Nearly 400 Orthodox Christian theologians from 44 countries convened in the largest international conference of its kind in Greece on January 12 to discuss “Nicaea-sized” questions facing the Eastern Orthodox Church amid war and bitter division.
Hamline University senior Aram Wedatalla held back tears as she described how hurt she felt when her art history instructor informed the class she would briefly show a painting of the Prophet Muhammad last semester.
St. James’s Episcopal Church in the Bronx borough of New York serves about 500 people through its parish food pantry. Low-income households, like those receiving the pantry’s assistance, also typically use banks less than the general population.
Agudath Israel of America, a lobbying group on behalf of Haredi Jewish synagogues and schools, has mounted an aggressive media and billboard campaign answering a New York Times investigation into New York state’s private yeshiva schools.
The campaign, with a new website and at least three billboards in Manhattan, accuses the newspaper’s investigation of threatening Haredi Jews’ safety and way of life at a time when antisemitism against Jews is rising.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every congregation in the United States shut down, at least for a while.
For some Americans, that was the push they needed to never come back to church.
Under a foggy gray sky on January 5, a historic funeral in St. Peter’s Square saw the sitting pontiff, Pope Francis, preside at a somber and simple ceremony for his predecessor, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, in a liturgy reflecting the rare situation of having had, for the past 10 years, two men in the Vatican with the title of pope.
Valerie Bridgeman knows good preaching. Her dad was a pastor, and for 45 years now, she too has been behind the pulpit.
Currently, she serves as dean and vice president for academic affairs at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. She also teaches homiletics and Hebrew Bible at MTSO—and she still preaches.
“It’s always funny to me when people say, ‘Oh the homiletics teacher can preach,’” she said with a laugh. “Isn’t that what you want?”
Open Doors USA, the US-based arm of the global Christian persecution watchdog, has parted ways with Open Doors International and relaunched this month as Global Christian Relief.
It maintains the same board of directors and CEO, David Curry.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement, Open Doors said it will maintain a presence in the US and announced Lisa Pearce as interim CEO of its US office.
The religious makeup of the new Congress bucks the trends seen in American religious life, a new report finds.