The late Pope John Paul II’s feast day, or day of commemoration, will be Oct. 22, the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments announced in the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.
The State Department has a “rigidly narrow” view of diplomacy that neglects religion’s role in foreign affairs, a prominent Catholic ambassador charged on April 17 as he announced his resignation.
In the five and a half years since it first organized, Grace Presbyterian Church in Dawsonville, Ga., has been through some big changes.
A British cosmologist who has explored the origins and size of the universe and has also sounded serious alarms about the future of life on the planet has won the 2011 Templeton Prize. Martin J. Rees, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, was awarded the $1.6 million prize by the U.S.-based John Templeton Foundation for his “exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension.”
A new multimillion-dollar, high-tech, interactive museum of the Bible was announced March 31 amid 130 artifacts of the Good Book at a private exhibition at the Vatican Embassy here.
Maseabane, a grandmother in the small African country of Lesotho, is a prolific planter of seeds.
She sows seeds in the earth so she can feed her three grandchildren whose parents were victims of the AIDS pandemic and drug abuse. She also sows seeds of hope across her country through her work as an advocate for small farmers.
The seeds she sows for sustenance come from a seed bank supported by Kopano Ke Matla (KKM), which in the Se Sotho language means “with unity in strength we fight hunger.”
KKM is part of the Joining Hands, a ministry of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Joining Hands links churches and nonprofit groups in other countries with Presbyterians in the United States.
In Lesotho, as in other developing nations, small farmers struggle as agribusiness gains a larger foothold. Thanks to the efforts of KKM’s community grain banks, a growing number of small farmers are able to save, store and share seeds and maintain their livelihoods, says Bridgette Hector, a Presbyterian mission worker who facilitates Joining Hands networks in Lesotho and neighboring South Africa.
“Back in 2006 I bought a couple of raffle tickets to support a medical air pilots association,” recounted the Rev. David Anderson. “First prize was a Harley Davidson Sportster. I won it.” Upon hearing of his good fortune Anderson’s wife asked, what are we going to do with that?
Acting on a recommendation from the 217th General Assembly (2006), two Presbyterian groups have signed a partnership agreement that will help their different older adult ministries stay connected.
When Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s only Christian cabinet minister, was assassinated on March 2, it was only the latest act against Christians to provoke outrage worldwide. Now, church leaders in Europe are debating the best course of action to be urged on governments to counter the wave of violence.
The recession was a double-barrel blow to American congregations: directly hurting their budgets while also stretching them thin due to increased needs for counseling, emergency housing and other social services.