WASHINGTON (RNS) — Prompted by civil liberties groups, a taxpayer-supported homeless shelter in the nation’s capital will no longer require its clients to attend religious services. “We’re pleased that the D.C. government will no longer be supporting such religious coercion,”…
Richmond, Va., church cancels services, packs meals for children
RICHMOND, Va. — On an overcast Sunday morning in Richmond, 500 volunteers gathered at Gayton Baptist Church in the city’s western suburbs to make a difference a half a world away, preparing healthy meals to feed 277 malnourished children a…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Misguided notion
I enjoy the Herald and I usually agree with all that is in it, but I must respond to the opinion column of Sept. 26 written by Zachary Bailes [“Whom shall we kill?”]. It is “whining” at its best that…
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Unique opportunity
Chaplain Service Prison Ministry of Virginia Inc. is the official agency that provides chaplains to Virginia’s state prisons and juvenile correctional centers. Virginia is unique in that its prison chaplains are not state employees. They are not compensated by the…
TRENDING: ‘Five-fold’ ministry
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers …. (Ephesians 4:11) The 1980s brought a proliferation of “spiritual gifts inventories.” I first heard this taught by Peter Wagner at…
Baptist students develop awareness of poverty while on mission
FARMVILLE, Va. — Virginia Baptists’ ministry to college age young adults, now called Kairos Initiative, sponsored a statewide mission trip to Haiti this year. The majority of the cost was provided by Baptist collegiate ministries across the state, with individual…
FIRST HAND: College students bring glimmers of hope to resilient Haitians
God blesses us in so many ways that most of the time we do not see it. I was blessed by God in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last May. I did not know anybody going on this trip. I prayed that everything…
HERITAGE: Heap o’ living at Halfway
One of the most attractive and appealing areas of Virginia is the Hunt Country of Northern Virginia. The gentle hills, the rolling dark green meadows, the horse farms, the stacked stone walls that stretch forever are mental images which remain…
EDITORIAL: An associational touch
On Sunday, Oct. 16, an historic vote will be taken. In one form or another, the Albemarle Baptist Association has been around since 1791, when the Orange Baptist Association divided to form Culpeper, Goshen and Albemarle itself. In 2003, it…
OUT LOUD
“Sounds good to me.” Archbishop Philip Hannan The former archbishop of New Orleans, who died last month, was responding from his hospital bed to the part of the Sacrament of the Sick that offers absolution from sin in the name…
VITAL SIGNS: Are you ill?
My grandmother often used a word to describe herself or other people. It was the word “ill.” She did not use it to describe someone who was sick with a cold or the flu. She used it to describe an…
OPINION: Jeffress flap illustrates wisdom of ‘no religious test’
One would think we Americans would have learned our lesson by now about supporting or opposing candidates for office on the basis of their religious beliefs. Robert Jeffress’ recent endorsement of Gov. Rick Perry and criticism of Gov. Mitt Romney…