Photos of the Week

This week’s gallery includes the start of Hindu Holi celebrations, continued coronavirus fears, and more.

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s gallery includes the start of Hindu Holi celebrations, continued coronavirus fears, and more.

Saudi policemen guard the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Friday, March 6, 2020. Saudi Arabia emptied Islam’s holiest site for sterilization over fears of coronavirus. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)


A pilgrim who entered Saudi Arabia before the country halted travel to Islam’s holiest sites takes a rest on a prayer carpet on the roof of the Grand Mosque, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, March 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

In this Feb. 29, 2020, photo, Cleon Orange visits the Perry County Jail cell in Marion, Ala., where his father, the Rev. James Orange, a project coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was housed in 1965 after his arrest while organizing a voter registration drive. Orange was held on charges of disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of minors. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett)

Devotees play Holi with ash and colors at a cremation ground on the banks of the Ganges River at the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, India, Friday, March 6, 2020. Thousands of Hindus celebrate the major Spring festival Holi with ash collected from pyres in a cremation ground, following an age-old tradition. Hindu mythology says deity Shiva, known as “The Destroyer,” visited cremation grounds to play Holi with ghosts who couldn’t celebrate the festival of colors. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

Sumant Joshi helps to clean up rubble at the East End United Methodist Church after it was heavily damaged by storms Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. Joshi is a resident in the area and volunteered to help clean up. Tornadoes ripped across Tennessee early Tuesday, shredding buildings and killing at least 25 people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

People wearing face masks pray during a service at Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, March 1, 2020. The church decided to make its Sunday services only available online for members’ safety amid the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Hundreds of Hindu devotees sit in parked boats at a prayer ceremony dedicated to the holy Ganges River in Varanasi, India, Friday, March 6, 2020. India is bracing for a potential explosion of coronavirus cases as authorities rush to trace, test and quarantine contacts of 31 people confirmed to have the disease. The government has shut schools, stopped exporting key pharmaceutical ingredients and urged state governments to cancel public festivities for Holi, the Hindu springtime holiday in which people douse each other with colored water and paint. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

An ultra-Orthodox Jew prays next to a highway, near Petah Tikva, Israel, Monday, March 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)


Jo Anne Lyon, right, prays over the Rev. Walter Kim, center, and his family during Kim’s inauguration as the new president of the National Association of Evangelicals at the Capital Turnaround in Washington, D.C., Wed., March 4, 2020. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

A view of St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Friday, March 6, 2020. A Vatican spokesman has confirmed the first case of coronavirus at the city-state. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Friday that non-emergency medical services at the Vatican have been closed so they can be sanitized following the positive test on Thursday. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

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