New research shows that U.S. Mormon families are still larger than the nation’s, but the difference is smaller than it used to be.

Source: The incredible shrinking Mormon American family - Religion News Service

Source: 1st black priest in US, ex-slave, positioned for sainthood...

THE VOICE ON THE OPENING recording is so cheerful it could be a representative from the tourism board of some perpetually sunny Caribbean island.“Welcome to the Amish and Mennonite Conference Line! Use it for God’s glory!”The Line is a conference room-via-phone for speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of German brought to the United States by European immigrants beginning in the late 17th century and preserved today almost entirely by the Amish and Mennonites in the United States and Ontario, Canad

Source: ...

The Episcopal Church has ordained an African American woman to serve as a bishop in the South for the very first time. The Rev. Phoebe Roaf, 55, was officially consecrated as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee on Saturday. She is the fifth black female bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church. Born in Arkansas, Roaf is a fourth-generation Episcopalian. Her brother is former New Orleans Saints player Willie Roaf. The bishop told HuffPost that growing up, she never saw anyone who looked

Source: ...

A new state law makes it easier for college students to take time off for religious holidays. Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5166 into law on Monday (April 29), making Washington the first state requiring that institutions of higher education provide academic accommodations to students who need them for religious observances. This includes rescheduling exams and permitting absences, as long as the student notifies the professor of the needed accommodation within the first two weeks of class. College p

Source: ...

Anthony Graffagnino describes himself spiritually as both frustrated and curious. A Pentecostal turned Unitarian, the 28-year-old Graffagnino said he’s had his fill with “stale and dead expressions of faith that I saw really doing nothing to better the people around me or the world around me.” Discovering the Christian mystical tradition through the work of Franciscan friar Richard Rohr helped change that. “Father Richard’s work allowed an entryway into Christianity when I didn’t think there was any,” sa

Source: ...

Study indicates these numbers may drop further in the future. In a poll about church attendance and religious affiliation in the country, it was found only 50 percent of Americans actively practice any religion and attend religious places of worship. This number is a steep 69 percent decline from church attendance results from two decades […]

Source: U.S. Church Membership Plummets to All-Time Low - World Religion News

(RNS) — Amid our frenzy to declutter, we are drowning in disposables. Mending asks us to fix what we have.

Source: The spirituality of mending - Religion News Service

A 37-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday night after walking into St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with two full gasoline cans, lighter fluid and lighters, police said. The incident occurred two days after a massive fire severely damaged the eight-century-old Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, causing global shock and sorrow. The blaze was most likely the result of an accident though a major investigation is under way. In New York, the man entered the Roman Catholic cathedral in midtown Manhattan j

Source: ...

Sobieck, a member of Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, autographed 260 of her baseball cards. The summer of 2018 witnessed Sister Mary Jo Sobieck going viral on several social media platforms when the nun used her bicep to bounce a baseball and threw a perfect strike. To the delight of sports enthusiasts everywhere, she then […]

Source: Meet the Nun Who Now Has Her Own Baseball Card - World Religion News

Undergraduate students at Jesuit-run Georgetown University voted overwhelmingly April 11 to pay a new student fee that would be for reparations to the descendants of slaves owned and later sold by the school.

Source: ...

Just a year after becoming a Catholic priest, Doug Langner said the loneliness started to creep in."You would go through times of (thinking), wouldn't it be nice to just share your day with someone else?" said Langner, who was ordained in 2008 after graduating from Illinois' Mundelein Seminary, and started to work in a Kansas City, Mo.-area parish. Soon he was the only priest assigned to his church, living alone in the rectory, which isn't uncommon as the Catholic Church faces a priest shortage that has f

Original Source: Lexington Herald
Source: ...

A fourth church was also burnt down 200 miles away. All the three churches burned to the ground were mostly attended by African-American congregants. The first church to be destroyed by fire was St. Mary’s Baptist Church on March 26. Then a week later, just 10 miles away, the Greater Union Baptist Church burnt down. […]

Source: Investigation Into ‘Suspicious' Fires That Destroyed Three Black Churches in Louisiana's...

The move came after 41 months Instituted in November 2015, Russell M. Nelson, the present church president, brought forward a policy which not only deemed same-sex couples as apostates but also forbade their children from all baptisms and baby blessings. About three and a half years have passed since then, and the intervening years were […]

Source: LDS Church Will Now Allow Baptism for Children of LGBTQ Parents - World Religion News

Pope Francis named the first African-American to the Catholic Church’s most senior U.S. position on Thursday, seeking to end a period of upheaval in a job whose previous two occupants were caught in sexual abuse scandals. Former Atlanta archbishop Wilton Gregory, 71, was made new head of the Church in the U.S. capital Washington, D.C., and is also likely to become a cardinal eligible to vote in a conclave to elect the next pope after Francis. He would be the first African-American to hold the rank of card

Source: ...