World
Sydney teen accused of stabbing 2 clerics showed no signs of radicalization, Muslim leader says
By Rod Mcguirk and Mark Baker — April 18, 2024
SYDNEY (AP) — The teen spoke in Arabic about the Prophet Muhammad being insulted after he stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and the Rev. Isaac Royel during Monday night's Assyrian Orthodox service, which was being streamed online.
Prominent Baptist pastor in military-ruled Myanmar detained again hours after release from prison
By Grant Peck — April 18, 2024
BANGKOK (AP) — The Rev. Hkalam Samson was among the 3,300 prisoners released nationwide on Wednesday to mark the traditional Thingyan New Year holiday.
Why an organization founded to care for orphans no longer has a children’s home
By Vaughan Stannard — April 17, 2024
(RNS) — Our aim now is to strengthen families to raise thriving children.
Hindu Lord Ram road-trips through the United States
By Richa Karmarkar — April 17, 2024
(RNS) — For the first time in North America, an image of Lord Ram is being paraded from temple to temple on a two-month-long road trip, just in time for the deity’s birthday, Ram Navami.
Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Sydney clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says
By Mark Baker and Rod Mcguirk — April 17, 2024
SYDNEY (AP) — Kheir is among several community leaders who have accused police of unnecessarily raising community tensions with a premature declaration on Tuesday that the attack at Christ the Good Shepherd Church fit the definition of a terrorist act.
In time for Passover, the first Ukrainian-language Haggadah goes to print
By David I. Klein — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — ‘It is a symbol of how we’ve manifested as Ukrainian Jews, that we are something different, not just Soviet Jews anymore,’ said the translator of the Passover liturgy.
After traditionalist churches left, UMC may be more — not less — diverse
By Yonat Shimron — April 16, 2024
(RNS) — Even after the departures, 24% of North Carolina clergy remaining in the denomination disagree with allowing LGBTQ people to get married and ordained within the denomination.
Indian protesters pull from poetic tradition to resist Modi’s Hindu nationalism
By Krupa Shandilya — April 16, 2024
(The Conversation) — Thanks to a strong oral Urdu literary tradition in South Asia, poems from the past linger in the popular imagination.
A London court rules against a Muslim girl who wanted to pray at a school known for strict rules
By Associated Press — April 16, 2024
LONDON (AP) — The fight was over a rule put in place last year by the Michaela Community School after a small group of students who began praying in the schoolyard caused divisions at the school that spread to the community and led to a bomb threat.
Tensions rise in Australia after a bishop and priest are wounded in a knife attack in a church
By Rod Mcguirk and Mark Baker — April 16, 2024
SYDNEY (AP) —Video of the attack spread quickly on social media and an angry mob converged on the church demanding vengeance.
Solar New Year celebrations unite religious groups across the South Asian diaspora
By Richa Karmarkar — April 15, 2024
(RNS) — This week, people of all South Asian backgrounds celebrated the Hindu Solar New Year in their unique, regional ways. But common threads between the holidays, many say, have the power to unite those living in the diaspora.
Pope Francis sides with Peruvian villagers who accused Catholic group of trying to steal their land
By Gabriela Molina — April 15, 2024
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — On Saturday, Francis urged the Catacaos villagers to persist in their efforts to defend the land, where they raise cattle and produce honey.
Unfazed by danger and power, Guatemalan cardinal keeps up fight for migrants and the poor
By Giovanna Dell'orto — April 15, 2024
HUEHUETENANGO, Guatemala (AP) — Elevated by Pope Francis to the top hierarchy of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini has continued his unflinching focus on the poor, the Indigenous and the migrant.
As a landmark United Methodist gathering approaches, African churches weigh their future.
By Peter Smith — April 15, 2024
(AP) — Today, members from four continents vote at legislative gatherings, serve on boards together, go on mission trips to each others’ countries and are largely governed by the same rules.
Vatican complains after French court rules in favor of nun dismissed from religious order
By Nicole Winfield — April 15, 2024
ROME (AP) — The case is highly unusual, because it represented a secular civilian court essentially determining that the Vatican’s in-house canonical procedures grossly violated the nun’s fundamental rights.
