(RNS) — When the Rev. Emmy Kegler heard her friend Rachel Held Evans had died earlier this month after a sudden illness, she offered a prayer. Then Kegler got together with other friends who had known Evans, a popular progressive Christian writer and speaker, to share their memories and process their grief. As she walked to her car afterward, she wondered what the future would hold. Who would fill the void their friend had left behind? “Who is going to be our Rachel now?” she asked. Kegler isn’t the only one asking. Since Evans’ untimely death on May 4 at age 37, her readers and friends have shared stories of her impact and her kindnesses toward them online — sparking renewed interest in her work and putting her 2015 book “Searching for Sunday” on this past weekend’s New York Times bestseller list. Along with them, progressive Christian scholars are also considering Evans’ legacy and what’s next for their movement without one of its most prominent and beloved … [Read more...]

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis issued a groundbreaking law Thursday requiring all Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by their superiors to church authorities, in a new effort to hold the Catholic hierarchy accountable for failing to protect their flocks. The new church law provides whistle-blower protections for anyone making a report and requires all dioceses around the world to have a system in place to receive the claims confidentially. And it outlines procedures for conducting preliminary investigations when the accused is a bishop, cardinal or religious superior. It’s the latest effort by Francis to respond to the global eruption of the sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has devastated the credibility of the Catholic hierarchy and his own papacy. And it provides a new legal framework for U.S. bishops to use as they prepare to adopt accountability measures next month to respond to the scandal there. “People must know … [Read more...]

PARIS (AP) — Jean Vanier, a Canadian religious figure whose charity work helped improve conditions for the developmentally disabled in multiple countries over the past half-century, has died at 90. A charity he founded, L’Arche, said Vanier died Tuesday (May 7) in Paris after suffering from thyroid cancer. Pope Francis was informed of Vanier’s death and is praying for him and the community, according to Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti. Vanier worked as a Canadian navy officer and professor before turning to charity work. A visit to a psychiatric hospital prompted him to found L’Arche in 1964 as an alternative living environment where those with developmental disabilities could be full-fledged participants in the community instead of patients.The charity now has communities in 38 countries that are home to thousands of people both with and without disabilities. “He saw people locked up, and he decided to make a gesture, inspired by the Bible,” said Pierre Jacquand, … [Read more...]

KAMPALA, Uganda (RNS) — On a recent Sunday morning, dozens of South Sudanese refugees gathered inside a tent at Imvepi Refugee Camp to thank God for enabling them to found a new church. The new Pentecostal church was partly made possible by a new app that links preachers to Bible translations and theological resources from which they can prepare sermons and teach congregants about their faith. “It’s a new dawn for refugees,” said Pastor Chol Mayak, 48, a father of four who recently attended a training on the app. “We are going to train other refugees so that they can open more churches and spread the gospel across the camps.” The eVitabu app was developed by Jonathan Haddock and Michael Berry, who are members of Canterbury Baptist Church in the United Kingdom. The app was launched last year by the African Pastors Fellowship. The group provides pastors with durable solar-powered Android tablets that have the app pre-installed, turning the device into an engine for spiritual and … [Read more...]

(RNS) —  When the heartbreaking news came this weekend that Rachel Held Evans had passed away after enduring a medical coma for three weeks, it quickly became clear just how many people she had touched. Testimonies poured out from across the spiritual spectrum. Evans, in just 37 years of life, had done more to preach the wildly expansive love of God than most will do in a lifetime. I knew Rachel mostly through emails and tweets over the years.We met a couple of times at conferences, where she was shy and sweetly Southern. Despite our brief in-person interactions, however, she was a constant source of encouragement, cheering me on with Eshet Chayil! — “woman of valor” — whenever I  wrote something on the Internet that some people (mostly men, it seemed) didn’t like. It is hard to overestimate the power of such camaraderie and grit.Rachel gave us many gifts through her writing and speaking — in part because, while her writing was very public, it was also very personal.  Her … [Read more...]