Monthly Archives: November 2009
In off-season, Yankees organist plays for different crowd
By Tracy Gordon — November 23, 2009
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (RNS) For six seasons, Ed Alstrom has performed regularly as organist for 50,000-plus fans at weekend games in one of the nation’s highest-profile baseball venues — Yankee Stadium. Now, he’s got a second gig where crowds usually top out at about 200: Morristown’s Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. The New Jersey native began […]
Christian students set up dry tailgate party
By Tracy Gordon — November 23, 2009
AUBURN, Ala. (RNS) Setting up on the grassy area outside their dorm, grilling burgers and passing out drinks, the young men known as “College Kids Tailgate” are like scores of other Auburn students on game day — full of good cheer, camaraderie, and cries of “War Eagle!” Their unofficial uniforms — orange jumpsuits — makes […]
Canterbury comes to Rome
By Francis X. Rocca — November 23, 2009
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams concluded his visit to Rome over the weekend with what a Vatican statement called “cordial discussions” in the papal library with Pope Benedict XVI. The spritual leader of the world-wide Anglican Communion confessed to Vatican Radio after the meeting that the two had discussed some of the “awkward” side effects […]
Yiddish Policemen for Palin?
By Mark Silk — November 23, 2009
For a few days I’ve been meditating on Sarah Palin’s remark to Barbara Walters, explaining why she opposes the Obama administration’s opposition to expansion of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. It’s because, according to Palin, “more and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead.” This […]
Tobin v. Kennedy, round 2
By Mark Silk — November 23, 2009
Apart from that little health care vote in the House of Representatives, the biggest political news over the weekend was the latest back-and-forth between Bishop Thomas Joseph Tobin of Providence and Rep. Patrick Joseph Kennedy (D-RI) over the congressman’s standing in the Catholic Church. On Friday, Kennedy told the Providence Journal-Bulletin that Tobin had “instructed […]
The Relics of Santo Galileo
By Mark Silk — November 21, 2009
Who knew? In 1737, when the remains of Galileo were being translated to the monumental tomb across from Michelangelo’s in Santa Croce Basilica in Florence, some admirers made off with three fingers, a tooth, and the fifth lumbar vertebra, of which the tooth and two fingers were lost, and now they are found. The recovered […]
Orthodox priest who worked with Muslims gunned down
By Tracy Gordon — November 21, 2009
MOSCOW (RNS/ENI) A Russian Orthodox priest who was known for seeking to convert Muslims was killed Thursday (Nov. 19) by a masked gunman at his church in Moscow. The official Web site of the Moscow Patriarchate said that the Rev. Daniil Sysoyev, 35, a father of three, died shortly after being shot in the head […]
UAE to allow female muftis
By Tracy Gordon — November 21, 2009
(RNS) The United Arab Emirates, a tiny, tradition-laced state in the Persian Gulf, will become the third Islamic country to appoint female muftis, religious scholars who have the power to issue fatwas and other religious decisions. Still, the decision hardly bucks tradition, according to some Islamic experts, who say women religious authorities appear throughout Islamic […]
New archbishop meets with disaffected Catholics
By Tracy Gordon — November 21, 2009
NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Newly installed Archbishop Gregory Aymond has been in quiet talks with a city pastor and representatives of two closed parishes in hopes of healing a bitter rift that erupted last year over a downsizing plan. Parishioners, meanwhile, hope the dialogue may also produce a compromise on the occasional reopening of their churches. […]
Conservatives vow resistance on abortion, gay marriage
By Tracy Gordon — November 21, 2009
WASHINGTON (RNS) Facing what they consider “threats” from American culture, prominent Catholic, evangelical and Orthodox Christian leaders are vowing unspecified civil disobedience against abortion, same-sex marriage and limits on religious liberty. “We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right — and more importantly, to embrace our […]
Christian colleges get into the swing
By Tracy Gordon — November 20, 2009
(RNS) Classes are done for the day. Meetings and work are winding down, and Facebook can provide a study break for only so long. So what’s a restless Christian college student to do? For undergrads at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., a walk down to the campus theater provides one solution: dancing to the tunes […]
Friday’s religion round-up
By Kevin Eckstrom — November 20, 2009
Ann Rodgers reads the tea leaves from the Catholic bishops’ meeting this week and finds that “the majority of bishops favor tact and diplomacy over confrontation and condemnation when they address difficult issues.” Speaking of confrontation, some 145 conservative religious types will release their “Manhattan Declaration” today pledging civil disobedience at laws aimed at abortion […]
What do you mean “we,” Manhattan Declaration signers?
By Mark Silk — November 20, 2009
The Manhattan Declaration, the conservative Christian manifesto nailed (metaphorically) with great fanfare to the door of the National Press Club today, ends with this orotund pronunciamento: Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide […]
The Mouse Roars
By Mark Silk — November 20, 2009
Speaking at an ecumenical meeting in Rome yesterday prior to meeting with the pope today, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams threw down a theological gauntlet to Roman Catholics who regard things like papal primacy and the ordination of women as fundamental obstacles to ecumenical progress. Rather cleverly, Williams used the divided Anglican Communion as a […]
Anglican leader, in Rome, optimistic on ecumenical strains
By Tracy Gordon — November 20, 2009
VATICAN CITY (RNS) Speaking in Rome a month after the Vatican unveiled plans tofacilitate the conversion of conservative Anglicans to Catholicism, the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion offered a moderately hopeful assessment of ecumenical relations between the two churches. The “ecumenical glass is genuinely half-full,” Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said Thursday (Nov. […]
