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Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News/TNS

Episcopal Diocese of NY apologizes for its role in slave trade at Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Religion / Religious News /

NEW YORK — The Episcopal Diocese of New York, at a moving service inside the Cathedral of St. John’s the Divine, issued a public apology Saturday for its role in the slave trade and acknowledged the need for reparations.

Bishop Andrew ML Dietsche delivered the message at an emotional two-plus hour gathering where he declared a simple ...Read more

Jon Bilous/Dreamstime/TNS

Judge tosses suit from 36 North Carolina congregations looking to leave Methodist church

Religion / Religious News /

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A lawsuit by dozens of conservative United Methodist churches in western North Carolina wishing to break away from their governing body was thrown out of court Tuesday by an N.C. judge.

Superior Court Judge Richard Doughton of Iredell County tossed the complaint filed by 36 congregations after agreeing with a motion by the ...Read more

Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Pope Francis begins year 10 as 'a bit of a Californian.' That means lots of love -- and hate

Religion / Religious News /

LOS ANGELES — Sitting in her family home in East Los Angeles, Rosa Manriquez kept her eyes on the TV screen as a flood of white smoke came pouring out of the roof of the Sistine Chapel 6,300 miles away — a century-old signal that the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church had chosen a new leader.

Manriquez, now 70, is the mother of two ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

Bill to give Ky. public school employees the 'right to express their faith' advances

Religion / Religious News /

A House bill prohibiting a school district from punishing an employee for engaging in private religious expression was approved by the Senate Education committee Tuesday.

Under the legislation, while a school district employee is on duty, the employee can engage in religious expression and discussions and share religious materials with other ...Read more

Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Redactions to Catholic clergy abuse report delivered to judge, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown says

Religion / Religious News /

BALTIMORE — Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said his office on Monday sent a judge the proposed redactions for its report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse, meeting the deadline to do so.

The redacted names, which many number more than 200, include individuals who are living, are accused of abuse, or hiding, enabling, assisting in the ...Read more

Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/TNS

Maryland AG to deliver redacted Catholic abuse report to judge, public release likely soon

Religion / Religious News /

BALTIMORE — Monday is the deadline for the Maryland Attorney General’s Office to give a Baltimore judge a redacted version of its 456-page report into the history of sexual abuse within the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, clearing the way for its public release.

The report is the product of a four-year investigation and will detail the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Can religion save us from Artificial Intelligence?

Religion / Religious News /

Sometimes Rabbi Joshua Franklin knows exactly what he wants to talk about in his weekly Shabbat sermons — other times, not so much. It was on one of those not-so-much days on a cold afternoon in late December that the spiritual leader of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons decided to turn to Artificial Intelligence.

Franklin, 38, who has dark ...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

No St. Patrick's Day meat-eating dispensation for Chicago Catholics, archdiocese says

Religion / Religious News /

CHICAGO — Chicago’s Irish Catholics will be walking on thin, green ice if they want to eat corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day.

The Archdiocese of Chicago will not be granting parishioners a general dispensation on the March 17 holiday from the obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent.

However, the archdiocese’s decision ...Read more

Meg McLaughlin/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

San Diego Roman Catholic diocese facing yet another lawsuit -- now from its own insurance company

Religion / Religious News /

SAN DIEGO — The insurance carrier for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego filed a lawsuit Friday contending that because the diocese violated the terms of its insurance policies, the company should not have to pay out any money to settle claims from hundreds of people alleging they were victims of sexual abuse by clergy over the past ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Slew of child sexual abuse lawsuits could bankrupt the Diocese of Sacramento, bishop says

Religion / Religious News /

Hundreds of recently filed sexual abuse lawsuits could lead to the bankruptcy of the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, the diocese's bishop said this week in a letter to the congregation.

The diocese's financial predicament stems from a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations regarding child ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

'A very dangerous course': What Saddleback Church ouster means for Southern Baptists

Religion / Religious News /

Last week the Southern Baptist Convention ousted Saddleback Church, one of its largest and highest-profile member churches, from its ranks. The reason? Because after the Orange County megachurch ordained three women as associate pastors, it named Stacie Wood, wife of the church's senior pastor, Andy Wood, a teaching pastor.

The SBC added a ban ...Read more

Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot/TNS

Built on a burial ground, Norfolk's Basilica of St. Mary houses over 100 years of Black history. A new grant aims to preserve it.

Religion / Religious News /

NORFOLK, Va. — Saints glow in stained glass windows lining the newly pristine interior at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. The sheen of black-and-white marble tiles, a throwback to the Catholic church’s original floor, captures the saints’ reflections.

Oretha Pretlow often gazes at the spectral display during Mass.

...Read more

Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

This ministry doesn't need a building to do God's work

Religion / Religious News /

SAN DIEGO -- The brightly colored building that once was home to God's Extended Hand in downtown San Diego is shuttered and slated for demolition, but plans are moving forward to create a new and expanded version of the mission on the site.

The new building may have up to 90 affordable housing units built by Father Joe's Villages while the ...Read more

San Diego Catholic diocese ponders bankruptcy with sex-abuse lawsuits pending

Religion / Religious News /

SAN DIEGO — The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego is warning it may have to file bankruptcy in the future because of the potential fallout from hundreds of pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy over the last 75 years.

The warning comes nearly 15 years to the day since the diocese last sought the sanctuary of the bankruptcy code,...Read more

Emily Curiel/The Kansas City Star/TNS

KC Christian school lost donations after supporting LGBTQ rights. Now it's closing

Religion / Religious News /

In its nine years of existence, Urban Christian Academy steadily grew, adding a new grade each year in a neglected southeast Kansas City neighborhood.

The school has provided its students, kindergarten through eighth grade, with a tuition-free private education.

And with its “inclusive theology,” it always supported LGBTQ students and ...Read more

Carl Court/Getty Images Europe/TNS

Church of England bishops refuse to back same-sex marriages

Religion / Religious News /

Bishops of the Church of England said Wednesday they will continue to refuse to perform same-sex marriages, reaffirming that “holy matrimony is between one man and one woman for life.”

The announcement comes after a six-year period of “listening, learning and discernment” on issues related to sexuality, relationships and marriage.

...Read more

Ana Ramirez/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Persecuted in Russia for her faith, Jehovah's Witness wins asylum in San Diego

Religion / Religious News /

SAN DIEGO — When a San Diego immigration judge told Olga Ponomareva that she would be allowed to stay in the United States, she wanted to leap in the air.

She and her 72-year-old mother had just won asylum because of the religious persecution they experienced as Jehovah’s Witnesses in their home country of Russia. She maintained her ...Read more

Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Minister Steve Pieters endured the AIDS crisis. He's a beacon of faith battling new virus

Religion / Religious News /

LOS ANGELES -- Minutes before KABC-TV’s nightly news show 330 went on the air, the Rev. Steven Pieters wasn’t in the studio chatting with the other panelists. He’d been exiled outside, to a dark alley next to the AIDS Project Los Angeles office in Hollywood.

It was 1986, and Pieters was scheduled to participate in a five-member panel to ...Read more

Daniel Slim/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

Supreme Court appears set to expand workers' right to time off for religious observance

Religion / Religious News /

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to rule on extending federal civil rights law to protect workers who seek to take time off for religious observance.

The justices voted to hear an appeal from a former U.S. postal worker and evangelical Christian who was disciplined and eventually quit because he refused to deliver packages on ...Read more

Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times/TNS

The minister and trauma psychologist bridging the worlds of spirituality and psychology

Religion / Religious News /

LOS ANGELES — The men's choir had just brought down the house with the gospel classic "Miracle Worker" when Thema Bryant danced up to the lectern at First AME Church in South L.A.

Rising to the full height of her slim, 5-foot-7 frame, the 49-year-old ordained minister and psychologist smiled wide at the congregation before launching into her ...Read more