LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, announced on October 6 that it had reached an “amicable” out-of-court agreement with former president and CEO Thom Rainer.
The agreement required Rainer, who had signed a book deal with a competing Christian publisher, to refrain from publishing his book until November 2021, when his noncompete clause with LifeWay expires.
Darrell Goodwin, a United Church of Christ pastor, was elected as the first executive minister of the denomination’s new Southern New England Conference by an overwhelming margin on September 26.
Goodwin currently serves as associate conference minister for the Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota UCC conferences.
Ardeth Platte, a Dominican sister who fought for nuclear disarmament, died in her sleep at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, DC, on September 30.
Platte, 84, spent years in prison for nonviolent civil disobedience in opposition to nuclear weapons and war. In recent years, the brunt of her work was speaking in support of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
On a recent Sunday, photos of two Black men graced the sanctuary of First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans as Shawn Moses Anglim spoke during “a little children’s moment.”
The two church members pictured, Dillard University president Walter Kimbrough and pediatrician Ted Atkinson, were lifted up as role models for the children because they are participating in a COVID-19 vaccine study at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.
Agents with the US Border Patrol raided a faith-based humanitarian aid camp for undocumented immigrants near the US-Mexico border on the evening of October 5—the second action taken against the camp since July.
Some 400 rabbis and other Jewish religious leaders from across the spectrum of Jewish institutions have signed a statement in support of efforts in New York to shut down schools and limit synagogue attendance in Hasidic Jewish neighborhoods hit hard by COVID-19.
The statement comes in response to chaotic protests that have broken out in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, driven by Hasidic Jews opposed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to shut down yeshivas and limit the number of people attending synagogues in ZIP codes with large numbers of Orthodox Jews.
Millions of boxes of USDA surplus food are being shipped with mandated letters from President Donald Trump asserting his concern to protect the well-being of Americans struggling through the coronavirus pandemic.
That this unprecedented action is taking place just before the November election is a fact critics decry as a cheap politicization of food and hunger.
Yet faith-based and secular food providers say they are distributing the boxes anyway—because hungry people need food.
On October 4, Pope Francis laid out his vision for a post-COVID-19 world by uniting the core elements of his social teachings into a new encyclical aimed at inspiring a revived sense of the human family. Fratelli tutti (Brothers all) was released on the feast day of his namesake, the peace-loving St. Francis of Assisi.
J. Delano Ellis II, a Black church official who started Pentecostal organizations and emphasized ecumenism, died on September 19 following a recent hospitalization. He was 75.
Ellis was also among a group of “High-Church Pentecostal” clerics who in the 1990s became known for wearing Roman collars, wearing priestly garments with links to their African heritage, and reciting the Nicene Creed. They were part of a trend that reshaped a portion of American Black religion.
Influential pastor Charles Stanley is stepping down from his role at First Baptist Church in Atlanta after more than 50 years.
“As much as I love being your pastor, I know in my heart this season has come to an end,” Stanley told his church in a prerecorded message shown at the end of First Baptist’s online service on September 13.
In the message, he said he had informed the church’s board earlier this month that he planned to step down as senior pastor.