as its new president Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, a naturalized US citizen who emigrated from Mexico and is outspoken on immigration issues.
Gómez, 67, was elected on November 12 by a landslide on the first ballot during the bishops’ fall conference in Baltimore. The first Latino selected to hold the position, he received 176 votes, with some American bishops voting remotely from Rome. His closest competitor in the field of ten candidates received 18 votes.
For the past seven years, Kay Warren has hosted an annual gathering at Saddleback Church in honor of Survivors of Suicide Loss Day. During that time, Warren said, there have been many strides in mental health awareness. One thing remains constant, though.
“The pain is the same,” said Warren, who lost her son Matthew to suicide in 2013. “The two hardest deaths to process, and mourn, and grieve and walk through, are suicide and murder.” Both involve deep trauma, she said.
Scott Warren breathed a visible sigh of relief as he exited the federal courthouse in Tucson, Arizona, on November 20, having received a not guilty verdict in his retrial on two counts of felony harboring. The trial’s conclusion after only two hours of jury deliberation was an end to a prosecution that began when he was arrested along with two undocumented migrants in the Arizona desert in January 2018.
United Methodist pastor Anna Blaedel will not face a church trial for being a “self-avowed, practicing homosexual.” According to reports from United Methodist News Service, a date for Blaedel’s trial had been set when Blaedel instead requested an opportunity for a “just resolution”—a formal process within the church that focuses on “bringing healing to all parties.”