Officials are threatening Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko and other members of New Life Pentecostal Church in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, with administrative and criminal charges for continuing to hold meetings for worship in the open air in the church’s car park.
Read MoreJehovah's Witnesses and Muslims in Russia jailed on "extremism"-related charges for exercising freedom of religion or belief face years of restrictions and stigma after the sentence ends, including blocked bank accounts, restricted movement and voting rights, harsher penalties for another offense and more. This means that the religious lives, health, reputations and finances – of people who have not engaged in any violent activity or infringed upon the human rights of others – could be adversely affected for well over a decade.
Read MoreOften called Europe’s last dictator, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has continued to jail human rights defenders and his regime is targeting those protesting against election falsification and regime violence, including priests that the government has expelled from the Belarusian Orthodox Church. The regime also tried to ban singing of the hymn “Mighty God” and prayers for political prisoners, organizing instead a pro-regime "prayer day".
Read More(REVIEW) A new PBS documentary on the life of Pope Francis that premiered on June 20 presents an hour long overview from his childhood to his papacy. It paints Francis as a reformer of the Catholic Church and a pope who cares greatly for other people.
Read MoreThe controversy and context surrounding the 2020 Tokyo Olympics pose an opportunity to think about the Games through a lens of faith. From a Muslim track and field athlete to Israel’s first surfer, here is a guide to the Games for the religiously-minded.
Read MoreA small Yiddish music workshop in the 1990s became a wild success. So composer Alan Bern founded what is now known as Yiddish Summer Weimar, a five-week summer institute and festival for the study, creation and performance of Yiddish culture and music in the heart of Germany.
Read More(OPINION) Whether you’re a Catholic or just like to root for the underdog — or both — then you’ll be watching Croatia at this summer’s European Championship.
Read More(ANALYSIS) Despite Berlin’s reputation as Europe’s most secular city, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Berliners have sought solace in religious communities and their rituals as a means of connection and control in a time of isolation and confusion.
Read MoreA new Holocaust Museum in Porto, Portugal tells the story of the more than 100,000 Jewish refugees who passed through Porto and Lisbon desperate to book passage from the neutral country to the United States during WWII to escape the Nazis.
Read More(OPINION) John Stott, who served as the Queen's chaplain, shepherded Her Majesty in her faith, sold millions of books, was named one of Time Magazine’s most 100 influential people, and yet, remained a humble man. Here’s why his centenary is being celebrated by churches and organizations on every continent.
Read More(OPINION) April 24 has long been observed worldwide as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. In 2021, President Joe Biden chose to formally acknowledge that the systematic murder of more than a million Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire was, in fact, a genocide.
Read MoreThe monastery Visoki Decani is one of the holiest sites of the Serbian Orthodox Church and is now considered endangered by Europe’s leading heritage site preservation organization.
Read More(OPINION) In Scotland, old blasphemy laws are being discarded — only to be replaced with harsher ones. The bill introduced is opposed by many faith and secular groups.
Read MoreThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex caused major waves via their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey. Accusations of racism, betrayal and a lack of empathy dominated the talk, but one key detail dropped about the couple’s wedding has left the Church of England in a difficult position.
Read MoreDr. Jenny Taylor meets an “accompanist” with soul in her English village: the author Maxine Green who with co-author Dr. Phil Daughtry just published the book “The Art of Accompanying” about the life of one’s soul and the delight in being still.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Serbian Orthodox Church elected Patriarch Porfirije after its former leader died of COVID-19. Porfirije has won many international accolades for growing a drug addiction therapy program and building bridges between Serbs, Croatians and the people of Kosovo, a disputed Muslim-majority territory with many 13th and 14th century Serbian Orthodox holy sites.
Read MoreA February survey shows that non-Christians in the U.K. have developed a more positive view of the church since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Read MoreFazlun Khalid has worked for decades to raise environmental consciousness among Muslims and demonstrate what he sees as the inherently ecological nature of Islam and the environmental worldview it espouses.
Read MoreBerliners are debating renaming Pacelliallee – a major street named after Rome-born Eugenio Pacelli, better known as Pope Pius XII, to honor former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir (1898-1978). Pius XII served as a Vatican ambassador in Berlin and has been accused of anti-Semitism and sympathizing with Nazis during the Holocaust. Meir was Israel’s first and only female prime minister.
Read MoreThe Catholic Church in Germany is already the most disruptive and wealthiest national church in communion with the Pope of Rome. Now, the bishops of the German Catholic Church are dropping a massive, controversial document onto the Vatican’s lap that seeks to break away from Catholic doctrine in the realms of sexual morality, ordination of women and episcopal authority.
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