PARIS (AP) — An internal report reveals that L'Arche founder Jean Vanier, a respected Canadian religious figure whose charity work helped improve conditions for the developmentally disabled in multiple countries over half a century, sexually abused at least six women. Vanier died last year in Paris at age 90. According to the report seen by the AP Saturday, the women's descriptions provide evidence enough to show that Vanier engaged in "manipulative sexual relationships" over a period from 1970 to 2005. The report does not rule out potential other victims. During the inquiry, commissioned by L'Arche last year and carried out by the independent, U.K.-based GCPS Consulting group, six adult, non-disabled women said Vanier had engaged in sexual relations with them as they were seeking spiritual direction. According to the report, the women, who have no links to each other, reported similar facts and Vanier's sexual misconduct was often associated with alleged "spiritual and … [Read more...]

MADISON, Wis. (RNS) ­— A spirit of innovation has animated Pres House since 1907, when Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison hired its first campus pastor. And it’s that innovation that saved the historic campus ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) when Pres House nearly closed in 2000 amid decline in membership and giving in mainline Protestant Christian denominations. “That’s just been the spirit of it — of having to innovate all the time because if you don’t, then it’s not relevant anymore,” said the Rev. Erica Liu, who co-leads Pres House. Pres House started as a way to keep an eye on the church’s young people when they headed off to college, gathering in a small house on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But it soon expanded beyond that, according to Liu. The campus ministry grew leaps and bounds during the “heyday of religion” in the first half of the 20th century. The original “Presbyterian House” was torn down to make room for … [Read more...]

MADISON, Wis. (RNS) — Emma Brown didn’t know Pres House was a church when she walked in. The University of Wisconsin-Madison freshman had seen a sign for free ice cream at the Gothic Revival building at the heart of the university’s campus and decided to check it out. Inside, she met one of its two pastors and found herself surprisingly emotional when the topic of homesickness came up. That initial conversation led Brown, who came to Madison from Chicago, first to a Sunday worship service at Pres House, the campus ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), and later to Freshman Connection, a weekly opportunity for first-year students to connect and talk about faith. Now she’s at Pres House five days a week. “I kept showing up,” she said. Pres House sits at the heart of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus between the St. Paul’s Catholic Student Center and a monument dedicated to innovation and tolerance. On a recent unseasonably warm February day, … [Read more...]

(RNS) — For the past 25 years, the number of Americans claiming no religion has steadily ballooned as more and more people quit church, synagogue or mosque and openly acknowledged being a  “none.” The reality is particularly stark when looked at from a generational perspective. If 10% of people from the silent generation (born 1928-1945) consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, a whopping 40% of millennials (born 1981-1996) say they have no religion, according to Pew Research. But this week, three political scientists who study religion have raised the possibility that the number of nones may be leveling off. Looking at a set of recent surveys, they suggest Generation Z, broadly defined as the 68 million Americans born after 1996, don’t look any less religious than the millennial generation that came before. “I was just shocked to see it,” said Paul Djupe, a professor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. “Everything led me to expect that (the number of nones) would … [Read more...]

NEW YORK (AP) — It has become standard practice for U.S. corporations to assure employees of support regardless of their race, gender or sexual orientation. There's now an intensifying push to ensure that companies are similarly supportive and inclusive when it comes to employees' religious beliefs. One barometer: More than 20% of the Fortune 100 have established faith-based employee resource groups, according to an AP examination and there's a high-powered conference taking place this week in Washington aimed at expanding those ranks. "Corporate America is at a tipping point toward giving religion similar attention to that given the other major diversity categories," says Brian Grim, founder and president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation that's co-hosting the conference along with the Catholic University of America's Busch School of Business. A few companies have long-established faith-in-the-workplace programs, such as Arkansas-based Tyson Foods, which … [Read more...]

(RNS) — What's on pastors' minds? It may not be what you think, according to a report released last week by Barna Group. A new survey by the California-based Christian research firm found that Protestant pastors are worried less about hot topics like religious liberty than they are about the decline of religion in America. The report is the first of a series of monthly releases from Barna Group's State of the Church 2020 that will analyze how Christianity in the United States has changed and where it is headed, President David Kinnaman said. It’s the first time in 10 years that the research firm has publicly released the data from its annual State of the Church survey. I felt like we'd been learning a lot over the past 10 years that allows us to more clearly communicate the big cultural trends that are taking place and what they mean for the church," Kinnaman said. According to the report, three-quarters (72%) of Protestant pastors identify the impact of “watered down … [Read more...]