Beliefnet News

By DANIEL BURKE c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) Gay and lesbian advocates celebrated a landmark victory on Tuesday (May 10) when the Presbyterian Church (USA) entered the expanding ranks of Christian denominations that allow openly gay, partnered clergy. The winds of change, they said, are at their backs. “Presbyterians join a growing Protestant movement…

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2011 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Navy reversed course Tuesday (May 10) on plans to allow chaplains to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies once the military’s ban on openly gay members is repealed. Rear Adm. Mark Tidd, the Navy chief of chaplains, said in a brief announcement to…

By KEVIN ECKSTROM c. 2011 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) The nation’s leading advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse is opposing an Oregon Jesuit’s bid to serve as House chaplain, saying he failed to follow up on alleged abuse 25 years ago. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said the…

By DAN MILLER c. 2011 Religion News Service HARRISBURG, Pa. (RNS) The Navy awards the gold Trident medal to those who have earned the right to be called a SEAL — the same elite fighting squad that shot and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. The same gold Trident can be bought at a military…

By TREVOR GRUNDY c. 2011 Religion News Service CANTERBURY, ENGLAND (RNS/ENInews) In a challenge to conventional wisdom that church attendance is plummeting across Britain and Western Europe, the Church of England says attendance at its 43 cathedrals grew 7 percent last year. A report by the Rev. Lynda Barley, head of research and statistics at…

By OMAR SACIRBEY c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) As president of the Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an eight-year-old group that twins conservative and Islamic values, Zuhdi Jasser is no fan of the more visible Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR and too many other U.S. Muslim groups, Jasser says, are soft on extremism…

By MICHELE CHABIN c. 2011 Religion News Service JERUSALEM (RNS) An ultra-Orthodox Jewish newspaper in Brooklyn has apologized to the White House and State Department after the paper deleted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton from a White House photograph of top officials monitoring the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Yiddish-language Di Tzeitung…

By ADELLE M. BANKS c. 2011 Religion News Service WASHINGTON (RNS) A recent Navy memo that would permit military chaplains to officiate at same-sex marriage ceremonies upon repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy is creating tension amid an already fractious debate. “It is absolutely deplorable,” said the Rev. Billy Baugham, executive director of…

By MATT VANDE BUNTE c. 2011 Religion News Service GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (RNS) It has been more than two decades since Deng Alier fled war in his homeland. Now, armed with a master’s degree in educational ministry, the former “Lost Boy” is ready to find his way back to Sudan. Alier, Deborah Makuei and Rebecca…

By NANCY HAUGHT c. 2011 Religion News Service (RNS) A Jesuit will be sworn in as the 60th chaplain of the House of Representatives on May 25, when he will become the first member of his order and second consecutive Catholic priest to serve the House. As chaplain, the Rev. Patrick Conroy will be in…

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