Churches & Religion

Leaders of diverse faiths call to end violence

April 27, 2019, 6:02am Churches & Religion

A unity that transcends faith and rejects the ignorance at the root of religious bias may be the best antidote to violence directed at people for their beliefs, a panel of local Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders said in Elmont, N.Y., recently. Read story

Washington National Cathedral is raising money for repairs from a 2011 earthquake by having visitors build a Lego model of the cathedral. The light from a cellphone shows off a stained glass window in Bethlehem Chapel.

Church rises out of Legos

April 27, 2019, 6:00am Churches & Religion

When Charles Fulcher, director of visitor programs at Washington National Cathedral, traveled to Durham, England, a few years ago, he wanted to see that city’s centuries-old cathedral. But more than that, he wanted to see the mini-cathedral inside the historic house of worship — the one made of 300,000 Lego… Read story

In this Thursday, April 25, 2019 photo, sunlight steams in from gaping holes, as a surveyor works at St. Sebastian’s Church, where a suicide bomber blew himself up on Easter Sunday in Negombo, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Nearly a week later, the smell of death is everywhere, though the bodies are long gone. Yet somehow, there’s a beauty to St. Sebastian’s, a neighborhood church in a Catholic enclave north of Sri Lanka’s capital. You can see the beauty in the broken stained-glass windows. It’s there in the little statues that refused to fall over, and despite the swarms of police and soldiers who seem to be everywhere now in the streets of the seaside town of Negombo.

Sri Lanka Catholics cancel all Sunday Masses after bombing

April 26, 2019, 9:11am Churches & Religion

Catholic churches in Sri Lanka canceled all Sunday Masses until further notice over concerns that they remain a top target of Islamic State-linked extremists, even as authorities said Friday a suspected local leader blew himself up in the Easter suicide bombings. Read story

A gay pride rainbow flag flies along with the U.S. flag in front of the Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village, Kan., on Friday.

Methodists edge toward breakup

April 22, 2019, 5:04pm Churches & Religion

There’s at least one area of agreement among conservative, centrist and liberal leaders in the United Methodist Church: America’s largest mainline Protestant denomination is on a path toward likely breakup over differences on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT pastors. Read story

Theron Roberts, 4, holds up fingers to show the Rev. David Whiting how old he is as Whiting introduces himself to attendees at a Good Friday service at the New Heights Church North Campus in Battle Ground.

Rev. David Whiting reaches New Heights

April 21, 2019, 6:00am Churches & Religion

When the Rev. David Whiting moved to Ridgefield to become New Heights Church’s new lead pastor, he found a much different climate than his former home of Houston. This time of year, the Northwest often boasts blue skies and mild temperatures while Texas starts getting uncomfortably hot and humid. Read story

Poll: Church membership plummets

Contrails from jets glow pink as they are illuminated by the setting sun in the skies beyond a church in Kansas in 2014. According to a Gallup poll, the percentage of U.S. adults who belong to a church has fallen to a low of 50 percent last year.

The percentage of U.S. adults who belong to a church or other religious institution has plunged by 20 percentage points over the past two decades, hitting a low of 50 percent last year, according to a new Gallup poll. Among major demographic groups, the biggest drops were recorded among Democrats… Read story

Nelson surprises with transformative first year

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2018, file photo, President Russell M. Nelson and his wife, Wendy, wave as they leave the morning session of a twice-annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. Nelson has generated buzz in his first year by becoming one of the most visible presidents in modern church history and implementing a number of changes.

At 94, the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has proved a far more vigorous and transformative figure than scholars expected when he took office a year ago, pushing through a flurry of surprising changes on such matters as LGBTQ members and the name of the… Read story