CLAYTON, Mo. (RNS) — As new students wandered onto the campus of Concordia Seminary last September, they were joined by another group of theological rookies — mostly midcareer types — joining the school’s program that allows students to train for…
Pope gives final approval to controversial lay group
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — After a 15-year process, the Holy See on Jan. 20 gave its final approval to the Neocatechumenal Way, a lay movement that has been criticized for its unorthodox liturgical practices but that has been successful in…
Big-city mayors come out for same-sex marriage
NEW YORK (RNS) — A bipartisan coalition of 80 U.S. mayors on Jan. 20 launched a “Freedom to Marry” campaign to build public support for giving same-sex couples the right to marry under U.S. and state laws. “It is not…
EDITORIAL: Principles are sometimes hard to hold
For Baptists of old, freedom of religious thought and practice was more than an academic hold-over from previous generations. Being sent to jail for proclaiming your beliefs tends to make it personal. To them it was a right granted by…
Children’s project empowers women around the world
CAPE CHARLES, Va. — A hunger relief project initiated in 2009 by three children and their teacher in a mission education class at a small church on Virginia’s Eastern Shore has mushroomed into a multi-church endeavor which will provide thousands…
OUT LOUD
“We’re bringing the bed back in church.” Ed Young Jr. The Dallas-area Baptist pastor and his wife recently spent 24 hours in a bed on the roof of their church to send a message about the role of sex in…
VIRGINIA BRIEFS
2012 Heritage Fellows applications open. Applications are now available for the 2012 Heritage Fellows program, sponsored by the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies. Each year the Center appoints a few outstanding Virginia Baptist college students as Heritage Fellows. They…
VITAL SIGNS: The unbalanced church
When a congregation wants to get, stay or remain healthy, one of the key questions it asks has to do with the balance between its internal and an external focus. One excellent congregational exercise to help with this question is…
WINN RECOMMENDS
Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster) Everyone’s talking about Jobs’ biography, so you might as well cave and give it a go. One observer noted that decades from now, we will remember Jobs in the same way we remember…
OPINION: Songs about love and death
I feel sadness that I can’t quite shake and it’s strange to me because it all stems from an album I just listened to. Haunting melodies and gut wrenching lyrics pull my imagination in all kinds of places, but that…
Leonard to be installed in Baptist studies chair
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Bill J. Leonard will be installed as the first James and Marilyn Dunn Professor of Baptist Studies at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity Jan. 24. Bill Leonard The installation will be held in conjunction with…
Catholics warn Gingrich, Santorum on race baiting
NEW YORK (RNS) — More than 40 Catholic leaders and theologians have issued an open letter to Catholic candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, warning them “to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail.” The signers of the…