On January 14, Patrick O’Neill reported to the Federal Correctional Institution near Elkton, Ohio, to serve a 14-month sentence for breaking into a nuclear submarine base as part of a symbolic nuclear disarmament action he took with six other Catholic pacifists more than two years ago.
On his way to prison, O’Neill took up a new cause: protecting inmates from COVID-19.
Dina González-Piña has been named executive director of Mennonite Central Committee’s West Coast regional office. Previously, she served as the ethnicity and gender equity specialist for MCC’s US national office.
For some, the term monasticism may bring up images of chanting monks or helpful nuns. For Matt Scraper, monasticism is an important part of his life and faith as an elder in the Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church. Scraper leads the Order of St. Patrick, an order for clergy and lay contemplatives.
For decades, the redbrick Gothic Revival church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached has been a monument to the history of Black Americans’ fight for civil rights and the legacy of an activist icon.
But it was a high-stakes Senate race and a Trump-era cultural debate that thrust Ebenezer Baptist Church into the center of the current political debate.
An Israeli government initiative to help vaccinate Holocaust survivors worldwide against COVID-19 is drawing praise for its intentions but also skepticism.
The initiative, announced by Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevich on January 12, seeks to vaccinate the estimated 200,000 Holocaust survivors who live outside of Israel. The vast majority of survivors are in their 80s and 90s—the age group most at risk for COVID-19 complications and death.
The flags emblazoned with “Jesus 2020” and the cross, the most easily recognizable symbol of Christianity, were hard to miss amid the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6. But they weren’t the only religious symbols that appeared during the siege.
One of the most photographed rioters was a shirtless man wearing fur, horns, and red, white, and blue face paint. Jake Angeli, better known as the “QAnon Shaman” or “Q Shaman,” also sported several tattoos of symbols associated with Norse paganism, known as heathenry.
Moments before the assault on the US Capitol began on January 6, a mass of Trump supporters gathered at a northwest entrance. As throngs surged toward a barricade manned by a handful of police, a white flag appeared above the masses, flapping in the wind. It featured an ichthys—also known as a “Jesus fish”—painted with the colors of the American flag.
Above the symbol, the words: “Proud American Christian.”
Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German national conference of Catholic prelates, called for a more inclusive church on December 29, suggesting that the Catholic hierarchy could shift its positions on women’s ordination and homosexuality.
According to the Catholic News Service, Bätzing, who heads the Diocese of Limburg, near Frankfurt, told a German magazine that while it is important to “honestly state the church’s arguments as to why the sacramental ministry can only be given to men,” those arguments are becoming less convincing over time.
Russian riot police stormed into a monastery on December 29 to detain a rebel monk who has castigated the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church leadership and denied the existence of the coronavirus.
On December 29, the 65-year-old monk, known as Father Sergiy, was quickly flown to Moscow and charged with inciting suicidal actions through sermons in which he urged believers to “die for Russia.” He denied the accusations.
A longtime military officer and minister has been named the new chaplain of the US House of Representatives.
Rear Adm. Margaret Grun Kibben will be the first woman to serve as chaplain of either chamber of Congress, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement. Kibben, an ordained Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, has previously served as the US Navy’s chief chaplain and as chaplain of the Marine Corps.
“Her integrity, experience and patriotism will serve the Congress and the Country well, as she ministers to the needs of Members,” said Pelosi.