Photos of the Week: Ratha Yatra in NYC, World Cup begins
By Jessi Dodge · June 16, 2026
(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo selection includes a Ratha Yatra in New York City, the beginning of the World Cup and more.
The Ratha Yatra processes down 5th Avenue, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in New York City. (Photo by Trisha Mukherjee)
Hare Krishna monks bless chariots before a Rath Yatra procession, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in New York City. (Photo by Trisha Mukherjee)
Hare Krishna T-shirts, in a New York Knicks style, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in New York City. (Photo by Trisha Mukherjee)
Bosnian Muslim boys and men dressed in Bosnian national soccer team jerseys pray at a Friday prayer, ahead of the soccer match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 between Canada and Bosnia, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Friday, June 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)
Bishop Avraamiy, right, of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, looks at the burning Dormition Cathedral of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Monastery of the Caves, during a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Donella Miller holds up a hand-painted image of Trogloraptor tulishpun, a newly found spider species, that was given to biologist Greta Binford on Wednesday, June 10, 2026, during a traditional Native naming ceremony for the spider. (Photo by Lyric Aquino, Underscore Native News + Report for America)
Yakama citizens Aleeyah McJoe, 12, from left, Ava McJoe, 11, and her sister, Toppenish Creek Jr. Queen Audrina McJoe, 12, pack gifts for naming ceremony attendees on June 10, 2026. Gift giving is an important part of Yakama naming ceremonies, said Donella Miller, Yakama, fish science manager at Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. (Photo by Lyric Aquino, Underscore Native News + Report for America)
Archival photos
President Jimmy Carter applauds the 14 people receiving the Medal of Freedom Award on June 9, 1980, at a White House ceremony on the South Lawn. Among the recipients were, from left: Beverly Sills, opera singer; Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson, who accepted the honor posthumously for the former president; Admiral Hyram Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear Navy; Archbishop Iakovos, spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians in the Americas; Mrs. Hubert H. Humphrey, who received the award posthumously for the former Minnesota senator; ornithologist Roger Tory Peterson; Lucia Chase, ballerina; Clarence Mitchell, partly obscured, retired director of the NAACP's Washington bureau and Ansel Adams, distinguished photographer. (Religion News Service photo/courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society)
This specifically equipped chapel car from 1957 was part of a Billy Graham Crusade train that carried more than 200 people to New York City, where the evangelist held nightly revival rallies in Madison Square Garden. Shown testing the car's organ is Cary Gee, while W. E. Durham, the railroad's car equipment superintendent, looks on. The chapel was converted from a dining car to serve the spiritual needs of the passengers while en route to New York. It was equipped with an organ, a pulpit and hymn books, and could accommodate 80 people. Ministers among the train's passengers conducted services at night and at sunrise. The train was operated by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. (Religion News Service photo/courtesy Presbyterian Historical Society)
