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☆ One of the most dangerous hours in America is now 11 o’clock on Sunday morning
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +19 min

It would also foreshadow a disturbing trend that has only worsened in subsequent years: 11 o’clock on Sunday morning is now one of the most dangerous hours of the week in America, pastors and church security officials say. Brady Boyd, senior pastor of New Life Church, the same church where Assam confronted a gunman 16 years ago. And in 2018, a gunman killed 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. But his church security does not have a monopoly on Sunday morning firepower. Consider this sobering Sunday morning scenario:A spiritual seeker visits a church and finds it filled with metal detectors and armed security guards carrying walkie-talkies.

Persons: Jeanne Assam, He’s, Beretta, Jake Stephens, Brian Snyder, ”, Brady Boyd, Boyd, “ That’s, Scott Olson, Rabbi Hillel Norry, Beth David, Norry, “, Kwon, Jeff Swensen, ” Norry, that’s, Shaukat Warraich, Dwayne Harris, Harris, Hope, ” Harris, Darren Hauck, Tim Russell, ‘ I’m, David Swanson, Pastors, Jesus ’, ” Boyd, Jesus, Tommy Mason, Mason, Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Saint Joseph, Beau Biden, Brendan Smialowski, Jerilee Bennett, George W . Bush, “ You’re Organizations: CNN, New, Church, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Reuters Churches, New Life, White, Texas Church of Christ, Baptist, Security, Police, House Church, Geneva Presbyterian, Colorado Springs, Marion County Baptist Association, Service, Brandywine Catholic, “ Police, AP, Minneapolis Police Department Locations: Colorado, Assam, Colorado Springs, America, Charleston , South Carolina, Sutherland Springs , Texas, Texas, Orange County , California, Oak Creek , Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Georgia, Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, That’s, New Zealand, Missouri, ”, Geneva, Laguna Woods , California, Marion, Alabama, Saint, Brandywine, Brandywine Catholic Church, Wilmington , Delaware, AFP, AP Assam

☆ This could be the most beautiful homeless shelter you have ever seen, and it’s getting results
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( Kathleen Toner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

“I had never been to a homeless shelter. I had never talked to someone who was experiencing homelessness,” Tuck said. “And I realized that these women are just like my mom.”Brandi Tuck, left, as a college junior, volunteering at a homeless shelter on spring break Courtesy Brandi TuckAt one shelter, Tuck was entertaining children while their mothers were in a GED class. Specialists help families find permanent housing, while case managers help people access the services they need. She was determined to make it an environment that would help families recover mentally as well as physically.

Persons: Oregon CNN — Brandi Tuck, ‘ Nobody’s, ’ ”, Tuck, She’d, ”, “, ” Tuck, ” Brandi Tuck, Brandi Tuck, ’, agonized, Kitty Hernandez, Hernandez, ” Hernandez, “ It’s, ” Kitty Hernandez, Brandi Tuck's, you’ve Organizations: Oregon CNN, University of Florida, CNN Locations: Portland, Oregon, New York City, Atlanta , Georgia, Portland , Oregon, ” Oregon, United States

Rome CNN —Pope Francis was recovering well in a Rome hospital on Thursday, the day after the 86-year-old had abdominal surgery that renewed health fears. “This wasn’t an urgent surgery,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the surgeon who operated on Pope Francis, said at a press conference. Pope Francis, seated in a wheelchair, attended a weekly general audience at the Vatican on June 7. Pope’s fragile healthThis operation is the latest in a series of health scares surrounding Pope Francis. Medical sources say that the intervention was likely related to the surgery Francis underwent in 2021, which removed half of his colon.

Persons: Rome, Rome CNN — Pope Francis, “, ”, Matteo Bruni, Francis, ” Dr, Sergio Alfieri, Pope Francis, ” Alfieri, Andreas Solaro, Alfieri, he’s “, –, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Bruni, Francis ’, Pope Francis now, Annatuli, Carina, State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Tarcisio Bertone, ’ ”, Pope Benedict XVI, Gregory XII, Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: Rome CNN, Vatican, Gemelli, Reuters, Catholic, Papal, Getty, CNN, Spanish, ABC, State, Catholic Church Locations: Rome, AFP, The Prefecture, Mexico, Myanmar, Iraq, Ukraine

☆ Little Spain Is All but Gone. Will Our Lady of Guadalupe Be Next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( John Freeman Gill | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Catholic house of worship on West 14th Street, is a grandly inventive architectural oddity and the mother of all Hispanic storefront churches in New York City. Manhattan’s first church created for a Spanish-speaking congregation, it was cobbled together out of two adjacent rowhouses in 1902 and 1917. But the seminal Spanish-language church was deconsecrated by the Archdiocese of New York in January, paving the way for its potential sale, alteration or demolition. On May 23, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission designated as a landmark the former Colored School No. 4 on West 17th Street in Chelsea, the last-known “colored” schoolhouse remaining in Manhattan from the city’s segregated 19th-century school system.

Persons: Guadalupe, Andrew Berman, Sarah Carroll Organizations: Our, Archdiocese, Village, Greenwich, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Colored, West Locations: New York City, Manhattan’s, rioja, New York, Chelsea, Manhattan

☆ Danny Masterson Is Convicted of Raping Two Women
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Michael Levenson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Another accuser, who was identified in court documents only as Christina B., said in the same statement that she was “devastated” that the jury had deadlocked on the charge that Masterson raped her in 2001 when they were in a relationship. About 20 or 30 minutes later, she felt “very disoriented,” the brief states. According to the brief, Masterson raped her after she regained consciousness on his bed. She reached for his hair to try to pull him off and tried to push a pillow into his face, the brief states. When Masterson heard a man yelling in the house, he pulled a gun from his night stand and told her not to move or to “say anything,” adding expletives, the brief states.

Persons: “, Danny Masterson, Masterson, Christina B, ”, Jen B Organizations: of Scientology, Los Angeles County, Attorney’s Office Locations: ”

☆ Ukraine’s Holiest Site Is Battleground in Campaign to Erase Russian Influence
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Ian Lovett | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KYIV—For years, Pavlo Lebid embodied the Russian Orthodox Church’s power in Ukraine’s capital. One of the highest-ranking officials in the church’s Ukrainian branch, with the title “Metropolitan,” he rode around in luxury cars and was captured on video questioning the authority of police to ticket him. His portrait was painted onto a wall of a cathedral at the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, Ukraine’s holiest site, where he is abbot. Residents dubbed him “Pasha Mercedes.”

☆ After acrimonious resignation, Pope tells abuse commission to 'move forward'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Philip Pullella | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] Pope Francis addresses a meeting with the members of Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors at the Vatican, May 5, 2023. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERSVATICAN CITY, May 5 (Reuters) - Pope Francis on Friday praised the work of an international Vatican commission on sexual abuse prevention, following the recent acrimonious resignation of a high-profile member who accused it of lacking transparency. Zollner, a world-renowned abuse prevention expert, denounced unclear hiring practices, an undefined relationship with the Vatican's doctrine office and "inadequate" financial and decision-making accountability. Zollner also leads a centre for the study of abuse at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University and is an adviser on abuse prevention for the diocese of Rome. Last year, the pope incorporated it into the Vatican's doctrinal department, which decides on sanctions for priests convicted of sexual abuse.

☆ How ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ Defied Top 40 Logic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Lightfoot read the article. 2, one notch behind Mr. Lightfoot’s only No. Yet unlike songs that use a real-life story as the basis for embellishment, Mr. Lightfoot’s ballad hewed precisely to the real-life details. The weight of the ore, for example — “26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty” — was accurate. Decades later, Mr. Lightfoot changed the lyrics slightly after investigations into the accident revealed that waves, not crew error, had led to the shipwreck.

☆ Opinion: Why we’re still waiting for the Catholic women’s ‘revolution’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Opinion Opinion Celia Wexler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Editor’s Note: Celia Wexler is a journalist and the author of “Catholic Women Confront Their Church: Stories of Hurt and Hope.” She writes frequently on Catholicism, feminism and politics. That means in the United States, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, that bastion of conservatism, will do the choosing. Will Zagano, who has written extensively about the role of women deacons in the early church, be given a vote? How about British theologian Tina Beattie, who has worked tirelessly to amplify women’s voices in the church? In 2014, Beattie founded Catholic Women Speak, an international group of women focused on one goal: increasing women’s participation in the life and governance of the church.

☆ Russia-Ukraine War News: Pope Francis Discusses Peace Efforts
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Gaia Pianigiani | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

A photo provided by the Vatican shows Pope Francis, center left, with the prime minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, center right, during a private audience in the Vatican on Thursday. Pope Francis discussed peace efforts in Ukraine with the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, during a private audience at the Vatican on Thursday, their first known meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The relationship between Ukraine and Francis, who has long called for peace and decried what he called barbaric acts of war, was troubled in the early months of the conflict. Mr. Shmyhal also asked the pope for help in “returning home Ukrainian children” who have been deported to Russia. Early in the war Ukrainian officials criticized the pope’s decision not to name Russia or its president, Vladimir V. Putin, as the aggressor in the conflict.

☆ Single people should be ‘valued’ as Jesus was single, Church of England says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Hafsa Khalil | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Single people should be honored as much as couples and families, the Church of England has said, pointing to Jesus’ own single status. The report’s suggestion to “honour” singleness is another deviation from the church’s traditional teachings of heterosexual marriage. While same-sex couples cannot be married by the church, a vote earlier this year favored blessing their marriage. “(The report reveals) that the shape of family changes through our lives,” Butler said. “It further shows that there is no one best shape, except that loving long term relationships are absolutely key for us all to flourish.”

☆ Pope Will Allow Women to Vote at Meeting of Bishops
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Elisabetta Povoledo | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Vatican announced on Wednesday that Pope Francis would for the first time allow women to vote at a coming meeting of bishops, an important step toward giving them more say in the affairs of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope also increased the number of laypeople who will participate next October at the meeting, the Synod of Bishops, which periodically meets at the Vatican to discuss issues such as how to deal with divorced couples. The coming synod is centered on fostering a greater involvement of the faithful as the church moves forward. The Synod advises the pope and is influential, although only he makes church policy. The rule changes for the bishops’ meeting were made public on Wednesday in a document outlining the norms governing the synod.

☆ What Is the Synod of Bishops?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Gaia Pianigiani | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Synod of Bishops is a religious assembly of bishops from all over the world who gather in Rome to discuss issues vital to the Roman Catholic Church and act as an advisory body to the pope. The word synod means “coming together.” It stems from ancient Greek, and is a combination of the word “together” and “road” or “way.”Pope Francis announced on Wednesday that for the first time at an upcoming synod, women and laypeople will be able to vote. As a result, half of the 70 non-bishop voting members will be women, and five nuns will also have voting rights. Preparation for such events requires years, as church leaders hold consultations and listen to their local communities before the selected bishops travel to the Vatican to gather around the pope, who ultimately decides possible changes to the church’s discipline or administration. The Vatican has described synods as opportunities for bishops “to interact with each other and to share information and experiences, in the common pursuit of pastoral solutions which have a universal validity and application.”

[1/5] A bride and a groom wait during the Easter Sunday mass wedding ceremony, organised by the International Pentecostal Holiness Church Jerusalem City (IPHC), with more than 800 couples taking part, in Kgabalatsane in the North-West province, South Africa, April 9, 2023. REUTERS/Siphiwe SibekoJOHANNESBURG, April 9 (Reuters) - More than 800 couples walked down the aisle on Easter Sunday in one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in South Africa since the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Pentecost Holiness Church blesses polygamous unions, which are common in some African communities, and the church says are authorised by the Bible. Its mass nuptials take place three times a year – at Easter, in December, and also during the celebrations in September of the church's founding in 1962. Current wives wore colourful attire to the ceremony at the International Pentecost Holiness Church's Jerusalem congregation, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Johannesburg.

☆ Chinese Christians Detained in Thailand While Seeking U.N. Protection
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Chun Han Wong | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Pan Yongguang, pastor of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church, in Thailand last year. A self-exiled congregation of Chinese Christians seeking United Nations protection from religious persecution faces potential deportation from Thailand, where police have detained the group along with two Americans who were assisting them. Thai immigration police rounded up 63 members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church on Thursday, taking them from their hotel in the coastal city of Pattaya to a police immigration bureau facility, according to the church’s pastor and an American activist who has been supporting the congregation’s efforts to seek asylum.

Video footage from a drone flying down a street in Antakya’s Old City, which is covered in rubble and surrounded by collapsed buildings. Called Saray Street by locals, this stretch was once lined with more than 70 shops, restaurants and other businesses. The destruction on Saray Street is a fraction of all that was lost in Old City. Video clip of Saray Street before the quakes, showing stores and patrons during the holiday season. Damaged or destroyed historic or cultural landmark Map showing the boundaries of Old City and labeling cultural landmarks that were damaged or destroyed.

☆ Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Its Investment Adviser Settle SEC Probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Dave Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints agreed to pay a $1 million fine, while the money manager agreed to pay $4 million. WASHINGTON–The money manager that oversees a $32 billion equities portfolio for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will pay $4 million to settle regulatory claims that it obscured the church’s investment holdings. The church will also pay a $1 million fine, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc., the money manager, and the church settled the SEC’s investigation without admitting or denying wrongdoing.

☆ Mormon Church, investment manager fined $5 million by SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Instead, the firm filed forms for shell companies that obscured the church’s portfolio and misstated the firm’s control over the church’s investment decisions, the SEC said. The SEC filed charges against both the church for causing the violations as well as Ensign Peak. To settle the charges, Ensign Peak agreed to pay a $4 million fine and the LDS church agreed to pay a $1 million penalty. Members of the LDS church are expected to donate a tenth of their income to the church, a longtime practice known as tithing. In a statement Tuesday, the LDS said Ensign Peak and the church cooperated with the government to seek a resolution.

☆ Mormon church and investment co to pay $5 mln for misleading public -SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Pete Schroeder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The markets watchdog said the church and its nonprofit investment company, Ensign Peak Advisers Inc, used shell companies to mask its growing investments in public companies, which reached $32 billion in 2018, due to concerns of negative publicity. The use of shell companies came to light in 2019, when a former employee of Ensign Peak filed a whistleblower complaint. From 1997 through 2019, those shell companies filed the mandatory forms detailing the investments and improperly claimed to operate independently. In reality, the investments were still controlled by Ensign Peak, and the church was aware of the arrangement with church employees heading most of the companies, according to the SEC. The church agreed to pay $1 million, while Ensign Peak will pay $4 million to settle charges.

☆ Mormon Church’s Investment Arm Under Investigation by SEC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( Dave Michaels | Jonathan Weil | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the Mormon Church’s past efforts to keep its giant investment portfolio a secret, a practice that ended after a former employee revealed in 2019 that the church had amassed $100 billion of holdings. The SEC’s investigation has focused on whether the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as LDS, complied with disclosure requirements for large money managers. It is at an advanced stage and is likely to lead to a settlement in the coming months, people familiar with the matter said.

Pope Francis fell to his knees and kissed the feet of rival leaders of South Sudan in 2019, imploring them to keep building peace and end a devastating civil war. The pope, who now uses a wheelchair because of problems with his knee, is expected to repeat the substance if not the form of that appeal on a trip to the country and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. The Catholic Church exercises outsize influence in both countries, whose populations are each about half Catholic, and where church officials and institutions fill some of the gaps left by weak governments and civil society. The results of the church’s political interventions have been mixed, however. The pope this week is making common cause in his campaign for peace and democracy-building with other faith leaders, two of whom will join him for part of his travels.

☆ Fact Check-Ukrainian church fire from 2021 likely started by electrical fault, according to priest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A 2021 video of a burning church in Ukraine has circulated online with a caption that baselessly claims it was set alight by Ukrainian nationalists. The posts claim that “Ukrainian nationalists” started the fire after the church rector refused to switch from the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its 11th month, has led many Ukrainians to rally round the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which they see as more pro-Ukrainian than its rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Dnipropetrovsk Eparchy published a statement at the time with videos and photos of the church (here ). The video shows a fire at a church in the Dnipropetrovsk region in 2021.

☆ Church of England apologizes for treatment of LGBTQ people
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

The Church of England formally apologized Friday for its treatment of LGBTQ people even as it said that same-sex couples still will not be allowed to marry in its churches. The apology from the church’s bishops came in a report following five years of debate on the church’s position on sexuality. The report will be delivered to the church’s national assembly, the General Synod, which is meeting in London next month. It has proposed offering same-sex couples the chance to have a church service with prayers of dedication, thanksgiving or for God’s blessing after they have a civil wedding or register a civil partnership. Same-sex marriage has been legal in England and Wales since 2013, but the church did not change its teaching when the law changed.

☆ Church of England Declines to Back Same-Sex Marriage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Francis X. Rocca | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Archbishop Justin Welby said some would see the decision to allow blessings of same-sex couples as going too far, while others would see it as not going far enough. The Church of England won’t allow same-sex weddings to take place in church, but will allow priests to bless couples who have married in a civil ceremony, the latest chapter in a continuing debate over LGBT rights across various Christian churches. After a six-year debate on the issue, the church said Wednesday that bishops had decided not to change the Church’s fundamental teaching “that holy matrimony is between one man and one woman for life.” It said the blessing by a priest was the furthest it could go without changing church doctrine.

☆ 4 Tennessee church members were killed and their pastor was injured in a Texas plane crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

YOAKUM, Texas — A small plane crashed Tuesday while approaching a Texas airport, killing four members of a Tennessee church and leaving the lead pastor injured, authorities and the church said. The single-engine Piper PA-46 crashed in an open field south of an airport in Yoakum, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Harvest Church, located in the Memphis suburb of Germantown, said lead pastor Kennon Vaughan was stable at a Texas hospital. The church identified the four people killed as Bill Garner, the church’s executive vice president; Steve Tucker, a church elder; and Tyler Patterson and Tyler Springer. “All were beloved members of Harvest Church and their loss currently leaves us without the proper words to articulate our grief,” the church said on its website.

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