(PNS) To commemorate a man who lived his life in service to others, in 1994 Congress transformed the Martin Luther King Jr., holiday into a national day of community service. Presbyterians across the nation are encouraged to join in this day of service as individuals or in groups.
(ENI) — Charges of polygamy against two men in Canada who have several wives are expected to result in a challenge to the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees religious liberty.
(ENI) — The Berlin State Library has launched an appeal for funds to save and digitalize thousands of letters and manuscripts that belonged to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an anti-Nazi Protestant theologian who was executed shortly before the end of the Second World War.
(ENI) — A Tokyo-based multi-faith and interdenominational coalition has sent U.S. President-elect Barack Obama a list of proposed changes to military policies and arrangements in the Asia-Pacific region, where tens of thousands of Americans are stationed.
LOUISVILLE — Jeffrey Lawrence, a New Yorker whose working life has taken him from law to real estate to advertising to parish ministry, has been named publisher of Presbyterians Today magazine. He began his new work on Jan. 5.
“I think I bring a unique perspective to the magazine as a seasoned businessman and Christian minister,” Lawrence told Presbyterian News Service in an interview. “Presbyterians Today is a critical mission of Christ’s church and I knew as soon as I applied that this was the right fit for me.”
LOUISVILLE — When Lynne Smith was a girl growing up in El Paso, Texas, she said she wanted to be a nun.
And so Smith followed the more conventional path … to ordained Presbyterian ministry and a first pastorate in Dodge City, Kan. But the yearning for a more contemplative spiritual life was never far from her mind.
LOUISVILLE — With Israeli and Hamas forces plunging deeper into violent conflict and the death toll in Gaza steadily mounting, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has launched an appeal to help provide humanitarian relief supplies to the stricken area.
(ENI)--Two clerics have joined Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, fasting in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, which faces a collapsing economic and political order and reports of a military alert amid fears of a coup.
(ENI)--ACT International, a global humanitarian alliance of churches and agencies, says a hospital it supports in the densely-populated Shijaiya part of Gaza was reduced to rubble when the building was hit by an Israeli missile.
Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) was a Canadian become American, a Lutheran pastor become Catholic priest, a political liberal become conservative, and an all-around intellectual. His life journey made for an interesting mix of convictions and perspectives that, frankly, speak the language of so many post-moderns being dubbed the “O-generation” (hint: “O” for Obama).
(ENI) — Richard John Neuhaus, an activist U.S. Lutheran minister who became a prominent Roman Catholic priest is being remembered for his influential role in the rise of U.S. religious conservatism.
(ENI)--Church leaders in Muslim-majority Bangladesh have hailed the landslide victory of secular parties in national elections two years after a state of emergency was declared due to political violence.
"We are really exited about this result. It is a New Year gift to the nation," Elgin Saha, outgoing president of the National Christian Council of Bangladesh told Ecumenical News International on January 9 from Dhaka.
(ENI)--A South African bishop who came to prominence fighting apartheid has called Zimbabwe's crisis a slow genocide. He was speaking during the launch by a civil society grouping of a campaign to highlight the "immoral" role played by South African government in supporting Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.
Bishop Paul Verryn, of the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, which is housing hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees, said on January 8, "We are witnessing a slow genocide in Zimbabwe."
Verryn spoke at a media briefing on an undercover mission in December to Zimbabwe by members of “Civicus,” an international alliance of non-governmental organizations. It announced it would send a DVD "video letter" entitled "Time2Act" to leaders of Zimbabwe's neighboring countries.
(ENI)--Church agencies and analysts have warned that an agreement signed four years ago to put an end to a two-decade long civil war in Sudan is threatened with breakdown, thereby endangering the already fragile Horn of Africa region.
The pact, called the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed on January9, 2005, ended a 22-year civil war between Sudan's central government and the southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army.
ENI)--Pope Benedict XVI has called for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, warning of "damage and suffering for the civilian population," while controversy has broken out over a Vatican cardinal's remarks comparing Gaza to a concentration camp.
"Military options are no solution and violence, wherever it comes from and whatever form it takes, must be firmly condemned," Pope Benedict said on January 8 at the Vatican as he engaged in his yearly address to diplomats accredited to the Holy See.
With the U.S. economic crisis deepening and unemployment soaring, a group of 11 denominational and religious organization leaders are among the inaugural signers of a call to raise the federal minimum wage to $10 in 2010.
The signers include Gradye Parsons, General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Nearly 400 faith leaders from all 50 states have already endorsed “$10 in 2010,” a campaign led by “Let Justice Roll;” more are signing on each day.
As our congregations respond bravely to the worsening recession, we should also learn from it.
Last January, I became Committee of Counsel in the court action: Memorial Park Presbyterian Church v. Pittsburgh Presbytery. Memorial Park had filed a complaint to the Allegheny County common pleas court seeking to quiet title the property on which the congregation worships.
(RNS) A longtime executive of evangelical organizations became the new president of the American Bible Society on Jan. 1.
(ABP) — President Bush’s administration and a host of court rulings have indelibly altered the way that the federal government relates to religious charities, according to an analysis by experts on the subject.
Steve Monsma is senior research fellow at the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College and professor..
Perilous times plagued our nation in the days before Lincoln and Obama took presidential oaths. Both realized one dynamic was certain: Uncertainty.
(PNS) The author of a book that calls for the acknowledgement and repentance of the morally negative events of America’s past is the winner of the 2009 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.
Chuy Gallegos, pastor of a Hispanic immigrant fellowship in Greenville, S.C., responds to questions by Leslie Scanlon, Outlook national reporter, about the impact on his congregation of the October raid on the Columbia Farms poultry plant.
Many people concerned about immigration reform will be watching the start of the Obama administration carefully, looking for indications of how the new president will lean on one of the nation’s most divisive issues.
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