Lost bird helps raise funds for English church. A tiny bird blown across the Atlantic Ocean from North America on winter winds is helping raise funds to repair the roof of an ancient church in the tiny English village where it landed. The white-crowned North American sparrow, a rare visitor to Britain's shores, has become an attraction for “twitchers” — birdwatchers — in the Norfolk village of Cley-next-the-Sea, and a fund-raiser for the settlement's Church of St. Margaret of Antioch. The twitcher tourists turning up in their thousands to view the seven-inch sparrow already have chipped in more than $6,000 in donations — with possibly more to come — that will be used to mend the east England church's 13th century roof.
A minister walks into a bar … . Chuck Kish, 44, pastor at Bethel Assembly of God in Carlisle, Pa., is launching a program at a local pub to put chaplains in bars. They'll offer help to people who might have ended up there for reasons other than relaxing and socializing. Kish said he and the chaplains he trains will not be there to preach against “the evils of drinking” or to make converts. Chaplains will work in teams, one male and one female. “Some people may think this would be a strange place to find a chaplain. But we need to go where the people are,” Kish said.
Mormons name new president. Thomas Monson was elected the 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Monson, 80, was the longest-serving member of the church's top leadership body. He succeeds Gordon Hinckley, who died Jan. 27 at age 97, as leader of the world's 13 million Mormons. Monson chose Henry Eyring, 74, as first counselor, the church's No. 2 position. Dieter Uchtdorf, 67, was named second counselor — the third man in the church's triumvirate.
Pope defends Catholic uniqueness. Pope Benedict XVI has defended a controversial Vatican statement on the uniqueness of the Catholic church, saying it would enhance, not derail, ecumenical dialogue. The pope made his remarks in a meeting with members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church's highest doctrinal body. The pope commended the body on a document it published last July, which reaffirms the teaching that the “one Church of Christ … subsists in the Catholic Church” alone. The document describes non-Catholic Christian churches as defective, and it says Protestant denominations are not even churches “in the proper sense.”
Egyptian court OKs conversions. Egypt's Supreme Civil Court has permitted 12 Coptic Christians who had converted to Islam to revert to their original faith, the second such recent victory for religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim nation. The ruling, which overturns an April decision by a lower court, allows the 12 Christians to carry government identity papers indicating their religious choice. The National ID cards are required for education, employment, financial transactions and other purposes.
Compiled from Religion News Service