Monthly Archives: November 2006
Pope to Offer Support for Turkey’s Beleaguered Orthodox
By RNS Blog Editor — November 22, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service ISTANBUL, Turkey _ Fifteen hundred years ago, Constantinople was home to the world’s largest church and one of the five original patriarchates, or spiritual centers, of Christianity. Today the patriarchate is still there, but Constantinople is now Istanbul, the church is a museum and the patriarch, Bartholomew I, is at […]
East Will Meet West in Pope’s Delicate Visit to Turkey
By RNS Blog Editor — November 22, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service ISTANBUL, Turkey _ In the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Spirit here, a bronze statue stands in honor of a Roman Catholic pontiff by the name of Benedict: “The benefactor of all people, irrespective of nationality or religion,” a placard near the statue reads. Apart from the name, […]
COMMENTARY: Glimpses of the Emerging Center
By Tom Ehrich — November 22, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service RICHMOND, Va. _ “Your generation will have to die before we can move on,” a 20-something told a 60-something at a national church convention last summer. “He could be right,” the 60-something said last week, but maybe not. Veterans of religious wars are highly invested in seeking control of the […]
GUEST COMMENTARY: Who Will Judge the Judges?
By Phyllis Zagano — November 21, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Once upon a time, Monsignor Charles M. Kavanagh was the sort of New York priest who performed weddings between a Tiffany employee and a Lehman Brothers mortgage analyst in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. That was then, when he was pastor of a large Bronx parish and […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — November 21, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Massachusetts Bishops Critical of Legislators’ Moves on Gay Marriage SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (RNS) Massachusetts’ Catholic bishops, who opposed lawmakers’ decision to avoid taking up a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, say the legislators’ action was “deeply disturbing” and violated the people’s right to be heard. “The effort to silence the people […]
From Fire Came Forgiveness, and a New Sikh Temple
By RNS Blog Editor — November 21, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service PALERMO, N.Y. _ When their leader in India gave them cryptic instructions to find a new spiritual home, a community of Sikhs in central New York followed their faith to a farmhouse. There, on the back roads of Palermo, they found the simple wooden dwelling they would make into a […]
Jews Create New Torah Scroll, One Letter at a Time
By Charles Honey — November 21, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. _ Jeanne Moss put her tentative hand to the quill pen, just above the surer hand of Neil Yerman. Then Yerman gently guided her as she wrote the Hebrew letter resch _ her contribution to a new Torah. “OK now, to the right, gently,” Yerman said, as […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — November 18, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Lutherans Apologize for Persecution of Anabaptists (RNS) The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has expressed “deep and abiding sorrow” for the persecution of Anabaptists nearly five centuries ago in Europe. The ELCA’s church council, which issued the apology at its biennial meeting Nov. 11-13, hopes it will soothe relations between […]
Sudanese Christians Find `Promised Land’ in America
By RNS Blog Editor — November 18, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service WYOMING Mich. _ The worship at Sudanese Christ Lutheran Church looks a lot like many other Sunday services, but when a rhythmic beat drums out on a laar, the praise starts to sound different. Then, the Word is spoken: in Arabic, in English and, mostly, in Dinka. The Apostles’ Creed, […]
COMMENTARY: Breaking Up Is the Right Thing to Do
By Frances Coleman — November 18, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In the wake of the midterm elections, here’s one American who’s ready for a divorce. Not for myself, but for the modern-day alliance between politics and religion. As with a couple who never belonged together in the first place, it’s past time these two separated. It’s hard to pinpoint […]
Some Worry Bishops’ Cutback Will Impact Influence, Advocacy
By Daniel Burke — November 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service BALTIMORE _ The U.S. Catholic bishops grabbed headlines at their national meeting this week (Nov. 13-16) with controversial documents on homosexuality, contraceptives and Communion. But it was the bishops’ decision to drastically reduce the size and scope of their national office that will have more consequential _ if somewhat less […]
Vatican Reaffirms Celibacy After Milingo Summit
By RNS Blog Editor — November 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Pope Benedict XVI met with his top advisers on Thursday (Nov. 16) to reaffirm the Vatican’s requirement of celibacy for priests in the wake of controversy surrounding the excommunication of a married African archbishop. A brief statement from the Vatican at the close of the three-hour meeting […]
RNS Daily Digest
By RNS Blog Editor — November 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service Ohio Bishops Give $3 Million to Sex-Abuse Counseling Fund CLEVELAND (RNS) Ohio’s Catholic bishops are reaching out to survivors of childhood sexual abuse with a new program that will allow victims to get counseling independent of the church. In what appears to be the first voluntary program of its kind […]
Evangelicals Press Bush, Congress on Environment
By Adelle M. Banks — November 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Evangelical leaders, including a new corps of young activists, called Thursday (Nov. 16) for President Bush and the new Democratic leaders of Congress to pay greater attention to concerns over climate change. “Our allegiance to Jesus Christ demands that the threat of climate change no longer be ignored,” […]
Orthodox Jews Find East Meets West in Meditation
By RNS Blog Editor — November 17, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Natan Ophir, an Orthodox rabbi with a doctorate in Jewish philosophy, takes off his shoes and settles into the lotus position on the floor. Wearing a gray pinstriped suit, oval wire-rimmed glasses and a knitted skullcap over his graying brown hair, he closes his eyes and leads a […]
