Photos of the Week: Feast of Immaculate Conception; women in faith

By Jessi Dodge · December 10, 2021

(RNS) - Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes the work of women in religion, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and more. Aziza Moufid, 40, a female Muslim religious guide, or mourchida, poses for a portrait in Lalla Soukaina mosque, named after the daughter of the late King Hassan II, in Hay Riad neighborhood of Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. During the pandemic, Moufid has been using WhatsApp to explain sayings of the Prophet Muhammad to children, to help women learning to memorize and recite the Quran and to counsel teenage girls. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy) A Muslim man, wearing a protective face mask to prevent the spread of the COVID-19, sits after offering his prayer in Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco) Phyllis Tuggle helps the Rev. Gina M. Stewart, left, get ready for a church service Dec. 5, 2021, in Memphis, Tenn. Stewart, senior pastor of Christ Missionary Baptist Church, is the first female president of a major Black Baptist organization, the Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Society. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht) Family members of Sri Lankan factory manager Priyantha Kumara who was lynched by a Muslim mob in Pakistan for alleged blasphemy carry his casket to a cemetery during his burial in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) The Vatican's Peruvian-themed nativity scene features characters in bright, traditional clothing of the region. The scene features other Peruvian twists. The gifts the three kings bring are not the biblical frankincense, gold and myrrh but locally grown gifts like quinoa, corn and other Andean products. RNS photo by Claire Giangravè Pope Francis boards an aircraft departing from Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, Greece, Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. Francis' five-day trip to Cyprus and Greece was been dominated by the migrant issue and Francis' call for European countries to stop building walls, stoking fears and shutting out "those in greater need who knock at our door." (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis) Participants at the 3rd Symposium on Misleading Theologies in Nairobi, Kenya, hold group discussions on Nov. 22, 2021. RNS photo by Fredrick Nzwili Police assist a protesting Orthodox Priest during the visit of Pope Francis at the Archbishopric of Greece in Athens, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021. Francis warned Saturday that the "easy answers" of populism and authoritarianism threaten democracy in Europe and called for fresh dedication to promoting the common good. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas) Catholics participate in a procession in observance of the feast of the Immaculate Conception in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph) Vendor Oscar Cristaldo hawks Santa Claus hats at the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Caacupe as thousands of Catholics gather to mark the feast day of the Virgin, also known as Our Lady of Miracles, in Caacupe, some 40 miles east of Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. The pilgrimage to honor Paraguay’s patron saint resumes after two years. COVID-19 pandemic restrictions had prevented faithful from taking part in the annual celebration. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) A devotee holds a statue of the Virgin of Caacupe as Catholics mark the feast day of the Virgin, also known as Our Lady of Miracles, in Caacupe, some 40 miles east of Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. The pilgrimage to honor Paraguay’s patron saint resumes after two years in which COVID-19 pandemic restrictions prevented faithful from taking part in the annual celebration. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz) Archival Photos Mayor James McCann, right, of Winooski, Vermont, and President Edward L. Henry, of St. Michael's College, at a March 1980 symposium on community heating that was held at the school. The two-day conference featured a keynote speech by R. Buckminster Fuller, who explored the possibility of building a heat-saving dome over the city's 850 acres. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society. Children of East Harlem gather around the Rev. Don Benedict and the Rev. J. Archie Hargraves, far right, as the co-pastors, accompanied by field workers from the Union Theological Seminary, enter the new East Harlem Protestant Parish, circa 1948. The "storefront church" was the first opened under the sponsorship of the New York City Society of the Methodist Church, Baptist City Society, New York City Congregational Christian Church Association and the Presbytery of New York. Its work was conducted under the supervision of the New York City Mission Society, with the Union Theological Seminary. RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.

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