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Mother Emanuel’s pastor in Charleston reassigned
After an unusually short time on the job, church officials have reassigned the pastor of the Charleston, S.C., church where a gunman killed nine people during Bible study a year ago.
Judge Barrett nomination fight leaves progressive Catholics feeling unseen
Elizabeth Ajiduah took to Twitter in late September, ask- ing progressive and LGBTQ- friendly Catholics to come forward.
New Zealand shooting hits home for American Muslims
For Muslims, Fridays are special. Mosques come to life with the mandatory Jummah prayer services, where imams deliver sermons and lead rows of worshippers in congregational prayer. Muslims dress in their Friday best and greet one another with “Jummah Mubarak” or “blessed Friday.”
From Senate subcommittee to Easter sermon: Raphael Warnock on life as a pastor-politician
Raphael Warnock, U.S. senator and Baptist pastor, was wrapping up his time on Capitol Hill before heading back to his native Georgia in time for what is perhaps the busiest week of the year for Christian clergy.
Journalist Gwen Ifill remembered with new postage stamp launched at her Washington church
In the historic African-American church where she worshipped, late journalist Gwen Ifill was remembered with a new Black Heritage postage stamp in a ceremony featuring dignitaries of the church, politics and journalism.
Pope Francis’ symbolic gesture raises hope for peace in South Sudan
Pope Francis knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s rival leaders last week, in an unprecedented act of humbleness to encourage them to strengthen the African country’s faltering peace process.
Einstein’s ‘God letter’ hits auction block
A handwritten 1954 letter by physicist Albert Einstein in which the Nobel laureate is dismissive of religion in general and Judaism in particular is expected to bring a seven-figure price when auctioned by Christie’s in New York City on Tuesday, Dec. 4.
Dementia and religion: Inside a church’s Alzheimer’s support group
They sat in a circle in a room usually used by high schoolers and talked about the people they loved who no longer recognized them or who had died forgetting the names of family caregivers in their last days.
Black woman chaplain makes rank of colonel and history
The U.S. Army has promoted an active-duty African- American woman chaplain to the rank of colonel for the first time.
Pastor whitewashes history of Southern Baptist denomination
Dr. Robert J. Jeffress Jr., senior pastor of the First Baptist Dallas megachurch, is the most prominent evangelical pastor to back Republican Donald Trump’s candidacy for president.
Medieval manuscript returned after museum discovers it was stolen
One year after the Green family — owners of the craft store chain Hobby Lobby and principal sponsors of the Museum of the Bible — agreed to pay a $3 million fine for illegally importing artifacts from Iraq, the museum is returning a medieval New Testament manuscript to the University of Athens after learning the document had been stolen from the Greek institution.
High-intensity workouts end with prayer
On a Tuesday evening under the roof of a public picnic shelter, a group of women ages 20 to 55 groaned through a series of high-intensity exercises in the 88-degree heat and humidity.
Trump wooing evangelical Christians
Donald Trump is moving quickly to rally the evangelical base of the Republican Party as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee pivots toward a general election contest where the conservative Christian vote will be crucial to his chances for winning the White House.
Clergy members arrested at D.C. protest
Hoping to steer national politics in a different direction, African-American clergy members from several denominations came together this week for the first “African American Clergy Advocacy Day” on Capitol Hill to protest federal budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration.
Chicago churches join growing movement of congregations paying off medical debt
This Thanksgiving, 5,888 families in Cook County, Ill., will receive a card with the names of several congregations belonging to different Protestant Christian denominations throughout the city of Chicago and these words: “Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We want you to know that all your debts have been forgiven.”
’The Secret Lives of Church Ladies’ is finalist for National Book Award
For years, Deesha Philyaw, a Pittsburgh writer, editor and writing coach, has gradually crafted stories about church ladies — but these are not the stories you’d likely hear sitting in the pew of a Black church.
‘Silence is violence’
Pastor and author Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil talks about racial justice and faith
Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil has been on stages, in classrooms and pulpits, preaching for decades about bridging racial divides. In her new book, “Becoming Brave — Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now,” the associate professor of reconciliation at Seattle Pacific University said there is no more time to wait.
Denzel Washington: ‘I wanted to please God’ in latest directing effort
Longtime actor Denzel Washington said his faith was a part of every decision he made in directing the new movie, “A Journal For Jordan,” based on the writings of an Army sergeant who was killed in action.
African faith leaders combat fake cures for COVID-19
When some African church pastors ordered their followers to eat grass or gulp petrol or even drink poison-laced water, their congregations have obeyed the instructions, thinking the practices would bring them closer to God.
How Jesus became white – and why it’s time to cancel that
The first time the Rev. Lettie Moses Carr saw Jesus depicted as Black, she was in her 20s. It felt “weird,” Rev. Carr said. Until that moment, she’d always thought Jesus was white.
