NEWS STORY
RNS-Holiday-Roundup: What if Easter, Passover, and Ramadan get canceled?
(RNS): The coronavirus outbreak could disrupt at least three major holidays: Easter, Passover, and the beginning of Ramadan. RNS asked faith leaders to weigh in on what this could mean. By Religion News Service. 1,200 words. (categories: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Digital-Services: As COVID-19 leads to canceled services, faith leaders embrace the digital
(RNS) — As in-person worship is banned in many place in the wake of COVID-19, many clergy are scrambling to learn how to shift services online via Zoom, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and other digital platforms. By Jack Jenkins. 1,200 words. (category: a)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Samaritans-Purse: As religious groups weigh virus response, Samaritan’s Purse donates a field hospital
(RNS) — A DC-8 aircraft carrying an emergency field hospital and a team of 32 technicians and medical personnel took off from Greensboro, North Carolina Tuesday (March 17) for Cremona, Italy, to set up an overflow operation outside a hospital there. The field hospital is a donation from Samaritan’s Purse, the Boone, North Carolina-based evangelical humanitarian relief organization headed by Franklin Graham. By Yonat Shimron. 700 words. (category: a, i)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Italy-Community: Despite coronavirus, in Italy communion is stronger than quarantine
ROME (RNS) – While the quarantine put in place in Italy to limit the spread of coronavirus might seem like an isolating prospect, Italians are finding a new community in their society and their faith. By Claire Giangravè. 1,000 words. (categories c,i)
NEWS STORY
RNS-Prayer-Vacanthome: Interfaith clergy hold vigil for homeless sheltering in vacant LA house
LOS ANGELES (RNS) — Activists, clergy and residents gathered Sunday evening to pray for a group of mothers and housing activists who are being referred to as “The Reclaimers,” after they took over a vacant, state-owned property in a Los Angeles neighborhood as a place where they could shelter from the coronavirus. By Alejandra Molina. Did 730 words. (category: a)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Riess-Oped: The problem of ‘social distancing’ for women who already do too much
(RNS) — Women are at risk for depression even in the best of times — and the uncharted territory we’re now entering is not going to be the best of times. By Jana Riess. 850 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Reese-Oped: When a priest and housemate falls ill, the practical becomes spiritual
(RNS) — When a member of my Jesuit community announced he had COVID-19, I could not do the Christian thing and rush to give him comfort. Instead, I updated my power of attorney and wondered who I’d infected. By Thomas Reese. 600 words. (category: k)
COMMENTARY
RNS-Shafran-Oped: There are things the Black Death can teach us today
(RNS) — In the Middle Ages, plague brought people to turn on one another rather than work together to deal with the challenge. Fingers of blame pointed, as usual, at the forbears of today’s Jews. The plague, it was widely declared, was punishment for Christian society’s allowing Jews to live in its midst as Jews. By Avi Shafran. 950 words. (category: k)
