In a small Santa Clara classroom at Mission City Church in Northern California, a group of students huddle together, their voices rising in harmony. Leading them stands Makayla Hannah, their vocal coach for Youth Utilizing Power and Praise. Hannah is teaching more than pitch and breath control. She believes hope is not lost in a generation often dismissed.
Read MoreWhen Western Christian missionaries arrived in Africa in the 19th century, they disallowed the use of native musical instruments in church, which they associated with demonic worship. But now, all these years later, the instruments are making a comeback in churches across the continent to the delight of millions.
Read MoreTheir historic building awaiting sale just a block away, former members of the Central Church of Christ gathered with guests including singer Amy Grant at a downtown campus of Lipscomb University to celebrate what would have been their congregation’s 100th anniversary.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Trying to combine Christian faith with serious rock music created a dilemma when Keaggy entered what record-industry pros have long called CCM — Contemporary Christian Music. Most of his over 55 albums were first sold in Christian bookstores instead of mainstream music chains.
Read MoreBeneath a church sanctuary, a basement is filled with skeletons of over 40,000 individuals arranged in horrifying ways — it is like a scene out of a scary movie, but it is entirely real. For Christians, memento mori — a Latin phrase meaning “remember you must die” — is inescapable.
Read More(REVIEW) “The Exorcist” has always stuck out to me as a movie because of its universality, its appeal to both the religious and secular. “Exorcistic” is a byproduct of the movie’s lasting influence in media that certainly leaves a wild impression of its own. It’s worth seeing if you want something to put you into the Halloween spirit.
Read MoreChurch clocks have long been an iconic part of United Kingdom life, perched high on church towers, visible across the countryside. Over time, many have fallen into disuse or broken. Recently, three ancient clocks — in Montacute, Somerset and in Winchester, Hampshire — have been returned to full working order — and their restoration projects turned up some unexpected discoveries.
Read MoreIn a lawsuit, Chandler Moore, the Grammy Award-winning worship singer, cut ties with manager Norman Gyamfi. “I’ve made the bittersweet decision to end my relationship with Maverick City Music,” Moore said on Instagram. “When we started Mav, I was grateful to have community and belonging while fulfilling my dream of making music that would help people experience God.”
Read MoreSix-time Grammy winner Amy Grant, who gained much of her notoriety through her Christian songs, has agreed to a legal settlement about a church founded by her great-grandfather in downtown Nashville. The boarded-up building, now worth at least $11 million, served for decades as the Central Church of Christ, founded in 1925 by A.M. Burton.
Read MoreThe history of San Francisco Church in Valparaíso is so intertwined with the Chilean port city that when a fire burned down the building in 2013, one neighbor felt like she was losing a friend. The city owes its nickname “Pancho” to the church (men named “Francisco” are often called “Pancho” in Latin America).
Read MoreWhen people say they “lose themselves in music,” it can describe the spiritual-like experience of entering a trance or altered state evoked by rhythm or melody. In various cultures and faith traditions, music acts as a bridge to spirituality. Interpretive choreography, beating on drums, humming and chanting — all create an atmosphere that draws people into connection with something greater.
Read MoreIt’s not just modern, but historic art also plays a role in this rebirth. In 2024, Winchester Cathedral collaborated with the National Gallery on a groundbreaking immersive exhibition centered around a 16th century masterpiece by Flemish artist Jan Gossaert. It marked the first time the National Gallery undertook a touring digital facsimile exhibition. Churches, however, have long been involved in art.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Any sounding music is not silent and, in human terms, silence is largely metaphorical, since we cannot escape sound. But Pärt’s silence is different. It is spiritual stillness communicated through his musical formulas but made sensible through the action of human performers. It is a composer’s silence as he gets out of the way of a sacred text’s musicality to communicate its truth.
Read MoreActivist Hooman Khalili hopes to inspire Iranian women to resist abuse and terrorism through murals displayed on college campuses across the United States. The murals, he said, are meant to spark civil discourse — especially among students — and draw attention to the fight for human rights in Iran at a time when all the focus is on Gaza and Ukraine.
Read MoreChristians at the Bouldercrest Church of Christ invited the devil into their midst. This time, he went down to Georgia not for a fiddle-playing contest, as the famous Charlie Daniels Band song goes, but for an interview.That was the premise of a recent play the church hosted, “The Art of Influence: An Interview with the Devil.”
Read MoreA leading academic who has called for the return of precious artifacts “stolen by Pope Pius XI and his missionaries” from Indigenous First Nations communities has urged Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican Museums to “rethink their colonial mindset.” Gloria Bell said the Vatican continues to falsely “refer to everything” in their collection as a “gift.”
Read More(ANALYSIS) In reinventing himself, did Robert Allen Zimmerman — Dylan’s birth name and the grandson of Lithuanian and Ukrainian Jewish immigrants — also betray his Jewish heritage? What was that heritage and how did it shape his music, his worldview, his rise to fame and identity? Harry Freedman explores these questions in his probing book, “Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil.”
Read MoreOn a summer night in 2023, Rajah Bose boarded the midnight train out of Spokane, Washington, with John Steinbeck’s “Travels with Charlie” in his backpack and a burning question that he couldn’t articulate. The 45-year-old photojournalist and musician was embarking on a 9,000-mile journey across America by rail, from the Pacific Northwest to New York and, finally, back home.
Read MoreIn the second installment of “And So It Goes,” HBO’s new two-part documentary about Billy Joel, the Piano Man explains why he wore a yellow Star of David in August 2017, during his residency at Madison Square Garden, in his most extensive filmed account of his family’s experience in the Holocaust. “No matter what, I will always be a Jew,” he said.
Read More(REVIEW) The devotional art of Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism share many similarities, even some gods. To understand why, you need to examine the ancient Indian origins of these religions and their iconographies, which can be traced back to the powerful nature spirits and divine serpents once worshipped across the subcontinent.
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