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WASHINGTON (RNS) The law calling for an annual National Day of Prayer imposes solely on the duties of the U.S. president, leaving private citizens no legal standing to challenge it, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday (April 14). The unanimous decision overturns a 2010 lower court ruling that found the law unconstitutional. The ruling comes…

WASHINGTON (RNS) Bibles cannot be the only reading materials allowed in jail, the U.S. Department of Justice said in joining a lawsuit against a South Carolina detention center on Tuesday (April 12). The original suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Prison Legal News last October, charged that the Berkeley County…

WASHINGTON (RNS) With less than two weeks to go, fifth-grader Simone Marshall ticked off what she was looking forward to most as she awaited the Easter Vigil where she would officially become a Roman Catholic. “I cannot wait to get baptized so I can be born again and I can be closer to Jesus,” she…

WASHINGTON (RNS) A small band of Christians is planning a rally in Washington, D.C., in a bid to make Good Friday a national holiday. Organizer Sharon Jones, a New York-based missionary, recalled growing up observing the holiday in her native Britain. She has scheduled a rally on the National Mall on April 22, or Good…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The congressional budget compromise reached last week did not go far enough for some progressive Christian leaders who have vowed to continue their liquid-only fast in hopes of a “better budget.” Sojourners founder Jim Wallis and Ambassador Tony Hall, executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger, say the poor stand to lose…

MANILA, Philippines (RNS/ENInews) Filipino church leaders are divided over a proposal to give the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial. In late March, a resolution was endorsed by 193 lawmakers urging President Benigno Aquino III to allow the burial of Marcos’ remains in a heroes’ cemetery in Manila. Marcos’ body is currently in a…

SILVER SPRING, Md. (RNS) On the second night of Passover, Rabbi Harold White will lead a traditional seder dinner with matzoh and bitter herbs and all the trimmings. Five days later, he’ll deliver the sermon on Easter Sunday. That’s what life looks like inside the Interfaith Family Project (IFFP) in suburban Washington, where Jewish-Christian couples…

LONDON (RNS) Couples suspected of using their wedding vows as a ruse to skirt immigration laws will be required to meet strict identity checks and face greater scrutiny under new Church of England guidelines to stop sham marriages. The guidelines announced Tuesday (April 12) by the Church’s House of Bishops target the practice of some…

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio (RNS) The man suspected of bombing a synagogue in Santa Monica, Calif., on April 7 was arrested in Cleveland Heights Monday (April 11). Ron Hirsch, 60, was arrested by the Cleveland Heights Police Department about 7 p.m. Monday after they received a call from someone who came in contact with Hirsch, according…

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Monks at St. Joseph Abbey near Covington, La., can sue for the right to sell handcrafted caskets without a license from the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, a federal judge has decided. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval’s April 8 ruling sets the stage for a June 6 trial, during which…

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