Doctrine & Practice
COMMENTARY: A gentile’s guide to the Jewish High Holy Days
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of RNS.) UNDATED _ It was just the third day of the school year and I faced my first crisis as a room mother. Someone had inadvertently scheduled the 4th-grade parent’s party on the second night of Rosh Hashanah. […]
COMMENTARY: Getting through the getting-through times
By Dale Hanson Bourke — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of RNS.) UNDATED _ Life can be good. Life can be bad. But mostly, life is somewhere in between. It’s in that mid-range of life that most of us struggle to survive. Too often, we find ourselves alone when […]
NEWS FEATURE: Hong Kong ministry seeks to remove ‘Western trappings’ of Christianity
By Kim Lawton — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service HONG KONG _ On a lofty mountaintop overlooking Hong Kong’s modernized Shatin Valley, a round white temple with vivid red columns and pagoda-shaped roofs dominates the Tao Fong Shan compound. At first glance, the temple appears similar to many of the ornate Buddhist temples that dot Hong Kong’s congested city […]
Guidelines for religious expression in federal workplaces
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Here are some directives from the”Guidelines on Religious Exercise and Religious Expression in the Federal Workplace”issued by President Clinton on Thursday (Aug. 14): _ An employee can keep a Bible or Koran on a private desk to read during breaks. _ In cafeterias, hallways and other informal settings, […]
NEWS FEATURE: Should church prescribe prayer for pain relief?
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service VATICAN CITY _ Lucia Aguglia considers herself a success story. A regular regimen of aspirin complemented by a daily reading of the Bible has somehow alleviated years of chronic lower-back pain.”Thank God for the therapy,”she said.”And thank Dr. Zucchi. I’m feeling considerably better.” Pierluigi Zucchi is the director of the […]
NEWS FEATURE: Focolare Movement founder to address Muslims in Harlem
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service ROCCA DI PAPA, Italy _ Popes may come and go but Chiara Lubich endures. At age 77, the president and founder of the Focolare (Hearth) Movement, one of the largest lay groups in the Roman Catholic Church, is busy sowing seeds for the future. In January she became the first […]
NEWS FEATURE: Mailer’s Jesus: A fictional gospel of nuance for this century
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Looking back on the scriptural accounts of his earthly life, the Jesus of Norman Mailer’s new novel,”The Gospel According to the Son,”has the same complaint as many in our own time who have come under intense public scrutiny. He was misquoted. His words were taken out of context, […]
COMMENTARY: The habits of highly ineffective Christians
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service (Frederica Mathewes-Green is a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She is the author of “Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy” (HarperCollins), and a frequent contributor to Christianity Today magazine.) UNDATED _ Well, we finally did it. We may be behind the curve by a decade […]
NEWS STORY: Alabama governor looking to fight feds over courtroom religion
By RNS Blog Editor — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service MONTGOMERY, Ala. _ Gov. Fob James say he is ready to take on the federal government if the federal courts tell a state judge he can’t keep a wooden replica of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. If the federal courts remove the replica from the courtroom of Circuit Judge […]
NEWS STORY: Non-Orthodox worshipers attacked at Jerusalem’s Western Wall
By Elaine Fletcher — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service JERUSALEM _ Leaders of Israel’s Conservative Jewish movement have urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to intervene between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews after ultra-Orthodox militants attacked Conservative and Reform worshipers early Wednesday (June 11) at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site. Conservative and Reform leaders also say they are planning a”freedom […]
Traditional blessings get a new sound
By Julia Lieblich — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ Here are some comparisons of traditional Jewish blessings and those offered by poet Marcia Falk in her”Book of Blessings”: THE TRADITIONAL BLESSING UPON AWAKENING I am grateful to You, living, enduring King, for restoring my soul to me in compassion. You are faithful beyond measure. FROM THE BOOK […]
FEATURE STORY: New Jewish blessings for an impersonal God
By Julia Lieblich — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In the ground-breaking new”Book of Blessings,”feminist poet and Hebrew translator Marcia Falk has created new metaphors for God that transcend the personal and human form in which God is normally addressed. Gone, for example, is the traditional opening of Jewish prayers:”Praised are you, Lord Our God, King of […]
NEWS FEATURE: Israeli interfaith project breaks new ground
By Elaine Fletcher — January 1, 1997
c. 1997 Religion News Service BAKA AL-GARBIYA, Israel _ The chant of the”dhikr,”the Sufi Muslim recitation of the 99 names for God, resounded inside the mosque. But here and there a word of Hebrew blended into the holy din. Spaced among the Muslim men chanting their devotions in Arabic were Jews wearing skullcaps. One murmured […]
MEDICAL STORY: More grants to help doctors understand spirituality
By Adelle M. Banks — August 28, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The National Institute for Healthcare Research awarded its second annual round of grants Tuesday (Aug. 27) to medical schools offering courses that train doctors to be aware of the connections between spirituality and clinical care. The curricula do not aim to turn physicians into chaplains, but rather help […]
TOP STORY: Common ground for Buddhists and Catholics abloom with new ideas
By Chris Smith — August 23, 1996
c. 1996 Religion News Service TRAPPIST, Ky. _ In search of common ground between the Buddhist and Catholic traditions of prayer and meditation, monks, nuns and religious scholars have come together at a monastery here in the rolling hills of rural Kentucky. The spiritual terrain they are exploring is fertile indeed, seeded with everything from […]
