Photos of the Week: Indian Harvest Festival; Mourning in Ukraine

By Jessi Dodge · July 22, 2022

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes a rural church in Texas, harvest festivals and more.

People lit candles in memory of people killed by Russian shelling last Thursday, in the Orthodox Christian church in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, Sunday, July 17, 2022. Russian missiles struck the city of Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 100 others, Ukrainian officials said. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Indigenous leader Maximo Wassu speaks during a service promoted by inter-religious organizations in honor of British journalist Dom Phillips and the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who were killed in the Amazon region, at the Cathedral in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, July 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)

Members of First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, gather before a service on Sunday, July 17, 2022. The church's pastor, newly elected Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber hopes to bring decision-making power back to rural churches like his own. RNS photo by Riley Farrell

Members bow their heads in prayer during a service at First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, Sunday July 17, 2022. RNS photo by Riley Farrell.

Hebrew University archaeologists Michal Haber, left, and Dr. Oren Gutfeld pack up a vessel and other items they discovered at site of a Jewish ritual bath, or mikveh, near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, July 17, 2022. A project to build an accessible elevator from the Jewish Quarter to the Western Wall near the Temple Mount unearthed the mikveh, which dates to the 1st Century CE. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Pnar, or Jaintia, tribals carry a sacred tree over muddy waters during Behdienkhlam celebrations in Tuber village, in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, India, Friday, July 22, 2022. Behdienkhlam is a traditional festival seeking a good harvest, in which young men symbolically drive away evil spirits by beating the roof of every house with bamboo poles. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Pnar, or Jaintia, tribals carry 'Rongs' or chariots and dance in muddy waters during Behdienkhlam celebrations in Tuber village, in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, India, Friday, July 22, 2022. Behdienkhlam is a traditional festival seeking a good harvest in which young men symbolically drive away evil spirits by beating the roof of every house with bamboo poles. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Hindu holy woman Mahant Divya Giri offers prayers to the Hindu god Shiva during the first Monday of the Hindu month Shravan outside Mankameshwar temple in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, Monday, July 18, 2022. The day is considered auspicious for offering prayers to Lord Shiva, the god of destruction. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)