Photos of the Week: Orthodox Epiphany, Iranian unrest
By Kit Doyle · January 21, 2026
(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo selection includes Orthodox Epiphany, unrest in Iran and more.
Men on stilts wait for a performance with bishops, priests, teachers, students and others during a peace rally organized by the Bengal Christian Council in Kolkata, India, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
High priests celebrate Timket, the Ethiopian Epiphany, on the shore of Lake Dembel, in Batu, Ethiopia, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Amanuel Sileshi)
Rescue workers observe Russian Orthodox believers plunging in icy water to celebrate the Orthodox Epiphany at an ice hole in a pond in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Christian Orthodox believers swim to retrieve a cross in the Sava river to mark the upcoming Epiphany holiday in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
A man rides a horse through a bonfire as part of a ritual in honor of Saint Anthony the Abbot, the patron saint of domestic animals, in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Devotees take a holy dip on Mauni Amavasya, a divine occasion in Hindu religious practice to honor ancestors or forefathers, at the Sangam, the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers, during the annual month-long Hindu religious fair "Magh Mela" in Prayagraj, India, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
A statue of La Divina Pastora is carried through the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, for a Mass celebrated in her honor, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
Women cross a street under a huge banner showing hands firmly holding Iranian flags as a sign of patriotism in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People take part in a rally in support of Iranian anti-government protests, in Berlin Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
A priest sprinkles holy water on a pet snail during a blessing of the animals service marking the feast of Saint Anthony, at the San Anton Church in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Archival Photos
Carrying their books, high school students of various denominations leave Calvary Baptist Church in Youngstown, Ohio, after attending a weekly before-school prayer session in 1955. The teenagers stopped at the church at 7:45 a.m. every Wednesday morning for a 20-minute devotional period before going on to classes at nearby South High School. (RNS archive photo by Lloyd S. Jones. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
Sister Mary Laurence, a New Zealand missionary nun who spent seven weeks as a prisoner of the Viet Cong earlier in 1975, is reunited with her mother, Doris Truelove, in Auckland, New Zealand, after being evacuated from Saigon aboard a Royal New Zealand Air Force plane. Laurence and two other members of Our Lady of the Missions Order were taken captive after the fall of Phuoc Binh in January 1975. After their release, they worked with refugees in Saigon. Laurence, who had been in Vietnam for six years, said it nearly broke her heart to leave Saigon. (RNS archive photo by M.A. Berry. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
