Associated Press Modin, Israel – Israel’s Reform Jews have dedicated the first non-Orthodox synagogue to receive state funding, after a long court battle that highlighted the rift among the country’s different streams of Judaism. The Reform Yozma congregation dedicated the synagogue on Monday after fighting for the better part of a decade for state funding…

By Francis X. Rocca Religion News Service Vatican City — Seeking to stop Mormons from posthumously baptizing Catholic ancestors, the Vatican has instructed bishops around the world not to share parish registers with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy issued the directive in a letter to national…

By Daniel Burke Religion News Service Debates on homosexuality and church structure may have captured the bulk of attention, but that’s not all United Methodists did at their General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. They also heard addresses from the famous (President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia) and a father of the famous (Bill Gates…

Associated Press – May 2, 2008 Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word “evangelical” has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars. The statement, called “An Evangelical Manifesto,” condemns Christians on the…

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