As the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday on July 4th, the neo-Gothic cathedral has emerged once again as one of the nation’s most symbolic gathering places. It’s not just a church, but also a civic sanctuary where Americans wrestle with questions of identity, memory, grief, hope and democracy.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Once the cranes disappear, the basilica will cease from being an evolving construction project and instead become something more fixed — a monument subject to preservation battles, increased tourism pressures and the inevitable weight of history. Nonetheless, Pope Leo’s Spain trip, with a stop in Barcelona, represents the fulfillment of decades of hard work.
Read MoreLand of Milk and Honey Farms in Deep Gap, North Carolina — nestled in a mountainous region called the High Country — has found a niche: Faith-based agritourism, offering visitors nature, serenity and even cuddle sessions with lambs. The farm’s name was inspired by a Bible passage in which God promises his people “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Read MoreIn the heart of Budapest lies a theater unlike any other. Founded 20 years ago, Gólem Theater stands as the only professional Jewish theater in Hungary. By blending humor with questions of identity, the theater seeks to engage audiences with a different side of Jewish culture.
Read MoreRelax with a beer at a cathedral? From beer festivals to bespoke brands, beer and cathedrals are becoming an increasingly popular pairing in the United Kingdom. Cathedrals have always had links with brewing. Most of English cathedrals, such as St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, owe their origins to monastic orders, who used to brew their own beer.
Read MoreTravel to Cairo and you’ll find Muslims and Christians intertwining their faiths, borrowing one another’s saints and celebrating religious festivals side by side. The official iconography of Saint George, for example, shows a knight on horseback — an image that echoes ancient Egyptian depictions of Horus striking a hippopotamus with a spear.
Read MoreThe Ugandan government has announced the postponement of this year’s Uganda Martyrs’ Day celebrations, scheduled for June 3, in response to an Ebola outbreak affecting both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has claimed over 130 lives thus far.
Read MorePresident José Antonio Kast has elevated the Catholic chapel at La Moneda, expanding Masses to four times a week and regularly attending with First Lady María Pía Adriasola. His visible faith marks a shift from predecessor Gabriel Boric, highlighting religion’s renewed prominence within Chile’s presidential palace and in public life.
Read MoreEl presidente José Antonio Kast ha elevado el perfil de la capilla católica de La Moneda, ampliando las misas a cuatro veces por semana y asistiendo regularmente junto a la primera dama María Pía Adriasola. Su fe visible marca un cambio respecto a su predecesor, Gabriel Boric, destacando el renovado protagonismo de la religión dentro del palacio presidencial de Chile y en la vida pública.
Read MoreMaria lives in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with her husband and four children, content with being farmers and living in the fields. But the 27-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified by her full name, has always faced persecution for being Christians. She isn’t alone. It’s the type of violence many in Africa have had to deal with for years.
Read MoreTo fully understand Atlanta, you have to look beyond its highways and glass towers, back to the broader history of Georgia and its unusual role during colonial America. In that earlier era, a quiet but consequential force — religious diversity — helped shape a mindset that would eventually contribute to the movement for independence in 1776.
Read More(ESSAY) Located in the countryside of Burgundy, it attracts over 50,000 guests a year — mostly young people between ages 16 and 35 — from all around the world. Together with the brothers, they follow a traditional monastic way of life: Three prayer times a day, characterized by silence and the well-known Taizé chants, simple meals, practical work and Bible study in the mornings.
Read MoreTucked within the settlement’s remains stands the Jamestown Church Tower, its weathered bricks rising above the landscape like a sentinel. It’s the last visible remnant of a series of churches that once anchored the colony’s spiritual life. As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, Jamestown is a reminder of what helped to create a new nation.
Read More(ESSAY) In the Bay Area, a backyard feast is held to celebrate the end of Passover. The main event of Mimouna is the homemade treats. White tablecloths are meticulously arranged with pink and green marzipan cookies representing spring, dried fruits and muffleta, a silken, thin crepe doused in honey and butter.
Read MoreIt was more than a house of worship. Iran’s residents came to the community center for affordable healthcare and to borrow books. It was the heartbeat of a neighborhood in the northwestern Iranian city of Zanjan — and now locals are mourning its loss. As the war rages on, they are looking to rebuild.
Read MoreSome 1,800 horsemen flooded the streets of Colina, a rural municipality on the outskirts of Santiago, for the Feast of Cuasimodo on April 12. They accompanied the priests who traveled in a carriage to bring communion to the elderly and the sick on the Sunday after Easter, a tradition that dates back to the early years of Chile as a republic.
Read MoreUnos 1.800 jinetes inundaron las calles de Colina, un municipio rural en las afueras de Santiago, para la Fiesta de Cuasimodo el 12 de abril. Acompañaron a los sacerdotes que viajaban en una carreta para llevar la comunión a los ancianos y a los enfermos el domingo después de Pascua, una tradición que se remonta a los primeros años de Chile como república.
Read MoreThey waited patiently with unlit tapers, waiting for their turn as the Holy flame passed from person-to-person, eventually illuminating the whole crowd of more than 18,000. Some participants would take their flames as far away as Greece or Romania, where the faithful were waiting to see their own miracle.
Read MoreWedged between a pizzeria and a clothing shop in Houmt Souk, the capital of Tunisia’s island of Djerba, lies an ancient treasure. The El Barounia Library is one of the oldest centers preserving Ibadi heritage in North Africa. Ibadism presents itself as a third path — between the two major branches — within Islam.
Read MoreOn Antarctica’s King George Island, the 22-year-old Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church stands as a striking symbol of faith and craftsmanship. Built in Siberia, shipped across the world and rebuilt near Russia’s Bellingshausen Station, the wooden chapel draws visitors awed by its beauty, resilience and unlikely presence amid ice and penguins.
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