The Vatican has excommunicated Fr. Joseph Huang Bingzhang, a Catholic bishop in Shantou in the southern Guangdong province in China, for being ordained without a papal mandate.
The number of Presbyterian families in Iraq has decreased from about 750 to about 250 since the 2003 U.S. invasion, an Iraqi Presbyterian pastor told the Presbyterian News Service in a June 28 interview at the Presbyterian Center here.
The pastor, who cannot be named for security reasons, is in the United States to visit family and as part of a mandate from the 219th General Assembly (2010). The mandate calls for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to invite Iraqi church partners to speak at events such as this summer’s Big Tent.
At that event, June 30-July 2 in Indianapolis, the pastor spoke about the situation for Presbyterians and other Christians living in Iraq.
Harsh restrictions on the freedom of civil organizations are on the rise ― a trend that those organizations refer to as “shrinking political space.”
They take the form of not only severely curtailed work space but also the more troubling aspect of intimidation, persecution and even murder of staff and activists.
The Geneva-based ACT (Action by Churches Together) Alliance ― which includes the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) ― is one of the first agencies in the world to bring this repression to light, with the release of “Shrinking Political Spaces,” a dossier of evidence that aid and development organizations are being hounded.
The National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) has asked its ecumenical partners for further humanitarian assistance to North Korea, expressing concern over the north’s chronic food shortages.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) voted to re-elect the Rev. Sharon Watkins as head of the denomination, capping off a weeklong assembly that mixed mundane church business with hot-button issues such as homosexuality, immigration and anti-Muslim hate speech.
Associate Marissa Galvan-Valle of Resources and Relationships in Theology, Worship and Education says she was “ecstatically happy” when she heard the news that Ayudas Litúrgicas – weekly liturgical helps in Spanish – is one of the most popular resources on the General Assembly Mission Council website. “It was so nice seeing Spanish-language words on that list,” says Galvan-Valle. “When I started doing this work I was sending these resources to a specific list, and the liturgical helps were not on the website. It makes me feel like we are contributing to the whole church.”
What do a minister from Alaska and a small town in Alabama have in common?
Their name: Phil Campbell.
It’s a fairly standard name for a person but a rather unusual name for a town, something the community has had fun with over the years.
In 1995, Phil Campbell, the person, visited Phil Campbell, the town, as part of a community celebration when the town invited people named Phil Campbell to attend the festivities.
On Sept. 25, two major television networks will air documentaries addressing immigration issues from a faith perspective.
A Russian pro-life organization is about to launch a network of clinics offering pre- and post-natal care while excluding procedures such as abortion and in-vitro fertilization that “contradict the teachings of the Russian Orthodox, Catholic and traditional Protestant churches,” said Alexey Komov, the project manager.
The Life-Family Medical Centers Network will be run on a franchise basis under the auspices of “Za Zhizn” (“For Life”), an anti-abortion organization led by two Russian Orthodox priests. Its formation was announced in Moscow on June 30 at the end of a two-day summit held by the Rockford, Ill.-based World Congress of Families (WCF). The clinics will cooperate with American organizations such as Heartbeat International, which also runs pro-life medical centers.
St. Patrick’s tooth.
Justin Bieber’s hair clippings.
The bloodstained gloves that Mary Todd Lincoln carried to Ford’s Theatre.
What do they have in common?