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Aug. 24–Imam Mujahid Ramos wasn’t surprised to see more people show up this weekend for the daily prayers at the Masjid At-Tawheed mosque in York City. The same thing happens every year during Ramadan, a time of religious rejuvenation for Muslims, said Ramos, the mosque’s spiritual leader. “It’s just an amazing time of the year,”…

(UNDATED) After a long and contentious debate, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted Friday (Aug. 21) to drop a ban on partnered gay clergy and committed to let people in same-sex relationships serve as leaders of the church. The ground-breaking decision is a dramatic change for the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination, which previously permitted…

WASHINGTON (RNS) Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jewish leaders warned the nation’s Catholic bishops that a June statement on whether Jews should convert to Christianity could make Jewish-Catholic dialogue “untenable.” In June, the bishops resurrected a 2002 statement on Jewish-Christian relations that they called “insufficiently precise and potentially misleading” about whether Christians should share the gospel…

(UNDATED) Yousef Abdallah’s annual Ramadan duties promise to be tougher than usual this year. The Islamic holy month starts Friday (Aug. 21) or Saturday (Aug. 22) night, depending on the sighting of the moon. Abdallah, a regional operations manager for Islamic Relief USA, one of the nation’s largest Islamic charities, and his staff are preparing…

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Doctors removed a cast from Pope Benedict XVI’s right wrist on Friday (Aug. 21), five weeks after he fractured it during a fall. A Vatican press release said that an x-ray showed the fracture had healed, but that Benedict would recover full use of his wrist after completing “an adequate program of…

(RNS) The nation’s largest Lutheran denomination approved a carefully balanced statement on human sexuality late Wednesday (Aug. 19) that progressives quickly welcomed as a possible step towards overturning a churchwide ban on non-celibate gay clergy later this week. By a vote of 676 to 338 — the exact two-thirds majority needed for passage — delegates…

WASHINGTON — Facing incendiary charges that health care reform would finance abortion and euthanasia, President Obama on Wednesday (Aug. 19) appealed to religious groups to help sell the plan and debunk critics’ “false witness.” “I’m going to need the help of all of you,” Obama told a conference call and live webcast that attracted an…

As college students return to campus in the coming weeks, a new study suggests that some could be in danger of losing their religion. Economics professor Miles Kimball and researchers from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research determined that certain academic majors can influence students’ religiosity — positively or negatively — over time.…

(UNDATED) It was Aug. 5, 2003, and bishops at the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church had voted for the first time to let an openly gay man become a bishop. Louie Crew of East Orange, N.J., who has been active in Episcopal Church politics for decades, was there in Minneapolis and vividly remembers…

Associated Press – August 18, 2009 NEW YORK – In a Muslim country, celebrating Ramadan is relatively simple: Most people are fasting from sunrise to sunset. But in the U.S., most people are eating, and enticing food commercials, an overabundance of restaurants and watching others eat can make celebrating the holiday more challenging. How do…
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