Is silence a dirty word? Seriously. How do you feel about solitude? The answer to this question can vary widely depending on our personality and state in life. It does not matter if you are an extrovert or an introvert, a single person, married, an empty nester, retired, working from home, ...
BAGHDAD (AP) — In Iraq’s holiest city, a pontiff will meet a revered ayatollah and make history with a message of coexistence in a place plagued by bitter divisions. One is the chief pastor of the world-wide Catholic Church, the other a pre-eminent figure in Shiite Islam whose opinion holds powerful sway on the Iraqi street and beyond. Their encounter will resonate across Iraq, even crossing borders into neighboring, mainly Shiite Iran. Pope Francis and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani are to meet today for at most 40 minutes, part of the time alone except for interpreters, in the ...
Conservative leaders within the United Methodist Church unveiled plans Monday to form a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, with a doctrine that does not recognize same-sex marriage. The move could hasten the long-expected breakup of the UMC over differing approaches to LGBTQ inclusion. For now, the UMC is the largest mainline Protestant church in the U.S. and second only to the Southern Baptist Convention, an evangelical denomination, among all U.S. Protestant churches. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the UMC’s General Conference — at which the schism would be ...
Nasser Banyameen speaks about his hometown of Qaraqosh in the historical heartland of Iraqi Christianity with nostalgia. Before Islamic State group fighters swept through the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq. Before the militants shattered his sense of peace. Before panicked relatives and ...
In the Bible, there are stories where storms make everyone afraid. In March of 2020, I found all around me was a storm. People who I knew and were close to were dying. It seemed I knew every name I was hearing. The only one I could get help from was the Lord Jesus Christ. And with Jesus came ...
NEW YORK — Black Americans attend church more regularly than Americans overall, and pray more often. Most attend churches that are predominantly Black, yet many would like those congregations to become racially diverse. There is broad respect for Black churches’ historical role in seeking ...
