Churches & Religion

From left, Kelli Harrison, Bob Niehaus, Kelly Ravenscraft, Jennie Garcia and Alex Aivars pray during an Affirming Worship service Aug. 13 at Atmosphere Bar in Chicago.

LGBTQ Chicagoans find space to embrace their faith

September 7, 2019, 6:05am Churches & Religion

The second Tuesday of every month, Affirming Worship holds church in Atmosphere, an Andersonville gay bar. The organization, founded in March by Kelly Ravenscraft, 22, and Michael McBride, 38, works against what a traditional Christian might think of as Mass. It’s a space for queer individuals in the Chicago area… Read story

Facing deportation, a mother and son seek sanctuary at Olympia synagogue

September 6, 2019, 9:00am Churches & Religion

A year after declaring itself a sanctuary congregation, the Olympia synagogue, Temple Beth Hatfiloh, officially acted on that decision Thursday afternoon by announcing they would protect a Guatemalan woman and her son from immigration authorities. Read story

Catholic women wait to see Pope Francis, ahead of his expected arrival near to the Apostolic Nunciature in the capital Maputo, Mozambique Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. Pope Francis is opening a three-nation pilgrimage to southern Africa with a strategic visit to Mozambique, just weeks after the country’s ruling party and armed opposition signed a new peace deal and weeks before national elections.

Pope on critics: It’s ‘an honor if the Americans attack me’

September 4, 2019, 10:30am Churches & Religion

Pope Francis has acknowledged his growing opposition within the conservative right-wing of the U.S. Catholic Church and says it is “an honor if the Americans attack me.” Read story

Former Vancouver pastor John Bishop, left, arrives to be sentenced for unlawful importation of a controlled substance-marijuana at the James M. Carter and Judith N Keep United States Courthouse in San Diego, Calif., on Friday morning, Sept. 21, 2018.

Government files motion to dismiss John Bishop’s appeal

September 3, 2019, 5:15pm Churches & Religion

Can plastic and other materials used to wrap 105 packages of marijuana weigh more than 60 pounds? Former Living Hope Church pastor John Bishop apparently thinks so, and is using that as his argument to appeal his federal prison sentence. Read story

Women’s Housing and Transition shelter client Deborah Brown, right, gives a tour of a sleeping area with church liaison Kathy Gallaher. Brown will soon be leaving the shelter at St. Luke’s–San Lucas Episcopal Church and moving into housing but plans to continue volunteering in the homeless community.

6 nonprofits apply to Vancouver Affordable Housing Fund

September 3, 2019, 6:00am Churches & Religion

Cassie Sorensen has noticed that the women who stay at her overnight shelter are trending older and they tend to be more medically fragile. The 18 women at Share’s Women’s Housing and Transition, also called the WHAT shelter, can’t go inside until 6:30 p.m. and have to leave by 7:30… Read story

Children bond over shared losses at ‘grief camp’

Towels and clothing hang to dry outside a cabin Aug. 15 during the weeklong Experience Camp at Camps Equinunk and Blue Ridge in Equinunk, Pa. The free program is for children who have lost a parent, sibling or caregiver and involves traditional summer camp experiences as well as clinical grief activities.

A summer-camp symphony of dribbling basketballs, screaming leaps into the spring-fed lake and bugled reveille floated into a pavilion where boys sat cross-legged in a circle, whispering to one another. Some wore white plastic masks, to hide the feelings their words conjured up. Some just stared at their shoes. One… Read story

Australian court upholds sex abuse verdict of Cardinal Pell

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2019, file photo, Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne, Australia. Pell’s appeal against his convictions for child molestation was largely a question of who should the jury have believed, his accuser or a senior priest whose church role was likened to Pell’s bodyguard. Pell’s accuser was a 13-year-old choirboy when he alleged he was abused by then Melbourne Archbishop Pell at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in December 1996 and February 1997. The appeal court will give their verdict on Aug. 21.

An Australian appeals court Wednesday upheld convictions against Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic to be found guilty of sexually abusing children, in a decision cheered by scores of abuse survivors and victims’ advocates demonstrating outside the court. Read story