church attack

Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Sydney clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says

By Mark Baker and Rod Mcguirk — April 17, 2024
SYDNEY (AP) — Kheir is among several community leaders who have accused police of unnecessarily raising community tensions with a premature declaration on Tuesday that the attack at Christ the Good Shepherd Church fit the definition of a terrorist act.

3 Egyptian Coptic church monks are killed in an attack at a monastery in South Africa

By Gerald Imray — March 14, 2024
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The attacks in Egypt have subsided recently amid tighter security around Christian places of worship in the Muslim-majority country.

Sowing division, Islamists target Christians in Burkina Faso

By Paul O'Donnell — May 14, 2019
(RNS) — Since 2016, at least 300 violent incidents have been reported in Burkina Faso, resulting in the death of more than 360 people, including policemen and soldiers, school teachers and religious leaders.

Family carries out suicide attacks on Indonesia churches

By Yonat Shimron — May 13, 2018
SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — At least seven people plus the six family members, who included girls aged 9 and 12, died in the attacks Sunday (May 13) in Surabaya.

Another Catholic priest killed in Central African Republic

By Fredrick Nzwili — May 4, 2018
(RNS) — The Rev. Albert Toungoumale–Baba is the second Catholic priest to be killed in about a month in the CAR.

6 months after massacre, Sutherland Springs pastor says nation should put God first

By Adelle M. Banks — May 4, 2018
WASHINGTON (RNS) — 'From the blood that was spilled, from the ashes, glory is rising,' said Pastor Frank Pomeroy.

Allowing guns in church flies in the face of tradition and Scripture

By Tom Verde — December 19, 2017
(RNS) — Pistol-packing parishioners may seem like a way to guard against the church shootings that have become so commonplace recently. But there is a long history in Christianity of opposing such strategies.

God and guns: Texas pastors undergo security training a month after Sutherland Springs

By Bobby Ross Jr. — December 5, 2017
PLANO, Texas (RNS) — The Rev. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church and a former president of the national Southern Baptist Convention, said God put the idea for the free seminar on his heart.

Thousands pack Texas church shooting family funeral service

By Emily Schmall — November 15, 2017
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Church member John Holcombe, among the massacre's few survivors, invited the public to attend the funeral of his pregnant wife, three of her children, his parents, a brother and the brother's 18-month-old daughter.

Could it happen here? How churches are preparing for a mass shooting

By Emily McFarlan Miller — November 14, 2017
SCOTTS, Mich. (RNS) – The weekend after the deadliest church shooting in U.S. history, one small church in Michigan had security trainers teach congregants how to respond to an armed intruder.

Texas town holds 1st Sunday service since church attack

By Jerome Socolovsky — November 12, 2017
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (AP) — Members of the First Baptist Church will hold a church service for the first time since a gunman opened fire inside the small church a week earlier in the worst mass shooting in Texas history.

Last Sunday, domestic violence came to church

By Nancy Nason-Clark — November 10, 2017
(RNS) — There is a holy hush that permeates church life when it comes to thinking about domestic violence within and beyond congregational life, writes Nancy Nason-Clark.

The glue that kept Sutherland Springs together before and after the shootings

By Yonat Shimron — November 10, 2017
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (RNS) — Within 24 hours of the mass shooting, another church in town sprang into action, as the coordinating center for the emergency response.

Who decides when we as a country pray and when we act?

By Chloe Breyer — November 9, 2017
(RNS) — 'The dichotomy between prayers and action portrayed in the Twitter feeds of our leaders is a false one and serves neither the dead, the bereaved, nor our nation as a whole,' writes Chloe Breyer. (COMMENTARY)

Pence tells grieving town ‘Faith is stronger than evil’

By Kimberly Winston — November 9, 2017
FLORESVILLE, Texas (RNS) — The memorial service, held in a neighboring town of Sutherland Springs, followed Christian tradition and was replete with Bible readings and prayers to Jesus.
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