In a West African country of 21 million, Burkina Faso, a militia group formed by the government in 2020 to help defend rural communities from terrorism is a controversial — and interfaith — force.
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Churches across the U.S. are gathering buckets of supplies to help refugees in war-torn Eastern Europe, including one ministry that got a $10,000 donation from TV host Kelly Clarkson and another that’s getting help wrapping presents from St. Nicholas.
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AARP Foundation attorneys will act as co-counsel in a class-action lawsuit alleging the African Methodist Episcopal Church mishandled nearly $90 million in retirement funds, the organization said. The AME stopped making payments to retired ministers covered by its pension plan earlier this year after a 2021 audit found that two-thirds of the denomination’s retirement funds had been lost in risky investments.
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(ANALYSIS) While Pope Francis was presiding over a ceremony at the Vatican to consecrate Ukraine and Russia, a group of high-ranking American bishops met in Chicago. The gathering, entitled “Pope Francis, Vatican II and the Way Forward,” aimed to create a dialogue between theologians and bishops.
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During Lent, many Catholic churches participate in fish fries, a meal containing battered or breaded fried fish. Served every Friday following Ash Wednesday, the meals served during the Christian season of repentance have become a mainstay for many Catholic churches who use them to raise money and build community.
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The war instigated by President Vladimir Putin of Russia has caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, with over 4 million Ukrainians displaced and another 7 million internally displaced in western Ukraine, according to U.N. agencies. Photos and videos from formerly Russian occupied towns like Bucha showing executed and tortured civilians only add to the horror and fervor for the war to end.
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After battling leukemia, a Jewish woman experienced the severe shortage of blood in Atlanta firsthand and rallied a community to support the importance of donation. The result was surprising. Read here.
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(ANALYSIS) A newly released journal issue of “Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe” explores the Russian state’s dependency on a morally compromised Russian Orthodox Church to legitimize its quasi-religious fascism. Meanwhile, pastors in Bucha, Ukraine, where hundreds of civilian bodies were recently found shot to death, reflect on the theology needed to survive so much pain and suffering.
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The 18th president and first female CEO of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, aspires to be “a role model for all students.”
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Two more leaders of Hillsong Church U.S. campuses have announced they’re taking their campuses in a different direction in the wake of founder Brian Houston being ousted by the church’s board for breaching its code of conduct.
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Half of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children have been displaced in the month since Russia invaded, said the U.N. Children’s Fund on March 24. The Association of Christian Schools International is seeking donations to help some of these children, their families, and Christian schoolteachers and school personnel who have fled their homes.
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The doors of the historic Grand Mosque in Indian-administered Kashmir reopened for Friday prayers this month, in time for Ramadan expected to begin April 2, after the Indian government had banned the weekly gathering there for 30 consecutive weeks.
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Passover is a time for the Jewish community to reflect on the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and hosting a Seder is one way families and communities come together to celebrate this biblical event. OneTable and Haggadot.com have joined forces this year to provide people with the tools needed to host their own unique Seder.
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In Manchester, Tennessee, the final assembly of the Ragsdale Church of Christ was an old-time singing — the kind they used to have every fourth Sunday. After nearly 70 years, the church could no longer sustain itself.
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Stovall Weems, founding pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, says he was illegally removed from his position by the church’s governing board earlier this year, after his accusations that a trustee was improperly billing the church for “enormous sums of money” for services were turned back on him.
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Metaxas and other conservative Christian media figures are being probed about their practices in a defamation lawsuit filed by Eric Coomer, an executive with Dominion Voting Systems. In a deposition for the case, Metaxas said he had done little to verify claims aired in the broadcast that Dominion had rigged elections in the U.S., Mongolia, and Venezuela.
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When public officials have restricted churches from ministering to the poor and homeless, some have fought back, suing and arguing in court that efforts to restrict ministry to the needy violate First Amendment protections.
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Research shows charitable donors prefer to give their time over money — even when it does less good for the cause — because they perceive it gives them more control over where their donation goes. But nonprofits, although they need both donors’ time and money to succeed, feel that financial gifts have the most impact.
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(ANALYSIS) At around the same time a Russian Orthodox anti-war statement was distributed to collect nearly 300 signatures, several of Ukraine’s evangelical theological educators expressed to Russian evangelical leaders deep disappointment over their failure to speak out against Russia’s unprovoked attack. Some Russian evangelicals have issued their own anti-war statements.
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Faulkner University in Montgomery, Alabama, has been awarded two grants meant to bolster opportunities for low-income and African American students, the university has announced. The grants will provide Black students better access to mentors, academic coaches and student tutors, among other offerings.
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