The Columbian

Churches & Religion

FILE - New Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant speaks during an inauguration ceremony for city officials Monday, Jan. 6, 2014, in Seattle. One of Sawant's earliest memories of the caste system was hearing her grandfather - a man she "otherwise loved very much" - utter a slur to summon their lower-caste maid. Now an elected official in a city thousands of miles from India, she has proposed an ordinance to add caste to Seattle's anti-discrimination laws.

Seattle considers historic law barring caste discrimination

February 20, 2023, 7:36am Churches & Religion

One of Kshama Sawant’s earliest memories of the caste system was hearing her grandfather — a man she “otherwise loved very much” — utter a slur to summon their lower-caste maid. Read story

Rabbi Joshua Franklin stands Feb. 10 inside the sanctuary at the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in East Hampton, N.Y.

No substitute for pastors’ passion

February 18, 2023, 6:02am Churches & Religion

Among sermon writers, there is fascination – and unease – over the fast-expanding abilities of artificial-intelligence chatbots. For now, the evolving consensus among clergy is this: Yes, they can write a passably competent sermon. But no, they can’t replicate the passion of actual preaching. Read story

FILE - A Roman Catholic church in Lisbon, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. A committee that has been examining historic child sex abuse in Portuguese Catholic Church says on Monday, Feb. 13 that 512 alleged victims have come forward. Senior Portuguese church officials had previously claimed that only a handful of cases had occurred.

Portugal church sex abuse study: victims may number 4,800

February 13, 2023, 12:34pm Churches & Religion

More than 4,800 individuals may have been victims of child sex abuse in the Portuguese Catholic Church and 512 alleged victims have already come forward with their stories, an expert panel looking into historic abuse in the church said Monday. Read story

FILE - The Congregation Beth Israel synagogue is shown, Jan. 16, 2022, in Colleyville, Texas. The FBI killed pistol-wielding 44-year-old British national Malik Faisal Akram, after a 10-hour hostage standoff at the synagogue. More than four in ten U.S. Jews feel their status in America is less secure than it was a year ago, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee. The survey, conducted in the fall of 2022, was released Monday by the AJC, a prominent Jewish advocacy organization.

Antisemitism worries rising for many U.S. Jews, survey finds

February 13, 2023, 10:28am Churches & Religion

More than four in ten Jews in the United States feel their status in America is less secure than it was a year earlier, according to a new survey by the American Jewish Committee. Read story

The Rev. Darryl Gray, left, and the Rev. Lauren Bennett speak Jan. 10 in Bennett's office in St. Louis, Mo. Both served as spiritual advisers at recent executions in Missouri, sitting alongside the inmates and touching them as the process occurred. Spiritual advisers have been increasingly present during executions since a Supreme Court ruling last year.

Spiritual advisers offer comfort in execution rooms

February 11, 2023, 6:04am Churches & Religion

For decades, Missouri executions played out in similar fashion: An inmate was strapped to a gurney in a drab room, alone except for the eyes of witnesses staring through thick, soundproof glass as unidentified executioners administered the lethal chemical from behind a cinderblock wall. Read story

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, right, Pope Francis,left, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland Iain Greenshields meet the journalists during an airborne press conference aboard the airplane directed to Rome, at the end of his pastoral visit to Congo and South Sudan, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023.

Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian leaders denounce anti-gay laws

February 6, 2023, 11:40am Churches & Religion

Pope Francis was backed by the ceremonial head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister in calling for gays to be welcomed by their churches as he again decried laws that criminalize homosexuality as unjust. Read story

Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian leaders denounce anti-gay laws

February 5, 2023, 12:02pm Churches & Religion

Pope Francis, the head of the Anglican Communion and top Presbyterian minister together denounced the criminalization of homosexuality on Sunday and said gay people should be welcomed by their churches. Read story

Mexico nuns’ innovations live on in storied cuisine

February 4, 2023, 6:42am Churches & Religion

Each September, when Mexico celebrates its independence from Spain, people nationwide delight in chiles en nogada, a seasonal dish of mild poblano peppers stuffed with ground pork and fruit, smothered in a sauce of walnut, parsley and pomegranate seeds. The recipe was invented in 1821 by a nun, whose name… Read story

The Rev. Siv Limstrand walks with her rifle to the church's cabin in Bolterdalen, Norway, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. For the lone pastor in this fragile, starkly beautiful environment, the challenge is to fulfill the church's historical mission of ministering to those in crisis while addressing a pressing and divisive contemporary challenge. "We pray every Sunday for everyone who's affected by climate change," Limstrand said.

Church helps Arctic mining community evolve

February 4, 2023, 6:04am Churches & Religion

The warm glow of Svalbard Kirke’s lights gleams on the mountain slope from where the church stands over this remote Norwegian Arctic village, cloaked in the polar night’s constant darkness. Read story