This winter, hundreds of Episcopalians embarked on a walking pilgrimage around the Holy Land without ever having to set foot outside their neighborhoods—thanks to an app built by St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
Among the legislative loose ends that made their way into the $900 billion spending bill passed by Congress on December 21 was a significant update to the 18-year-old Tibetan Policy Act, strengthening US support for Tibetan autonomy and religious freedom for followers of Tibetan Buddhism around the globe.
In 2020, we celebrated holidays at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked at home, attended school at home, even attended worship services at home.
Many Christians also turned to hymns for comfort at home, according to Hymnary.org. Users of the online database doubled as the coronavirus closed many church buildings this spring.
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.
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.
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.
On the morning of January 6, a small, interfaith prayer circle surrounded a Black Lives Matter sign, created to replace similar banners repeatedly stolen and destroyed by the far-right Proud Boys in December.
Then, near the end of the service, a gaggle of men adorned in patriotic clothing and “Make America Great Again” hats approached. One walked into the middle of the circle, pretended to fall, and laid on the ground while another man knelt on his neck—an apparent attempt to mock the 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of police.