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(RNS) Domestic membership in the Episcopal Church dropped by 3 percent in 2008, continuing a decline in which the denomination has lost almost 200,000 American members since 2004, according to Episcopal researchers. The Episcopal Church now counts slightly more than 2 million members in about 7,000 U.S. parishes. Church leaders say they are pleased, however,…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The latest Hanukkah tune is coming from an unexpected place this year: the halls of Congress and the pen of a conservative Mormon senator. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is the co-writer of a revamped Hanukkah song that debuted this week on the site of a Jewish online magazine, Tablet. Hatch, a noted songwriter,…

(RNS) An international Anglican commission on Tuesday (Dec. 8) urged Episcopalians to exercise “gracious restraint” by not confirming the election of a lesbian as a bishop in Los Angeles. The Rev. Mary Glasspool was elected a suffragan (assistant) bishop by the Diocese of Los Angeles on Saturday (Dec. 5). Glasspool, 55, has been with her…

ST. LOUIS (RNS) Most of the world’s religions share some version of the golden rule of treating others as you wish to be treated. That notion was important to the theology of Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879. But another central feature of Eddy’s theology — the belief that…

(RNS) When Switzerland recently voted to ban the construction of minaret towers at mosques, some observers interpreted it as an expression of European xenophobia that would never find a home in multicultural America. But to say it couldn’t happen here would be wrong, or at least premature. In hundreds of communities across the U.S. where…

(RNS) After years of warnings from Anglican leaders, Saturday’s (Dec. 5) election of a lesbian bishop poses a stark question for the Episcopal Church: Does it want to continue to be a full member in the global Anglican Communion, or go its own way? In the coming months, more than 100 Episcopal dioceses and bishops…

(RNS) A few months ago, Galia Aharoni was well into her final year of law school at Tulane University and going back and forth about whether to stay in New Orleans or take her law degree to the West Coast or perhaps New York. Stay or go? That’s when a friend introduced her to J-Grad,…

WASHINGTON (RNS) The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday (Dec. 7) to hear the case of an evangelical Christian group that was prevented from being recognized as a campus organization at a California law school because it excluded gays and lesbians. The Christian Legal Society sued to be officially recognized at the public Hastings College of…

Founder of Zion Oil John Brown is a true believer. So much so that he has moved his oil rig to Israel to dig for oil where he says Biblical prophecy tells him to and is hoping to hit it big for himself and his investors.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Pope Benedict XVI agreed Thursday (Dec. 3) to establish full diplomatic relations between Russia and the Holy See, a step likely to be seen as healing decades of mutual suspicion and tension. “During the meetings both parties expressed their satisfaction at the cordial existing relations and it…
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