Church closes for a month to save money. Many Americans are giving up something in this dire economy. But Sharon Dawson will go without something unusual: her church. To save money, First Unitarian Church in Portland, Ore., has decided to close for the month of July. Marilyn Sewell, senior pastor, said the 142-year-old church faces a projected $185,000 deficit for the fiscal year that ends June 30. The closure, during a traditionally quiet month in the church calendar, will save a predicted $100,000 in staff pay and help the 1,500-member church avoid laying off employees. Employees also will take an additional two weeks of unpaid leave. Even so, the church will have to make additional cuts, said Thomas Disrud, Sewell's associate.
Oral Roberts University names president. More than a year after Richard Roberts resigned as president of Oral Roberts University amid allegations of lavish spending, the Christian university in Tulsa has hired a new president. Mark Rutland, president of Southeastern University, a Christian liberal arts college in Lakeland, Fla., since 1999, will take the helm of ORU July 1. Rutland will become the third president in ORU's 46-year history — after namesake Oral Roberts and son Richard Roberts — and the first not associated with the Roberts family. Rutland, who holds a doctorate from the California Graduate School of Theology, has written 13 books and hosts a daily 30-minute radio program called Herald of Joy. In his 10 years at Southeastern, the university has undergone more than $50 million in renovations, and enrollment has more than tripled, topping 3,000, ORU officials said.
Religion seen as Britain's most divisive issue. A government-sponsored opinion poll in Britain has found that religion has displaced race as the most divisive issue facing the nation. The survey, conducted by the Ipsos MORI research organization for the government's Equalities and Human Rights Commission, says 60 percent of respondents believe religious intolerance has become a bigger headache than racial tensions among Britons. That figure climbs to 66 percent among Muslims who took part in the poll.
Panel approves British ‘No God' bus ads. Rejecting protests by Christian groups, Britain's advertising watchdog agency has given the go-ahead to a campaign to plaster atheist signs on hundreds of buses and other vehicles across the country. The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the campaign, which uses the “no God” slogan, was unlikely to mislead or “cause serious or widespread offense.” The ASA is a powerful regulator set up as a self-governing agency for the nation's advertising industry, with the authority to take its cases to the government's Office of Fair Trading. As such, its decisions are rarely, if ever, challenged. The British Humanist Association sponsored the $100,000 ad campaign, with signs that say: “There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” The ads will be placed on some 200 buses in London and on 600 other vehicles in England, Scotland and Wales.