Yearly Archives: 2021

From the Capitol insurrection to the Taliban takeover: The defining religion stories of 2021

By RNS staff — December 31, 2021
(RNS) — Religion was no minor character in 2021's most significant news stories.

COVID outbreak reported at Mormon missionary training center

By Associated Press — December 31, 2021
PROVO, Utah (AP) — All 588 missionaries at the Provo, Utah missionary training center were tested and a total of 91 tested positive.

2021 Photos of the Year

By Kit Doyle — December 31, 2021
(RNS) — This week’s selection looks back at the best photos of 2021.

‘A moral giant’: South Africans pay their respects to Tutu

By Andrew Meldrum — December 31, 2021
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The Anglican archbishop's plain pine casket is on view Friday in St. George's Anglican Cathedral in Cape Town.

Idaho sheriff, charged with felonies, must surrender guns

By Associated Press — December 31, 2021
BLACKFOOT, Idaho (AP) — An eastern Idaho sheriff accused of threatening a church youth group with a gun can stay on the job but must surrender his firearms.

Vivaldi opera gets premiere in Ferrara nearly 300 years late

By Nicole Winfield — December 31, 2021
ROME (AP) — The Catholic Church and the northern Italian city of Ferrara made their peace with Vivaldi nearly 300 years after the city’s archbishop canceled the staging of one of his operas.

Comments renew debate over adoption as abortion alternative

By David Crary and John Hanna — December 31, 2021
(AP) — Discussion of adoption as an alternative to abortion intensified when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments over a law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks.

Former ACNA lay pastor charged with additional sexual assault felonies

By Kathryn Post — December 30, 2021
(RNS) — Mark Rivera was charged Wednesday with two felony counts of criminal sexual assault in the Kane County, Illinois, circuit court.

Stay of removal issued for three immigrants who resided in ‘sanctuary’

By Jack Jenkins — December 30, 2021
(RNS) — Two of the immigrants had already left sanctuary, but one has been living at a Unitarian church for nearly three years.

Observers, detractors and preachers of religion who died in 2021

By Adelle M. Banks — December 30, 2021
(RNS) — Prominent figures in the world of religion who died in 2021.

10 up-and-coming faith influencers we wrote about (or published) in 2021

By Paul O'Donnell — December 30, 2021
(RNS) — 2021’s rising stars in religion were those speaking as much to social concerns as spiritual ones.

At the end of a mixed political year: Love, hope and faith abide

By Diane Randall — December 30, 2021
(RNS) — January 2021 brought the inauguration of a new president, but the violent insurrection at the Capitol laid bare the profound differences in expectations of government.

African leaders hail Tutu, but many don’t follow his lead

By Farai Mutsaka — December 30, 2021
MUTARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Many leaders have remained silent about Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu’s support for issues they’re uncomfortable with.

Muslim woman sues Missouri gun shop over hijab removal rule

By Margaret Stafford — December 30, 2021
(AP) — A firearms store and gun range in suburban Kansas City refused to let a Muslim woman use the range unless she removed her hijab, a Muslim civil rights organization alleged in a federal lawsuit. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the law firm of Baldwin & Vernon in […]
Page 1 of 199