Christians in the Middle East and Africa are being slaughtered, tortured, raped, kidnapped, beheaded, and forced to flee the birthplace of Christianity. One would think this horror might be consuming the pulpits and pews of American churches. Not so. The silence has been nearly deafening. Read more at
Pope Francis says the church "cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently." (Riccardo De Luca/Associated Press)
In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview with journalists from his own Jesuit order, Pope Francis makes a number of stunningly frank comments that are likely to rattle the church and to cement his reputation as a leader more concerned with a pastoral approach than a doctrinal hard line.
On a recent trip north of the US border, Menno Media's director of development, Steve Carpenter, met some interesting people in the persons of Vern Ratzlaff of Aberdeen and Dave and Sue Neufeld of Herschel. See his comments on a blog entry here: http://bit.ly/14iVFen
Mark Marmon (right) teaches fly fishing at the Fishers of Men retreat at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas. Photo by Emily Krueger, Camp Allen | courtesy The Episcopal Diocese of Texas
The 50 members of All Saints Episcopal Church in Hitchcock, Texas, are looking forward to December, when Mark Marmon will be ordained their priest.
One reason for the excitement? They won’t have to pay him.
Before its Aug. 20 launch, officials at Al-Jazeera America emphasized that, despite its Middle Eastern roots and ownership, the fledgling cable news network would be aimed squarely at a U.S. audience.
Guess they weren’t kidding.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth of the Kisumu Archdiocese and the chairperson of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, said the withdrawal will breed impunity and injure human-rights protection. Photos by Fredrick Nzwili
With Kenya’s president and his deputy facing trials at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, parliamentarians here have voted to withdraw the country from the court.
But the Roman Catholic Church and the National Council of Churches of Kenya view the move as “misguided.”
A federal grand jury has indicted seven people, most members of a Mexican Mennonite community working with a drug cartel, accused of moving tons of pot to Colorado Springs and North Carolina.
The United Church Observer, an award-winning independent monthly magazine published for the country’s largest Protestant denomination, is revealing the results of “Imagine: Your Church in 2025.” The national survey asked readers to envision what and where their church will be when The United Church of Canada celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025.
Egyptian Copts pray in Tahrir Square during the 2011 Egyptian protests.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams took Britain’s Christian community to task last month when he said that Western Christians need to “grow up” and stop claiming they are persecuted just because they are sometimes made to feel uncomfortable about their faith.
The backlash against Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt comes as secular forces across the Middle East are rising up in opposition to political Islam. Divisions reach from top leaders to the street.
